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myDeaconmyhand said:
Health Insurance companies running equipment racket and spying on their clients via CPAP machines "monitoring compliance"
https://www.propublica.org/article/you-snooze-you-lose-insurers-make-the-old-adage-literally-true

Millions of sleep apnea patients rely on CPAP breathing machines to get a good night’s rest. Health insurers use a variety of tactics, including surveillance, to make patients bear the costs. Experts say it’s part of the insurance industry playbook


"...When his doctor prescribed a CPAP, the company that supplied his device, At Home Medical, told him he needed to rent the device for $104 a month for 15 months. The company told him the cost of the CPAP was $2,400.
Levy said he wouldn’t have worried about the cost if his insurance had paid it. But Levy’s plan required him to reach a $5,000 deductible before his insurance plan paid a dime. So Levy looked online and discovered the machine actually cost about $500.
Levy said he called At Home Medical to ask if he could avoid the rental fee and pay $500 up front for the machine, and a company representative said no. “I’m being overcharged simply because I have insurance,” Levy recalled protesting..."
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This was all predicted by a silly, funny, poignant movie of the 90s called Critical Care which starred a young, skinny, idealistic James Spader.
 
Number Of U.S. Kids Who Don't Have Health Insurance Is On The Rise

After years of steady decline, the number of U.S. children without health insurance rose by 276,000 in 2017, according to a Georgetown University report released Thursday.

While not a big jump statistically — the share of uninsured kids rose to 5 percent in 2017 from 4.7 percent a year earlier — it is still striking. The uninsured rate typically remains stable or drops during times of economic growth. In September, the U.S. unemployment rate hit its lowest level since 1969.

"The nation is going backwards on insuring kids and it is likely to get worse," says Joan Alker, co-author of the study and executive director of Georgetown's Center for Children and Families.

Alker and other advocates for children's health place the blame for this change on the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, saying the Republican policies and actions have cast a pall on enrollment in health plans.
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RJKarl said:
This was all predicted by a silly, funny, poignant movie of the 90s called Critical Care which starred a young, skinny, idealistic James Spader.
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interesting film. a cast filled with stars and an utter flop:

Budget - $12 million
Box office - $271,000
 
Not sure if there is an audience for this on here, but here is a really nice breakdown of the arguments about the administrative costs of medicare versus private plans.

 
Thanks. That was informative.
 
Good brief summary wrt administrative costs.


I think the proper role of our government in health care is to simply better regulate the insurance system so that:

1. Everyone has insurance.

2. Insurance is required to adequately meet all of our needs.

3. The costs to people for insurance and care are reasonable/affordable. This involves incentivizing good and good-value care as possible, subsidizing costs, and placing reasonable and progressive limits on personal expenditures.



The ACA was our best effort to date towards these things. It needs to be supported and expanded/enhanced.

Or just go to "medicare for all"...of course what that means varies greatly but would be a more radical change. And would almost certainly still involve private insurance companies, as medicare already does.


I don't think we want government to "own" healthcare delivery, but to better regulate it.
 
Why wouldn’t we want government to “own” health care delivery?
 
Oh, it's all debatable.

But I think a better regulated insurance/delivery system that maintains salutary market forces (especially competition for consumer satisfaction) is best overall. I suppose to some extent this can be done even if the government "owns" everything. But probably not as well.


Here's an interesting and reasonably fair (I think) brief analysis of various ways some countries do things...The Best Health Care System in the World: Which One Would You Pick?
 
Theres no debate between systems where everyone gets health care, and systems where everyone doesn't.
 
ConnorEl said:
I agree.
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I don't think an American privatized insurance system is capable of that, especially with insurance companies being publically traded. A just healthcare system would allow the poor and destitute to get preventative care, visit their doctor, and get prescriptions filled at no cost. I don't believe the German health insurance system for instance, is possible here because the German healthcare insurance companies are revenue neutral.
 
normal healthcare

 
Breaking-Bad-Meme-22.jpg
 
Medicare for All is even better than you thought

Medicare for All advocates just received an early holiday present: a new study from the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst finds that single-payer health care will save the US $5.1 trillion over a decade while drastically cutting working-class Americans’ health spending. It’s the most robust, comprehensive study yet produced on Medicare for All, which has long been in need of easily citable research.
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