do the research!!!!!

Being self-employed, I have insurance companies hounding me almost everyday, trying to get me to change plans, the proverbial bigger, better deal. To me, that is competition, a free market in action.
And while the employer based insurance program is considered dysfunctional, they offer plans(usually) that address their employees health care needs, at the best price they can find. Sure they could provide the golden plan that would be the envy of every other employee around, but it would be unaffordable. Still, it is a free market plan, which someone in the companies management has to negotiate for with the various insurance companies, then the board of directors has to sign off on it. Companies don’t just magically produce a plan for their employees by a mysterious unnamed insurance company.
In the case of CommieCare, you have no choices in the system, of any kind.

BTW, Robbie’s employer offers a health savings account, another free market idea, y’all should ask him about it.

So, if you’re for socialized medicine, then you’re for gigantic, unstoppable corporations that have tremendous lobbying power and financial influence.

Funny, Guillermo, you must’ve missed the last 20 years. Right now our healthcare system is run by gigantic, unstoppable corporations that have exactly what you say you’re afraid of.

So, if you’re for socialized medicine, then you’re for gigantic, unstoppable corporations that have tremendous lobbying power and financial influence.

The existing market for insurance is fragmented. Insurance regulation has always been a state matter, so there are 50 different regulatory regimes. The insurer’s profit motive is aligned with paying as few claims as possible, and screening out any sick people from membership.

There is no standardized billing interface, so every medical practice has to have employees constantly processing paperwork from 50+ different insurers, trying to make sure they get paid.

Compare that with a system like Germany. The doctors and hospitals are a mix of private and public, just like the good old USA. There are a range of “sickness funds” competing with each other, but all offer a broad standard benefit including prescriptions. Your employer pays half the premium, you pay half. They aren’t allowed to charge different rates or refuse customers for health reasons. They use a standardized billing interface, cutting doctor’s overhead immensely compared with the US.

You can see a similar pattern with the Federal Employee Health Benefit plan, one of the most successful insurance schemes in the US. Putting the competition at the level of the health plans competing with each other on service and price, and enrolling a very large pool of people to spread the risk around gives it tremendous economies of scale. Similarly, since it can ignore state insurance regulations as a federal program, it gets economies of scale from less red tape.

In short, there is no competition in the current marketplace. Either your employer selects a plan for you, or you buy in a dysfunctional private market. Simply unifying the balkanized private insurance market, setting a standard minimum benefit package and requiring all insurers to use a common billing interface, would cut overhead to the point we can talk about insuring everyone and cutting overall spending. Germany is the third most expensive in the world, $2800 per capita, but we are at $5200! Needless to say, they get better results.

And talk about freeloading: what do you think is more expensive, providing preventative care to everyone, or simply spreading the cost of ER treatment for the poor to everyone through rising medical costs?

Most people in this country obtain insurance through an employer provided plan. It’s a ridiculous system. The typical American is not even considered a customer of “their” insurance company. The employer is the customer. As a result an insurer has little or no accountability to the average Joe.

Finally, N2L – listen…you’re nothing more than a repugnant moron.