Warbler said:
so you now you compare health care to car care? Sorry but if I don't care for my car, it died and I can either get new one or take public transportation. I don't care for my self I die. I think my health is more important than my car.
As for people using health insurance for stuff other than catastrophic health issues, I think health care costs have gone up alot since that days you refer to. Prescription medicine costs have gone up too. There is no way people in poverty can afford doctor visits, medicine and glasses and such by themselves.
So let me get this straight, instead of people(who can't afford to pay for doctor visits) going to their family doctor, you'd rather them go to the ER and clog that up some more???
btw, I did study history in school.
I thought comparing mandatory health insurance with car insurance was a favorite tactic of these statists?
My point is that one of the reasons Health Care does cost so much these days as compared to years past is the presence of bigger government and insurance companies along with peoples expectations broadening.
Let's go back to the car insurance euphemism, if auto insurance did in fact cover oil changes, mechanical issues, and the like then your auto policy would cost and arm and leg. Also the price for those services would be sky high because you'd only pay your deductable and rest would be on the back of the insurance company.
i.e., I get my oil changed every 5,000 miles after paying my $20 co-pay, state farm pays the rest. But the oil change now costs $250 because the mechanic is shilling it to insurance company. So, State Farm negotiates the price to $170 to "even things out". Compare that to our modern day $40-$50 oil changes. Of course, this scenario is completely theoretical, but I feel it holds water.
If people would only reply upon insurance for only catastrophic issues while taking care of their own doctor visits, medicine, and other minor stuff, the free market would naturally take over and the costs would be driven down greatly. Think about it, right now you just drive to your closest pharmacy for that med because you only pay whatever co-pay you have. One pharmacy may have the medicine for $165 and the other for $125, but you don't care because you only pay $20 either way. Under my scenario, you call both and learn that one sells it for $125, so you go there. Then the other starts losing business and prices theirs to $100, you go there and the other loses business, they prices their to $75, so on and so forth until prices are reasonable without relying on insurance companies. Of course, this would especially work if many restrictions was taken off of the pharma companies as well, they'd be incentivised to reduce costs. It could work if allowed to by this large oppressive government we now have.