Do for-profit health insurers need to die?

[bascule]

I'm surprised some state hasn't tried to start a single payer program on their own. It's my understanding that's how universal healthcare got its start in Canada: one province offered it as a pilot program, and from there they expanded it nationwide.

 

Also, I'm not seeing a states rights violation here. You're saying it's unconstitutional for the government to provide universal healthcare?

[john5746]

Also, I'm not seeing a states rights violation here. You're saying it's unconstitutional for the government to provide universal healthcare?

 

to demand with penalty that everyone be covered might be a violation. They will get their care from the state they reside, usually. So, just as with no one left behind, it could leave some states saddled with demand or expectations they cannot meet. California can't even keep their roads going currently

[CDarwin]

Since we really don't know much of anything what the plan is going to look like, I don't think you could say that. The mandate, as I understand its current probable form, will just be to get some kind of insurance, either private or a (I presume federally funded) public option. If anything, states should be happy about that, since it will likely take people off of their own state health service rolls and reduce the amount they have to reimburse to hospitals.

 

I don't think states rights as-such is really going to be the biggest problem here. What might, I suppose, is the philosophy behind state sovereignty, the kind of fractured way Americans think of their loyalties. That might lead people to be more suspicious of a federal solution.

[iNow]

I found this pretty powerful and concise link today. It really puts things into perspective as pertains to this cost issue (and is really well referenced). I've quoted a few bits below, but there are many which I didn't share.

 

 

http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

In 2008, total national health expenditures were expected to rise 6.9 percent -- two times the rate of inflation. Total spending was $2.4 TRILLION in 2007, or $7900 per person. Total health care spending represented 17 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

 

U.S. health care spending is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching $4.3 TRILLION in 2017, or 20 percent of GDP.

 

In 2008, employer health insurance premiums increased by 5.0 percent – two times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,700. The annual premium for single coverage averaged over $4,700.

 

<...>

 

Although nearly 46 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.

 

<...>

 

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in the United States have been rising four times faster on average than workers’ earnings since 1999.

 

<...>

 

A recent study by Harvard University researchers found that the average out-of-pocket medical debt for those who filed for bankruptcy was $12,000. The study noted that 68 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance. In addition, the study found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses.9 Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.

 

That last one I find particularly disgusting. One out of every two bankruptcies filed in the US are the result of health problems, and out of all people who filed for bankruptcy as a result of medical debt, nearly 70% had existing health insurance coverage. Disgusting.