Medical Bankruptcy Study Author Advocates Comprehensive Health Insurance

[Lauren2882]

Another viewpoint on a very important and growing problem, from Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren:

"Many in Congress have a response to the problem of the growing number of medical bankruptcies: make it harder for families to file bankruptcy regardless of the reason for their financial troubles. Bankruptcy legislation -- widely known as the credit industry wish list -- has been introduced yet again to increase costs and decrease protection for every family that turns to the bankruptcy system for help. With the dramatic rise in medical bankruptcies now documented, this tired approach would be no different than a congressional demand to close hospitals in response to a flu epidemic."

...

" Health insurance isn't an on-off switch, giving full protection to everyone who has it. There is real coverage and there is faux coverage. Policies that can be canceled when you need them most are often useless. So is bare-bones coverage like the Utah Medicaid program pioneered by new Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt; it pays for primary care visits but not specialists or hospital care. We need to talk about quality, durable coverage, not just about how to get more names listed on nearly-useless insurance policies."

...

"Without better coverage, millions more Americans will be hit by medical bankruptcy over the next decade. It will not be limited to the poorly educated, the barely employed or the uninsured. The people financially devastated by a serious illness are at the heart of the middle class."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9447-2005Feb8.html

[Warpy]

1. Illness is not a consumer decision.

Until it becomes one, with the rich choosing exotic diseases requiring multiple organ transplants while the poor have to be content with the occasional cold, we will need to get health care out of the hands of people who try to turn a profit on it.

Sucking profit out of any system degrades service. This is merely annoying in a retail store; it is deadly in health care.

Cutting sick people out of insurance policies is how the industry maximizes profit. This is why the system is broken, and it will get even more obscene in the coming years until we turn the Repuglicans out of office.

[Lauren2882]

2. Well put

Very well put, but I'm confused about this statement: "Sucking profit out of any system degrades service."

My belief is that most goods and services are delivered well by the market system, but that the logic of the market falls apart when it comes to health care, because as you point out, consumers don't have the same ability to make choices as they do with automobiles or restaurants.

I think we're on the same page, I was just confused by that one part.

[Selatius]

3. This is what capitalism is though.

The best capitalists are able to squeeze as much profit from a business model as possible. This means keeping labor costs and operating costs down and charging customers as much as possible. They pocket the difference or invest it back into the business to expand.

Wal-Mart is a perfect example of capitalism in action. They have consistently demonstrated that they are willing and able to do whatever it takes to turn a profit. As a result, they are the world's largest retailer generating net income north of 8 billion dollars a year.

When you apply the same model to health care, what you get is a situation where not everybody can afford it. If you are well off, it probably won't be a problem, but if you are lower middle class with a high debt load and dependants, you are more likely to be in trouble.

Not all capitalists are bad. There are those who are bound by some moral or ethical compass, but too often, the competitive model produces the temptation to go "all out." It often simply boils down to the lowest common denominator.

[Colorado Blue]

4. IMO, medicine, like other arts, isn't really about profit. Am

I hopelessly naive? I don't think healing is fundamentally about making money any more than making a good rug or a good pot or a good painting is about money. Obviously we all need to get by - but do we need to get rich? What ever happened to doing things for the love of doing something well, something vital?

And something really bugs me about people getting rich off other people's misery. Health care costs are TOTALLY out of control. Drug prices are ridiculous. Bush's Medicare drug "benefit" is so bloated - what was really needed was a way to jawbone the drug companies with mass purchasing power to get the prices down but NOOOOOO. Gotta keep the profit UP.

WRONG IDEA but we're all paying for it.

[indepat]

5. Just part of the vast war on the middle-class, the engine for this gaint

train called America.