....how the hell does that "control costs"?

The big problem is that so many poor people are defaulting on their medical bills and that forces hospitals to raise rates -- which then causes more people to default, which causes more rate increases to compensate, which leads to more defaults.

Giving people insurance that only pays a fraction of a $100,000 medical bill -- uh, yeah -- not seeing how that prevents patients from going broke or helps the hospitals get their money.

Whe need to do two things: acknowledge that hospitals are not influenced by "free market forces" anymore than police stations or fire departments are (Hospitals are required to provide life saving services to everyone regardless of ability to pay. Does Wal-mart give away 10 million worth of plasma TV's and then just send people a bill praying they pay it?) The second thing we need to do is swtich over to a tax payer supported system just like we do with the police. Rape victims don't get $15,000 bills in the mail after they go to the cops for help -- and neither should victims of a stroke or breast cancer. We need to get rid of the coupon book insurance scam we have now.

Insurance is a coupon book!

Here's how the coupon book scam works:

I pay $400 a month to have access to the coupons regradless of whether I ever use the coupons or not ($4,800 a year)

When I go to the doctor I get a coupon which allows me to get a basic diagnosis for either $20 or $40 bucks.

If I need preceription medicine I get another coupon if it's covered so that my meds only cost $25, $35 or $45 per prescription (again, if it's covered).

If a need any kind of surgery I get a bunch of 25 percent off coupons --- and then a massive bill for the remainder they refuse to pay.

What if our police stations worked like this? Would we tolerate it?

You pay taxes to support your police department (much like paying monthly premiums) and then the cops send you a bill for $15,000 - $25,000 for all the "costs" that the taxes didn't cover?

Would we put up with that?

So why are putting up with it for healthcare?

Getting a stroke or having chemo for breast cancer isn't a "consumer choice" anymore than getting car jacked or raped is a "consumer choice."

Can you imagine if rape victims couldn't pay their massive police department bill and had her credit ruined because of it?

That's exactly what happens when little old ladies can't pay their $75,000 chemo bills in 30 days! It goes on their credit report! Since when is chemo just a fun splurge no different than buying an iPod???

Wake up Hillary!

I just don't understand the entire insurance concept.

Why am I paying Blue Cross anything? Why is this middle man necessary?

If I should be paying anyone directly -- shouldn't it be my local hospital? Or possibly some state healthcare fund? Paying my local hospital $400 a month makes sense to me. I go there for checkups. If I'm sick I'll probably be treated there -- it makes since that if I have to pay a monthly "fee" or "premium" it should just go to my local hospital.

Wouldn't that make more sense?

So then when I go to the hospital all my costs were "covered" and no matter what I went into my hospital for (check up, medicine, suregery) I wouldn't get 15 additional bills ranging from the x-ray tech to the anesthesiologist to the surgeon to the shift nurse and on and on.

I pay one $400 payment a month directly to the hospital and never recieve a bill. Sounds more logical than sending $5,000 to Blue Cross who then dictates what hospitals I may go to, what doctors I may see, what surgeries I will be allowed(!) in my lifetime, what drugs I may be allowed to purchase, etc.

If there should ever be any paperwork involved it should involve some circumstance if I ever have to go to a different hospital in another state. I fill out some paperwork (showing I'm a paying citizen) and that out-of-state hospital won't charge me a dime either -- because I've already paid into the system.

Or we could just simplify the whole thing even more and just have it taken out of our taxes -- which we eliminate ALL paperwork and need for billing.

Where are the idling physicians? Most of the physicans I know are pretty busy.

Better management of resources is what's required.

Instead of sending 3,000 people into the ER and overwhelming THAT system (when they are not there for medical emergencies) these people would be dispursed throughout the area.

The problems we're seeing now -- are problems we're causing ourselves with our insane system.

The reason the ER wait takes 4 hrs is not because there are 300 people in front of you with gunshot wounds -- but instead 295 people who just don't have any insurance and no other doctor will see them. They go to the ER because the ER has to see them regardless of ability to pay.

So I don't believe this is really a case of a system "overwhelmed" by the sick -- so much as this is a case of a deeply mismanaged system.

I think of police departments. They seem to manage the ebb and flow of "crime" pretty efficently for the most part. But imagine what that system would look like if people were all shoved into a single metro "emergency" police station?

I believe that if we switched to a tax-payer based healthcare system the hospitals (like the police stations) would handle the ebb and flow of "sicknes/injury" much more efficently than they currently do.