Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:35:26 -0400
From: "Mike B." <yahoo at omniphile.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Tackling Concerns of Independent Workers
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On 3/25/2013 10:27 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
>> Because the medical insurance industry is to make money, not keep
>> anyone healthy, and they buy legislators, wholesale.
>
> Medical insurance is expensive because medical care is expensive.
>
> If medical care for the average person costs more than the average
> person can afford, then no system of redistribution can solve the
> problem.  Not socialism, not capitalism, not chanting "Yes We Can."
> No system.  A way must be found to produce medical care less
> expensively.  *Much* less expensively.  Either that or concede that
> it's a luxury service intended only for the rich and powerful.

Very true.  Mathematically it might be arguable, but I don't feel like
trying to determine if it is or not.  In practice it's true
enough...which is why I consider "Obama-care" to be completely
wrong-headed (though he isn't the one who went off the rails
first...Congress was already headed down this dead-end when he got
involved).

The people said, "We can't afford medical care!" and Congress responded
by shouting, "Insurance for everyone!"...ignoring the fact that
insurance is at least part of the reason medical care is so expensive.
Compare the adjusted costs for care in the 1950s to today, then compare
insured-person rates for the same times.

Insurance isn't the only cause...medical liability lawsuits, aging
population, rising expectations for good outcomes, and short-lived
high-tech turnover of expensive equipment (i.e. accelerated cost
recovery), just to mention a few...are all involved, and any solution to
the problem has to involve most, or all, of them.  All mandated
insurance for all will do, absent addressing the real problem, is make
sure that we all go broke at the same time.

-- Mike B.