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Logan 
Forum & Site Admin Group
Site Admin
Joined: April 05 2006
Location: Vancouver, BC
Status: Offline
Points: 37232
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 Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:24 |
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As has been noted, the insurance companies, like business generally, are in it for profit. Universal, socialized health care is what is needed. Everyone should have access.
I was rushed in an ambulance to hospital the other day -- no hassles, no extra cost to me. I didn't have my care card on me, but I phoned it in the next day. It's nice not to have to deal with an insurance company -- I still pay premiums but it hardly covers costs. They're being more thorough than needed, I think with tests which is costly for taxpayers generally, Mind you, we pay a lot of taxes.
Edited by Logan - March 19 2010 at 12:27
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Blacksword
Prog Reviewer
Joined: June 22 2004
Location: England
Status: Offline
Points: 16130
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:23 |
 The T wrote:
Epignosis wrote:
thellama73 wrote:
Requiring health insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions is like requiring car insurance companies to cover already destroyed cars, or fire insurance to cover houses that are already on fire. It just doesn't make sense.
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Well put. |
Very nice to compare human beings to cars. Oh hell, we're all stuff after all.   |
That appears to be the problem of health care based on insurence; it does regard people as commodities, like cars. Which I think is pretty sad.
I'm not from the US and dont fully understand your healthcare system, but to us who have 'nasty evil communist' socialised health care, your system does seem abhorant. I'm sure it's not that simple, but anyway, I'm sorry to hear of your mothers predicament, and know that under our system - which I acknowlegde is not perfect - she would be looked after, free at point of care.
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Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:19 |
thellama73 wrote:
The T wrote:
Epignosis wrote:
thellama73 wrote:
Requiring health insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions is like requiring car insurance companies to cover already destroyed cars, or fire insurance to cover houses that are already on fire. It just doesn't make sense.
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Well put.
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Very nice to compare human beings to cars. Oh hell, we're all stuff after all.
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You're missing the point. It's insurance. It's not "Free Money Inc."
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Ok so where is the affordable heath care that people with no insurance can go to? Because there should be alternatives. It's only "insurance" after all. Therefore, people could opt out and go get their own heath care. Of course, if you have thousands of dollars.
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:17 |
Epignosis wrote:
The T wrote:
Epignosis wrote:
thellama73 wrote:
Requiring health insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions is like requiring car insurance companies to cover already destroyed cars, or fire insurance to cover houses that are already on fire. It just doesn't make sense.
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Well put.
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Very nice to compare human beings to cars. Oh hell, we're all stuff after all.
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If you owned a grocery store, would you give you product away to everyone who asked for it? Don't you have a moral obligation? People need food to live!
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There are avenues to get cheap food. And food is not that hard to come by anyway. Dying of hunger in the US is quite difficult. Health care is another monster, a thousands-of-dollars issue that can't be compared.
I guess the problem is you see health care as a business for profit. Most everywhere else, people don't. Of course, seen as a business for profit, your point is true. As morally repugnant as it is to me, heatth-care for profit is the reality and your logic applies.
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thellama73
Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: May 29 2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 8368
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:14 |
The T wrote:
Epignosis wrote:
thellama73 wrote:
Requiring health insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions is like requiring car insurance companies to cover already destroyed cars, or fire insurance to cover houses that are already on fire. It just doesn't make sense.
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Well put.
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Very nice to compare human beings to cars. Oh hell, we're all stuff after all.
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You're missing the point. It's insurance. It's not "Free Money Inc."
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 30 2007
Location: Raeford, NC
Status: Offline
Points: 32553
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:13 |
The T wrote:
Epignosis wrote:
thellama73 wrote:
Requiring health insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions is like requiring car insurance companies to cover already destroyed cars, or fire insurance to cover houses that are already on fire. It just doesn't make sense.
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Well put.
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Very nice to compare human beings to cars. Oh hell, we're all stuff after all.
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If you owned a grocery store, would your give you product away to everyone who asked for it? Don't you have a moral obligation? People need food to live!
Edited by Epignosis - March 19 2010 at 12:18
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:11 |
Epignosis wrote:
thellama73 wrote:
Requiring health insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions is like requiring car insurance companies to cover already destroyed cars, or fire insurance to cover houses that are already on fire. It just doesn't make sense.
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Well put.
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Very nice to compare human beings to cars. Oh hell, we're all stuff after all.
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:10 |
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Nobody has answered why this would be covered in other countries and not in here. Maybe because in the US profits are all that counts?
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 30 2007
Location: Raeford, NC
Status: Offline
Points: 32553
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:10 |
thellama73 wrote:
Requiring health insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions is like requiring car insurance companies to cover already destroyed cars, or fire insurance to cover houses that are already on fire. It just doesn't make sense.
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Well put.
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thellama73
Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: May 29 2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 8368
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:08 |
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As far as I know, no one is claiming the current system is perfect or even that good. Us Republicans, Tea Partiers and Libertarians believe that you could drastically improve service by allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines, and by eliminating givernment mandates that require insurance companies to cover superfluous things like Viagra. In that way, you could get cheap health insurance that would only provde catastrophic care (which is all most people want.) Now, you can't get it, because of regulations.
As far as preexisting conditions go, I don't think you get the idea of insurance. The idea is you buy insurance to protect you in the unlikely event of something bad happening. That's how they make their money. If everyone who has insurance also undergoes costly medical proceedures, then the insurance companies would go out of business. They make money off the healthy people to pay for the sick people. Requiring health insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions is like requiring car insurance companies to cover already destroyed cars, or fire insurance to cover houses that are already on fire. It just doesn't make sense.
I am sorry to hear about your mother, but the regulations now being talked about will raise premiums (a lot) and eventually ( I suspect) drive private health insurance companies out of business.
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Epignosis
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 30 2007
Location: Raeford, NC
Status: Offline
Points: 32553
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:07 |
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The health insurance company is a private business. They want a profit.
Suppose you
started a grocery store. Should the government force you to give away
your food to people who couldn't pay you for it, just because they needed it?
Suppose people just decided it wasn't worth it to start or continue operating health insurance companies and so these companies stopped existing, partly because the government made them accept everyone.
At any rate, I actually refuse health insurance because it is, in essence, a sucker bet.
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jampa17
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 04 2009
Location: Guatemala
Status: Offline
Points: 6802
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 12:04 |
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Shame to heard that Teo... my mother is a little older and she is covered by insurance here in Guatemala, luckily she will never need it, but that's not the case... I think the older people is the most to need that kind of protection... It have happened several times in I guess... so sorry man... that's injustice, but I don't know the system as I live in a little tinny problematic country... I hope you can solve the problem...
Edited by jampa17 - March 19 2010 at 12:04
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Change the program inside... Stay in silence is a crime.
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Posted: March 19 2010 at 11:57 |
Today my mother, a 60 year old woman of normal size and weight, was denied insurance by another insurance company. In the letter explaining the decision, they said it was because she has gastritis and some other relatively minor stomach conditions.
I know my mother can always spend 400$ in a ticket to my country and be checked there by doctors that are less interested in money. That's not my point. My question is, is this the "perfect" health care system that you republicans, libertarians and tea-parti-ers so strongly defend? Is this what the MOST PROSPER NATION IN THE WORLD should have whereas, in ANY OTHER COUNTRY nobody would've denied my mother coverage?
Can you explain me why is this system worth defending? I'm stupid. So is pretty much everyone who cries for health care reform. You know the truth. Please, explain it to me as if I was 5-year old. Because I can't see for the love of any damn god what is so great about this system.
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A health care question...
