Re:It’s time for a new, progressive supply-side economics
by bluecalm on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @11:29AM
(#26002990)
With single payer you will have unqualified bureaucrats as well. You need to decide who you pay for what and how much. That problem won't go away with single payer. I know because I live in a single payer country and it's a shot show. You may manage to make it more efficient maybe but you know, it's not like government run bureaucracy has great record of achieving that.
Re:It’s time for a new, progressive supply-side economics
by squaresmile on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @11:25AM
(#26002931)
If one considers everything spent on health insurance companies a waste, which I disagree with, one should look at the loss ratio to see how much the insurance is extracting. In the linked report, the loss ratio is 84% so the insurance companies extracted ~16%.
The comment by orwin says that 22% is spent on bureaucracy in France public healthcare. 16% doesn't look that bad.
I'm not saying US healthcare doesn't have problems and there aren't some weird practices but if you can't measure or identify the problems correctly, you are not going to fix it.
Their profit is not the measure of what they extract
Their total top-line income is the proper measure of what the HC Insurance companies extract from the system -- PLUS the entire income of the set of companies that optimize billing so that providers can get fully paid -- PLUS the entire income of the industry of seminars & trade shows teaching providers how to optimize their billing, etc., etc., etc.
That entire industry of HC payments is parasitic - it adds no value, and extracts money.
Just pay the providers, and have patients show up at the door to get care, and let the doctors be the gatekeepers, not some unqualified insurance bureaucrats.
And yes, there would be many, many thousands of HC insurance workers who would need to find new employment. This is a good thing.