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1. 

   jkshaw said, 4 months ago

   Jeff, the picture is even funnier than the dialog! Although the dialog has its points, especially the last point.

2. 

   Robert Peters said, 4 months ago

   On the first two points, I counter by replacing “Do you want the government” with “How’s it working out with some insurance company” and in so doing get a more accurate picture.

   As for the third point, that’s what they are really more afraid of than they are put off by my versions of the first two.

3. 

   gbrucewilson said, 4 months ago

   RP, The answer to your questions is “Great”. My 48 year old son is being treated for a very aggressive form of blood cancer, paid for by his insurance. He would have been dead on four different occasions (in the last year), if he had lived in Canada and was on their wait list. In his case, a wait of a few days would literally mean a death sentence. The other point is he could not get the leading edge treatment in any other country in the world. I like the health system like it is, thank you. Our system has lots of problems, like insurance fraud and uninsured. But we should not throw the baby out with the bath water. Keep the (you name the percent) that is working and fix the remainder.

4. 

   DrCanuck said, 4 months ago

   So you’re saying that the Canadian system is so bad, your son would have died FOUR TIMES had you been on it? Wow, that’s pretty bad! Mustn’t ever allow that to happen in the States!

5. 

   Robert Peters said, 4 months ago

   So, Wilson’s glad to have medical decisions dictated to his doctor by some insurance company beurocrat sitting in a cubicle under horrendous pressure not to pay out squat for the company.

   The rest of us are tired of paying multiple times the amount on health care as the rest of the developed world and getting less.

6. 

   longtimecomicsfan said, 4 months ago

   GBW - I’m happy for your son, just like I’m glad that my close friend who passed away from leukemia got the full gamut of medical help before he finally succumbed, from his insurance.

   But that doesn’t mean I have to be glad for Anthem Blue Cross canceling the coverage of a woman I don’t know personally in the middle of her breast cancer treatment. (OK, I’m a little happy at the multi-million dollar settlement)

   I just can’t come up with a moral justification for anyone to have to say “Doc, I know it’s cancer, but I just can’t afford to come back for treatment,” ever. And yet, that happens all the time under our current system.

   After all, a free market, for-profit system does nothing if it doesn’t ration scarce resources to those that can afford it…

7. 

   Tigger said, 4 months ago

   I Vote none of the above

8. 

   GNWachs said, 4 months ago

   Just as a reminder to those who complain about “insurance company” profits. Both Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Kaiser are non-profits. Their monthly fees for coverage are comparable to all the competition and their results are comparable also.

   BTW, in case some here don’t know Kaiser physicians (plus the equivalent groups in Boston etc) are on annual salary and don’t make one penny more from ordering expensive unnecessary tests.

9. 

   twieliczka said, 4 months ago

   When is somebody in The House and Senate going to slip in an unread provision (at midnight) that forces members of Congress to get the same treatment in hospitals / doctor’s offices that we get?

   Force all of them to hunt around for an Insurance Company that won’t deny them coverage - especially if they have a pre-existing condition?

10. 

    motivemagus said, 4 months ago

    GNWachs - “nonprofit” does not mean unprofitable. Nor does it mean they pay their executives less. I speak as a management consultant working with executives.
    You also seem to laboring under the misapprehension that we think the doctors are making the money. It isn’t, it’s the management. If anything, primary care physicians are underpaid and highly overworked, as we have too few. Furthermore, doctors have to have staff to manage the umpteen different insurance plans, which is a huge waste of effort.
    And in recent years Blue Cross/Blue Shield was getting into trouble explicitly because they were nonprofit - the profit-making companies were skimming the best clients (those with lots of young, healthy people) and dumping those that actually needed medical care and leaving them for BC/BS. At one point they were a de facto national healthcare, in that they could not turn down anybody, but that had to change, because they were losing too much money.
    There are a lot of inefficiencies in the system, and a lot of them are due to the insurance industry.

11. 

    believecommonsense said, 4 months ago

    gbr wrote: But we should not throw the baby out with the bath water. Keep the (you name the percent) that is working and fix the remainder.

    then you should be an enthusiastic supporter of Obama’s plans because he has said exactly that over and over and over again. That’s what he said during the campaign and that’s what he said today in his speech to medical community.

12. 

    believecommonsense said, 4 months ago

    GNW: Just as a reminder to those who complain about “insurance company” profits. Both Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Kaiser are non-profits.

    please stop spreading that falsehood.

    I have posted this info for you before but here it is again from wikipedia:

    *”The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is an American federation of 39 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance companies, in total covering over 100 million Americans.

    Many plans are administered by not-for-profit organizations, while others are for-profit companies. …The 14-state WellPoint is the largest Blue Cross Blue Shield member, and is a publicly traded company. Other multi-state organizations include CareFirst in the Mid-Atlantic and The Regence Group in the Pacific Northwest. The largest non-investor owned member is Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), which operates four Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans in the Midwest and Southwest.

    In the past Blue Cross Blue Shield has been successfully sued and fined for denying due medical treatments to their customers and underpaying doctors.”*

    Publicly traded companies
    Anthem (insurance) for-profit (WellPoint)
    Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield
    Colorado
    Connecticut
    Indiana
    Kentucky
    Maine
    Missouri
    Nevada
    New Hampshire
    Ohio
    Parts of Virginia
    Wisconsin
    Anthem Blue Cross
    California
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia
    Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield (New York)

    Multi-state private companies
    CareFirst
    District of Columbia
    Maryland
    Parts of Virginia
    Health Care Service Corporation
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas
    Highmark
    Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield (Western Pennsylvania)
    Highmark Blue Shield (Eastern & Central Pennsylvania)
    Mountain State Blue Cross and Blue Shield (West Virginia)
    Premera
    Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska
    Premera Blue Cross (Washington)
    The Regence Group
    Regence Blue Shield of Idaho
    Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon
    Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Utah
    Regence Blue Shield (Washington)
    Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield
    Iowa
    South Dakota

    blue cross converts to for-profit in CA:
    http://www.sickofbluecross.com/profitsoverpeople/