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Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

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21–30 of 353 posts

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#21
There is a solution to this..

If there was say a more market based price tier and that tier to Obamacare was made up of both US Federal workers plans and State workers plans than there would be a huge amount of healthy people in the whole group and private ins co's would be striving to be part of ObamaCare as their costs than would not exceed their revenues.

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i couldn't in any good conscience support single-payer or socialized medicine it's the same economic model that created breadlines

Can you elaborate on this reasoning?

free market systems are dynamic and adjustable to real-world inputs in a way that no planned system can match in terms of providing the most service/product to the most people.

what people really want when they push for socialized medicine is equality over improvement.

envy holds us back so much.

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#23

Good. Block their deal, let them drop out of obamacare, and then give us the Single Payer that we've always deserved and watch those fuckers go bankrupt like they've always deserved.

i couldn't in any good conscience support single-payer or socialized medicine it's the same economic model that created breadlines

it's also the same economic system that saved american seniors from dying destitute before SS and medicare.

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#24
post #2

Can anyone succinctly explain the benefits of having a market for private health insurance companies, rather than a single provider of health insurance (government, aka "public option")? Can a capitalist case be made for their existence? Does the lack of a large private insurance market in countries with government-provided health insurance cause lots of inefficiencies and waste?

It's hard to tell if there are inefficiencies and waste or if health care is just simply really expensive.

Health care is done by the Provinces in Canada, with transfers from the Federal Government to help out. The most recent Alberta budget[0] puts the cost of health care at about $20B. This represents approximately 40% of Alberta government spending.

Is that due to waste or inefficiencies? I honestly have no idea. I just know that it's a big number.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, at least in Canada, the government provides some base amount of health services, but there are still other things that aren't covered. In Alberta, someone might go to the ER for a severe asthma attack and that's covered, but the prescriptions to keep the asthma under control are paid for out of pocket or from a benefit plan (which could be an individual plan or through an employer). Similarly, dental is not covered, but may be covered under a benefit plan.

[0] http://finance.alberta.ca/publications/budget/budget2016/fis...

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#25

Good. Block their deal, let them drop out of obamacare, and then give us the Single Payer that we've always deserved and watch those fuckers go bankrupt like they've always deserved.

i couldn't in any good conscience support single-payer or socialized medicine it's the same economic model that created breadlines

Tell it to Australia, Canada, and the UK.

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#26
post #2

Can anyone succinctly explain the benefits of having a market for private health insurance companies, rather than a single provider of health insurance (government, aka "public option")? Can a capitalist case be made for their existence? Does the lack of a large private insurance market in countries with government-provided health insurance cause lots of inefficiencies and waste?

There's no benefit I can see. Our present system combines everything that is bad about "socialized" medicine (loads of regulation, bureaucracy, inflexibility, etc.) with everything that is bad about private medicine (inequality, high cost, fragmentation).

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#27
Before the pitchforks come out, keep this in mind: before Obamacare increased access to affordable individual plans, employers were the typical purchasers of health care plans. When you have a 100+ person company, the company pays a rate that averages out their employee pool's healthcare needs. Now we have a situation where more people can more efficiently participate in the healthcare market. Individuals who are young and healthy will opt for a lower cost plan, and those who already have illnesses or higher risk for illness will spend more for their healthcare. This efficiency on the consumer side is destroying revenue for the healthcare companies.

I am not saying that anything was even close to perfect before, but we're seeing the private sector responding to Obamacare - it's not profitable enough or even sustainable in some cases. Now the government wants to block companies from trying to salvage their profits? Yes, consumers are benefitting now, but what happens when there are 2 options left for healthcare in each state?

I think in this case, it's clear that the hybrid Capitalist / Socialist approach is not the way to go. Either the government needs to let health care companies operate the way the market allows them to, or move to a single payer system.

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#28

Good. Block their deal, let them drop out of obamacare, and then give us the Single Payer that we've always deserved and watch those fuckers go bankrupt like they've always deserved.

i couldn't in any good conscience support single-payer or socialized medicine it's the same economic model that created breadlines

Gee, I missed the bread lines when I grew up in Norway, and I must've managed to miss them in the UK too.

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#29
post #2

Can anyone succinctly explain the benefits of having a market for private health insurance companies, rather than a single provider of health insurance (government, aka "public option")? Can a capitalist case be made for their existence? Does the lack of a large private insurance market in countries with government-provided health insurance cause lots of inefficiencies and waste?

The purpose of government is not to require the most efficient option. Government isn't capable of it anyway. Government is force - nothing more. The purpose of government is to protect our rights. "Single payer" (a euphemism for socialized medicine) by definition violates rights by forcing people to do things against their will. For example, in Canada (until recently) people were prohibited from using private health care even if they want to.

The health systems in Europe are not radically different from the US system. The efficiencies of each are difficult to quantify without context. For example, the US invents most of the drugs and medical technology used by the world. Would this still happen if there was more invasive regulation? We can't know.

Besides all of this, think of every other area of the market where the government insinuates itself. Are public schools better than private schools? Almost never. Is the US postal system better than FedEx? Of course not. The government is not a commercial entity. The incentives and influences on it are not conducive to producing quality products at good prices.

Re: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

#30
post #2

Can anyone succinctly explain the benefits of having a market for private health insurance companies, rather than a single provider of health insurance (government, aka "public option")? Can a capitalist case be made for their existence? Does the lack of a large private insurance market in countries with government-provided health insurance cause lots of inefficiencies and waste?

> (government, aka "public option")

that wouldn't happen. since it's monopolism. You would end up in a system like germany. And at the moment these "public" health insurance companies raising their fee's every year. Not better than having private ones, since their regulators just don't care. They praise their reduces with taxes but they don't care if everything else got higher we still end up in a loss.

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