Here, cribbed from Dr. Val and the Voice, are quotes they collected from yet another person, with my comments interspersed:
“Half of the people in the US have some sort of chronic illness. Health insurance is like having car insurance when 50% of people are having accidents. Of course nobody can afford it.”
This is especially true because the wrecks are often caused by poor routine maintenance.
“We need to keep employer-based healthcare because when employers have ‘skin in the game’ they have the incentive to promote healthy behavior at a local level. Monolithic government programs aren’t good at influencing people at the individual level. Employers know each of their employees by name, they are invested in their lives, they provide childcare services and other benefits to them, and each employee’s health affects their bottom line. Employers are a critical force for promoting and facilitating healthy behaviors.”
And employers have the financial motive to keep workers working and their families healthy so workers aren’t worried about and/or taking time off to deal with family health issues.
“Alternative energy sources aren’t that interesting when gas is $1/gallon. But when gas hits $4/gallon suddenly everyone is very interested in alternative energy. The same goes for healthcare. It takes a cost crisis to bring it to everyone’s attention. And now the audience is listening.”
A great analogy – our addiction to oil looks like it has limits, and our addiction to all the expensive health care we can waste may be hitting its own hard stop.
and thanks to Ann in Florida for the heads up.
Jun
10
The employer has little incentive as they can pass the costs on to the employee in a econmic down turn – be thankful you have a job – and your health benefits costs are up.
Also the employer has no ability to improve the health of the family, and many legal impediments to trying to change behavior that influances health.
The comment comparing auto insurance and health insurance is revealing. Of course, auto insurance would be UNaffordable if 50% of the policyholders had accidents every year. But, with health insurance, MORE than 50% of all policyholders have MULTIPLE “accidents” (encounters, sicknesses, etc.) every year. This is why the idea that getting more people into the “pool” is stupid. Medicare has LOTS of people in its pool and it’s still facing inflation that is 3-4 times general inflation. Suggesting that the solution to the health care crisis is more lives in the pool reminds me of the old joke about the idiot who went into business selling widgets. He bought them for $4 and sold them for $3. Business was great. When it was pointed out that he was losing money on every transaction, he replied, “Yeah, but I’m going to make it up on volume”.
Thanks for the link! Glad you enjoyed the quotes as much as I did. :)