New subject - moral hazard and pre existing conditions

[vol_scouter]

JoeBob,

 

The attorneys will continue to sue the same folks - doctors and hospitals. Insurance companies are not sued because they do not prevent the doctor (and hospital if applies) from doing what is in the best interest of their patients by not paying. The doctors and hospitals can simply do whatever without payment. This bill does NOTHING to decrease liability suits or defensive medicine,

[Lisabob]

I've never fully understood the out of state insurance thing either. On one hand, I can see an argument that it would increase competition among providers.

 

On the other hand, I can see an argument that it would allow insurance companies to stampede to the state with the weakest regulatory controls on how they do business - much as was the case for credit card companies and banks in the 1990s - to the probable detriment of customers.

 

OGE, you mention the issue of requiring legislators to read every word of every bill prior to signing it. I hear you. Here's another take on that matter though.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/22/AR2009092203473.html

 

 

[JoeBob]

Vol_Scouter:

 

When the 'Public Option' eliminates private insurance, reduces payments to hospitals and Dr.s, and basically socializes the medical system; then the Docs and hospitals will be government entities who can assert sovereign immunity.

 

 

State insurance boards presently control what must be contained in policies sold in their states. (I presume that multi-state companies can opt local or opt for the state where the head office resides - I don't know.) If policies could be bought outside your own state, then any state could offer a stripped down policy for healthy young men (like the major medical policies of the past) and capture a large market share. But this would rob funds from states that require all manner of conditions be covered (obesity, alcoholism, low self-esteem...). And the out-of-state purchasers would be the very ones who prop up the shared risk pool by paying more premiums into the insurance pool more than they take out in medical services.

 

ObamaCare/PelosiCare do nothing that can seriously be believed to bring down the cost of health care. They're just shifting around who pays for what, and adding the cost of a huge (historically and inherently) incompetent bureacracy. If their plans are going to be so great for healthcare, why don't they kick in before 2013? Ya think they want to get elected one more time before the feces hits tha air-mover?