Saturday, September 05, 2009

Health insurers reject claims

President Obama wanted to introduce a "public option". It will allow the uninsured to choose a health plan provided by the Government. This is intended to provide competition to health insurers and make them more efficient.

The health insurers industry lobby against the public option. They told Americans that the public option would lead to a "death panel" will have responsibility to control cost and decide if any insured person should receive expensive treatment.

As a result of this lobby, many Americans are now afraid of the "public option". But the insurance industry is not being honest and truthful. They are already adopting this practice. Read this article.

4 comments:

Ghim Moh Resident said...

President Obama health-care plan is good for its people. However, I have one concern regarding his plan. Where to get money for the health-care plan when the US government is broke. More “quantitative easing” or printing of money? Or higher taxes to the US citizens and money earned aboard?

It is going to be costly and will bring an even huge burden to the US government ever-increasing government debt.

My view is the US government should stay out of the way and let private insurers complete fairly on their own to provide healthcare insurance to the people. Let the free market work its way. Incompetent insurers will go out of business, competent insurers will stay.

Tan Kin Lian said...

To Ghim Moh resident:

America has let the free market work in health care. The outcome is clear:
a) health care cost continue to increase
b) it now takes away 16% of GDP
c) 20% of people are uninsured and receive poor care

The competitive market in health care is an opportunity for health insurers to make huge profits at the expense of the consumers. Yet, many people prefer to think that the free market can solve the problem.

Ghim Moh Resident said...

Hi Mr Tan,

Yes, I agree with you that President Obama health care plan is good for the people. The Singapore government is also coming up with the annuity plan for its citizens. I believe they are currently working onto the details.

Yes, free market won’t solve the problem. Free market without regulation is doomed. Maybe at this moment, the US government can act more as a regulator instead of funding for healthcare. I mean at this moment in time. The reason is because I am concerned with their ever-increasing spending. They are a deficit nation unlike China or Singapore. Yes, the US government can provide healthcare to its people but it must cut down spending on other areas first. For example, they have yet to withdraw from Iraq. The billions of dollars they pumped into the global financial system doesn’t stop the Americans from losing jobs. Their underemployment rate is at 16.3% now and unemployment is at 9.7%. See the link below. Does that mean their healthcare plan is going to work?

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/05/jobless-rate-surges-to-highest-level-in-26-years/?feat=home_headlines

These are very important issues that President Obama has to deal with now. His healthcare plan was an election promise and I feel its very politically linked.

Anonymous said...

The americans somehow forgotten what goverment's roles are. One of which is to provide public service which left to private enterprises will lead to abuse and mismanagement. Healthcare, judiciary, police and military are some of the services that should not be left to private sector... Other than healthcare, look what happen when they outsource the war to dubious private contractors????

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