On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 9:24 PM, Ronn! Blankenship < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Which is a big reason why some (including some who do not get health > insurance through their employers and cannot afford to purchase it > themselves) are so leery of putting the government in charge (either > directly or indirectly by holding the purse strings) of anything as > important as medical care. First, that's not what is on the table. Obama hasn't proposed using tax dollars to pay for medical care. That would be socialized medicine. That's not his proposal, despite his opponent's success at convincing some people that he is some sort of socialist. Second, a lot of us are pretty darn unhappy with the current system, in which insurers consistently misbehave. Insurers routinely deny claims for no good reason except that they know a certain percentage of people won't fight them. This has happened to us twice in the last year. I had surgery that my insurer said did not need pre-approval. Then they denied it. My wife's insurer denied payment for an ambulance trip despite the fact that on their very own web pages, they describe exactly her symptoms and instruct to call 911 immediately. What, we were supposed to call 911 and then refuse medical care??? I'm a former paramedic -- I knew, absolutely, that the ambulance trip was appropriate. So all the talk about the government screws everything up, is inefficient, etc., holds no water for me. Supposedly the argument is that big is bad or civil service leads to laziness, etc. But I don't see human nature being any different in the insurance industry. I'm quite happy to see government out of any affairs that can be run more efficiently without it. That's common sense. But I'd also be happy to see an end to the knee-jerk reaction that says government is bad and private industry is good. Private industry commits plenty of sins, too and government does well when it is held accountable. Come to think of it, perhaps the knee-jerk reaction is little more that laziness on the part of people who are unwilling to do their jobs as citizens and voters to hold government accountable. They seem to be a lot of the same people who are unwilling to hold the GOP accountable for what their party has led us into over the last eight years. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
