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twitterLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Without profit motive, all endeavors fail
Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009 | 2:04 a.m.
Regarding Dale Quale’s Thursday letter to the editor in the Las Vegas Sun, headlined “Health care, private sector are mismatched”:
Mr. Quale writes, “Now it’s time to decide whether delivery of timely and medically necessary health care is best left to private insurance companies or should be added to the list of government-delivered services to which every American is entitled.” In every service mentioned, from the U.S. Postal Service to public schools, the private sector produces a more effective and efficient business model in the same activity.
Government-run services are prone to go broke over time. That’s a fact. The military is the one activity that the government must continue to operate and control for public accountability reasons. Even there, the private sector is deeply involved. We have learned that technologies instrumental in supplying all-important services, health care included, are superior when the private sector is involved in their creation.
Where the profit motive is absent from the overall equation, costs tend to grow without constraint. Profit is the expected result of risk that investors take when they buy into development of technology and systems for a given activity, health care included.
One cannot separate the delivery of health care from new medical technologies, including break-through drugs, that are part of the innovation cycle needed to advance the quality and effectiveness of health care. Insurance reform is needed, and legislation to provide that is well within reach without instituting a government-run option.
Discussion: 36 comments so far…
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The writer is blinded by dogma. The hour is a bit late for a complete dissection, but choosing the U S Postal Service as an example of a poorly run government business is absurd. It merely demonstrates the power of the right wing press to plant false beliefs in the minds of uncritical ideologs. Repetition of a lie doesn't make it true.
Ever hear of Keosaqua, Iowa? How about Osceola, Nebraska? No? Surely you've been to Leroy, North Dakota.
Guess what? If you lived there, you'd get your mail delivered without having to go to town. And a letter would cost you the same 43 cents it does us, and Aunt Ethyl in Whoknowswhere, Minnesota would get it in just a few days. If left to the private sector, how much do you think they'd charge to pick up your mail? Would you imagine that they might even charge you for delivery?
Sure, let's take the profit motive out of health care, and then we'll see how many new life-saving medicines the drug companies come up with.
Everyone says we supposedly have the best health care in the world, but the worst health-care delivery system. Take away the profit motive and we won't even have the best care anymore.
There's a reason Phizer and all the other drug companies spend billions on research and development of new drugs: profit. Even though we Americans get stuck with the lion's share of those costs with high pharma prices, the point is: who will even bother trying to make medical advances if there's no profit in it?
Oh, I see, in the world of Liberal Leeches, everyone is supposed to do good things out of the goodness of their heart, because all human beings deserve free health care because, after all, we're all human beings.
Wake up and join the real world. If you think the U.S. health care system is a mess now, take away the profit motive and see what happens.
judgesmales--great post. kool aid drinking leftist nut cases will just never get it.
with the profit motive you get...
anti trust exemptions...
oligopolies...
pacs which control congress...
claims denied at every possible opportunity...
45,000 americans dead every year because they can't afford coverage...
45 million uninsured...
innocent little children who die becuase they had the misfortune of being born into poverty...
bottom line...
you either support medicare part e (the public option)...
or...
you support the greedy pig insurance companies and their very real death panels and the money grubbing whore doctors...
Comment removed by staff. Violates reader agreement.
Profits. I have no problem with profits. My problem is when some individual is sitting at a desk, looking at an insurance claim and they must decide between coverage and profit. In order to secure their job, which side of the dilemma do you think they are going to come down on.
Something that never enters the equation is consideration as to how much my premiums over the years has helped thier profit margin. All that is considered is today and if my coverages in cutting into thoses profits now.
Talk about rationed health care.
To StanG..The Federal government is a vast wasteland. Many who work for the G are just wasting time waiting for the next holiday. The big worry that the G has is "Are we hiring enough minorities?" To bestow the responsibility of health care on such nitwits is really dangerous.
Obama and Emmanuel are both Socialists. Axelrod is a doofus and Pelosi/Reid are just plain stupid.
Phargo:
If you believe this government is so bad, what do propose be done? Don't give me return to the Constitution because I don't see you or anyone else challenging anything the federal government is doing as unconstitutional in the court system.
Houston, not to disagree, but I think Birdie lives in section 8 housing shops with food stamps and trolls the library for internet use.
Other than that you are right on.
Hey TePee... Doesn't the Nevada State Insurance Commission approve all premium hikes by the health insurance companies?
"The mission of the Division of Insurance is twofold: to protect the rights of Nevada consumers in their experiences with the insurance industry and to ensure the financial solvency of insurers. In order to fulfill this mission, the Insurance Commissioner, with the assistance of Division of Insurance staff, will advance a sound regulatory environment that is responsive to the insurance needs in Nevada. The Division of Insurance is the ultimate consumer protection agency on insurance issues."
getalife: Thanks for clarification.
This issue will NEVER I mean NEVER get resolved. People are too misinformed, bullheaded , greedy, idiotic animals called humans which screw everything up they touch. I'm sick of all of this. Why don't the so called leaders just drop it and try to generate jobs and economic recovery in the country first then worry about health care at a later time!
I just checked. UPS WILL deliver a letter from Vegas to Keosaqua, Iowa for only 38 cents.
OOPS!! My Bad.
That should have been twenty three dollars AND 38 cent. Yes, for a letter.
Hooray for the profit motive.
Man, I get so tired of hearing this nonsense.
If the government raised your taxes 20% a year for the last ten years in a row (as the insurance companies have done to me) you would be howling, froth-lipped mad and demand that something be done. But when the private sector does it's somehow ok, because after all, the "profit motive" is best for all endeavors.
What a croc!
And BTW, Insurance companies have nothing at all to do with medical innovation, nor do they "deliver" health care. Ever hear of an insurance company that came up with a vaccine or cured a disease?
They are in fact parasites in the health care process, and we'll all be better off without them.
If privatization worked as well as the proponents claim--better service at lower cost, that would be great but that is not the case. Social Security and Medicare operating costs are approximately 3%, the private health insurers operating costs are approximately 15%. The USPS does an excellent job within the framework they operate within. Try paying for postage for a letter in Europe. Google: German postal rates or any other country. There was a great increase of privatization of some agencies in the USA government under the cheny/bush mis-administration and costs increased dramatically, some over 100%. Do a little research and just Google or GoTo anything typed in the address bar.
You lunatics need to get a life and stop relying on working people to support your choices and pathetic life styles. Health insurance is a choice and so is your income and how you choose to spend it, so quit asking the working class to take care of your lazy choices.
Obama and clan can't even get enough swine flu medicines out in time for their followers and you wonder why we don't them involved. The government can't run anything without screwing it up and when it comes to my life and my gene pool, the government isn't going to be involved with our choices.
If you want free health care stay on your welfare and leave us out of your preferred lifestyle. If you want something better, get a job and earn it. I know another excuse; my job doesn't have it, find another. If you're undereducated, I don't care, you made that choice not me; go back to school and become educated.
America is turning into a society when people think they don't have to earn it or work for it, they've been enabled to suck off the system and whine just enough where the system promotes these kind of people and expect everything for nothing. We're sick of you people and we don't care what happens to you, we can't afford you anymore.
Now on the other hand, if you are a person really in need and just have fallen on hard times or born with some ailment, our checkbooks are wide open and you'll be taken care. It is the career Democrats that are ruining for you so if you are forced into their system and your healthcare sucks; you know who to blame.
But not for profits, you'd be where? it is our taxes that support you so quit whining.
Uh, it is the government who is bringing you the vaccine. For free. If the government wasn't involved, and you had to buy it on your own, well, I would be able to afford it, but at $500 a shot, could you and your family?
Wait, did I say the government is buying the vaccine with my tax money and giving it to you free? Crap. That's SOCIALISM!!
You Republicans are like little children.
You have to be told over and over that you
don't have to take the public option if you
don't want it.
61% of Americans want the public option
included in the health care reform.
Private insurance is not going away. Both
will work side by side.
No our premiums will taxed up to 40% so we pay for the freeloaders, or so graciously put by your leaders, a fee will be imposed, this isn't a tax though it is a fee. LIARS!
TePee asks what should be done be done about bad government. The answer is quite simple. A constitutional amendment that prohibits them from taking more than five per cent total taxes from any individual, corporation or any other entity in the United States. That will allow them enough to run the military and little else which is what they should have been doing in the first place.
TePee:
What can we do about Government mis, mal, and nonfeasance? Absolutely nothing thats what. People vote a straight ticket and they get a lot of trash elected. Take Obama for instance, there is a guy full of a lot of rhetoric, We put him in and Al Franken slides in too. Now we have an inexperienced politician (Obama) who owes nobody within the Beltway any favors and they don't owe him any favors either. Just like Jimmy Carter, same way. A one term, get nothing done guy that cost us plenty. After we get rid of Obama Franken will still be here. What we have here is a rotten system. Some of our smartest people are sitting home while boobs like Obama and Franken are running things. Don't be fooled by Obama's smooth, cool demeanor. He don't have a clue.
getalife:
You are exactly right about birdiedreamin.
Whoever gives him/her the most for nothing is his/hers bestest friend. What we have here is a case of Da Gimmees!
The AP finally released the profit margins of those evil insurance companies today. Not greater than 6% on average with 2008 being 2.2%. For those of you that graduated publik skool..... that means they earned 2.2 cents per dollar. That's not greedy or evil. In fact in any other industry the stockholders would be in open revolt.
But Obama and his gang, including the state run media, have spread the lie so extensively about the greedy insurance companies that no kool-aid drinking liberal on these pages will accept this poor performance. Hell, Tupperware and Hershey Chocolates performed better. And those wonderful trial lawyers reported a 14% ROI (look the term up) last year and yet you don't hear anyone screaming "greed" about that. Of course the trial lawyers almost exclusively contribute big dollars to the Dems. Talk about special interests.
Teamster.. Now the rest of the story.
Lets say I own company A and am paying my employees health insuance, which costs me 20%+ per employee. You're argument is that I wlll continue to pay that employee insurance. Here's the unintended consequences that come from the public option. I decide to quit paying my employee insurance premium.... forcing them to go to the public option. Oh I know that they say I'll have to pay a penalty for doing that, but if that penalty is less than the 20%+ that I'm paying now, I still save money.
Since you use the term Teamster. This will effect unions that have the so-called Cadillac insurance plans more than most.
Stand by..it's coming to a government near you.
Bend over and grab your ankles folks. But you won't be getting a kiss after the Democrats screw you.
LV Tom:
The extra people signed up for the public option and the competition from the public
option will drive down the cost of private
insurance. This is the only way all Americans
will be covered.
Who said having "all Americans covered" was a good idea in the first place? No one whose opinion I respect, that's for sure.
When you leeches can come up with a good way to make your Utopia cost free, go for it. In the meantime, don't steal my tax dollars to pay for your family-of-man, we're-all-the-same nonsense.
All men are created equal, sure enough, but the minute you're out of the womb in the real world, the inequality begins and you're on your own. I worked for mine. Get yours. And that doesn't mean stealing from me to get it.
The best part of this is that Scary Reid already knows he can't conjure up 60 votes for a public option. The Blue Dogs have already said they'll never vote for it. So it's a moot argument. Americans win, Leeches lose.
judgesmales, that is the difference between people like you and the majority of intelligent, rational American adults. Knuckledraggers such as yourself obviously place no value on your fellow Americans, or America itself for that matter. You only care about yourself. Selfish, ignorant, myopic, loudmouths who steadfastly refuse to see the forest beyond the trees. That about sums up the republican party at this point.
Question for all of you teabaggin' birther sloths...if healthcare is not a fundamental American & human right, how come the US Military has a long held policy of treating enemy soldiers on the battlefield, giving them the same care and access to the same facilities as our own soldiers? Enemy soldiers being treated right next to American soldiers. Why is that? Are the military liberal pusses? Your tax dollars are paying for this also, Einsteins.
Apparently the teabaggin-birther 'patriot' crew have no problem with the Taliban and Al Qaeda getting medical treatment on their dime, but the hard working uninsured American who just lost his job can go die in a ditch.
Why do repubilcans hate America and Americans so much?
JahReb loves to name call and spread hate. This is another person on the left who puts their politics above their principles.
Wait a minute... What principles? If a person like JahReg can call his fellow so many derogatory names, how can he have any principles???
60 Minutes episode; The $60 Billion Fraud. Medicare and Medicaid fraudsters are beating U.S. taxpayers out of an estimated $90 billion a year using a billing scam that is surprisingly easy to execute.
Link to view episode:
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minute...
: )
Harley : I saw that episode on 60 Mins. and was absolutely horrified and of the complete belief that that fatso woman in charge of fraud oversight should be fired and/or investigated for absolute neglect of her post! That is not an ecceptable excuse that of her claim of not having the resources to investigate these bogus claims and companies. They should not have to pay out another cent of medicare $ until they confirm the cases that are being claimed are genuine! what a travesty!
Not to worry about the $60 Billion Fraud... The Obama Administration will get on it as soon as they make a decision on Afghanistan.
Appears that Harry's attempt for another pubic option might be another failed endeavor.
JahReb, I never realized how much hate you have bottled up. Don't you know Obama is the president and all your troubles are over. You would think the Dems lost they are so hateful.
As a citizen of the US and not an enemy combatant you are not entitled to heathcare. The Geneva convention affords medical care to enemy combatants........ wait, you are a liberal, my bad, you are an enemy combatant. Free health care for you!
Well if corporation run health care is so great, why aren't we in the top 20 of best places for health care? What a joke and a lie.