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Tigerlure on 13 November 2013
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SlayerRondo said:
Tigerlure said:
sc94597 said:
Tigerlure said:

For my Republican friends, please note that leaving it to the free market is not a good answer.

Yep, it's not a good answer, it's the best answer. Unfortunately we haven't had a free-market in most of healthcare since the 50's. Just look at eye-care and its low-costs and you can see how a free-market (free from government priveleged insurance companies) can reduce prices and make something affordable.  


I shudder at the thought of a true "free-market". Insurance companies hiking up prices whenever they want, dropping people off insurance, refusing to cover medical treatments at a whim. 

The free-market you're talking about won't happen because there is simply not enough competition. In my area, we're almost monopolized with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Imagine if they were completely unregulated.

You seem to have a poor understanding of the free market if that's your opinion of what would happen if insurance companies went that way. If an insurance company dropped people off for no reason, refused to provide promised coverage and just hicked up prices for no reason, the free market allows for people to switch to a better insurance company. 

The problem is that we as a society have continualy had personal responsibility taken away from us by the state creating a class of reliant people who receive welfare in return for their votes essentially. People have the ability to question insurance companies, learn what they offer (actually reading your insurance contract) and spread their opinions and review them so that we can judge insurance companies by their reputation and not because they had a snappy advertisement on tv.

And while there may be a need for more insurance companies, the primary reason why we have so few new entries is the overwhelming regulatory burden that the government has created preventing new entries into the industry. The government proclaims a love of competition but puts up massive barriers so new entries cant bear the cost, which of course the big companies love and the regulatory cost is nothing for them compared to the cost of competing.

Also the additional cost of Obamacare is likely to increase the government debt to GDP ratio that has toped 100% as we slowly approach the levels seen post World War 2. And unlike Greece we don't have the EU to bail us out.


And you've obviously haven't dealt with an insurance company trying to pay for a surgery like I have, or else you wouldn't make such a ridiculous statement. As I said, in some parts of the country, there is 1 or 2 who controls a market (for example, Alabama). Even if there were no burdens on companies to enter the market, what would stop insurance companies from doing what they already do right now?

Oh, and I suggest you take an Econ 101 course before you start talking about Debt-to-GDP. You'd be surprised at exactly what impact it has on a country like the United States (hint: not much).