Yeah. Insurance began as a good idea way to pool your risks -- house fire, car accident, adverse health event -- into a for-profit firmly-entrenched part of our economy. The health insurance industry in particular is the perfect example of unfettered capitalism run amuck. I know our conservative friends hate to hear this, but other more civilized countries laugh at our stupidity for allowing this in favor of a regulated mixed-socialism/capitalism health care system instead.
Anti-national health care people fear "government death panels" -- a cute phrase coined by $arah Palin whose own family benefits from a govt. health insurance plan. Guess what? We already have death panels in our capitalism-based health care insurance scheme. Non-medically-educated ppl get to decide whether your health condition is feasible to treat so that you live and profits are maintained. If you have something extremely expensive to treat... well good luck with that shit.
My youngest daughter has MS. Every few months, since her diagnosis, she has had to have her physicians go to battle with her health care plan to approve her medications, diagnostics, and other health needs. Her meds alone are more than $5K/month. That being said, this week we celebrated a great health report -- she has gone an entire year with no new plaques in her brain, no new symptoms, and they are saying -- for now -- remission. She has a particularly aggressive form of MS so this is wonderful news.
Wouldn't it be great if *every* American citizen had the same access to world-class health care without the battle to get it paid for? We can do this; hundreds of other nations have.
Congratulations on her health report. I’m glad she had an intelligent and able father to fight for her.