Some ideas about healthcare.

The headlines today are all about the public option. Some of our politicians are worried about the public option being a stepping stone to the government taking over healthcare. As I mentioned in my previous post I was in the Army. I have seen government run healthcare and I liked it. Unfortunately, that’s not what the stepping stone leads to. It’s not even close.


What they are really talking about is a government takeover of health insurance. This is not likely to happen either. In the article linked below professor Carroll notes several states where similar ideas have been tried. I don’t know of any of these states where the public option has lead to a government takeover of health insurance



Huffington Post – Meet the New Health Care Reform, Same as the Old Health Care Reform

I am a bit concerned about the proposed legislation for another reason. I’ve billed insurance companies before and I know that having insurance does not mean that they will pay. I also know that it’s worse to have insurance that does not pay than to have no insurance at all.


The problem when billing is that different plans within different insurance companies can come up with a different set of hoops that the provider has to jump through to get paid. As long as insurance companies get to make up these rules they will find ways to deny claims. When claims get denied the patient ends up with the bill. So the patient is out the premiums that they paid plus the amount of the medical procedure.