There is another good reason to create a national health care plan: so that American's freedom of movement is not inhibited. Many private health plans only cover medical providers in the insured's local area. As a result, if an insured takes a vacation and gets sick or hurt while away from home, many times their illness or injury will either be reduced or not covered by their health plan at all.
This policy is irrational. Americans should be free to explore and see new things. They should not have to worry about a reduction or denial of health benefits while they are away.
2 comments:
A while back Kevin Drum had a few posts about the problem of creating an efficient single payer health care system, specifically the problem mentioned was the idea that the only growth industry in te united states at the moment is health care. The idea was that if you made the system more efficient you would lose much of the job creation. I wish I could find the link but it was a few weeks ago. I guess the idea was that almost every Doctors office and hospital could get rid of their billing departments thus creating milions of unemployed clerical workers. Although I wonder if these people would not be replaced with more care-givers.
The idea that health care is a national employer rather than just a service may be part of what contributes to what may be an unhealthy overconsumption, much the way beef industry subsidies may contribute to over consumption of meat.
Karl:
Thanks for the comment and do post a link to the article when you find it. I would like to do a post commenting on the article.
I have previously mentioned how it would be a good thing to increase efficiency and productivity by creating a national system that did not have to worry about getting payments from patients. The added benefit is an even healthier workforce because it is one less thing to stress about. Stress causes a lower immune system and inattentiveness which causes accidents, which cause injuries and more stress.
That cannot be good for America.
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