Danny Appleseed

Dogboy and Mr. Dan are back! This time they're talking about global economic chaos and the debt ceiling. A Mark Fiore political animation.

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• GOP
• obama
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[mipoleon]

@dangerouslytalented It worked rather well when the government stuck to the powers specifically delegated to it in article 1 section 8 which at the federal level are all things relating to the use of, financing of, or the infrastructure to support violent entities. The best one can do is know that the essence of government is violence and to keep it on as short a leash as possible. Everything outside of this is meant to distract or deceive the public from its true nature.

[dangerouslytalented]

@mipoleon What a brilliantly constructed system you Americans have. So completely corrupt that any attempts at reform will only mean more corruption, no matter whether it is more regulation or more deregulation or simply leaving things as is.

[mipoleon]

@dangerouslytalented ..the insurance company they are retained by the employer. Whether it comes from the employers bank account or the government is of no consequence to insurers who only file the paperwork. The changes you are looking for will not come from insurance reform. Every study done on the subject shows costs are rooted in the charges the provider bills. A single payer system will just remove what little options are left among insurers.

[mipoleon]

@dangerouslytalented Even if we got single payer in this country it would not provide any substantial changes. The government would only contract with one or more of the current big players in the market and would do the processing on behalf of the government. In reality majority of claims paid are on an administrative meaning the employer doesn't buy insurance the cost comes right out of the employer's bank account. So any savings on claim denials are not retained by...

[mipoleon]

@dangerouslytalented I totally would enter the market with a better product if I could. It would be impossible for me to keep up with the regulation let alone raise the capital to do so. At least a third of our developers have been on projects related to health care reform compliance over the last two years. A lot of effort and $ for a bill that has at least a 50/50 shot at being ruled unconstitutional.

[dangerouslytalented]

@mipoleon It is impossible to enter the medical insurance market because set up costs are so massively high and any new companies coming in will have to deal with collossal competition which can squish them like a bug.

[dangerouslytalented]

@mipoleon Strange, in Australia, we have a pretty much identical scheme to Medicare, but with EVERYBODY covered, and guess what? All the costs are lower. The only reason that Medicare in the US does not cover everybody is precisely because it covers the parts of the American society that the healthcare system finds unprofitable anyway.

[mipoleon]

@dangerouslytalented Medicaid acts as the payer of last resort so when claims get processed in coordination with Medicaid the private insurer only has to pay the lesser of the actual contracted rate OR the amount Medicaid allows. The insurance industry is so heavily regulated that it is practically impossible to enter the market. I could totally design a claim processing system that is better than anything that exists in the world today.

[mipoleon]

@dangerouslytalented The Federal government already has massive influence over healthcare and they wield it to benefit the few and powerful already. I actually work in health insurance for one of the larger companies so I know something about how it works. All of the gvmt run heathplans in effect are run for the benefit of large insurance companies. Medicare acts as the primary payer absorbing the bulk of the cost for the elderly who use the most healthcare.

[dangerouslytalented]

@mipoleon That is what they are doing in Vermont... The thing is, that economies of scale should apply in healthcare. The American federal government would have MASSIVE influence over the healthcare industry, whereas individual states do not, and if any single state started making it too efficient (and unprofitable for the healthcare companies) then the healthcare companies would use their money to squish such legislation.