Originally Posted by
commiecat
I think people are confused about the public option. The public option will be something that you or your employer can choose to subscribe to. It will be affordable and not free, and the intent is for it to eventually pay for itself.
I think by adding the choice, it could hurt the system further. See my previous post.
Some people use terms like ObamaCare and socialized medicine to describe the reform. You will not be forced to choose the public option. If you pay for Blue Cross / Blue Shield, then you can keep it. You'll still be able to see specialists and have elective surgeries.
The public option, IMHO, will allow the 45M+ uninsured American citizens to get health care. The public option will not deny care to you because you're a risk or have an existing medical condition.
The addition of more customers to the system would be a good thing for sure. The more customers, the bigger the market and the more potential leverage each insurance Co has with hospitals on care pricing.
The private insurance companies will need to remain competitive to keep their customer base, which I can only imagine will result in them lowering costs and/or providing more benefits if they want to stay in business.
Alternatively, they could recognize an unprofitable situation and migrate away from the industry altogether. This might not be bad as long as we are left with some providers.
Also, it is hard for private companies to reduce costs when people are demanding services they might not need or are convinced to buy drugs that are more expensive to the insurance company than they need to be (i.e. getting a coupon from big pharma to make the generic and the name brand the same price or make the NB cheaper just so big pharma can keep market share and charge the insurance company. You may save $10 on the copay but the Insurance Co might pay 100's more for the name brand drug.)
It will also force them to compete against each other in all markets, instead of having regional monopolies like they currently do.
Those regional monopolies allow them to compete on price by virtue of having market share. This whole thing is counter intuitive.
I still do not understand why anyone outside of the insurance companies would be against this. I don't think I've ever heard anyone tell me that they loved dealing with insurance companies.
And when is the last time you heard someone say: "I love dealing with the Government?"