Friday, March 20, 2015

A Bill Will not be Paid, Unless Their is Someone Rich Enough to Pay it

   If health costs are high, insurance is the enabler. A large bill will not be charged unless there is someone rich enough to pay it. And, it is the insurance companies -- not the patients -- who can afford to pay.
   If we didn't have an insurance system, and if patients had to pay their own bills, we would not be paying such outlandish sums for these visits to the hospital. It is the principle of supply and demand at work: However much money someone can supply, there will be someone demanding that they do.
   So, not only are insurance companies enablers, they are victims. Simply by being rich, and by being the ones paying the bills, they become the victims. It is an old principle at work: If someone has a lot, there will be someone seeking to take it from them.
   So, how do we fix our broken health care system? How do we bring down health care costs? As much as anything, the answer lies in lowering the supply of money available. Either get rid of the insurance companies, or see to it that they are not so rich.
   Those are not things you do overnight. If we just outlawed insurance companies of a sudden, the system built upon them would collapse. Reduce their incomes too rapidly, too, and that might cause our health care system to take a hard tumble.
   How do we go about either weaning ourselves from the insurance companies, or separating them from so much money? I confess I do not know. I have a thought or two, but it is late and I shall not stay up to think them out.

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