Originally Posted by George

Not too long ago the Democrats were pushing HMOs as the great answer to health care. Were they wrong, or did they know HMOs wern't the answer. Did they expected that would increase the problems, (with Govt takeover being the ulmitite goal) so it would play into thier hands?

I think we've been over that George, HMO bill was signed into law By Richard Nixon in 1973, not the Democrats. I dont fault Nixon for signing the Bill because nobody back then could have imagined the consequences or the abuses that would take place.

But the fact of the matter is that in the 37 years since that Bill was signed, it has proven to be a failure because HMOs make more money NOT providing healthcare that by actually doing what they were designed to do. So lets talk about the 'now' rather than what happened at a time when many of us weren't even born.

The fundimental problem with HMOs is that its a for-profit business whose industry is in the Trillions of Dollars. HMOs are supposed to provide healthcare to patients if they are in need of costly medical procedures that most Americans cannot pay out of their pocket. Which brings us to the heart of the issue, HMO's make the most money by not actually paying for the treatment. From a business standpoint its much cheaper for them to have a patient die from cancer then it is to pay for the chemo that might have his life. Chemo is about $40,000 per session, if you need 4 sessions thats $160,000. Most people dont have $160,000 in cash. The Dems are proposing a solution that forces HMOs to provide better service through marketplace competition, the GOP promotes the status quo which benefits only the HMO corporations.

Now maybe you dont see the significance now, but wait until the patient on a HMO policy is you, your mother, father, wife or child your HMO (assuming you have one at all) tells you they WONT pay for it because it cost too much.

Personally I think the Obama plan does go anywhere near enough. I would push through a single payer plan that forces every single citizen to subscribe a single National Plan, that is run by a non-profit government agency. This would be paid for by a duduction from salary (like SS and taxes are now). Such as system would be far more effective and less costly than the inefficient and exhorbantly expensive system we have now. The added Bonus is that most HMOs would go out of business, which to me is a bonus.

People would piss and moan about it until the day they need an operation and that they dont need to pay for it.

Still doesn't change the fact that Dems were pushing HMOs not too long ago as "The" answer to the health care problem.

Right and I suppose if you got a math problem wrong, you gave up math altogether.
Same sort of logic really.

Originally Posted by George

Still doesn't change the fact that Dems were pushing HMOs not too long ago as "The" answer to the health care problem.

I cannot help but notice you are being extremely vague. "Not too long ago" means what exactly? A Day? a Week? A Year? 5 Years? 10 Years? 5 Years ago was John Kerry's attempt to reform the HMOs, 15 years ago it was Bill Clinton. "Not long ago" refers to when exactly, because technically the Birth of Christ was that long ago either if you consider that the earth is at least a few Million years old.