Reform? Why do we need health-care reform? Everything is just fine the way it is.

[Mac1337]

Z wrote:
[quote=Dakota]
[quote=the_poochies]

Private, for-profit health insurance is set up to benefit shareholders. Not patients. Shareholders.

Pharmaceutical companies are set up to benefit shareholders. Not patients, shareholders.

So shareholders keep buying the shares of health insurance companies that kill their patients while their stock price keeps going up? Interesting business models you got going there? You are not a financial advisor by any chance, are you?
Willful ignorance by both you and the shareholders doesn't make it right.
How many idiots do you have to gather together so an insurance company like that could continue to exists and prosper? Of course, the liberal penchant to think of people as hapless fools who need to be continually guided and saved fits right in with your reply.

[Z]

Dakota - most people don't care how the money is made if it keeps coming in. It's self-interest, greed and human nature. That doesn't make it right, nor does it mean that it's sustainable.

It's the same things with all the cheap stuff (our Macs and iPhones included) made in China and other foreign countries on the backs of cheap labor. Out of sight, out of mind, look at my new shiny {item}.

I'm not here saying that I'm any better than you or most anyone else in that regard. We, as a nation have a choice to make regarding healthcare. I know your opinion on the topic and you know mine. Thanks.

[Mac1337]

How does the money keep "coming" to a health insurance company whose patients keep dying? I'd like to know.

[Z]

Perhaps you missed the part about precluding and/or cutting as many people from their customer-base that would cost them money as possible. Before you fire up a reply, ponder what exactly the purpose of health insurance is.

[john dough]

Dakota wrote:
How does the money keep "coming" to a health insurance company whose patients keep dying? I'd like to know.

Lesson for Dakota: When actuaries set up tables for how much you pay in and how much, on average, they pay out to you, that is where the money comes in. Anything left over is "profit".

The companies that are in this business are under ever increasing pressure from their shareholders to make more and more money each year. Their 2 choices are thus: increase premiums at the expense of people going to another provider or give less back. Guess what they are doing? They are systematically denying things that they used to pay out because they are not profitable, like paying for care that would save lives, appropriate time to recuperate after a serious injury or a pregnancy, underwriting the cost of expensive drugs, etc.

Dakota, unless you live in a vacuum, you will one day need health care and the system it seems you are championing, if it continues along as you want it to, they will deny what you really need so fast it will make your head spin. This is not about politics but decency and healthcare needs reform, which is long, long overdue.

[Dennis S]

"So shareholders keep buying the shares of health insurance companies that kill their patients while their stock price keeps going up?" - Dakota

Evidently. Look out the window.

[Dennis S]

Dakota wrote:
How does the money keep "coming" to a health insurance company whose patients keep dying? I'd like to know.

If you are dumb enough to ask that question, you are too dumb to understand the answer.

[Mac1337]

Dennis S wrote:
[quote=Dakota]
How does the money keep "coming" to a health insurance company whose patients keep dying? I'd like to know.

If you are dumb enough to ask that question, you are too dumb to understand the answer.
So you are one of those morons who buys those shares. What other gems do you invest in?

[Dennis S]

You are a moron, Dakota.

[Spock]

Dennis S wrote:
You are a moron, Dakota.

Thread over. Dennis S wins.