PDA

View Full Version : Health Care: What is Dr. Paul's position on insurance for the unprofitable?




JoshuaP
02-08-2012, 08:32 PM
Hello,

As much as the free market can equitably allocate scarce resources, there remain certain situations that are simply devoid of profit opportunity. Because of this, some people will simply be left 'out in the cold', so to speak. How does Dr. Paul address these circumstances?

My late wife was disabled, and for the most part, healthy. It's good she was healthy, because we could not find any health insurance company willing to take her as a client! The normal recourse for such situations is to go on disability so that one can attain Medicare and Medicaid (and therefore depend on the government, which is bad). In this case it's not that my lw was unprofitable, it was that there were too many unknowns for the companies to accurately assess risk.

There are other folks, across all age ranges, who require a huge amount of medical care simply to exist. These folks are normally healthy, but through no fault of their own, come down with a condition that is a mystery or requires specialized medication. It's not uncommon to encounter people in certain populations who require $30-$70k per year of medical care, and this can last for many years. (For certain autoimmune conditions it's more like $300k per year.) These people are simply uninsurable. If I understand correctly, Dr. Paul's "safety net" for such cases is to have the states create high-risk insurance pools, and pay the costs for people who buy in to such pools.

But the states are already broke. There isn't money for such "safety nets" on the state level.

Please explain how Dr. Paul intends to address this.

Thank You!
-Joshua

JoshuaP
02-10-2012, 02:31 PM
Hi -

Does anyone have an answer to this?

Or should I assume that a vote for Ron Paul is a vote for a death sentence for people who find themselves in this situation?

Thanks!
-Joshua

Titus
02-10-2012, 04:28 PM
Joshua,

Ron Paul's position likely (I'm not a Ron Paul representative) that once insurance is cut out of the picture, doctors will have to compete in the marketplace. Competition forces the prices of goods and services to go down. After all, when medicaid and medicare are reduced, the doctors must recover the revenue from somewhere. When the price of medical care drops dramatically, insurance will be unnecessary.

Also, it's not required to sign your posts on a forum like this.

Best wishes!

brandon
02-10-2012, 04:31 PM
But the states are already broke. There isn't money for such "safety nets" on the state level.



They aren't even close to as broke as the federal government is.

tttppp
02-10-2012, 04:36 PM
Hello,

As much as the free market can equitably allocate scarce resources, there remain certain situations that are simply devoid of profit opportunity. Because of this, some people will simply be left 'out in the cold', so to speak. How does Dr. Paul address these circumstances?

My late wife was disabled, and for the most part, healthy. It's good she was healthy, because we could not find any health insurance company willing to take her as a client! The normal recourse for such situations is to go on disability so that one can attain Medicare and Medicaid (and therefore depend on the government, which is bad). In this case it's not that my lw was unprofitable, it was that there were too many unknowns for the companies to accurately assess risk.

There are other folks, across all age ranges, who require a huge amount of medical care simply to exist. These folks are normally healthy, but through no fault of their own, come down with a condition that is a mystery or requires specialized medication. It's not uncommon to encounter people in certain populations who require $30-$70k per year of medical care, and this can last for many years. (For certain autoimmune conditions it's more like $300k per year.) These people are simply uninsurable. If I understand correctly, Dr. Paul's "safety net" for such cases is to have the states create high-risk insurance pools, and pay the costs for people who buy in to such pools.

But the states are already broke. There isn't money for such "safety nets" on the state level.

Please explain how Dr. Paul intends to address this.

Thank You!
-Joshua

I have no clue how Ron Paul would handle this. But what they should do is focus on bringing chinese traditional medicine (acupuncture and herbs) to the U.S. Chinese traditional medicine can cure most illnesses. Instead of having to live with a problem for the rest of you life, CTM can fix the problem. This makes you less of a risk for insurance companies. Unfortunately, acupuncture is rarely covered by insurance companies, which needs to be fixed. However, insurance companies are great at covering the things that will never help you.

playboymommy
02-10-2012, 05:17 PM
Welcome! :)

Also, what about the cost of medical care? Why has it sky rocketed so? Just as the cost of education and housing? Seems to me that doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, colleges, universities, banks, etc. charge whatever prices they want because they know it will be paid for/subsidized with tax payer dollars. And you also have to look at inflation and the value of our dollar decreasing.

This truly comes down to the non agression principle, imo. How do we take care of the unprofitables? You and I as individuals can volunteer, use our own resources, donate to charities and churches, whose proper roles are to serve humankind when they're down on their luck. However government can only take care of one group by stealing from another group through force or coercion through taxation and inflation.

Another way to think about this is why do we have to look at the POTUS to take care of and solve this issue? Constitutionally the POTUS has no authority to do anything about health insurance except to protect us from a Federal mandate that we all purchase health insurance.

otherone
02-10-2012, 06:04 PM
Also, what about the cost of medical care? Why has it sky rocketed so? Just as the cost of education and housing? Seems to me that doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, colleges, universities, banks, etc. charge whatever prices they want because they know it will be paid for/subsidized with tax payer dollars. And you also have to look at inflation and the value of our dollar decreasing.




YES YES YES
Google 'medical tourism' Why can we all afford to zoom about in expensive automobiles, yet have to join a collective to buy healthcare? We're being sodomized and can't afford a proctologist...

Tod
02-10-2012, 06:24 PM
In the current climate, it would be very tough for such a person to receive aid if they weren't getting help from Medicare/Medicaid because much of the charity structure that used to exist has been gutted. Periodically, I do see where folks in my area raise money to help someone with medical expenses, but I expect such help is marginal most of the time.

Probably the most likely sources of help that I can think of would be

a) general charitable organizations

b) a not-for-profit health care collective that intentionally includes a certain number of unprofitable cases as part of their overall mission of health care. Members would understand that their payments would be somewhat higher than they otherwise could be and accept this as part of their charitable giving.

edit: see next post below for extra important fact.

Diurdi
02-10-2012, 06:31 PM
You need to let the charities come back, and the healthcare market to recover. But it won't happen overnight, and that's why Paul is not eliminating Medicare/Medicaid in his first 4 years.

Tod
02-10-2012, 06:41 PM
You need to let the charities come back, and the healthcare market to recover. But it won't happen overnight, and that's why Paul is not eliminating Medicare/Medicaid in his first 4 years.

That is the great thing about having a candidate with the sort of wisdom RP has......he knows that things have to be done in an orderly way to avoid creating new problems.