Why "Free Healthcare" won't work ultimately

[SoulBiter]

Thought I would add to this. Be VERY careful what you are signing up for. Not all plans are the same.

We dont have an HSA per se' but this year we are being offered a FSA (flexable spending account) which works similar to HSA's.

Sounds great when you are first looking at it but there is one drawback. If you dont use it by the end of the year... you lose it. So any tax savings you would have realized by using these FSA's could be offset by amount you could lose at the end of the year if not used.

Also.. I dont know about how other peoples plans work but on ours.. once you sign up to have a certain amount taken out, you cant change it until you 'enrollment period' (or a qualifying event, marriage, birth of child, etc) which is normally once per year.

[Prebe]

I've been thinking a bit about this, and I've come up with the conclusion, that even IF you want a private health sector, company financed health-insurance plans should be illegal. If nothing else then because it would make people more reluctant to quit their job in cases of employee abuse, because quitting would render them un-insured.

[Zarathustra]

I've been thinking a bit about this, and I've come up with the conclusion, that even IF you want a private health sector, company financed health-insurance plans should be illegal. If nothing else then because it would make people more reluctant to quit their job in cases of employee abuse, because quitting would render them un-insured.

That's one of the main points McCain wants to address: making insurance portable, so that you keep it from job to job.

[Brother Charn]

But isn't there a way to make it portable without effectively poisoning the insurance plans that people already have through their employers?
The stated goal is to drive the price of healthcare down... so why does it seem like we first have to make it more expensive (for the employees), just to kickstart the shift?
Business owners should be champing at the bit to go McCain, if it means the end of employer-sponsored insurance. Empoyers' costs will go way down, but potentially along with the health of their employees... not trying to be (unnecessarily) alarmist here, but I just don't see how employees benefit from this at all. I don't see where the magic dust starts lowering the cost of healthcare... in fact, until we start shrinking the insurance companies and all the other middlemen between doctor and patient, I don't see costs will ever go down. Everybody still needs their cut, so shifting most of the cost back onto the consumer just allows them to buy less, right? Are patients really supposed to start dickering with their doctors over medical procedures?

dw

[Prebe]

That's one of the main points McCain wants to address: making insurance portable, so that you keep it from job to job.

If the health insurance and its quality is a parameter that employers use in their competition for employees, I just don't see how that would ever be possible.

Good post Brother Charn.