CDR: Re: why should it be trusted?
Steve Furlong
sfurlong at acmenet.net
Wed Oct 18 22:02:44 PDT 2000
Nathan Saper wrote:
<<Nathan seems to be arguing that insurance companies should be forced
to cover people at a rate to be set by someone other than the insurance
company. Tim May objects to this plan.>>
> Most insurance companies are worth millions, if not billions, of
> dollars, and they make huge profits. Insuring all of the people that
> they now deny based on genetic abnormalities would still allow them to
> make decent profits.
Hand-waving. Get some numbers and crunch them. (No, I don't have them at
hand, either, but I'm not making claims about the ability of any
corporation to profit under any arbitrary rules I wish to set.)
> Also, people cannot simply create insurance companies. Breaking into
> the healthcare business is damn near impossible
<snip the rest of the sentence>
This is the only thing you've written with which I agree. But it's an
argument for _less_ government intervention rather than more.
> And many people are denied coverage outright, therefore removing the
> possibility of simply paying for their coverage.
Eh? I've been uninsured for maybe half of my adult life. On such
occasions as I need medical care, I simply pay for it. Cash or check,
they'll take it all.
Of course you said "coverage", not "care", but the alleged problem is
that people can't get medical _care_. Who cares if they have _coverage_,
so long as their medical needs are taken care of?
As I wrote before (like, a couple of hours ago), most of the people who
insist on a right to "affordable" medical insurance seem to expect to
get a lot more out of the insurance company than they put into it. They
should just be honest and go on welfare if they're looking for a
handout, rather than attempt to claim the moral high ground.
--
Steve Furlong, Computer Condottiere Have GNU, will travel
518-374-4720 sfurlong at acmenet.net
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