Bill Moyers Explains Money, Politics and Healthcare Reform

As is so often the case, Bill Moyers does another outstanding job of pointing out the differences in how healthcare is viewed.

I continue to be amazed at the absolute ignorance of people who can’t understand that this version of “free market” healthcare is not, and will not work. In the free-market, companies are out to make a profit. They don’t make a profit by paying for your care. They profit by collecting the highest amount in premiums, and paying out the least amount possible. That may be good for them, and Moyers shows you how good it is, but that doesn’t bode well for me if I fall ill. 

The crap continues about having a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor. Well, we can build the system to work however we want if it’s a government run system, and I’d rather have a government bureaucrat, charged with getting me well, standing there than an insurance company bureaucrat charged with protecting company profits.

Medicare and Medicaid, for those of you that think the government can’t be efficient, operates with about 3-5% overhead, while private insurers operate at 10-30% overhead rates. In addition, all the different insurance companies and plans require healthcare providers to file different forms and adhere to different protocols, further increasing the overall cost to consumers.

I hear all the whining and gnashing of teeth over the supposed $1 trillion price tag, but the so called news reporters don’t report that the figure is for a 10 year period. So that we can get some perspective, the expected cost of defense over the next 10 years is $12 trillion. And for all the talk about raising taxes, remember, you and your employer would have to no longer pay your premium. You premium would be that added tax, and it would be much less than what you are paying now for premiums.