For health insurance & health care experts: How did the health insurance mess in the U.S. start,where,and why?

Question

Once again,this seems to be a big topic with the presidential candidates,but,it's also an old issue.

When,where,how,and why did it get to be so out of hand?

Answer 1

It got so out of hand when the greedy started making too much money, and decided that they didn't want to let go of their power. Then, they just bought Washington.

The guy below me really needs to get his head out of his ***. "No one goes without health care"? You've got to be kidding me. Tell that to my bleeding intestines for years that I haven't been able to see a doctor about because I can't afford it because I don't have health insurance. There are thousands who are ill and can't get medical attention... have you ever tried to get free health care at some kind of clinic? Do you have any idea the lack of funding these places suffer from?

Answer 2

Health insurance has been around for a long time. Used to be, people paid their own doctor bills and got health insurance only to cover catastrophic events (skiing accidents, cancer, the stuff that generated lots of big medical bills). They paid for it themselves.

After WWII, employers looked for ways to get the best employees, and since health insurance was cheap back then (!), decided to offer it as a benefit. To entice and keep good employees, they bought insurance that covered more health care costs, including the routine ones.

Now that people didn't have to pay for their own medical costs any more, doctors and hospitals felt free to charge more. After all, insurance was paying, right?

Meanwhile, medical science and technology have progressed. We have much more sophisticated tools for diagnosing disease and treating it - but they cost a lot to research, develop, manufacture, etc. People want the best they can get, so now insurance is paying thousands for a knee MRI instead of $100 for a knee x-ray. So they need more money, and premiums go up.

Also meanwhile, people are suing frequently for medical malpractice, and they get huge awards. This means the doctors and hospitals must insure themselves in case they're sued, and the costs are $100,000 - $200,000/year for every doctor. To cover that, they up their fees, and insurance must pay more, and the cost ultimately is passed on to us.

In response to this, doctors and hospitals are legally required to bend over backward to ensure that nothing goes wrong. This means lots of disposable equipment, from face masks and gloves to paper liners for the examining table, to being unable to reuse an opened bag of something. Also, they will request every conceivable test to make sure they don't miss a diagnosis (to avoid being sued). This drives costs way up.

The attempts to control costs have both helped and added to the problem. Managed care (getting surgery, diagnostic tests, procedures, expensive drugs and visits to specialists pre-approved) was intended to limit unnecessary care, but often it prevents patients from getting care they need. Negotiating payment rates for a preferred provider plan means people using the plan have lower medical bills - but those costs are just shifted to people outside the plan, especially to those without any insurance.

Here's more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insu...

Answer 3

Who says it's out of hand.  If you work hard you'll have a job that offers good health insurance benefits.  Nearly everyone, insured or not, gets great health care.  If they don't have insurance then they're in trouble financially but that's a financial decision they made.

There are hundreds of charity or county hospitals that provide health care for the needy and indigent.  No one goes without health care.