From: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Universal Coverage != Socialized Medicine!
Date: 27 Jan 93 20:48:52 GMT
Reply-To: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Followup-To: talk.politics.medicine
Organization: Deep Space Nine (DS9)

jpr1@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (James P. Reynolds) writes:
>
>Why do the conservatives think that universal health insurance 
>is socialized medicine?  Clinton is not thinking of having the 
>government employ doctors.

It seems like that's too subtle a distinction for some Americans.

>PLEASE, don't let yourself be a tool of the well-heeled insurance 
>companies, lobby groups, etc. who like things the way they are. 

The it's all a big poker game and the health insurance industry has
held its cards close to its chest.  A month ago, the HIAA changed its
tune and is now advocating universal coverage.  U.S. private insurance
is now feeling pressure from HMO's, and managed competition will push
people into the pseudo-socialized medicine of HMO's and away from real
insurance whose benefits people spend on their own.

As a Canadian, I'd say that it's "deja vu all over again."  Mind you,
there was no health crisis in the 1960's (nor is there one there now)
and basic health insurance was pretty minor, so the private insurance
was glad to fork that portion over and keep the almost-pure profit
portion covering amenities (private/semi-private rooms, telephones
and televisions, private ambulance transport coverage) and travel
accident plans.  Same in France and Germany.

Private insurance in Canada chose not to broker our health insurance
plans as they figured on making bigger profits concentrating on just
their own territory.  The idea of private brokerage of the universal
risk pool with additional coverage filling out the private insurance
companies' current offerings was proposed, and we almost had that
system up north.  A close family friend and also our family lawyer
was part of the commission in Walter Weir's Manitoba Conservative
government that worked on the transfer of private health insurance
into a universal risk pool, and really wanted the private brokerage
idea to fly --- but Canadian businessmen are much more risk-averse
than Americans and went for their wallets.

U.S. private insurance knows the score about what exactly happened
up north, because their own Canadian subsidiaries sell the private
insurance coverage in bulk to corporations.

>RECOMMENDATION:
>
>Go to your library and get the 3-part series by Consumer Reports onthe
>nation's health care crisis.  It's an excellent comprehensive introduction 
>to the REAL problems.  It separates the truth from the spin-doctor bullshit.
>It's in the July, August, and September 1992 issues.

Actually, some of the stuff in CR is old but as a first order look
at how we do things up north, it's adequate.  If anything, CR puts
too much credit on government when our so-called "system" involves
passive insurance facilitating the doctor-patient relationship, as
you have with real health insurance in the U.S. (my girlfriend gets
it from her dad, a major research exec with a Euro-American pharma-
ceutical firm; it's the closest thing I've seen to what I had in all
four provinces that I've lived in but -- oh! -- all those forms!!).

Be careful, because CR was as braindead on Canadian geography as the
propogandists (and their assumptions made of their audience (-;).

gld 
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary L. Dare
> gld@columbia.EDU 			GO  Winnipeg Jets  GO!!!
> gld@cunixc.BITNET			Selanne + Domi ==> Stanley
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc