Can insurance companies grant health care for all?

Insurance companies are not in the health business just the profit side. Great piece btw.

...something must be done about corruption and greed among individuals and companies worldwide.....that is a monumental job....you never know if insurance is good until you need it...I am helping a friend right now deal with life insurance companies.....her Father took out many policies and payed an enormous amount of money over many years..hoping to help his family when he departed.....the same thing applies nearly with all of them...her Father lived too long...80....and failed to enlarge the premiums during the last years...small print...when he was bedridden and family members knew little about his business....so take away greed and corruption...that is the task at hand...better let you go so you can get started....Golden Ruler....Johnnie Hargrave.....

This system is so corrupt, I have insurance through my job, but when I finally had my first colonoscopy at age 56 this year I thought it was supposed to be covered but a preventive procedure that would have caught an
early stage cancer was not covered. The test came up negative but the insurance company skates away from not paying another bill. 900 dollars is not chump change to me. We need a single payer system now.

Posted on June 24, 2008
United States Conference of Mayors endorses HR 676
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The United States Conference of Mayors
76th Annual Meeting
Resolutions Adopted
June 20-24, 2008

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE ACT (H.R. 676)
WHEREAS, every person deserves access to affordable quality health care; and

WHEREAS, the number of Americans without health insurance now exceeds 47 million; and

WHEREAS, millions with insurance have coverage so inadequate that a major illness would lead to financial ruin, and medical illness and bills contribute to one-half of all bankruptcies; and

WHEREAS, proposals for “consumer directed health care” would worsen this situation by penalizing the sick, discouraging prevention and saddling many working families with huge medical bills; and

WHEREAS, managed care and other market-based reforms have failed to contain health care costs, which now threaten the international competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers; and

WHEREAS, administrative waste stemming from our reliance on private insurers consumes one-third of private health spending while the single payer Medicare system has administrative costs of less than 5%; and

WHEREAS, U.S. hospitals spend 24.3% of their budgets on billing and administration while hospitals under Canada’s single payer system spend only 12.9%; and

WHEREAS, Harvard researchers estimate that more than $300 billion could be recovered by replacing private insurance companies with a single public payer, enough to cover the uninsured and to improve coverage for all those who now have only partial coverage; and

WHEREAS, entrusting care to profit-oriented firms diverts billions of dollars to outrageous incomes for CEOs and threatens the quality of care; and

WHEREAS, The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676) would assure universal coverage of all medically necessary services, contain costs by slashing bureaucracy, protect the doctor patient relationship, assure patients a completely free choice of doctors, and allow physicians a free choice of practice settings; and

WHEREAS, most polls show that the majority of Americans support universal healthcare; and

WHEREAS, as of the date of this resolution, the majority of American physicians (59%) believe that Single Payer is the best method of securing universal healthcare; and

WHEREAS, The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676) will guarantee every mayor that all residents and employees of his/her city will be fully covered for healthcare and save millions of taxpayer dollars now spent on premiums to provide less than full health insurance coverage for government employees; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors expresses its support for The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676), and calls upon federal legislators to work towards its immediate enactment, and further urges the adoption of a process by which healthcare will be required to justify any increases to healthcare costs.

http://usmayors.org/76thAnnualMeeting/AdoptedResolutions.pdf

Very good Marilynn, it is such a shame that special interest in our country have been putting their financial
wellness ahead of our people's wellness. Their is a special place in hell for these people who turn a blind eye to the needs of our citizens. This is a moment in time that we can change the system one way or another. I have more than hope this will happen soon people are just not going too take it anymore.

The corporate structure is designed to promote self interest, this selfishness it is not necessarily attributed to any individual or group of people. This is why privatized insurance companies do not take public interest into consideration.

It works in europe, why not in the USA.
If the goverment supports it and gives the rules it v´can work, if insurances make the rules, it will not work.

That's not socialism, emarston, that's common sense and solidarity.

our doctors need to remember their hypocratic oath and take care of people regardless of money matters. if it wasnt such a racket in the first place i dont think wed have the problems we are facing now. Even if you have insurance they still dont pay for everything.

Like I said in the previous post and I had not seen this video yet. Time to tell the old boys to go look for some type of ethical work that isn't extorting money from people. Ha, it is going to be a battle. I can predict that. The true fact it is that everyone need to start to treat people's life as an investment to this Nation in opposed to the actual system where our lives are treated as debt.

Not if they want to make a profit?

There will never be a health care agenda that supports wellbeing whilst there is money to be made in dis-ease.

America needs to adopt a free and open public health system devoid of the profit makers.

Insurance companies and lawsuits are one of the main reasons why this country has such high costs of medical treatment.
Most of the time, if a lawsuit is brought against a doctor or hospital, the insurance company settles, even though the lawsuit may be frivolous.
Why? The bottom line. The bean counters that work for insurance companies let it be known that it doesn't matter whether or not the doctor is or is not wrong. It might cost a few more pennies to fight a lawsuit.
Then the insurance company raises the doctors rates because he was sued.
Healthcare should not be in the hands of bean counters. They are a danger to the people of any nation.

if we value money over human life we are surely screwed.... things seem to be changing tho. i just voted in colorado yesterday for requirements to make companies give health insurance to all employees.
climb on board. step one, to be followed by many others....

FREE HEALTHCARE I WOULD LIKE TO RETIRE WHERE I WORK WE DO NOT NEED A SYSTEM LIKE CANADA BUT WILL PROBABLY SEE SINCE THERE IS NO DISSENSION THE OBAMA LOVEFEST WILL GET WORSE