typical guy

Before we can attempt to solve anything, we have to understand what's wrong with the health care system in this country. That's why I'm posting here - to tell everyone. The problem is the profit motive. But we're a capitalist country you would tell me? I agree, we're a capitalist nation. The problem here is who the insurance companies are responsible to. Why, they're responsible to their members you say? Wrong. They are public companies in our capitalist country. Their job is not to take care of their members. Their job, like that of every other company, is to provide the most profit for their share holders (owners).

By now we've all heard the stories of insurance recission such as the lady that had insurance for years but when she had medical problems the company dug around in her past and what's this? She didn't disclose she had severe acne as a teenager! You're no longer a member and we're going to sue you for previous payments we made! This kind of thing would not happen if these companies were not beholden to their shareholders the way they are. We have to fact the fact that we've got problems with our health insurance industry.

How would I solve our insurance problems? Instead of demanding everyone get health insurance to lower rates, by law limit the amount of profit an insurance company can make. 1% of their total premiums can be profit. If the companies want to be allowed to have more profit, increase the amount allowed based on the number of currently uninsurable individuals. So if you have some number (tbd) of currently uninsurable people, we'll let you have a 2% profit. If they profit more than the amount allowed, then the government taxes away everything in excess. This will keep premiums down (as there would be no profit motive to raise premiums beyond the allowed levels) and ensure that everyone that needs insurance can get it. People with cancer will be sought out to join various insurance companies instead of kicked out.

I understand this goes against the capitalistic ways of our nation but I just can't agree with full fledged capitalism when it comes to a life and death situation. Not being able to get treatment for a fatal tumor, epilepsy, diabetes, or some other condition because you can't get insurance is not the same as a company finding efficiencies to save money in the manufacture of computer parts. These are (literally) people's lives, not cogs in a machine. We need to change the profit motive so that these insurance companies will not feel beholden to their shareholders to make more money than the next guy.