Tuesday, February 15, 2005

My idea for health care is working!! 

I just read this article today in the Seattle Times and was astonished. I've been preaching that the way to solve the whole health insurance mess is to just not have health insurance. That without health insurance, the cost of doing business for doctors would go down a LOT. Less staffing costs, less paperwork, etc. At the same time, you wouldn't see these inflated rates being charged, since the doctors don't need to play the game of getting 100% of what they need while only being paid 60% of what they charge.

Well, surprise, surprise. The free-market system works! There is a pharmacy in Lynnwood that is cash-only. No insurance at all is accepted, billed, anything. The pharmacy reports that this has decreased their staffing costs alone by 30%, and the prescription drugs there are priced competitively with the prices in Canada.

Of course, there is the predictable grumbling from the Insurance Commissioner, where, "The insurance commissioner is considering new regulations for such practices", a spokeswoman said. Of course. God forbid that anything run TOO efficiently for the government bureaucrats to make sense of it.

And of course the obligatory reference to "low-income people" not being able to afford a doctor on retainer through a cash-only basis, etc. (is someone forcing "low-income people" to do this? I must've missed that part...)

Anyway, it's nice to see that a few people are going against the flow of big insurance, and the free-market system is prevailing yet again.
# posted by Scott : 7:26 AM
6 comments

6 Comments:

HSA, Health Savings Accounts is a really good way to go in conjunction with Catastophic insurance. You deduct (tax free) money from your paycheck, put in the HSA and it rolls over every year and accrues interest. WOW! IRS approved. You withdraw money for Dr visits and perscription when needed. This is an especially awesome idea for those who only go to the Dr only once a year or 2. More info on HSA can be found at the IRS web site or searching yahoo/google.

By Anonymous chardonnay, at February 24, 2005 9:41 AM  

Scott,

Your blog looked lonely and like it wanted a comment or two.

Yes, I read that article too. Quite intruging. Hopefully it will catch on and we can have it compete with the current system to see what works better.

Chardonnay,

I don't think that the health savings accounts at my work carry over... I'll have to look into that. Pretty lame if it doesn't.

By Blogger Skor Grimm, at March 4, 2005 10:57 AM  

LOL Skor...thanks! Yeah, I tend to blog in spurts, which probably doesn't get many people to read it. I'm fairly busy, but once in a while, I'll put up a LOT of posts over a 1-2 week span, and then neglect it for a while. Well, either that, or I'm engaged in a fierce comment debate over on Sound Politics, which takes up any time I would have had for blogging :)

By Blogger Scott, at March 7, 2005 9:50 AM  

This is OUTRageous. HAHAHAHAHA!

By Blogger ron, at June 1, 2005 5:34 PM  

Great idea for health care!

By Anonymous Blue Cross of California, at December 20, 2005 11:35 PM  

NSU - 4efer, 5210 - rulez

By Anonymous Anonymous, at February 22, 2007 3:11 PM  

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