Quote:
Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
which creates the improvement, the "privately funded" part or the "employer based" part?
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It's ideally a combination of both. The employers both provide a less bureaucratic payment system and, ideally, are better at auditing and policing the health care industry to keep costs down. Unfortunately, corporate America has fallen down on the latter. It's the "insurance factor" popularized in the mid-70's by economists such as Milton Friedman and William Greider. Since nobody actually "pays" his own helath care, nobody has incentive to bargain for the best rates.
Its only in recent years, as health insurance costs and the costs of self-insuring for health care have skyrocketed, that employers have actually started paying attention. Unfortunately, instead of acting to get the insurance market back in line, they have taken to blaming the workers and the lawyers and government, instead of istting down with University General Massive Medical Center and saying: we ain't buying no more $7 apsirin.
