Obama's Catholic hospital decision

[memphis]

Why do Christians have such a victim complex? Everything to them is persecution.

[memphis]

Overly dramatic much? Religion does not dictate what the law should be, it's as simple as that.

^^^^^^^^^
But most Republican are Christians first and American last. Why do they hate America?

[memphis]

So they can either cover birth control or drop insurance for all their workers. And they think the latter is the moral thing to do? Strange belief system they have.

[memphis]

So they can either cover birth control or drop insurance for all their workers. And they think the latter is the moral thing to do? Strange belief system they have.

You're missing option C: Sue the government to overturn Obama's idiotic decision that violates the separation between church and state.  

Birth control pills, especially Plan B, shouldn't be required to be covered under health insurance plans to begin with.  If they are, then why aren't condoms for men covered, too?   To not do so is arguably sexist and homophobic.

Probably because condoms don't require a prescription. Perhaps if you'd ever had to buy any, you'd know that.

[memphis]

What I don't understand is why health insurance would be provided through an employer in the first place. How are they at all connected?

Most of us aren't independently wealthy, so we have to maintain gainful employment.  In exchange for labor, we are compensated.  Compensation usually includes money, but it may also include fringe benefits.  Given that medical services are the second-fastest inflating sector of the economy, many folks are being priced out of range.  So part of a good job offer might include major medical and dental coverage.  The fastest inflating sector, of course, is higher education, and in some sector that's an added benefit.  Both my wife and I have jobs that include tuition wavers for our children as an added benefit.  We appreciate both the medical and educational options, without which the job offer would hardly have been sufficiently enticing to be acceptable.

Of course, if the government would divorce itself from all aspects of medical services, then the equilibrium price for those services would fall, and we probably wouldn't need to have any insurance programs at all.  That would be preferable, but it is unlikely in our increasingly collectivist society, so most of us want decent insurance coverage as part of the benefits package.

Yes, if not for the government, a quadruple bypass would be easily affordable for all without any sort of insurance

[memphis]

Yes, if not for the government, a quadruple bypass would be easily affordable for all without any sort of insurance

I certainly never made such a claim--"easily affordable for all" are your words, not mine--and you are picking an extreme example, but just to be a good sport and play your game, I'd say that one can easily make a sound argument that a quadruple bypass in the United States, which costs about 40 thousand dollars, would cost about five thousand dollars in an alternate universe in which the trend toward government-sponsored medical services, which started in the 60s, had never taken hold.

What argument is that? Most of the argument I've seen to that end go something like this- government subsidy to X increases demand for X; the higher the demand for X, the higher the price. That seems intuitive enough, but it also assumes that X is more widely used than otherwise, which defeats the whole problem of high cost.

pretty much.  I think we're on the same frequency, beet.  As I said, his is an extreme example.  The population of my household is three, and between us we have 89 years of living, and none of us has ever required a quadruple bypass.  What we have required is azithromycin, casts for broken arms, cough medicine, X-rays, vaccinations, general obstetrical services, general pediatric services, circumcisions, and the like, much of which could be had for the cost of a chicken or a pound of butter at one time.

Yeah, lemme know when you find an obstetrician who will work for a chicken... And I'm sincerely pleased to hear that your family has enjoyed good health. Many people are not so lucky.

[memphis]

Just have to point out that the insurance company probably didn't pay the full $10k - they don't pay sticker price so to speak, rather they either haggle it down or are already given a discounted rate.

It's true, and I have to say that I'm in the Obamaniacs' corner on this one.  Billing is so incredibly inefficient.  All the time we go for office visits, and there's no co-payment.  Just walk in, get serviced, whatever, and walk out.  Then, a couple of months later I get a "statement" which is not a bill but that has all sorts of information:

Insurance company billed:  $129.97
Network discount:  $64.82
Insurance company pays:  $57.23
Patient responsible:  $7.82

Then, a couple of months later I get a bill for $7.82.

Really?  How many man-hours did you invest coming up with a bill for $7.82?  I'm assuming that the paperwork alone must cost more than $7.82.  It all seems so very inefficient.

You'll get no argument from me that the private insurance racket is the most inefficient method possible to dispense healthcare. Too many hands in the cookie jar. And then there are all the salespeople pretending educate doctors about new drugs and procedures. Healthcare is easily the most crooked industry in America. Makes Wall Street look like a bunch of nuns.
And I'm with you in your earlier post about making drugs more accessible. But mundane doctor visits for strep throat and the antibiotics isn't where the money is. It's a problem for the very poor when they get strep throat, but it's not where you'll find the real healthcare cost issue. It's all about the procedures and hospital stays, especially for older people and those with chronic conditions. I doubt very much you'd perform your own colonoscopy.

[memphis]

Why do Christians have such a victim complex? Everything to them is persecution.

Ever look at a crucifix?

Seriously, a sizable portion of the population is morally opposed to contraceptives.  I'm not part of it, but I can understand it.

I don't understand it at all. But that's ok. People are allowed to have different views on things. My issue is that rather than trying to persuade others that they hold the correct position, the Right reflexively plays the victim. Over and over again. Every day. I'm sick of it. It's a lazy man's rhetoric.
But whatever. They've jumped the shark on it already. Just about every woman in America uses birth control. If the Republicans want to have a fight over the pill, I think the results will be amusing.