Health Insurance Profits: The Comments

I get comments on almost every post, but one post in particular gets at least a comment or two per week. Health Insurance Profits has sparked some serious outrage from some people, many of whom think that the health insurance companies should not be allowed to make profits and a few who claim that health insurance companies "have no legitimate claim to existence." Often times I want to respond to these people directly, but most people who disagree with me post anonymously. I find this cowardly. If you really want to open up a dialogue and you truly believe in your statements at least put a name with them. What I will do over the next week or so is share with you some of the comments that stand out to me. I will also respond to them as if the people who wrote them had the courage and enough confidence in their arguments to actually put their names on them. Here goes....

Comment #1: "Your being a "real conservative" has biased your article before you even typed the first letter. Explain this, how does politics and profit fit into the health and well being of citizens?? How are going to explain your "conservative" leanings when one of your family or friends is without insurance and becomes sick and can't afford to pay the medical bills? Are you going to tell them, it's okay because the insurance company is not making that much by way of "profit margin"?? You need to do some more growing up son and realize that the health care debate isn't about profit or what political party you follow, it's about people living or dying because of what they can and can't afford when it comes to health care."

My Response: Thank you for your comment and thank you for reading. I find it interesting that your perception of me being a "real conservative" makes you think that I am the one who is biased. Your assertion that my political leanings have anything to do with this issue at all is amusing. The truth is that the roots of my beliefs are based on fact, not political ideology. "Beliefs" is actually the wrong word to use here. Facts are based on objective reality. Facts are observed. Beliefs are not. You believe that money has no place and serves no purpose in the health care industry. In doing so you ignore the objective reality that healthcare costs money and the money must come from somewhere. Merriam-Webster defines bias as "a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment." It is not my personal judgment that healthcare costs money. I have simply observed that healthcare costs money and that the laws of economics apply equally to the healthcare industry as they do to any other. It may not be the patient who pays for the care, but that does not make the costs vanish. It is, in fact, your bias that taints your perception of my observation of reality. It is your willful ignorance of the facts that forms the premise of your bias, causes your outrage and evokes your condescending tone. Reality is what drives me. Reality is the basis of all of my writings, and reality is the space in which I choose to live.

You assert that the healthcare debate is not about politics. If you believe that the government should provide healthcare for everyone, that it should be "free," then you undermine your very statement, because government is politics. Are you telling me that Medicare and Medicaid are not driven by politics? Why, then, can I not qualify for Medicaid? I am ineligible for Medicaid, because a politician has deemed me as such. If we move to a single payer system in the United States or we have a public "option" then politicians will be the ones deciding who gets care and who does not. Politicians will set the payment rates for doctors and politicians will tell us which treatments we can and cannot receive. They will do this because healthcare is not free, and when the government is paying the bills the issue at hand is political in nature. This is a fact. You can choose to ignore it, but you will face the consequences of your choice. Eventually, if you get your wish, you will go to the doctor and he or she will recommend a treatment only to have a politician will tell you that you cannot have it. But it's not political, right?

You also asked how profit fits into the health and well being of citizens. To illustrate the necessity or, more accurately, reality, of profits in healthcare let us assume that a hospital takes in $10,000,000 per year in gross revenue. This hospital has decided that it is in the best interest of the people not to make a profit. 75% of their revenue, $7,500,000, goes to pay for utilities, property taxes, hospital gowns, medicines, surgical gloves and all of the other medical supplies necessary to run the hospital. The other 25%, $2,500,000, goes to pay the salaries and benefits of the doctors, nurses, assistants and other employees of the hospital. 75% + 25% = 100%. This hospital has achieved your goal of zero profit. However, the hospital suddenly needs a new X-Ray machine, or maybe they have found out about a new lifesaving surgical procedure that requires an investment in new equipment. Unfortunately, the hospital cannot afford to purchase the X-Ray machine or the new equipment, because they have no money with which to do so. Since they make no profit, every penny in revenue that they take in is spent on taking care of patients. It's okay though, because they are following your desire of keeping profits out of the healthcare picture. People can no longer get X-Rays at this hospital, but at least the hospital is not making a profit.

The same profit illustration could be made for device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and insurance firms. I agree with you that people living and dying because of what they can and cannot afford is a component of the root of the issue. Reality is the other component. Handing over healthcare to the government does not make it free, nor does it remove you and me from the responsibility of its costs. The healthcare industry is not independent of the laws of economics. The government does not make money on its own. It only seizes money from us to pay for the services that it provides (many of which are perfectly legitimate). The government pays for nothing. You and I, through taxes, provide the government with every penny that it spends. The belief that government spending allows us to keep the dollars in our wallets is nothing more than a belief.

You can go next door and ask your neighbor to feed your family for a while. You will then pocket the money you would have spent on food, but eventually your neighbor will run out of money. You will then have to find another neighbor to feed you. There will come a time, however, when you will have emptied all of your neighbors' pantries. They will not be able to feed themselves, having spent their money on your food, and they will turn to you as the only one who has money to buy food since you have been mooching off of them for so long. Your coffers will quickly be depleted as well. The objective reality is that when the government spends more, the government must seize more. We will pay for healthcare in one way or another. You can choose to ignore reality, but you will soon find that what you desire simply does not exist.