The W.H.O. tells the truth more in a week than the A.M.A. does in a year. As an exampel, the W.H.O. just busted a group of African medical 'leaders' for hyperinflating the number of AIDS patients in their countries so they could receive more cash funds (with our dead presidents on them) and medicine, the medicine sells quite well on the black market. The W.H.O. saved any country, which is really the US, millions of dollars if not more.
As citizens we need to harp on our elected officials to do two things:
1. take attorneys out of medicine and remove the threat of malpractice - the result, the cost of keeping the doctors or clinics or hospitals doors just dropped in unbelievable amounts. Prudent consumers know when they have a crappy doctor - and they fire him and go shopping - as consumers, we can take responsibility for our actions. I just got hosed by a mechanic, but I chose the putz.
2. make ALL insurance companies offer identical coverage for the same price. Frankly, insurance is a scam perpetrated on the consumer. Insurance companies rarely loose money, regardless of how loudly they cry.
At an investing seminar I attended, insurance investments were discussed. Simply stated: The insurance company takes the money received as a premium payment as income, then places that money into an investment of some type. Taking the average, during the course of their coverage most patients do not have more money paid out on their claims than they put in - there are exceptions of course, but on the average. Income that is transfered into investment is now considered a "loss" because it is not available to be paid out, it will eventually come out, but after it averages a 9% return. Two things can happen at this point, because a company has too much "loss", premiums are raised on new applicants or applicants that are requiring "riders" for coverage; or they just wait for the previously legislated insurance fee increase to become effective. Every state has them for every insurance. Insurance companies do not want the actual cost of health care to go down. Just think how devastating it would be if regular people could pay cash to go to the doctor. We wouldn't need an industry to buffer the cost of care for us. As medical costs rise, so do insurance premiums, we have to pay for the buffer. (as a side note, I invest in insurance companies that handle health care, mucho wampum)
Consider one other thing; how big is the insurance lobby? If I were a politician and I wanted to pay off a campaign or just make a buck or two on the side, who would I threaten - the barbers?? NO. And, I might just make an example of how one industry is linked with another - remember the housing insurance bust and AIG insurance?