Centerfield

why can't we have a limited form of national health insurance that would rescue families from financial catastrophe due to medical emergencies?

This might give the people doing the billing even more incentive to pile on the costs.

I sympathize with the notion that "everyone" ends up paying those unpaid bills. But part of the underlying problem of runaway healthcare costs is middleman costs, bureaucracy costs, marketing costs, and so on.

In the current fiscal climate of a big current deficit and looming cost growth in both SS and medicaid/care, I can't see another new program to have the government step into the breech and foot the bill.

I think it makes sense to deal with credit issuing policies along with bankruptcy rules. If it isn't dealth with as part of the overall discussion of credit-driven problems, it won't be addressed at all, becuase the constituency is small enough and powerless enough to be ignored.

I think the medically-criven bankruptcy issue should be dealth with as part of healthcare reform, which is probably going to be a big issue post 2008.

The Kerry campaign floated the "catastrophic cost" pick-up during the campaign. Sounds good in theory, but as Brian points out there's a major agency factor. Once the ceiling is reached and everything is covered, providers have an incentive to provide unlimited care. And once the patient hits the out-of-pocket ceiling and all is covered, they DEMAND unlimited care.

The dilemma--the way to restrain costs is either through provider-driven rationing or patient-driven self-rationing. The patient has no incentive to self-ration if they don't pay the bill. The provider has no incentive to ration if the bill is always paid. With our third-party payor system, we've laid off much of the rationing function to the 3rd party payors.

If the provider rations, call in the lawyers. If the patient self-rations, call in the undertakers. If a 3rd party rations, call in the politicians....and the lawyers and the undertakers.

Who said life was easy?

I understand the sentiment. The implementation would be complex and in short A DISASTER. Lets keep bankuptcy reform separate form Healthcare reform. Lets not give anyone an "easy way out" of healthcare reform. You have to eat your spinach!

Hell, about a some student debt relief for my broke ass?