Think about it. A government death panel. You, or your loved ones, waiting in comatose oblivion while the papers are sent up the ladder: from secretary to secretary, admin to admin, department to department to eventually arrive at the death panel's desk to sit there for weeks, perhaps months. Then the panel finally looks at the documents and after prolonged discussion over a few days finally decides to pull the plug. Of course, then it's another long detour from department to department, desk to desk, finally to arrive at the patient's bedside. The comatose patient might have already recovered by that time! Blinking, talking, may be even sitting up or taking a few steps down the hallway!
The death panel's recommendation to pull the plug would be rendered useless. Too late! That's government bureaucracy for you.
Now contrast it with the insurance companies' private death panels. There is hardly any wait. The hospital sends your information to the insurance company. Depending on your financial status and standing, which determines your insurance level, your case would be looked at by either a claims examiner, or a supervisor, or progressively higher levels of authority. But whatever be the case, each level has decision making powers and rest assured, your case would be dealt with swiftly. And unlike the prolonged discussions by government bureaucrats, any decision to pull the plug will be made quickly based on concrete evidence of your financial value to the company. That decision will then be transmitted down to the hospital within a day or or two, using modern communication methods and you, or your loved ones, won't have to stay plugged in to so many hideous looking life preserving machines for long. You, or your loved ones, can spend valuable time doing more important things, like planning a proper, respectful funeral.
Now that's efficiency. After all you pay high premiums for a reason: to have efficient and prompt treatment.
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2 comments:
You are not comparing similar scenarios.
In the govt death panel, the situation you have describes that the comatose person is out of coma in xxx months by when the govt panel sends its decision. And hence the person lives.
In the pvt death panel, in the same situation, insurance company sends its decision in yyy days and hence the plug is pulled before the comatose person comes out of coma. And hence, a precious life whose mind could have been instrumental in creating a new revolutionary healthcare system that could solve all problems and make everyone happy...is lost.
Moral: Faster is not always better.
Seems to be a bit of a false dichotomy that picture of government versus private. We have government health care in Australia, as well as a private health insurance system. Whether you are covered by the private system or the government system the decisions are made by the patient, the patients doctor and possibly one layer of bureaucracy(private or public). The nightmare scenarios of communist russia and endless committees of comrades just dont happen.
The government also has the advantage of economies of scale that private companies can never match - this is why our health care is less than half the cost per capita than yours.
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