insurers are unnecessary middlemen that drain nearly one third of our healthcare costs without ever laying hands on the patient ...

November 22, 2007 at 10:42:31 | Health care and the free market | by Jack Lohman | http://www.opednews.com
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First, politicians prefer “the free market” even though it is the free market that took over in 1994 that has gotten us into today’s mess. They favor “privatization” because, they argue, it “adds competition and controls costs.”

That’s pure hogwash. It doesn’t.

Politicians prefer privatization for one and only one reason: private companies can give campaign contributions and public entities cannot. Just ask those who pocket the money from the insurance and healthcare industries but never get a penny from Medicare.

Politicians know why they prefer privatization, and you should too. The free market makes them money and Medicare doesn’t.
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But in the healthcare market, insurers are unnecessary middlemen that drain nearly one third of our healthcare costs without ever laying hands on the patient. And they are protected by the politicians whose campaigns they help fund.

We don’t need mandated insurance — as Massachusetts has done and some politicians support – we need mandated health care. We must totally eliminate the 31% industry waste that is blocking this reform.
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Medicare isn’t perfect, and it clearly must reign in abuse and overuse. But the private system has even more abuse and overuse because the penalties are far less than those at the federal level. ..