As for for-profit primary medical insurance, I think it’s insane…utterly incompatible with the Hippocratic school of medicine and the Hippocratic oath. Here’s why:

Do for-profit insurance companies that are exempt from lawsuits take or embody this same oath, or is our medical system a mere shell game between providers who try to honor these principles and their inherent mission statement, and those who, bound to no such principles and often unregulated in their pursuit of shareholder-driven profits, will overrule and undercut them, and, in so doing, precipitously end forever the work of centuries of scientific- and humanity-driven healing that had risen triumphantly over paganism and superstition. Some characterize this triumph as one of the greatest intellectual and civilizing revolutions of our time.

Our lawmakers are bent to a path to preserve a program of JOB PROTECTION for an industry that is fundamentally incompatible with the common-decency principles of modern medicine. It is a zero-sum game. If a provider recommends a treatment only an insurance policy or the very wealthy could afford, but an insurance company drops the client midway, who loses? The for-profit insurance company terminates their burden by transferring responsibility for it to a now impoverished client and/or the charitable resource capacities of the medical provider.

The trend has been relentless and clear, with a major shift to the for-profit model and its causative reduction in the overall pool of healthcare dollars. As the for-profit medical model grows, the Hippocratic school is being slowly eroded by the stroke of an insurance company pen (which company may or may not merit a slap on the wrist in the end).

At the height of globalization and its continuous job migration, the for-profit model exploded on Wall Street. The result has been a rapidly growing Darwinization and paganization of medicine, wherein its component constituencies instinctively know they have been plunged into a world of “every man for himself.”

With the stroke of a pen, the Hippocratic school can be wiped out. Bit by bit. Patient by patient.

Which will prevail? Consolidated insurance profits or service?

If the Hippocratic school will not speak out to defend itself and its mission, which of these desperate constituencies will?

BTW: People who think the uninsured are all that way because they can afford to pay premiums but choose not to, are quite full of it. Premiums are out of sight. Unemployment levels also let employers forego coverage. But just to let you know we are not without a sense of humor, I leave off with this:

Comic Steve Martin as “Theodoric of York” in a comedy skit about a medieval “physician.”

Announcer: “In the Middle Ages, medicine was still in its infancy. The art of healing was conducted not by physicians, but medieval barbers, the forerunners of today’s men of medicine.”

After bloodletting and leaching and generally making the patient worse, Theodoric is confronted by an angry medieval mother: “You charlatan! Why don’t you just admit it?! You don’t know what you’re doing!”

Theodoric, stepping toward the camera: “Wait a minute. Perhaps she’s right. Perhaps I’ve been wrong to blindly follow the medical traditions and superstitions of past centuries. Maybe we barbers should test these assumptions analytically, through experimentation and a “scientific method.” Maybe this scientific method could be extended to other fields of learning: the natural sciences, art, architecture, navigation! Perhaps I could lead the way to a new age! An age of rebirth, a Renaissance!

[ he thinks for a minute in a long pause ]

“Naaaaaahhh!”

I tell parents they need family coverage with a dependent conversion at standard rates with a company that services consumers coast to coast so their children will be safe–now and in the future.

I deliver solutions Bart. You don’t, sorry.

We specialize in you. While many health insurance companies focus on the large group market, our commitment is to individuals and families. This commitment makes us a leader and innovator in individual medical insurance–and the best choice for those who buy their own HSA health insurance coverage.

That’s why: Who you choose matters.

Obviously there would need to be some safeguards to discourage gaming the system, for example it might be easy to switch to a policy with less extensive coverage but not the other way around. Open enrollment periods are another example.

On the other hand, the ability to switch to a cheaper policy with equivalent coverage would tend to discourage the new company from undercharging and the old company from overcharging. The result is a competitive market. You can’t have that if people lose the right to shop as they age.

I have a small contribution to make, which the article only touches upon: The current critical shortage of skilled workers at every level (doctors, nurses, lab technicians, etc.) will only get worse with the more perverse financial and moral hazard dis-incentives to be centrally forced upon the system (e.g., complete unwillingness to effect meaningful tort reform, which in turn promotes costly defensive medicine practice; cost-effectiveness to trump the doctor-patient relationship). At the same time, the central planners are hinting that they will subsidize training for future generations of doctors, thus making them even more beholden to the government, not their hippocratic oath. Our country needs to facilitate legal immigration of skilled doctors and nurses to address the critical shortage, instead of pursuing amnistice for throngs of low-skilled laborers to solidify one party’s political base and legalize cheap labor for corporations! Where is the rationale in our priorities?!