Forum Post: Health Care and Education - Towards Concrete Improvements for the 99 percent
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 4, 2011, 3:28 p.m. EST by Publius1981
(22)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Concrete goals that would help the 99 percent:
Demand a true public health care system, where money is not wasted on billing and insurance company processes. Private bureaucracies are not more efficient than public bureaucracies that are politically accountable.
Demand that equality of opportunity for higher education mean something more than just getting more people into college, followed by student debt. It's easy to get into college. It's hard to get the skill set that you need - starting with writing and analytical skills - from the courses that are being taught. The problem is that tuition goes to administrators and unnecessary side programs, and not to classroom instruction. Classroom instruction is devalued in favor of research that does not have a practical application. The higher education system is a fraud, and extending equality of educational opportunity doesn't mean bringing more students into colleges. It means overhauling how higher education is financed and how resources are distributed.
Discuss and elaborate.
Regarding healthcare: You are delusional to state that private bureaucracies are not more efficient. A for-profit, private company will always be more efficient than a public bureaucracy. I know the word profit is blasphemy in these forums but it's the profit incentive and competition that drives an organization to be efficient. What makes a public bureaucracy efficient? Get real. Fraud and abuse in the Medicare system is estimated at 50% of total expenditures!
And how, exactly, are public bureaucracies politically accountable? There is no accountability in government. Just show up for work, collect you paycheck and go home at the end of the day. If you do a great job or a lousy job, you get paid the same.
Private health insurance bureaucracy is efficient for whom?
Not for the patients. It is efficient at profit making.
I'll take my health insurance from a for-profit private company any day over the government. At least with private insurance, I'll get coverage.
The Obamacare bureaucrats are already slashing. The Obama appointed United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF), a bureaucracy of 16 "experts" (none are physicians), just recommended against PSA tests for early detection of prostate cancer in men. Last month, they recommended young women not get mamograms. Yes, government will save us money - by cutting coverage and have more die of diseases that could be diagnosed and cured. If that's your definition of efficiency, well I guess you're right.