Reply #111: I hate to break this to you . . . [View All]

[NavajoRug]

. . . but rationing care is the foundation of a single-payer system. Even Hillary Clinton admitted this was the case when the Clinton health care plan went down in flames in 1993.

"There was recently a story on my local news after all about a mother with cancer who will die because her insurance will not cover the procedure needed. Most insurances do, however, because the one that her employer chose does not, she does not get the treatment. There was a fundraiser mentioned for members of the community to pitch in so this mother does not have to die. Have you ever seen TV Nation, the show by Michael Moore? He had the father who needed a liver transplant that his insurance wouldn't cover, a surgery that he needed to survive. And these are people WITH insurance! If I can just think of a couple off the top of my head, I'm sure my little assignment will be a piece of cake."

There is no doubt in my mind that these things happen all the time. You have to understand, though, that you will ALWAYS have cases like this involving insurance companies (or GOVERNMENT AGENCIES) that deny payment for what they deem "unusual" procedures. There's no way any health care system can possibly cover every possible treatment for every illness or injury. Insurance, whether private or government-sponsored, is nothing more than a means of spreading risk among a large pool of people. There is simply no way to get around the harsh reality that there are limits on what can be paid to cover a patient's costs. Those harsh realities don't disappear just because a government is paying for a procedure instead of an insurance company.