freedom from good health 3/16/2017 0 Comments   By E.L. Christianson Jr. As the oligarchy moves to take away some of the health-care benefits of some American citizens, they are working hard to find the best language to use in 'selling' the idea to the American people. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to explain that, as the oligarchy moves to create larger profit margins in the health-care business... House Speaker Paul Ryan offers his deceptive concept about 'freedom' as if being 'free' to choose is what is most important in the world of health-care.  “You need to have an individual market where people care about what things cost, where people have real freedom, where those providers of health-care services, be they insurers, doctors or hospitals and everybody in between, compete against each other for our business based on value, based on price, based on quality, based on outcome.” He wants to convince us that we must have a market... buyers and sellers of products and services.   In his 'market' concept, many of the products and services have absolutely nothing to do with health-care or the health of American citizens.   We already have that -- a market of patients and doctors, including suppliers of equipment and drugs.  Unfortunately, we also have insurance companies.  And, the real question relates to exactly the points Ryan makes... What Value Does an Insurance Company Contribute to the Health-Care of Americans ???   The answer is that Insurance Companies offer No Value to the health-care of Americans... health-care money simply passes through their hands and they keep some as a fee for allowing the health-care money to pass through their hands. Insurance companies don't produce medical equipment, don't manufacture pharmaceuticals, don't treat patients, and in actual fact, don't have anything to do with the health-care system other than to suck a profit from it. If the American citizen is free to enter into an individual market where insurance companies compete against each other, then that means the citizen can pick an insurance company of their own choosing... and pay the premium charged, and accept that insurance company's limits of coverage... the insurance company decides upon which doctor they approve and which treatment options they approve and the patient can either comply or sue. In the competitive field of health-care through insurance companies, one must trust the various insurance companies. Each company is trying to gain the largest market share, each attracting customers through 'advertising' which may or may-not be honest, and each striving for the largest profit margins possible by offering the 'insured' a long and confusing contract with terms favorable to the company.   The citizen mustdo business even when the insurance companies are known to be untrustworthy... thoroughly documented to be dishonest, immoral, and in many instances, criminal. In his statement, Ryan says, "​providers of health-care services, be they insurers, doctors or hospitals and everybody in between, compete against each other"... providers of health-care services, be they insurers... that he combines in the same sentence "providers of health-care services" and "insurers" indicates either a total lack of understanding on his part or a completely total effort to deceive -- one or the other or both. Insurance is not a health-care service... insurance is a financial services business.  There is no need to combine health-care services and financial services other than to introduce the profit motive into health-care. And, finally in that statement about his vision of 'health-care', he mentions results or "outcomes' as one of those criteria for selecting a health-care system for the citizens of the United States.  If he were truly serious about health-care for this country, he already knows the benefits of universal health-care throughout Europe where they have better 'outcomes' for less money.  But, that doesn't lead to larger and larger corporate profits and, in this country, that is the 'outcome' that matters... and that's the truth !!!