[lit-ideas] Re: Guess where the USA ranks in terms of health care

Based on informed professional opinions I've heard, lack of health care insurance, taken all by itself, is NOT the major problem in US health care. Instead, it's part of a complex of interacting problems.
Most places in the world, if you don't have health insurance, you will be ripped off. Ghana, Switzerland, Bolivia ... you will be ripped off. That's not a special American situation.
For example, in the US, if you have Medicare, you will be billed at Medicare rates. If you have Aetna, you will be billed at Aetna rates. If you have no insurance ... you will be billed at ripoff rates.
The problem is COST itself. Greed. Greed at hospital and doctor level. Lawsuits and laws proliferating largely unnecessary procedures. Bureaucracy. If the medical profession in the US can control its costs, health insurance itself will be much lower.
Many things impact cost in the US. Take provider greed. Many doctors TREAT YOUR INSURANCE RATHER THAN YOUR ILLNESS. In other words, these doctors evaluate what your insurance covers and schedule treatments according to that insurance. This will continue with or without universal health care and continue to exponentially inflate costs.
So while John's cited article/political petition is correct that lack of insurance leads to ripoff, the phenomena is part of a larger group of problems that universal health care will not address by itself. 
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