This plan will add a supply-demand market where currently one does not exist.  I go to a doctor based on my insurance.  Some are covered, some aren’t.  If I had the choice, I would shop around for the best price.  If better doctors cost more and I can’t afford it, then I find a cheaper doctor.  Yeah, I may not get the best service, but it will open the door to health care for some poor people who can’t afford any doctor.  Some insurance companies may not cover the more expensive doctors and it will force them to drive costs down.

Years ago when I was without insurance coverage, and I needed to go and pay cash, I was actually given a non-coverage discount.  So those with no insurance actually pay less than those that do.  What does this tell you?  That insurance companies are being raped by doctors and the insurance companies pass this onto the customers in the form of higher premiums.  The lack of competition is killing the end user so to speak, but this will end up biting the doctors in the ass in the end.

If nothing else, you should be proud that we have a Congressman that is looking for a market-driven solution to our healthcare problem.  Not only does he not endorse socialized government-paid medicine, he outright denounces it.  With the Bush-led Republican downfall in Washington, it is very likely we could end up with a health system potentially worse than the one we have now.  Kagen’s plan may not be perfect, but he is certainly on a better track than others who may be making the decisions in the near future.

Once people like you lose the mentality that if a Democrat endorses a plan then it must be a bad idea, this country can begin to make improvements to our current system.  Because I can guarantee that if President Bush introduced this exact same plan, you would be the first one to hop on his bandwagon.

Shopping around won’t do a bit of good because the prices are all pretty much the same for similar policies. I find that out every yaer when I have an open enrollment at work.

If we started taking government out of health care, we’d find prices changing in a hot second.

For example: "Artificially lowering prices for one group of consumers results directly in other users of medical services not getting what they paid for because they must make up for the previous group’s underpayment." The emergency care of the uninsured is payed for with increased premiums for the insured. Any objective measure of a new healthcare system must factor in the reduction of uninsured emergency room procedures and subtract that ammount from the ‘cost’.

However, I do agree mostly with your sentiments about Kagen, and I would say that you left out a critical point too. When premiums are indexed to your healthy, you have a financial incentive to remain healthy, that should keep the whole population slightly healthier.

I talked about this too over at my blog dedicated to returning Dr. Kagen back to his allergy practice.

I talk about the insurance industry and his use of discrimination.