Jay Robbins: Private health insurance has been such a complete failure that government intervention is absolutely necessary. Private HMO health plans offer very limited coverage at best with most doctors refusing to accept HMO patients. Medicare has fewer exceptions and pays faster than the HMOs and costs much less to run. I cannot see why doctors would accept the low HMO payments, the frequest refusals, and the excessive paper work imposed by the private insurance companies. Surely most family doctors whould prefer working and being paid by private patients without interference by the insurance companies but what really is the difference between being told by private insurance companies what to do and how much will be paid for the services or being told the same thing by government insurance companies?
