The Smarter Darren Bernard

Because single-payer health care is Soviet Medicine:

Blue Cross of California "routinely" violated state law when it canceled individual health insurance coverage after policyholders got pregnant or sick, making no attempt to determine whether they did anything to merit such "harsh" treatment, according to a state investigation of practices that appear to be industrywide.

State regulators plan similar investigations of other health plans in California, and the findings against Blue Cross ratchet up the risk of liability for other insurers, many of whom face lawsuits from consumers who claim they were illegally dumped and subjected to substantial hardships.

. . .The state investigation found that Blue Cross used computer programs and a dedicated department to systematically investigate and cancel the policies of pregnant women and the chronically ill regardless of whether they intentionally lied on their applications to cover up preexisting medical conditions — a standard required by state law for canceling individual policies.

Regulators examined 90 randomly selected cases of policy cancellations — out of about 1,000 a year in California — and found violations in each one.

Yes, any idiot can think up a number of potential problems with single-payer or any other system of socialized medicine until the cows come home - it should be obvious that any one of the alternative system is vastly superior to the way health care is primarily distributed now. It should be obvious that the impersonal machinery of capitalism and medicine should not mix.

via Kevin Drum.