the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

[Bondo]

I posted this down in the Hilarious Clinton's healthcare thread, but that thread is already going a different direction,....

So,... I'll post a New thread, 'cause I Think this is the Root of the Issue,........

Runaway Healthcare Co$t$ are Rocketing Way Passed the rate of Inflation,+ Nobody is watching to see Why, muchless Where the Dollar$ are Going......
I don't know what party this Joe Manchin's connected too,.... But I DO like this Idea he's come up with......

This article right Here,....Explains what I see as the Biggest Problem with Health Care in America..........

I Don't see a problem with Health Insurance,......Or My lack of it.........

I see the Problem as the Screwing of the American People,+ their Insurance Providers by our Health Care System............

The Tree Climber in that article was handed a Bill for 30-odd Thousand Dollars,+ he Settled for What,.... Less than $7000.00........

That's the Problem......:|

 

[rolmops]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

You hit the problem on the head.
Health care is not a regulated business and it really is a free for all.When you are sick and in need of care,you cannot go and shop around.Because of that, the competition of the market place does not work well.
What happened to that tree climber would never have happened if he was insured because the HMOs have people in place exclusively to check the correctness of the bills they are presented with.
Besides there is a double pricing standard.
Example:My son has Krohne's disease and he gets intravenous medication(remicaid) every 3 months.We have the bill sent home and it comes up to $5700 per treatment.Our insurance pays for this and they send us the bill to show that they paid.The receipt they send us shows the amount of $2365 paid for the treatment.What this means is that if you are uninsured, they make you pay double and more.This is not some dinky insurance company.This is blue shield/blue cross.Why do people think that government controlled health care would be so much more expensive and corrupt??Big business pays its managers untold millions,and they have proven to be utterly corrupt.(remember the California energy scandals).
Somehow I believe that the price of health care can be cut in half if the proper checks and balances are put in place.This would mean government regulation.

 

[tommays]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

i have a brother who should have never had children BUT thats a different story

one died at 8 days and the other at 14 months

With top of the line insurance he HAD to go bankrupt 2 times as what was not covered could have never been paid even in 50 years

Tommays

 

[Pony]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

I know that the difference in insurance saved my family when my dad was doing his radiation treatments a few years back. He swictched his insuruance just a month beofre he was diagnosed (luckily). Had he not done so they would have had to front 40% of the $500,000 that everything would have cost.

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

Two words: Lawyers & Lawsuits. Maybe not the very root cause but dang near it. The root cause may be the medical professions reluctance to police its own and actually dis-bar people who have no business (other than a degree) practicing. I know 2 Dr.s personally, neither of which have ever had a claim filed ageist them, both paying close to six figures for their malpractice ins.

 

[tommays]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

This is the other story 48 years ago my brother was a blue baby and one of the first to get the life saving surgery that did fix his heart but as it was new did a lot of brain damage

Now he grows up and is still a man so he hooks up with a girl, she is also alive as the result of a live saving heart surgery

It was wonderful that my brothers life was saved that was the easy part the hard part is the PC that allows him to go forth and multiply

So now there are two dead children and millions in medical costs because nobody wants to say you can NOT have children

I may sound cold but having two handicapped brothers i meet a lot of other people and find this to be a pretty common thing


Tommays

 

[JB]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

Health care is like the practice of law in some ways. It perpetuates and grows on itself like a fungus.

If we still had the health care technology we had 60 years ago:

About half of us over 50 would be dead.
All of we cancer survivors would be dead.
Most of we diabetics would be dead.
Life expectancy for men would be in the low 60s and for women below 70.
Many of us who are functioning would be bedridden or functionally disabled.
Conspiracy theorists would be bored to tears.
MDs could get all the way through Med School and internship for under a hundred grand, but they couldn't borrow it.

The best and most efficient health care in history comes at a price, a high price.

Count your blessings.

 

[Tyme2fish]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

It's in the negotiation between HMO and provider.
Cost is so expensive from provider that we have to have an HMO.
i.e. Provider charges 2K for a procedure. HMO pays $500.00 at negotiated cost.We pay the deductible.
Uninsured will be charged the full 2K.
OK, maybe 2K is not bad for what was performed. We have insurance in case the provider charges us 500K which would break all of us.:''|

 

[Vlad D Impeller]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

How is the mortality rate in other highly developed countries?
Is it any worse than ours?
How much do they pay for their health care?
Do they recieve better or worst healthcare than us?

 

[rolmops]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

How is the mortality rate in other highly developed countries?
Is it any worse than ours?
How much do they pay for their health care?
Do they recieve better or worst healthcare than us?

Hello Vlad.
The mortality rate in other countries is the same as here.Everybody dies,except in Israel where there is talk about one exception a few thousand years ago
The average life expectancy in Canada, Britain and Northern Europe is a few years higher than it is here.
The health care expenses in Northern Europe are about one third of what it costs here.I do not know about Canada.
Population wise,they receive better health care.The super specialized health care that only the super rich can afford here is less available and the European super rich travel to the John Hopkins facilities here.
Homeopathic and alternative medicine is farther developed and very popular in Europe,especially in cancer treatment.
Maternity care is different in Europe,where birth is not considered a disease and normal birth takes place at home with the attendance of a mid wife and a doctor if called for.
If birth takes place in a hospital there is no insurance company standing by the door trying to make your stay as short as possible. Three to four days is normal,unlike here where one day stays are common.
Many of Europe's doctors are employed by HMOs who own the hospitals,so a huge profit taking stage is taken out of the loop.
All in all,it is a very different ball game
There would be huge opposition in the USA against a change in this direction,partly because many interested parties who now make a profit on health care,would be taken out of the loop.

 

[Vlad D Impeller]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

So they pay taxes outta their wazoo, and we pay for health insurance out of ours. :0
Is that it?

 

[tommays]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

Well we pay for health insurance out the wazoo( mine is up to over 1000 a month) and taxes out the wazoo for the people who dont buy health insurance


Not that i mind going to the doctor of my pick when every i want

Tommays

 

[JB]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

Take frivolous litigation and lottery size awards out of the mix and the cost would come down a lot. Congress has been asked to do that, too. By Bush.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

Take frivolous litigation and lottery size awards out of the mix and the cost would come down a lot. Congress has been asked to do that, too. By Bush.

Fat chance! Congress is full of lawyers. You stop the big awards and these clowns lose their 10,000 square foot houses.

You think they would vote for that?

Two of the worst classes of people in this country are the Legislators who make the tort laws and the Lawyers who utilize them. Problem here is that they are often one in the same people.

Can you think of a better scheme to feather your own nest?

Don't even get me started on the IRS and it's cohorts, the Accountants!:|

 

[ricksrster]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

http://www.suntimes.com/news/feulner/315670,CST-EDT-FEUL28.article

 

[Bondo]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

The best and most efficient health care in history comes at a price, a high price.
Count your blessings.
Take frivolous litigation and lottery size awards out of the mix and the cost would come down a lot. Congress has been asked to do that, too. By Bush.

This is probably the 1st time I've said this,........I have to Totally Disagree with you.......
But,......... JB, While this IS a Part of the Problem,...... It's NOT the Root Cause.....

What it Is, is the Line being spewed by the Medical community,.... Which by your own words, You're quite Close too......

Over-Billing,.... Has Nothing to do with Insurance Premiums......

Over-Prescribing Tests,+ Procedures,..... Has Nothing to do with Insurance Premiums......

Collusion,... Aka, the Doctors Owning the Specialty Services Companies, MRIs, CATs, etc. are Constantly Over-Prescribed, just so they can build a better bottomline on their Side-Investments......
And,.... Has Nothing to do with Insurance Premiums......

These things, along with the Fact that because I pay with Cash,..... I'm Expected to Pay about TWICE as Much as the next Insured person thru the door..........

We've got a Run-Away Frieght Train of a Medical Community,..........
With NO One watching the Throttle...............:devil:
Well,... with the Exception of the folks who are Lining Their Pockets, at My Expence..........

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

I said it 2 years ago, and I'll say it again. Healthcare is going to do more damage to this country than anything else, barring a depression.

 

[QC]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

Simple things like this could solve it:

"His unique idea is to have the state's Medicaid patients become watchdogs over their medical bills and pocket 10 percent of any error they discover." Governor of West Virginia.

Also, I am confused by rolmops' comments. I'll never understand why very logical people (rolmops, PW2, CJY etc. ) throw logic out the window when they are evaluating something that is politically charged. I say this with all respect, as I do believe they are really smart guys, but the same people who pay brazillions for a toilet seat, the same people responsible for the Walter Reed deal, are the same people that will make our Health-care cheaper?

 

[rolmops]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

Simple things like this could solve it:

"His unique idea is to have the state's Medicaid patients become watchdogs over their medical bills and pocket 10 percent of any error they discover." Governor of West Virginia.

Also, I am confused by rolmops' comments. I'll never understand why very logical people (rolmops, PW2, CJY etc. ) throw logic out the window when they are evaluating something that is politically charged. I say this with all respect, as I do believe they are really smart guys, but the same people who pay brazillions for a toilet seat, the same people responsible for the Walter Reed deal, are the same people that will make our Health-care cheaper?

Qc,there are a million shades of grey.Lots of private business are responsible companies trying to make an honest buck.There are also the private companies that manipulated energy prices in California and stole the pension funds of their employees.
Same thing in government,.There is very good and very bad and everything in between.
Right now,the only organization that has the muscle to unravel the byzantinian layers of profit takers in health care is the government.They can make rulings that streamline and control.Nobody else will do so freely.
The actual health care should stay in the hands of the professional care givers.
Example
We as Americans pay for most of the medical research through our taxes.The companies get government grants for their research and much of that research happens in our universities. I should know,my wife's income depends on it
It is a good thing that we have that research, my son is healthy because of it.
This is an example of tax money well spent.
What happens afterwards with the new drugs and the price we pay for it is the responsibility of the drug companies,not the government,although price caps would be nice.

 

[QC]

Re: the Issue I see in Healthcare here in America.......

Qc,there are a million shades of grey

Agreed. And it's one of the reasons I want no wholesale changes, although I definitely respect your response.

There are also the private companies that manipulated energy prices in California and stole the pension funds of their employees.

Now, that's what Governments and lawmakers and prisons are for . . . BTW, I don't actually recall if anybody was found guilty of that, which is also what Governments are for . . . ?