Quote:
Originally Posted by Parker
There are consequences to what's been happening to health care in this country, and these horror stories are some of the results. Hospitals can't afford to hire more staff, doctors leaving the profession, lawsuits proliferating, and many not-so-really-sick people using the ER's as a free clinic.
I can only imagine that the ER staff are equally frustrated and stressed. Imagine having to work there, wanting to do a great job and help people, but constrained by the same circumstances the patients see. Meanwhile, the administrators are at home sleeping comfortably in their own beds. Well, that's not really fair either, as they too answer to the budget gods.
And the answer is? Somebody smart post here please...
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I have been following this thread quietly and now waited a few days to see if anyone would answer Parker, and since no one has, I’ll take a stab at it with not a smart post but rather a fantasy post….
I have an impractical answer because (a) it will never happen in the U.S., and (2) it will create a firestorm, particularly from people like those on this thread who have already expressed their displeasure at 30 million uninsured Americans now having access to health care under the recent change in law. And let’s face it: Given what’s happened to the cost of health care, it’s only the insured who can afford it (other than the super wealthy). For example, let’s say a simple blood test costs $40 but that the health insurance companies have negotiated with the lab to pay but $4 for that test, that is, 10%. How can the lab stay in business, as it has to maintain the facility where the blood is drawn as well as that where the blood is processed, plus all the paperwork associated with filing claims as well as providing physicians with the test results? If this is the case, then who pays $40 for this test? Only the uninsured….
We need to eliminate completely the health insurance industry, which is why it will never happen in the U.S., given the $$$$ behind their lobbying. We need a single payer health care system where everyone has access to basic care and beyond that specialized care as needed based on a triage system (like that referred to in this thread as to how the ER works). We need to give up our attitude of “I want what I want when I want it, and I want it NOW!” and accept the principle of triage (difficult for some who posted on this thread). We need to realize that we are the ONLY first world nation without universal health care and to accept that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” includes being healthy.
The insurance industry is not the only one in the area of health care that spends a fortune on lobbying. For example, we need to eliminate the law that forbids Americans from buying their prescription drugs out of the U.S. in places where identical drugs from identical manufacturers cost considerably less, because bulk purchase prices prevail. The lobbyists of the pharmaceutical industry will see to it that this never happens. Money talks, and it talks loudly, very loudly! And most Americans who take prescription medication are in positions where they have little if any choice, accounting for the poor who cuts their pills in half or even quarters to make them last longer.
Just as “free public education” is far from free, so will “free health care” not be free. Right now my health coverage costs $336.15 monthly (or $4,033.80 annually) + copays and deductibles. Specifically this is $104.90 for Medicare, $184.75 for Medicare Supplement, and $46.50 for the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan (the last a terrible program that caters to both the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and NOT to the consumer, IMHO). The “bureaucracy” of this system is outrageous, among medical offices, hospitals, and other providers devoting energies to the paperwork of claims and their counterparts in the insurance companies approving or denying them as well as dealing with the insured with problems. Imagine a system whereby care is provided based on triage, and the provider is paid out of tax dollars based on a set scale. Thus, instead of the government bureaucracy paying the insurance bureaucracy, there would be but one bureaucracy, while one’s doctor determines what care is needed, rather than a clerk at an insurance company.
It’ll never happen here (as it has in other places)!!!
Instead of eliminating the health insurance industry, the new law kowtows to it, which was likely the only way the law could pass, based on the pressures on legislators by lobbyists. So in some ways we are stuck with the same system, only with more bureaucracy rather than less. At least the real benefit is that all Americans will have access to basic health care, not just those who are fortunate enough to have insurance coverage either from an employer who provides it (many do not) or a government program such as Medicare or Medicaid, even if the system is far from ideal.
I realize I’m not a health care planner, and I’m sure this is oversimplistic. But I know, I know, this is a fantasy U.S. I’m envisioning. And at the risk of repeating myself, it’ll never happen…. So, let the firestorm begin!