How would you fix the health care problem in the US?
- Thread starter Eliot Hosewater
- Start date
You should never conflate Social Security with Medicare. They are both "entitlements" but there the similarity stops. Social Security is trivial to fix, assuming we don't wait too long to do it. Medicare is a nightmare.
The reason social security gets bad mouthed and is so misunderstood is because there are powerful forces that stand to gain a great deal if Social Security can be discredited. Much if not virtually all of the negative articles you read re Social Security, and too the legislation that helped wreck corporate defined benefit plans, has a Wall Street sponsor lurking somewhere. (Just follow the Money.) In truth, for retirement purposes a properly designed and managed defined benefit plan, such as social security, is vastly superior to an individual 401K .
First and foremost: Hospitals/payers/govt. : Every American pays the same and the hospital/physician receives reimbursement for a given service. If an appendix operation is performed on a Medicare patient the anesthesiologist receives seven or eight hundred dollars instead of the $230.00 dollars they currently receive; and on the other hand if a young healthy 30 year old comes in for the SAME exact service the anesthesiologist doesn't bill and receive FIVE TIMES THAT AMOUNT.
Please all Americans between 18 and 65 years of age do not accept ANY healthcare plan until your assured this problem is corrected.
Some of you bought AAPL today at 157.00 I think because I'm 65 that I should be able to own it at 31.50 with someone else paying the difference:eek:
These Poor Poor Medicare patients have Medicare pay their Anesthesiologist $65.00 to do their cataract operation because "they can't afford more" but then two weeks later pay a veterinarian $500.00 to do Anesthesia for their DOG's surgery.
Please all Americans between 18 and 65 years of age do not accept ANY healthcare plan until your assured this problem is corrected.
Some of you bought AAPL today at 157.00 I think because I'm 65 that I should be able to own it at 31.50 with someone else paying the difference:eek:
These Poor Poor Medicare patients have Medicare pay their Anesthesiologist $65.00 to do their cataract operation because "they can't afford more" but then two weeks later pay a veterinarian $500.00 to do Anesthesia for their DOG's surgery.
Let's go further down that road.
If we're going to go to a Govt. regulated health care pgrm, lets do Womb to the Tomb Legal Care.
Regulate the pay and services that Lawyers can provide, the same as Doctors.
If health care is a right, isn't Legal Care?
You think so? Where else are they gonna go? A 75% cut for US doctors is still 20X more than most doctors make in about 95% of other nations.
Demand cash? What cave have you been living in for the last 20 years? Nobody has cash. The majority of our nation is loaded with debt and live check to check.
If they want to live in the U.S. they have no choice but to suck it up.
How about another novel idea: STOP THE FOOLISH SPENDING IN THE HOSPITALS ACROSS THIS NATION THAT COMES DOWN FROM THE HOSPITAL CORP. HEADS
Example: Get RID of foolish wastes of money like a drug dispensing system found in nearly every hospital in the United States called the PIXIS system......a huge computer with like two big toolbox drawyers that require computer entries to dispense drugs>>these setups all over the hospital....like 40 of them . SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS for every hospital and does NOTHIN to better patient care. Actually slows patient care. Some would argue that it prevents theft of drugs>>>>B.S. Michael Jackson had enough anesthesia drugs at his house to have anesthetized himself for heart surgery(had propofol and massive doses of narcotics) . We spend millions for this system but if it were to say help catch the anesthesiologist/pharmicist/or nurse stealing/abusing the drugs it contains>>>then they can be right back out on the streets in six months practicing again if they say they or sorry and will go to rehab. program. Waste millions on this system to detect a crime and then if you do detect a crime do nothin basically about it. Just like why spend millions on cameras on our interstates when you catch the tenager doin 170 on his crotch rocket and you KNOW that later in life he will still have his drivers license.
Example: Get RID of foolish wastes of money like a drug dispensing system found in nearly every hospital in the United States called the PIXIS system......a huge computer with like two big toolbox drawyers that require computer entries to dispense drugs>>these setups all over the hospital....like 40 of them . SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS for every hospital and does NOTHIN to better patient care. Actually slows patient care. Some would argue that it prevents theft of drugs>>>>B.S. Michael Jackson had enough anesthesia drugs at his house to have anesthetized himself for heart surgery(had propofol and massive doses of narcotics) . We spend millions for this system but if it were to say help catch the anesthesiologist/pharmicist/or nurse stealing/abusing the drugs it contains>>>then they can be right back out on the streets in six months practicing again if they say they or sorry and will go to rehab. program. Waste millions on this system to detect a crime and then if you do detect a crime do nothin basically about it. Just like why spend millions on cameras on our interstates when you catch the tenager doin 170 on his crotch rocket and you KNOW that later in life he will still have his drivers license.
Quote from IanMacQuaide:
Let's go further down that road.
If we're going to go to a Govt. regulated health care pgrm, lets do Womb to the Tomb Legal Care.
Regulate the pay and services that Lawyers can provide, the same as Doctors.
If health care is a right, isn't Legal Care?
Here's an interesting idea I read on how to go about achieving tort reform. Under the current system, people who file lawsuits only to have them dismissed incur trivial expenses, which creates an incentive for lawyers to more likely file a lawsuit than not. Instead, the US can transition to a "loser pays" system where lawyers are obligated to pay 5% of the amount of their lawsuit to the defendant if it is dismissed.
If we do this, lawyers with clients who have genuine grievances won't be affected because they will still be able to win their lawsuits. However, lawyers who fit under the category I described above would now think twice about suing frequently or for an obscene amount (a real life example would be the secretary who sued Toyota for $190 million because she was sexually harrassed while working there) since they could be responsible for a significant sum if they lose.
I believe Medicare and Medicaid Are the problem. Not something to be expanded. They will bill the government for w/e the hell they can get away with. Slumlord doctors are rippin off the joint and distorting the market. Also insurance companies. I think insurance in general is scam, not just medical.
To help... I would suggest something like what they have on college campuses could be solution. A center with nurses who will tell you to suck it up unless you are in true need.
I support other posters calls for castrating insurance execs and killing lawyers, valid and intriguing ideas. Thinking outside the box, thumbs up.
To help... I would suggest something like what they have on college campuses could be solution. A center with nurses who will tell you to suck it up unless you are in true need.
I support other posters calls for castrating insurance execs and killing lawyers, valid and intriguing ideas. Thinking outside the box, thumbs up.
reduce mandates, allow a high deductible policy, let wal mart and clinics handle the low end walk ins rather than ERS, tort reforv, and let people be held accountable for their healthy, or unhealthy choices.
government mandates requiring insurance to cover everything under the sun, including alcoholism, lawsuits, as well as the US being the most obest country on the planet contribute contribute mightily to our large insurance premiums.
government mandates requiring insurance to cover everything under the sun, including alcoholism, lawsuits, as well as the US being the most obest country on the planet contribute contribute mightily to our large insurance premiums.