Health Care reform from a Doctors perspective

[sharmin]

You think the federal government gives a rat’s rear-end about you or me? They are bean counters of the worst kind. At least w/ an insurance company I can tell them to take a hike and go to another. You can’t do that when the insurance company is the government.

If you’re sick you can’t go to a different insurance company. That’s a pre-existing condition then.

 

[sharmin]

Let me rephrase this statement: healthcare is a right; you can go to any hospital in the country and be treated in the ER regardless if you have insurance or not. Health insurance is not a right, but I still stand by the second sentence I wrote.

Surely you understand that health care is not simply er visits, right? It encompasses preventative care as well. You know, perscriptions, evaluations, physicals, blood work, paps, mamograms, colonoscopies, evaluations, mental health issues (like Autism, ADD, depression), etc. In a country like ours, where there is so much wealth, those services should be rights for everyone. To deny people those services is beyond reprehensible.

 

[sharmin]

What I am trying to do is ensure that people have a choice when it comes to how to direct their own healthcare and their own lives for that matter. The truely poor in this country already have healthcare. It’s called medicaid, WIC, SChip, and many other state programs.

 

[sharmin]

One word: POPULATION

That is offset by more taxes being paid to the government to pay for this.

 

[royal_archer]

Surely you understand that health care is not simply er visits, right? It encompasses preventative care as well. You know, perscriptions, evaluations, physicals, blood work, paps, mamograms, colonoscopies, evaluations, mental health issues (like Autism, ADD, depression), etc. In a country like ours, where there is so much wealth, those services should be rights for everyone. To deny people those services is beyond reprehensible.

We do not have a wealthy nation. we have a nation in tremendous debt. We just happen to have a few wealthy people. We also have a lot of people living above poverty but not wealthy. This middle class will have to take on the bulk of the cost of welfare programs like this proposed health care system. Why do you feel that one person should be able to not work but still have all of the luxuries of modern life with their hard working neighbors paying their bills?

 

[St_Francis]

marci;5990778:

What about people are don’t have enough money for health care but are not “truly poor” enough to qualify for state aid? What about their choice in their healthcare?

This is something I see in health care and also in college costs. In both areas, the government stepped in to help the poor. In both cases, the costs rose to the point where those who were not poor were then unable to afford them.

IOW, the government stepping in as it did has caused the problem. I don’t think that the government stepping in more will help.

 

[St_Francis]

Surely you understand that health care is not simply er visits, right? It encompasses preventative care as well. You know, perscriptions, evaluations, physicals, blood work, paps, mamograms, colonoscopies, evaluations, mental health issues (like Autism, ADD, depression), etc. In a country like ours, where there is so much wealth, those services should be rights for everyone. To deny people those services is beyond reprehensible.

Over the weekend I heard a lot of radio that I don’t usually listen to, and one thing that I heard several times is that people don’t go to the doctor and then they end up in the ER.

A doctor’s visit is pretty high, but not *that *high. Where I live, it’s about 10x minimum wage. Over the years, I have found that most doctors are willing to work with me on medicine, etc. When we needed a medicine that would cost $200/month at the local pharmacy, the clinic called around til they found a place that sold it for $60.

I have never heard of someone’s not taking a sick child to the doctor’s office because of cost, altho I have heard of ER and ambulance systems being swamped because people went there instead because their insurance or state aid would pay for it.

 

[sharmin]

We do not have a wealthy nation. we have a nation in tremendous debt. We just happen to have a few wealthy people. We also have a lot of people living above poverty but not wealthy. This middle class will have to take on the bulk of the cost of welfare programs like this proposed health care system. Why do you feel that one person should be able to not work but still have all of the luxuries of modern life with their hard working neighbors paying their bills?

I’d hardly call health care a luxury. And why do you assume they do not want to work? My husband has been laid off for almost 2 years now and would LOVE a job!

 

[sharmin]

I have never heard of someone’s not taking a sick child to the doctor’s office because of cost, altho I have heard of ER and ambulance systems being swamped because people went there instead because their insurance or state aid would pay for it.

Really? I have seen a lot of people do this.

 

[sharmin]

sharmin;6104947:

This is something I see in health care and also in college costs. In both areas, the government stepped in to help the poor. In both cases, the costs rose to the point where those who were not poor were then unable to afford them.

IOW, the government stepping in as it did has caused the problem. I don’t think that the government stepping in more will help.

So in your opinion, what would be a better way?

 

[St_Francis]

St Francis;6106835:

So in your opinion, what would be a better way?

Well, unfortunately we have now gotten ourselves into this hole which we won’t be able to dig our way out of, but all that considered, I’d say that we should consider health costs to be separately deductible items just as health insurance paid for by the employer is, and then have a system similar to EIC for very high costs so that those who are paying very high bills or insurance rates will be able to get a tax break or even some money back.

But to me, the best thing to do would be to move towards a more free-market set-up and insurance that is more oriented towards catastrophic care. I mean, I am sorry, I know that there are people who see the doctor for a cold because then the stronger cold medicine would be covered and otherwise they’d have to pay for OTC stuff themselves. Since the people making the decisions about seeing the doctor and getting the medicine are not paying for all this, they don’t attend to the costs involved, unless they do something like the woman above (who is an actual person who told me she does this).

A more free-market set-up would allow more flexibility. For example: I used to live in a place without a hospital, but there was a clinic. Fifteen years ago, the clinic charged one-half of what it currently costs me to see a PA for an office-hours visit, and $10 or $15 more if it was not during office hours. They could run tests, etc. I took my daughter there for a UTI; it would have cost under $100 had I gone during non-office hours.

One year later, a hospital opened and I had to take her in again for a UTI. Not knowing what would happen, I assumed it would all be like the little clinic we had had and took her to the ER. Same problem, same tests, and the cost was over $500, and the bills came from several different departments, showing a duplication of expenses.

Give me a break!!! Why would the *exact same thing *cost almost 6 times as much because it was an ER? I have no idea. But this is absurd, and we should have something complimentary to ERs that people can go to with non-serious problems, because non-serious problems don’t need all the extras that someone who’s just been in a car crash needs.

Right now, the government has to approve when something big happens, like if a town needs an MRI machine, they have to get it approved (and they have to get a hospital approved as well). This keeps the costs *really high. *If I have the only MRI machine in town, then everyone *has *to come to me, and they don’t care about the price because they aren’t paying for it! But if they had to pay for it, or be aware of the cost, and someone had another MRI right nearby, then you can bet that the costs would go down considerably.

So I really think that a few things would make the health “crisis” dissolve, most of which involve the government’s weaning us off of the idea that we don’t have to worry about the price and getting out of the business of regulating everything that occurs.

 

[royal_archer]

youtube.com/watch?v=Dc_-L4fyLUo

 

[royal_archer]

I’d hardly call health care a luxury. And why do you assume they do not want to work? My husband has been laid off for almost 2 years now and would LOVE a job!

Part of the problem is when people feel a long earthly life is a need and not a luxury.Even if you were to consider a longer life a “need”, that does not answer the question of why you feel one person exists to satisfy another’s “need”. While I admit I don’t know the exact reasons why you and your husband do not have jobs, It has been my overwhelming experience that many of those who do not have jobs have also passed up opportunities to work because they thought the available jobs were not “adequate” enough for them.

 

[sharmin]

Part of the problem is when people feel a long earthly life is a need and not a luxury.Even if you were to consider a longer life a “need”, that does not answer the question of why you feel one person exists to satisfy another’s “need”.

So only the people who can afford lengthy lives deserve them?

While I admit I don’t know the exact reasons why you and your husband do not have jobs, It has been my overwhelming experience that many of those who do not have jobs have also passed up opportunities to work because they thought the available jobs were not “adequate” enough for them.

Hmmm…not quite sure how to respond to this without getting irate because I’m concerned about what you may be implying about our integrity or drive. taking a deep breath First of all, I finally do have a job…a part time job teaching making $13k per year. Health insurance is not offered to any employee through my work. My husband has not been able to find any work. I have TONS of friends who are unemployed. In fact, in all my large circle of friends, I don’t know of one couple that does not have at least one spouse unemployed (not by choice). I also know several couples with NO spouse able to find work. In our state there is a new training program set up. My husband has been on the waiting list forever, but the state has run out of funding for the program and so now there is more waiting. The only person I know who turned down a job that wasn’t adequate enough (not us) was a man who had a family of 8. The job would have paid $180 a week and he was collecting $300+ on unemployment. He couldn’t afford to take that job because his family would lose their home. Not saying I completely agree, but what else could he have done?

It’s very presumptious to think that everyone who is out of work is so by choice.

 

[St_Francis]

… While I admit I don’t know the exact reasons why you and your husband do not have jobs, It has been my overwhelming experience that many of those who do not have jobs have also passed up opportunities to work because they thought the available jobs were not “adequate” enough for them.

A lot of times people won’t hire those whom they perceive as overqualified because they think that the new employee will leave once he finds a job more suited to his qualifications. This has left a lot of middle-management people to be totally without work, because there are fewer of those jobs than those of the levels below for which they will not be hired.

 

[royal_archer]

So only the people who can afford lengthy lives deserve them?

We can not say who deserves what only God can. We can not say that someone who is afflicted with a variety of ailments or disabilities “deserved” them. All we can say is what we create or earn.

Hmmm…not quite sure how to respond to this without getting irate because I’m concerned about what you may be implying about our integrity or drive. taking a deep breath First of all, I finally do have a job…a part time job teaching making $13k per year. Health insurance is not offered to any employee through my work. My husband has not been able to find any work. I have TONS of friends who are unemployed. In fact, in all my large circle of friends, I don’t know of one couple that does not have at least one spouse unemployed (not by choice). I also know several couples with NO spouse able to find work. In our state there is a new training program set up. My husband has been on the waiting list forever, but the state has run out of funding for the program and so now there is more waiting. The only person I know who turned down a job that wasn’t adequate enough (not us) was a man who had a family of 8. The job would have paid $180 a week and he was collecting $300+ on unemployment. He couldn’t afford to take that job because his family would lose their home. Not saying I completely agree, but what else could he have done?

It’s very presumptious to think that everyone who is out of work is so by choice.

I am guessing you are in one of the harder hit areas like Detroit where the government regulations and defense cuts put the local job market in a tail spin. I also lost my job earlier this year.( My wife ‘can’t’ work) However, I have had several offers and got a new job several months ago doing somethin I didn’t want to do. Most of my coworkers also lost their jobs (our whole department was eliminated) Aside from a few early retirements everyone got jobs but most had to take massive pay cuts, lesser jobs, or had to move. So I understand your situation and have no problem with people using transitional programs like unemployment and Cobra to bridge the gap. The problem comes with the perpetual dependents.

Our government give away programs encourage many people to not work or work at lesser jobs than they could work at. AS a result the country as a whole is less productive, generating less revenue for others to get decent jobs, and so on through the ecconomic death spiral. The answer is not to continue the behavior that is causing the spiral but to do the opposite. That is force people back to work. We have a massive ecconomic infrastructure that will take time to get moving again but we need to get everyone producing in order to get the ecconomy moving. Welfare programs, wealth redistribution schemes and other shell games do nothing to improve productivity.

Now in the transition There are people close to me whom I care about whom need my help. I know them well enough to know they are making an honnest effort. Shouildn’t I have the right to distribute the money I earn to the people I care about and whom I know are truly needy?
Why wouldn’t you support my right to take the money I earn and use it to help create jobs for people who are willing to work?

 

[royal_archer]

A lot of times people won’t hire those whom they perceive as overqualified because they think that the new employee will leave once he finds a job more suited to his qualifications. This has left a lot of middle-management people to be totally without work, because there are fewer of those jobs than those of the levels below for which they will not be hired.

Sometimes people have to tailor resume for the job they are applying for. There is nothing wrong with not including skills and capabilities that are not relevant to the job you are applying for.

By the way I have seen some “discrimination” angainst former managers because the hiring manager does not want to bring someone in who is more use to giving orders than taking them.

 

[pathia]

Many of these people can not pay their bills so want government programs to move the cost from them to everyone else. Further they do not wish to pay their fair share of those costs, they want the costs to be allocated based on income.

In short they want everyone else to pay for them.

With what money? I can’t work anymore. If I work again, it will be from home and part time at best. My bills were greater than my income when I worked 35 hours a week, now they’re even higher and I can work maybe 10, 15 at most.

 

[royal_archer]

With what money? I can’t work anymore. If I work again, it will be from home and part time at best. My bills were greater than my income when I worked 35 hours a week, now they’re even higher and I can work maybe 10, 15 at most.

You represent and extremely rare case that could be dealt with by charity if so many resources were not be consumed by perpetual welfare recipients.

 

[pathia]

You represent and extremely rare case that could be dealt with by charity if so many resources were not be consumed by perpetual welfare recipients.

So every single person with a heart condition, cancer, diabetes and the like should completely rely on charity? Anything that’ slikely to cost any money? What’s the point of insurance?