Amen!
Once “insurance” took hold, ALL medical costs skyrocketed, including doctor visits.
I can remember paying my family doctor $5.00 a visit for my toddlers in the early 70’s!
I have not seen, in the last year or three, any discussions of the gigantic book, with tens (hundreds?) of thousands of CODES established by federal bureaucrats, that doctors MUST use to justify payment by Medicare.
Invariably, every doctor I have asked how much that adds to his own time that he must bill, affirm that, it is between 25 and 40%.
NOT MEDICAID! THAT IS JUST ANOTHER TOTAL TRANSFER OF WEALTH FROM THE PRODUCTIVE TO THE PARASITES, WITH NO LIMITS.
“I can remember paying my family doctor $5.00 a visit for my toddlers in the early 70’s!”
OMG! Take me back to the 50’s! $5.00 house calls, the black bag with the standard drugs that wouldn’t kill you or have 10,000 side effects. He drove an Oldsmobile because that’s what doctors drove. No ostentatious Cadillacs, overly flamboyant Pontiacs, Chevy was out, Ford was out, and a Lincoln was reserved for the highest of the high. He was trustworthy, had a good bedside manner, always thought of his patient first, and was a pillar of the community.
I thank you profusely for giving me that episode into the past, where life really WAS good. How we survived our ignorance is beyond understanding. Slingshots, M80s, bicycles without helmets, playing soldier in new construction sites, and riding no-handed! A full supermarket buggy was $20, and Mom was always there.
GOD, how can we reclaim what we have lost?
A few years ago I was in a doctor’s office and he asked me to disrobe in front of his female nurse. I was just a little bit shy and hesitant but she said “don’t worry, I’ve seen it all before” to which I replied “Yeah you probably have thousands of male patients” and she corrected me “no, I mean I have seen all yours before. You couldn’t remember, but I was in the delivery room when you were born.”
Indeed upon learning her name, of course I did not remember my own birth, but I remembered her name as a kid overhearing it in relation to the birth and pediatric care of some of my cousins. Anyway not at all on topic but your post reminded me of this experience.
Absolutely right about that. I don’t see any insurance companies suffering like us working class who are paying in 80 percent more than they use.