Let me start by stating I AM a healthcare professional. I have been and MD for over 30 years.
That said, I say this: How did we get to the point where it is accepted that we should GIVE healthcare to poor people? Ponder that simple question. Think about it. How can any country, culture, or society persist if it accepts a premise like this? You can not produce a sustainable community of any size when a core value is that we should work together to try to meet an infinite need with a limited supply of ANYTHING.
Sorry, but the inescapable conclusion is that we have LOST our fight, right there. It may be harsh, insensitive, and unfeeling but when we can not point out simple, unbending logical fallacy on a fundamental level because we are afraid of being called mean we have lost.
Excellent point,bit I would substitute willfully indolent for poor.
Not to mention the people who, in ever increasing numbers, eat themselves into Type II diabetes, incurring hundreds of thousands if not millions in extra costs, and simply won’t change their behavior to make that unnecessary.
I think one of the reasons it has come to this point is that most of the western world does provide healthcare to all its citizens. So many Americans say why can’t we. I have always been against single payer and believed our system was the best.
However, two years ago took the family to England and France for vacation. While there I asked every European I could how they liked their country’s healthcare. I was expecting to hear horror stories of how a family member died waiting for treatment, etc.
Everyone I talked to only had positive things to say about their country’s healthcare. Now I know this is just anecdotal evidence, I only talked to about thirty people, but I was surprised that I heard nothing negative from anyone. When I brought up our American health system they actually expressed pity to me. They thought it was horrific that someone could become destitute from a medical emergency.
Now I’m not saying that this convinced me that single payer is better than our system. (Also our constitution does not give the the federal government the authority to run such a system. If the majority of the American people decided they wanted to have the government run a single payer system then they should have their representatives propose a constitutional amendment along those lines and then have their state representatives pass it.). However, it has made me look at the issue again.
Ted Kennedy is the granddaddy of socializing medicine in the modern era... I fully expect him to be made a saint before my flesh returns to dust.
Just think, you are nearly a US government employee....
I have been in healthcare for as long as you have. Hospitals are spending $1 and getting $0.25 reimbursement. This started almost,in part, with hillarycare in 87-88, regulations went through the roof and insurance companies found out they could take in cash by increasing their prices in a seriously non-competitive market. Medicare is provided through an insurance company, why? Aren’t there supposed to be Medicare funds? I see them come out of my paycheck.
Btw I work in tha lab, running UAs on asymtomatc 20&30 year olds makes no clinical sense, they are 99 percent neg.
Fast forward to our day, people are seen in the ER for congestion, daily. Congestion? Unless you are at-risk, go to your reg doctor.
There should be an immediate coordination with the local health department to schedule the 38 Yr old with congestion within 48 hours.
Now, the drug seekers know your reimbursement is tied to their ratings, no pain pills today, no good rating. Lower reimbursement and less care.
This entire Obamacare was designed to fail.
So who decides and how does that person get held accountable if we choose not to provide a particular person with healthcare? If not for all, who do we turn away and how do we do it? Do we really turn away methheads? What if we missed our one chance to stop the addiction?
And finally, where do we draw the line on the chronic or terminally ill? It’s all fine and well until it’s your daughter, son, wife, mother or father.
I believe there is a psychological disorder for people who seek healthcare weekly or monthly for benign and normal illnesses. It it social? Is it because they can’t spend money on NyQuil because they are saving it for cigarettes?
You can have “free” healthcare, but it does have a cost.
That cost is slavery.