Posted on 04/08/2012 12:06:47 PM PDT by SmithL
For weeks now, the nation has been riveted by arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court over one provision of the Affordable Care Act. Does the law's requirement that every adult buy health insurance violate the U.S. Constitution?
We think it does not.
Yet even if the court ultimately shares that view, the federal health care reform law will face monumental hurdles to be successfully implemented. The biggest of these is its cost. Can the nation afford to insure all its citizens? If we don't get a handle on rising health care costs the answer to that more important question is an emphatic "no."
And that's what makes last week's announcement by physicians representing nine medical specialties so welcome. The physicians have identified 45 specific medical tests and procedures, five within each specialty, which they think are either overused or misused. They are either unnecessary, lacking benefits to patients or, in some cases, even harmful.
The most commonly overused procedure sited in the report include:
EKGs and other heart screening tests performed on patients with no evidence of risk.
Chest X-rays for patients undergoing outpatient surgery who are otherwise healthy adults with no cardiac symptoms.
CT scans or antibiotics for patients with mild or moderate sinus infections.
Routine cancer screening for dialysis patients, particularly those with limited life expectancies.
Bone scans on women under 65 and men under 70 years of age.
Extensive diagnostic tests for people with allergies.
CT scans and other imaging procedures for simple headaches.
Such tests and procedures rarely benefit patients. Worse, they can cause harm or lead to false positives and over treatment.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
The editorial board of the Sacramento BEE lack any semblence of common sense on this and thousands of other issues over the years, IMHO!!!
better educate the public too....
better educate the public too....
why hold back on xrays and ct scans and dozens of medicines and physical therapies and constant repeated lab tests when rich Uncle is paying...
sure, Sugar daddy is not paying its full share of all those costs, but they were in the beginning...old habits are hard to break...
and now, the rest of us premium paying public is paying off the huge gap in what the govt isn't paying....and now, that includes the illegals as well...
“Tort reform first.”
As with any law that that affects a large group of people.
Illegal Immigration? Build the wall, then we will talk.
Oil & Gas exploration? Kill the EPA regs, then let’s talk.
Etc.
Drugs are much cheaper in other countries because they take the drugs developed by American firms and duplicate them.
Drugs are like computer chips. Developing the the first pill or chip costs $1B. Thereafter they cost .05 each to produce.
Except chip companies generally don’t have to discard 50 of the chips they are developing before they return any revenue.
When you buy drugs in Mexico or elsewhere in the 3rd world, you may or may not be getting what you think you are getting. Where piracy is common, you also get a lot of counterfeiting.
Then that tells me the 0bamacare law that was created to solve this crisis is the wrong answer. The answer to this dilemma is not and does not lie in insurance or in figuring out ways for people to pay for it.
This is the first clue to the 'left' that the problem is not with the people trying to pay for it. The problem is somewhere else in the medical system.
To find that answer one must ask what is driving the costs up?
I know a semi-doc.
She went almost finished everything except the exam and the last of the residency requirements.
Instead she works with a bunch of lawyers looking for deep pockets.
She has gotten rich by fleecing doctors, health systems , companies and consequently the public.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.