Thanks for the post. For later - anything from Milton is worth a careful read.
Insurance may be a necessary evil, but it should only be for catastrophic circumstances, rather than for everyday costs. Otherwise, as is now, it's like Midas, and makes everything it touches as expensive as gold.
My family is the type that pays out a lot more out in medical insurance than we ever get back. Which is fair to a point, since the insurance company is assuming my risk. We only go to the doctor once or twice a year, if that.
Anyway, I went to the ER on Christmas Day because I'd cut my finger bad enough to need stitches. Insurance covered most of the costs, no problem.
Last week I got a letter from my insurer demanding (yes, demanding) that I fill out a questionnaire. The questions weren't about the quality of the care I received - they wanted to make sure I wasn't going to collect any other insurance, or sue anybody and not give them a cut.
The most telling was a statement: "Do not ignore this obligation to your insurance company". Gosh, and here I though that I was the customer and my insurance company had obligations to me.
These outfits know that urgent care is beyond the means of most people, and treat them accordingly. We're not customers anymore, we're cattle and are accorded like treatment.
We need medical savings accounts NOW.
A very worthwhile essay. Thanks for posting it again.
I've got an idea.. we could further restrict the number of doctors allowed to train.
Also what other profession do you guys know where you need a doctorate to do routine jobs? Can you imagine if every car that was built, had to be specially designed by a doctorate of engineering? And the number of those doctorates was restricted by the state.
Can you imagine what cars would cost? Only the rich could afford them.. and those doctorates would live a privaleged life indeed...
Welcome to health care in America.