Posted on 08/12/2009 10:46:26 AM PDT by Lorianne
The current healthcare system sucks, but it is still MUCH better than Canadian/Euro style socialized medicine, which is evil.
I miss the pre-insurance days when we went to the Dr. and then paid him. Gee, what a concept.
Obamacare will do solve the problem of infections picked up in hospitals. It will probably make them even more common.
Or when he made house calls -- like ours did when I ruptured an eardrum one Sunday. He was 3 houses down the street.
Our healthcare system does have flaws, LARGELY due to lawyers and insurance companies.
The benchmark still remains - MORE people come to AMERICA for their healthcare, than go to Canada, the UK, Cuba or anywhere else for healthcare.
Interesting read. A democrat I could sit down with over a brewski or two and have a meaningful meeting of the minds.
Best damn single article on the problem I have ever read.
It hits all the salient points. I can’t believe The Atlantic printed it.
This guy’s proposed solution is pretty close to mine. Cat insurance and MSAs. I would have different aspects around those two components - but IMO the only way to get control of the situation is to take that approach. But that cuts government AND the insurance companies out of controlling the system.
Health care is not a one-size fits all business. Good health care is as individual as each and every person who requires it. It is also sought for as many reasons as there are those who seek it — the advanced age person who is in the final stages of a life threatening disease (not necessarily cancer, as it metastasizes more slowly the older the victim is [I actually had a grandmother who outlived skin cancers on her body]), but there are those who seek to delay the inevitable at any cost. I, for one, do not see the good judgment in doing orthopedic surgery on those who are about to succumb to a disease with a more urgent timetable, but there are others who must accomplish something before it happens and it is, therefore, incumbent upon health care to do what it can. Those who will suffer under government-mandated procedures and insurance profitability guidelines will always be those who need it the most. The rest of us will carry on without a thought to it, paying premiums and enjoying very little benefit — UNTIL we require it ourselves. The federal government approach is destined to fail as it cannot, by its very nature, be responsive to the needs of the individual. That’s the bottom line, folks.
The problem is, the only thing more idiotic is turning the system over to the Dems.
I suspect that our collective search for villains—for someone to blame—has distracted us and our political leaders from addressing the fundamental causes of our nation’s health-care crisis."
He was doing fine until the "our collective search" and "has distracted us" parts. Clearly, the Democrats are doing all they can to rush a political overthrow of free enterprise hidden under a gauze of medical necessity.
You want to know what killed the housecall?
1. Technology. I can’t carry more then a few drugs and basic pieces of equipment in my bag. No one would put up with that level of sophistication nowadays. The vast majority of physicians wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it.
Miss something and it’s anal rape by the lawyers.
2. Patient abuses. Robert Heinlein called it in several of his novels. Once upon a time in order to make a house call, someone had to get out of bed and go the doctors house, usually on a horse to get the doctor. They weren’t likely to do that lightly. Then the telephone was invented, and it became very easy to summon a doctor. Every kid with a fever, every tummy ache now became an emergency for a house call. That got old quick.
Sigh. One of the things we need to get back to is the rules that Lister came up with in the beginning of the “antiseptic era”. Hospitals that look like hospitals not hotels ( a lot of this is patient driven they don’t LIKE that “sterile” atmosphere). That means painter walls, tile floors, plastic or stainless steel surfaces, no carpeting, drapes, paintings etc. Surfaces that can be steamed or scrubbed CLEAN. Nurses and doctors wearing white uniforms, bed linen that cam be cleaned at high temperature or steamed. An obsession with cleanliness. It worked before, it can work again.
For years, I thought that a "single-payor plan" was when the patient paid the entire bill (the single payer) and sought reimbursement from his or her insurance carrier, rather than the patient, the insurance company, and in some cases the gov'ment each paying a portion of the same bill directly to the doctor. This very simple concept would probably do more to lower the cost of health care and increase resources for the least amount of money, then any of the proposals coming from the RATS or the PUBS. People would be less likely to see their doctor for a bloody nose, hangnail, or the common cold, if they had to pay the $150 out of pocket,and then spend an hour filling out the paperowrk for reimbursement from their insurance company and/or medicaid/medicare, and even more time fighting for the payment; and the insurance companies would have to be more price competitive and consumer friendly if they are dealing with the consumer directly. Doctors could then cut costs because they would not need the added staff to deal with the insurance companies and medicaid/medicare, and would have more time to deal with real medical problems, rather than self-healing bumps and bruises.
And what about the people who don't have the funds to pay for medical services up front and wait for reimbursement? I can pretty much guarantee that economic forces will result in many doctors accepting payment by credit card, payment over time, and/or an assignment from the patient of the insurance/medicaid/medicare reimbursement.
I dont think I agree with your assertion that “current healtcare sucks”, My daughter faced a year long life threatening situation and while there were many obstacles and many TWO way arguments she is alive and healthy, I have have no idea where she would be in another country but thank God it happened here in this shidddy ol USA.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, the only thing worse would be more government involvement.
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