Healers Go for the Well-Heeled

At the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia, the poking and prodding of an annual physical is but a hazy memory after a massage and sauna at the five-star spa. In Boston, doctors Jordan Busch and Steven Flier dispense their cell phone numbers to the select few with $4,000 to spare. And at the Cleveland Clinic, the good life is symbolized by a simple golf shirt: Wearers never wait in line for an X-ray, EKG or blood work-up......

Good and bad points for and against.

I don't see it as a bad thing. If you're in an HMO, it's up to you, the patient to complain. If you can afford to pay for your own preventive medicine, why should that be a crime?

But rather than eliminate gold-plated medicine, the real solution, they suggest, is to provide that sort of care to everyone.

"You can make the argument that all adults should get this kind of checkup," said Lauer. "Why should it be restricted to executives and people who can pay?"

Because someone has to pay, regardless of who is receiving the care. Do these people think medical care is something that grows on trees?

The libs want to make successful people feel guilty about receiving top of the line care, and the providers equally guilty for catering to the "elite". Screw them.

Many people who bitch about the price of heathcare also like to forget about what ambulance-chasing lawyers add to the cost. Because of tort abuses, the modern healthcare system is as expensive as a healthcare service AND a jackpot lottery added together, because that is what it has become thanks to the trial lawyers.

As far as making good money for working in a healthcare profession, they EARNED it. While others in college were out partying and playing, they were studying some awfully difficult material that had life or death consequences. Students also do clinical rotations with long hours for no pay. When you're a student, they OWN you. You are paying tuition for the privilege of working for a grade and no pay. Like paying for the privilege of white-washing Aunt Polly's fence. Including "volunteer" hours (which are required), one will contribute free labor hours in the area of 4 figures. That's just as a student.

It does appear like a slippery slope with regard to a caste system of sorts.

But, I'm for it. It should be tax deductable too. Hell, I should get a tax credit for staying in good health.

"Doctor/health care will never be affordable without some form of insurance or socialised medicine"

Part of the problem is that most people don't pay (at least in ways they can easily see) for their own medical care. Have you ever tried to price shop for medical care? I have - it is impossible. Suppose you are getting some routine blood tests. You can't call a hospital and asks what it costs. The person who answers the phone doesn't know and has no way of finding it out, and treats you like you're crazy for even asking. Of course costs are out of control. Imagine if you didn't pay for your own car... would you shop around? Would you visit different dealers and negotiate the best price? Or, if someone else is paying, would you just go down to the nearest Mercedes dealer and pay list price? it's the same thing with health care. People don't price shop. And those few who want to price shop can't. Medical care is not somehow magically exempt from the laws of economics. I don't know what the answer is, but any system where the people who benefit from the product/service are not the ones to pay for it will result in very high prices.

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