Quote:
Originally Posted by Blubayou
I agree this is a train-wreck waiting to happen. I do think medical care costs are out of sight and I do not know what the answer is, but government controlled health care is not the answer.
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understanding the answer requires understanding the problem and when it began
Healthcare costs in this country began to skyrocket when Red Ted Kennedy and his boys decided that we needed a thing called "managed healthcare" and created HMO's back in the 70's.
that "fix" led to the creation of a type of healthare where the individual was not involved in the cost aspect of any treatment. instead of paying some percentage of a trip to the doctors office, or of some proceedure, the HMO made it so a person would go to the dr. and pay a co-pay. That co-pay did not represent any direct connection to the actual cost of a visit to the dr.
instead of paying 20% of what ever a visit would cost, the patient would just pay $5. The patient was thus unaware of healthcare serves's cost.
instead of paying 20% of the cost of a room in a hospital or surgery (with some cap) the patient paid $25 for the entire thing. No relation to the actual cost.
as the years progressed that $5 copay became $25 but the visit cost went from $40 to $250 dollars. The patient (regular Ameicans) never had to associate the acutal cost of a trip to the Dr. with the sniffle they were getting checked out.
the $25 dollar emergency room co-pay became $100 dollars but the acutal visit went from $100 to $2500 dollars and the patient still has no cost-association.
Now we have people running around paying co-pays with no clue what the cost of the tests they want done are and they are not looking a dr. in the eye and asking if the test is necessary or over kill.
Drs are afraid to not run some obscure test that likely wont tell them anything new because they know if they dont run the test the patient will sue them. the patient isnt involved in the process from a cost analysis standpoint.
at the end of the day, providers charge based on the cost of the technology and the demand for the service. demand is thru the roof because nobody is looking at cost.
Now we are looking to the governemnt to control it all and we still dont know what it costs to run a test or stay in the hospital or go to the emergency room.
Costs go up, we dont really care except that our premiums go up. and we are aghast.
IF government gets involved,
they will do the cost analysis for you.
They will decide if you are valuable enough to society to live or die. YOU still wont have a say, but the masses will be happy because they can see a doctor to clean thier nose from a sniffle for $25 dollars regardless of what it actually costs for them to see a doctor.
I am convinced that healthcare con be fixed by putting the patient back into the decision making process.
Re: Government Health Care
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