Why are health care costs so high in America?

[LoneTree]

Greedy doctors doing too many expensive procedures of uncertain benefits.
Too many lawyers.
Loto mentality (if something goes wrong, even if it is no one's fault, sue somebody, and be rich)).

If you take care of these three issues, and
... regulate the healthcare insurance industry (no penalty for preexisting conditions),
... make it more competitive (selling across the state lines),

and you can have capitalist private healthcare insurance industry that people can also afford.

And yes, control the pharmaceutical industry from spending way too much money just on promotion of their products, and we will have sensible drug prices.

 

[redsamurai]

It's human greed all up and down the line. AFter my own health problems and dealings with the medical field, I feel actually sorry for the insurance companies. When you actually see what doctors charge for the "services" they rendered.....you get really angry. Some of these guys pop into your room, read your chart real quick....ask how you're feeling.....than tell you to ahve a nice day and a nice fat 80-90 charge get's put on your bill. I don't care who you are, 5 minutes of chart reading and asking a few questions does not warrant you getting that kind of cut. But as much as I dislike that, these are the guys that come out of their schooling with 250-300k debt. So I dunno, does this all start with the med schools ass raping students? It's just fucked all up and down the line. Being a doctor requires a disposition not unsimiliar to that of a priest......now how many of those kind of people do you run into in the medical profession? Not a whole lot........these guys want to be doctors for the "prestige" and doing lines off of nurse's tits.

 

[DJ_UFO]

Yeah costs are ridiculously high. A little over a year ago I had a kidney stone. I went to the ER, they took care of me, the total for that night was around $9,000.00 That's INSANE.

However, thanks to our health system, the best in the world, I paid $150.00 for everything. My insurance paid the rest.

 

[redsamurai]

However, thanks to our health system, the best in the world, I paid $150.00 for everything. My insurance paid the rest.

You do realize you just highlighted why we "don't" have the best healthcare in the world. You think cause you only paid 150.00 that this somehow makes everything great. But your insurace company got bent over for 9,000-150. Not your problem right? Well, that 8,850 that your insurance company doled out meant that someone else was either going to get denied a policy or someobody with an existing policy was still going to get denied coverage due to some loophole the insurance companies are constantly coming up with. It's a giant negotiation between the insurance companies and hospitals, a negotiation that sometimes goes in your favor and sometimes not. It was the luck of the draw that got you one of the slots that your insurance company was willing to cover everything. If earlier that month they had other bigger claims that were tapping their money pool, you would have been coming out of your pocket for more than 150.00. Now the insurance company and the hospital collude in coming up with new inventive way's to bill you. That little fresh out of med school cocksucker that peeked his head into your room and asked you how you were feeling........$90........and so on and so forth. They're brilliant at this game.

 

[DJ_UFO]

Dude you ran out of arguments already. There's no such thing as "luck" here. lol I've been at the ER before just for the hell of it, spent half day, got all tests done, $100.00 bucks. That's dirt cheap. Awesome service, best technology in the world, no waiting time. If insurance companies loose money that way, well, they are free to close the business and open a McDonald's. It's capitalism.

That's the same shit I told my last employer; the fuckin corporate was trying to make us work double hard, because they had to lay off people "due to the economy"; I told them "we are all in the same boat here; our personal economy is as hurt as the corporate economy; do not ask us to give you all free services because yall ain't gettin it. You either give us a raise, or hire more employees; that's how the game works. If it doesn't work for the corporate, well, close it and open a Burger King"

Each individual here is 100% accountable for its own destiny.

 

[mrplunkey]

In order of importance:

1) Global Reimbursement: Pay the doctor and let him pay the hospital, or pay the hospital and let them pay the doctor. No more separate billings.

2) Small but material co-pays on every service: Instead of paying 80/20 up to a cap and swapping over to 100% once it's exceeded, insurance companies should pay a large, but fixed percentage of every service and leave a portion of it to the consumer (i.e. 5%). Consumers should be forced to shop a little bit when the doctor orders that MRI or lab test.

3) Incentives for Nonuse of Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies that use pre-existing conditions pay taxes at 40%. Companies that elect not to use this criteria pay at 15%. Then the companies would have to decide if they want to go after that segment.

4) Tort Reform: Physicians practicing under the guildlines developed by their respective professional societies should be immune to all punitive damages. They can still be sued for malpractice, but only up to the extent of the damages. Make all malpractice cases "loser pays" in regard to legal fees.

5) Make all health insurance premiums tax deductible and establish very attractive incentives to build a medical savings account.

6) Penalties for Medicare/Medicaid Fraud: Mandatory minimum sentences of 20 years for all fraudelent activities. No more slaps on the wrist in the form of fines.

Done... all better.

 

[javaguru]

He have a lot of people that make unhealthy lifestyle choices (this is the primary reason), sue for anything, and go to the ER for a simple case of the flu even though they could wait until Monday and see their primary care physician who will tell them to drink liquids, get rest and prescribe them an unnecessary antibiotic because everybody thinks there is a pill to cure their ills.

Obama is full of shit about reforming these three idiocies.

 

[DJ_UFO]

He have a lot of people that make unhealthy lifestyle choices (this is the primary reason), sue for anything, and go to the ER for a simple case of the flu even though they could wait until Monday and see their primary care physician who will tell them to drink liquids, get rest and prescribe them an unnecessary antibiotic because everybody thinks there is a pill to cure their ills.

Obama is full of shit about reforming these three idiocies.

True. And those are the things that CANNOT make health care a right. Usually low educated people have a very unhealthy life; by 40 they are absolutely obese, they get diabetes and heart problems, they go to the doctor every two weeks, they live on 5 different medications every day, they go to the ER every month for any stupidity. People like that are millions and they are draining the system, and that's why health care is personal. You cannot invade other people's freedom forcing them to be responsible for these irresponsible people. Raising taxes for a universal plan that takes care of these people is certainly forcing each one of us to take care of irresponsible people, and that goes against any ideal on the foundation of this country.

This universal health care reform is simply disgusting. It is outrageously despicable. EVERY SINGLE SOCIALIST PLAN, over time, degrade citizens to a lower standard that at the end makes the system useless. That has been proven through history many many times. Yet, humans make the same mistakes because they cannot control emotions and use only reason.

Health care is a privilege. Work hard, take care of yourself, succeed in life, EARN a good health policy. It is your reward, it is your personal life and freedom. You can share your success with anybody you want, you can give any charity you want, but NOBODY, not a single human or institution in this planet, can force you to be responsible for others.

 

[bluepeter]

EVERY SINGLE SOCIALIST PLAN, over time, degrade citizens to a lower standard that at the end makes the system useless.

I don't know about that. Everyone has an opinion on whether true UHC can work in the United States or not. However, to imply that every UHC system (call it socialist if you like) offers lower healthcare standards is simply not supported by facts.

 

[mrplunkey]

I don't know about that. Everyone has an opinion on whether true UHC can work in the United States or not. However, to imply that every UHC system (call it socialist if you like) offers lower healthcare standards is simply not supported by facts.

It depends on how you define "lower healthcare standards".

The former head of the Canadian healthcare system was on TV last night and here is a summary of his interview:

"Dr. Brian Day, an orthopedic surgeon and former president of the Canadian Medical Association, joined The Factor to talk about the woes of the Canadian health care system. Dr. Day said that one of the biggest problems was rationing: "We have over a million people waiting for surgery and probably another million waiting to see the specialists before they get to wait for the surgery. And that's out of a population of 34 million people."

Just do the math -- applying those percentages to the US population, that would be 8.8M waiting for surgery and 8.8M waiting to be diagnosed. The entire premise for upending our system was based on the uninsured. But if you peel-away the illegal aliens, people who can afford healthcare and don't buy it and people who simply don't enroll in programs we already have, you're only talking about 8M people in the first place.

So the irony here is we'd be chucking-in $1.5T (which will be 10x that, just like Medicare was) to "protect" a core of about 8M people -- and installing a system that would put 8.8M of them waiting for surgery and another 8.8M waiting to be diagnosed.

This healthcare "reform" effort isn't about uninsured people anyway. It's about government taking a larger role in everyone's lives. If it were simply about the uninsured, we would just cut them all checks for private insurance and be done with it.