Why are health care costs so high in America?

[EnderJE]

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.

And blowjobs for all!

 

[EnderJE]

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."

It does depend. Although I've heard former heads of CMA say both good things (on the liberal shows) and bad things (on the conservative shows); I haven't had a problem nor do I know anyone who's had a problem or a longer leadtime then 1 months for some major surgery.

However, you already know my position, I still don't believe that your people can (or will ever) be able to handle it.

 

[redsamurai]

I hear all these horror stories about canadian healthcare from all these people yet when I actually lived in canada nobody had a single cross word for it. Interesting isn't it?

 

[EnderJE]

I hear all these horror stories about canadian healthcare from all these people yet when I actually lived in canada nobody had a single cross word for it. Interesting isn't it?

Like I said, it depends on the news you watch. Some say it's poor. Some say that it's a godsend. It just depends.

 

[DJ_UFO]

I hear all these horror stories about canadian healthcare from all these people yet when I actually lived in canada nobody had a single cross word for it. Interesting isn't it?

Maybe your idiosyncrasy is more similar to Canadians. I suggest moving to Canada.

 

[redsamurai]

Maybe your idiosyncrasy is more similar to Canadians. I suggest moving to Canada.

I already lived there. Too fucking cold. Nice people though. Over my time there I talked to a lot of people at various bars and I always asked about the canadian healthcare system. Never a cross word. I even talked to a guy who had multiple bypass's. That's not something you wait a year for either.

 

[kx250rider]

Greedy doctors doing too many expensive procedures of uncertain benefits.

This is because they need to, in order to cover their a$$es when insurance companies deny payment on a vast majority of those tests & procedures. They put enough fish hooks in the water so that at least one or two will catch fish.

Too many lawyers.
Loto mentality (if something goes wrong, even if it is no one's fault, sue somebody, and be rich)).

This one's the #1 cause. And since our "current administration" is headed by a lawyer, it's not going to get solved this time. The cost to practice medicine is so high, mainly because if the price of malpractice insurance. I have several friends who are doctors in good standing; never had any trouble or been sued, but their malpractice premiums are more than their office rent, or any other cost! One pays $250,000 per year!!!!!!! And he's a psychiatrist. OB-GYNs pay up to $1million a year, depending on where they work. Nobody would even need medical insurance if a doctor visit was still $25, and a heart operation was still $2500. Very simple to solve this problem, but so impossible politically.

Charles

 

[bluepeter]

I hear all these horror stories about canadian healthcare from all these people yet when I actually lived in canada nobody had a single cross word for it. Interesting isn't it?

Like enderje says, it depends who you talk to and what their angle is. I've never had a problem and I have had many, many family members with serious and complicated health issues. Not one ever had an issue with excessive waits or anything like that.

But then you get one Canadian lady that some anti-UHC group in the US pays to do a TV ad about her having to go to the US for treatment. All of a sudden that's representative of Canadian Healthcare. Or you get a former head of CMA with an agenda and you have inflated numbers of wait times.

The ONLY real issue with Canadian HC is the cap on how much physicians can make. Remove that and what wait times there are for ELECTIVE PROCEDURES and NON-CRITICAL ISSUES simply disappear.

Cheers

 

[bluepeter]

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.

I already replied regarding wait times to another post, here I was referring more to quality and preventative care etc.

Any joint study I've seen in the past decade has concluded that Canadian HC is at least equal to and often better than American in terms of quality and preventative care. Additionally, the stats are out there for indicators like infant mortality and average lifespan where Canada > US.

That's not to say such studies themselves can't be biased or that statistics alone tell the whole story. I simply take issue with the gross exagerations and straight lying that is going on in the American HC debate as it relates to Canada.

Cheers

 

[broonzy]

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.

How much do you pay for the insurance?