I want start a health care COST revolution

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What has always bothered me is that you pay the medical profession for EFFORTS, not RESULTS.

The medical profession justifies this by saying that they are working with the most complex organism yet devised. That's true enough, but when you look at how much data is available on the human body from the studies done, all of the difficult work was done by researchers and does not need to be reinvented every trip to the doctor's office.

This may be a gross oversimplification, but it seems to me that most problems are either so simple that a lesser qualified person (physicians assistant) could solve the problem, or so complex that the average physician is useless. For these more complex problems, I think the answer is increasing use of software driven diagnoses. For instance, I get more information on my problems sitting at home, typing my symptoms into Google, than I get from the best doctors I can find (and Houston has some good ones). I think with the increasing complexity of medicine, physicians, as they are currently deployed, are now an anachronism.

As far as doing something - My suggestion would be to start taking seriously the idea of class warfare and economic slavery. In my mental model we are well on our way to being slaves to the moneyed class. You don't need a militarized society to have slavery. They have already subjugated us through coopting the government into being their "enforcer", while they bombard us with propaganda about freedom and democracy. If you want to find an immediate cause of your problems, think about government collusion with the American Medical Association and the pharmaceutical companies.

[ October 15, 2004, 01:51 PM: Message edited by: TooManyWheels ]
 
I think the problem is system wide.

You've got premier leading edge equipment that is obsolete in a very short time.

Until you get the entire medical community to get off its high horse (wages and costs for EVERYONE) it ain't gonna change. That's everything from HP life monitors to the guy who services them.


Sorry ...no more room for that many people to make that much money. Get them to live with it.
 
I think Shakespeare had it right, kill all lawyers first
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. In NJ we have the highest per capita of lawyers in the nation and we have the highest costs for all our insurance and medical bills. Gee, go figure
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. When I was growing up, I'm 50, my parents could afford to go to the doctor and hospital and pay for it themselves. Now a days if you go to the doctor and hospital and don't have insurance you pay 3X+++ for the same service. As of now small businesses and individuals can't legally join together to reduce their healthcare costs in NJ. Lawyers, Democrats and Unions are blocking it. Gee, what a surprise
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.

Whimsey
 
quote:

Originally posted by Whimsey:
When I was growing up, I'm 50, my parents could afford to go to the doctor and hospital and pay for it themselves. Now a days if you go to the doctor and hospital and don't have insurance you pay 3X+++ for the same service.
Whimsey


If you are willing to limit yourself to the level of healthcare avilable in the 1950s you should be able to get a big discount on your healthcare.
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You do have an excellent point on insurance covered expenses vs uninsured expenses. A few years ago while I was a PPO member, I had a battary of lab tests done. The doctor sent me to the wrong lab for my plan -and- the lab said they accepted my plan. Later the lab sent me a bill for several hundred dollars and said they didn't accept my plan. After I talked to my doctor and the lab and mentioned the lawyer word, the expenses were mystereosly picked up by my insurance company. The insurance company paid less then $100 for what the lab had billed me several hundred.
 
Our current system isn't working. Bush and Kerry both said so. Government controlled health care doesn't seem to be working other places. How about more use of the Health Savings Plans and fewer malpractice suits? Is there any evidence that our tort system is reducing costs or improving quality of care? The HSP's puts the consumer in charge.

How about forcing other countries to pay their fair share of drug research costs? If we priced industrial or farm products the way we price drugs, the World Trade Organization would scream.
 
quote:

Originally posted by labman:

How about forcing other countries to pay their fair share of drug research costs? If we priced industrial or farm products the way we price drugs, the World Trade Organization would scream.


Do you work for a drug company?
 
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Tree Hugger,
So what if he does. Next thing you know you will "accuse" him of working for "big tobacco" or "big timber" etc. Working for any of these companies isn't a crime. Go pick on the welfare crowd. Most of them eat up more of your money than any drug company does.
 
quote:

Originally posted by labman:


How about forcing other countries to pay their fair share of drug research costs? If we priced industrial or farm products the way we price drugs, the World Trade Organization would scream.


That's an interesting point. Do you have any idea why the WTO doesn't scream? US drug companies selling drugs at artificially low prices in foreign countries sure makes it difficult for competition to develop in those countries.
 
The Swiss have a large drug (legal) sector. Ciba-Giggie was the name at one time.

I think when it comes to certain sectors ...we kinda "seed future fields" so to speak in foreign trade. That is, we tend to strangle a good bit of international competition.

Consider it an economic form of a "Global Positioning System".
 
I don't have a lot of time to type, but:

1) I am against government health care
2) I am tired of being raped by the health care system, insurance, lawyers, Kerry, Bush, my employer, free loaders, smokers, the state, YOU NAME IT.
3) My last three pay raises have been 150%+ been eaten by our HC insurance and the coverage is WORSE.
YOU FRIGGEN' KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!

How do we band together to DO something?
 
Well, if you go with Kerry's plan, it will cost an estimated 5 TRILLION dollars. Can you say 40% taxes like Canada???
 
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