Quote:
Originally Posted by quelinda
Why is it that I don't recall this healthcare crisis when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, where you got good quality care for reasonable prices. What has changed about this system.
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I've explained that a dozen times, but it's worth explaining, so I'll do it again.
The biggest problem is that hospitals did not conform to Capitalist Theory. Two of the corollary theories of The Theory of Capitalism are Diversification and Specialization.
In the late 1970s, hospitals were on the verge of collapse and that was the best thing that ever could have happened to America. Hospitals were closing their doors forever left and right, filing for bankruptcy protection or merging with other hospitals to avoid filing bankruptcy or closing their doors forever.
If left unchecked and without interference, the majority of hospitals would have been forced to close or shut down many of their unprofitable departments in order to stay in business. That would have led to the creation of specialty clinics that offered high quality health care without the need for "health insurance."
Unfortunately, at the behest of the hospitals, "health insurance" companies stepped in and interfered with that process.
It worsened as hospitals began colluding to fix prices, and worsened further still when hospitals formed cartels to more efficiently collude and fix prices.
That isn't conjecture or speculation, it's fact.
2 years ago here, a group of doctors were planning to open a cardio-pulmonary clinic that would specialize only in open-heart surgery. They would have charged $13,000 to $24,000 less than the cheapest hospital in the area, but the two hospital cartels and their insurance lobby buddies ran to Columbus and rammed a bill through the legislature to out-law it.
Hospitals offer psychiatric services and it ain't cheap. You have Chief Psychiatrist, and Assistant Chief Psychiatrist, a Chief Resident-in-Psychiatry, plus a staff of resident psychiatrists, a head nurse, an assistant head nurse, plus the nursing staff, plus several dozen more CNA's, LPNs, diagnostic technicians and other staff members. Their salaries and benefits don't fall out of the sky.
If there are enough psychiatric patients to fund that department, fine. If they're aren't, the hospital just raises the prices of all other services it provides, then colludes with other hospitals so that they raise their prices as well, and so every one pays more than they should.
The same for "birthing centers." You have Chief OB-GYN, and Assistant Chief OB-GYN, a Chief Resident-in-OB-GYN, plus a staff of resident Ob-GYNs, a head nurse, an assistant head nurse, plus the nursing staff, plus several dozen more CNA's, LPNs, diagnostic technicians and other staff members.
They have 36 beds for newborns. There are 365 days in a year. That's 36 * 365 = 13,140 bed-days.
Unfortunately, there's only an average of 836 new births in the county each year. If each newborn spends 3 days in the hospital, that's 3 * 836 = 2,508 bed-days.
What does that mean? That means that most of the 36 beds go unused all year long and the hospital isn't making any money, plus don't forget there are several other hospitals that also have "birthing centers" with 20 to 36 beds for newborns.
Do you see the waste and inefficiency? That's why people pay $7,000 more for child-birth than they have to pay.
The hospitals should shut down their birthing centers and allow doctors to open small birthing clinics out in the suburbs with 6-8 beds. That would drop the cost of child-birth to about $1,700 to $2,300 instead of $9,300.
Health care costs will always remain high as long as hospitals exist.
For those who keep whining and sniveling about the fact that Europeans have national health care, they should study the facts more carefully. You can't have open-heart surgery in any hospital, only a select few. Likewise you can't go to just any hospital for arthroscopic surgery. You can only go to a select few. One of the ways Europeans manage their health care is by ensuring efficiency, and that means limiting equipment and services to meet the needs of the people.
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