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I am a dental malpractice risk manager. Our little company is owned by a large health carrier. Therefore, a few general thoughts...
1. Managed health care isn't the best way to approach health insurance, but then again neither is conscripted federal government insurance.
2. The #1 cost of healthcare is fraud (by people, doctors, hospitals, plaintiff attorneys...) and frivolous lawsuits in general. Direct & indirect costs account for 40-60% of all premium payments.
3. To ask if we have a right to federal government health care, it's a fair debate. The preamble to our constitution: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
4. To turn from a fair market economic based heath care system to a purely socialist one establishes too much cost. It is far better to work within our economic model that to work against it.
5. Aside from #2, the reason our healthcare is so expensive is that people have more money than in most other countries. Also, everyone wants to be well paid. A lot of drug companies lose money in third world countries and make it up in countries like ours as we can afford it. Also, many have to pay for the money lost to bankruptcies.
6. In looking at #2 & #5, we see it isn't necessarily the insurance companies or the healthcare system, but other pressures raising the cost if healthcare. We have a broken judicial system that encourages fraud and frivolous lawsuits.
7. I think that to provide the best and lowest possible healthcare we have to do several things- radical overhaul of the tort system leveling the playing field on medical malpractice lawsuits, encouraging via massive tax breaks free healthcare clinics (now outlawed under Obamacare- don't think so? The one I volunteered at was ordered to shut its doors for that one single reason), solid incentives for all healthcare providers to provide pro bono care, stricter protocols in emergency rooms, caps on insurance companies as to profit amounts they can make (excess profits returned to policyholders), assign true low income non insured people to health insurance companies for free basic policies, increase Medicare tax by 5% and distribute it to states for their in-state Medicare programs and creation of low cost clinics, substantial school debt elimination for nurses and doctors who will work in low cost clinics and other such entities....
Physicians are 20% of the problem. Pharmaceuticals, hospitals, insurance companies and Government are the other 80%. All of them complicit in this giant scammy business. They enrich themselves by lobbying to force people to purchase products and services from this giant scam. The U.S. pays almost twice what other countries pay for worse results because everyone in the medical industry is working together to scam the public. The only way to push back is not to participate. No one in my family has gone to a physician in 35 years and hopefully, barring being hit by a truck, we'll never have to. I really detest scam artists.
Well, there are some scams out there, I will agree. But the whole "worse results" thing is a scam too. If you get cancer, the US is the best place to be. Overall life expectancy in the US is still pretty good, though better in other developed nations, but look at what we have to deal with. America's obesity rate is through the roof. Obesity leads to diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers. And the diabetes from obesity leads to kidney failure, blindness, loss of limb, etc. Your doctor can't exactly follow you around all day taking food out of your hands. Nutrition should play a bigger role in our medical practices, but even so, in my experience, when people leave your office, they go and do whatever they want to do anyway.
Physicians are 20% of the problem. Pharmaceuticals, hospitals, insurance companies and Government are the other 80%. All of them complicit in this giant scammy business. They enrich themselves by lobbying to force people to purchase products and services from this giant scam. The U.S. pays almost twice what other countries pay for worse results because everyone in the medical industry is working together to scam the public. The only way to push back is not to participate. No one in my family has gone to a physician in 35 years and hopefully, barring being hit by a truck, we'll never have to. I really detest scam artists.
unfortunately not taking part in the Obama care program means you will not get a dime of your income tax back . Yeah that is right they will take all of it to pay for your not following the law which is another one that burns my arse . I think trump is on the right train with the single payer system and you could get your health insurance from anywhere you want too . This Obama care is a major cluster f*ck and it is just like his other program cash for clunkers which means car dealers can now charge double on used pieces of junk cars . Yeah Obama really has done a lot for this country , NOT . We cant even use our Obama care because no one in our area takes it and no dr is taking on new patients because of Obama care .
I too have significant resentment towards the providers of health care providers and Obamas health care plan. I am a senior and retired but because I had children late in life and I find myself really struggling with having to pay the enormous price for health care insurance. My monthly cost for a family of four is $1200 a month and that is with my previous employer, the government, paying 51 % of my health insurance. The cost has driven me almost to the point of bankruptcy. I have worked in the medical field all my adult life as a psychotherapist. Most of my work has been in public clinics with physicians who prescribe the latest and greatest psychotropic medications to those with Medical Assistance. The costs of these medications are outrageous. Because MA pays for these medications with little or no copay it raises the price of medication to others who have to pay for them. There is no longer a an issue of market value because of this. I saw some of the bills the pharmaceutical companies were paying for these drugs and sometimes a 30 day supply cost as much as $ 800 a month for one drug which MA paid. The pharmaceutical companies are well aware of the number of people receiving MA and target this population. They have pharmacy representatives who visit the doctors and will actually bribe the doctors into prescribing their medications. The doctors usually will follow the advise of these "reps" as we call them even when there are equally effective older medications at a much lower cost. This is supposed to be against the law, according to MA, but the doctors usually get around the law by saying that the drugs had fewer side effects. Then there is salaries of the health insurance employees, especially the executives. In general salaries of individuals who work for health insurance companies are significantly higher than the same positions in other businesses. Executive salaries are beyond outrageous with some making as much as 26 million a year. Who deserves that kind of salary especially when you are suppose to be in a business that is helping mankind. A problem we have in Baltimore is with individuals with MA using hospitals as their primary source of health care, the cost of which is 10 times that of a primary care physician visit. Those who savvy, homeless or out of money for food will often visit the ER's claiming to be suicidal. Depending upon bed space, hospitals will frequently admit this. With Obama care there has been an incredible increase in MA recipients. Recently Allen Greenspan predicted that the cost of these entitlements would bankrupt the US if they are allow to be continued.
This is antiquated thinking. When I became a doctor in the late 90s, this was absolutely true. They would take us out to fancy restaurants where we could order whatever we wanted, including expensive drinks. There were Broadway plays, golf outings, etc. Their budgets for this were enormous, and to be honest, I loved it because in my field, there aren't many choices of what to use. We all basically use the same drugs in anesthesia, so I didn't have the moral dilemma that some doctors in other fields have. The drug reps knew this, but they had so much money to spend, they didn't care. That is all gone now, and has been for at least 10 years. We don't even get pens anymore. On rare occasions, they come to the office and give a lecture and they might bring a bag of bagels and cream cheese, but that is about it.
unfortunately not taking part in the Obama care program means you will not get a dime of your income tax back . Yeah that is right they will take all of it to pay for your not following the law which is another one that burns my arse . I think trump is on the right train with the single payer system and you could get your health insurance from anywhere you want too . This Obama care is a major cluster f*ck and it is just like his other program cash for clunkers which means car dealers can now charge double on used pieces of junk cars . Yeah Obama really has done a lot for this country , NOT . We cant even use our Obama care because no one in our area takes it and no dr is taking on new patients because of Obama care .
Obama sold out to the health industry, to Wall Street, to every single scan industry you can find. He is the number one Quisling this country has every seen. Far worse than Benedict Arnold, because this jerk actually succeeded.
This is antiquated thinking. When I became a doctor in the late 90s, this was absolutely true. They would take us out to fancy restaurants where we could order whatever we wanted, including expensive drinks. There were Broadway plays, golf outings, etc. Their budgets for this were enormous, and to be honest, I loved it because in my field, there aren't many choices of what to use. We all basically use the same drugs in anesthesia, so I didn't have the moral dilemma that some doctors in other fields have. The drug reps knew this, but they had so much money to spend, they didn't care. That is all gone now, and has been for at least 10 years. We don't even get pens anymore. On rare occasions, they come to the office and give a lecture and they might bring a bag of bagels and cream cheese, but that is about it.
I am not sure whether it was national or local, but one reason that was cut back here was legislation. A friend's wife worked for a pharm company and my friend got a huge box of free golf balls from the wife's company because they weren't allowed to give them away anymore.
I am not sure whether it was national or local, but one reason that was cut back here was legislation. A friend's wife worked for a pharm company and my friend got a huge box of free golf balls from the wife's company because they weren't allowed to give them away anymore.
It's national. I remember back when it all ended, this type of thing was in the news all the time. It is a combination of bad press and new legislation that put an end to it.
I am a dental malpractice risk manager. Our little company is owned by a large health carrier. Therefore, a few general thoughts...
1. Managed health care isn't the best way to approach health insurance, but then again neither is conscripted federal government insurance.
2. The #1 cost of healthcare is fraud (by people, doctors, hospitals, plaintiff attorneys...) and frivolous lawsuits in general. Direct & indirect costs account for 40-60% of all premium payments.
6. In looking at #2 & #5, we see it isn't necessarily the insurance companies or the healthcare system, but other pressures raising the cost if healthcare. We have a broken judicial system that encourages fraud and frivolous lawsuits.
7. I think that to provide the best and lowest possible healthcare we have to do several things- radical overhaul of the tort system leveling the playing field on medical malpractice lawsuits,
I get it that it would help your companies bottom line if no one could ever sue for medical malpractice, but that doesn't give you license to make stuff up. "direct and indirect costs account for 40-60% of premiums"? There have been a number of figures thrown around but they usually are in the 2-10% range.Annual jury awards and legal settlements involving doctors amounts to “a drop in the bucket” in a country that spends $2.3 trillion annually on health care, said Amitabh Chandra, a Harvard University economist. Chandra estimated the cost at $12 per person in the U.S., or about $3.6 billion, in a 2005 study. Insurer WellPoint Inc. said last month that liability wasn’t driving premiums.
And if you still want to dispute the figures given in that article that I linked, then explain why premiums have not dropped in states with tort limitation, like California, and also why between 2001 and 2001 medical malpractice payments fell 11.9 percent while healthcare spending nearly doubled, increasing 96.7 percent (both calculations in unadjusted dollars). These figures debunk claims that medical malpractice litigation is responsible for rising healthcare costs, aswell as promises that patients should expect savings from litigation restrictions.
Your "solution" would be the equivalent of a car insurance company claiming that the way to reduce premiums is to allow them to refuse to pay accident claims.
I get it that it would help your companies bottom line if no one could ever sue for medical malpractice, but that doesn't give you license to make stuff up. "direct and indirect costs account for 40-60% of premiums"? There have been a number of figures thrown around but they usually are in the 2-10% range.Annual jury awards and legal settlements involving doctors amounts to “a drop in the bucket” in a country that spends $2.3 trillion annually on health care, said Amitabh Chandra, a Harvard University economist. Chandra estimated the cost at $12 per person in the U.S., or about $3.6 billion, in a 2005 study. Insurer WellPoint Inc. said last month that liability wasn’t driving premiums.
And if you still want to dispute the figures given in that article that I linked, then explain why premiums have not dropped in states with tort limitation, like California, and also why between 2001 and 2001 medical malpractice payments fell 11.9 percent while healthcare spending nearly doubled, increasing 96.7 percent (both calculations in unadjusted dollars). These figures debunk claims that medical malpractice litigation is responsible for rising healthcare costs, aswell as promises that patients should expect savings from litigation restrictions.
Your "solution" would be the equivalent of a car insurance company claiming that the way to reduce premiums is to allow them to refuse to pay accident claims.
Help me out a bit- where did I say I didn't want anyone to ever be able to sue a doctor?
What you chose to misread is that we need tort reform for frivolous lawsuits.
There's a whopping big difference. I shouldn't have to tell you so.
It's not just the insurance system that is broken, it is the entire provider system. Do you know what a replacement hip for my dog cost me? $600. Do you know what the same technology, just as easy to make, costs for people? $40,000. Same materials, same technology, different profit structure. Have you tried to get a doctor's appointment lately? They are booking 3 months out. We need a couple dozen new medical schools to keep up with demand, but we don't have them. I see doctors who graduated from medical school in other countries, because we can't supply enough of our own. Of course the docs can charge whatever the traffic will bear, because they have no competition.
If you think health insurance is expensive now, just wait a few years. Health care costs are going up a lot faster than home prices, and they never drop.
The only way to control cost of healthcare and drugs is to outlaw insurance and R&D grants altogether and have individuals negotiate the price of the service they need.
A true free market will drop prices quickly and drastically.
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