Quote:
Originally Posted by henrjam
I have just seen the bill that was sent to one of my relatives in Belgium for a full body PET Scan. It comes to 700 Euros, $1000. It seems that the average cost in the US is $4.500 and up.
By the way, when it comes to that technology, there is no second class or outdated equipment.
Another detail, that person is covered by one of those awful "European Socialist HC systems" that frighten so many.
So, the cost to her was 28 Euros, $40.
No comment!!!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by henrjam
This is nothing more than a well managed public insurance HC system.
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Your knowledge of the situation is incredibly superficial.
Have you even been to Belgium? It's like 10 Million people. Does 10 Million equal 308 Million? Nope. You might want to educate yourself on a concept called "Economies of Scale."
Just because you can provide cost-effective efficient quality health care for 10 Million people, it does not logically follow that you can provide cost-effective efficient quality health care for 308 Million people.
That's even harder to do with societal attitudes. Europeans go to the doctor to get well, while Americans go to the doctor to feel good.
"Getting well" and "Feeling Good" are not the same thing, and "Feeling Good" costs a helluva lot of money, especially since it is highly subjective and not quantifiable.
You are also either totally ignorant of, or have completely ignored the fact that the European health care model and the US (and British) health care model is not the same thing.
The US (and British) health care model is centered on the hospital. A hospital is the least efficient means of health care delivery.
The Euro-model is centered on specialty clinics.
Huge difference.
I live in a Metropolitan Statistical Area that has 3 Million people in 11 counties in 2 States and one Commonwealth (Kentucky). We have 19 full-service hospitals (23 if you count the ones in Kentucky and Dearborn County Indiana).
Find a European city with 3 Million people that has more than 12 hospitals.
You can't do it. Paris with 3 Million people has 6 hospitals and both Bucharesti and Berlin have 3 Million people have 3 hospitals.
Why? Because they use the Clinic Model.
You cannot use the Clinic Model because Obama's best friend, the American Hospital Association wrote most of the crap in Obamacare and who outlawed doctor-owned anything force the grotesquely inefficient Hospital Model on you.
And even that wouldn't be so bad except the Hospitals are organized as Cartels and they collude and fix prices, which is illegal. And that is a proven fact.
Child-birth around here really only costs $2,300 but the Hospital Cartel charges $9,200 because they collude and fix prices (illegal).
As the
Cincinnati Enquirer reported, open-heart surgery really only costs $13,000 but you pay $26,000 to $41,000 because the Hospital Cartel colludes and fixes prices (illegal).
Normally, when you have a business and you have a division that is losing money you either shut it down, spin it off or sell it. Let's say you own the High End Rear End Company and you manufacture hand-crafted pewter butt plugs.
You have the production division, the warehouse division and the distribution division (trucking/cartage). And let's say your distribution division is losing money hand over fist. You have three options: Sell the distribution division to someone else who can operate it at a profit, spin off your distribution into a separate company and see if that can benefit from that, or shut down the distribution and contract owner-operators independently to deliver your products.
Why don't you just raise your prices to cover the losses of your distribution division? You can't because there's an animal called Price Elasticity.
If you raise the price of your beautifully hand-crafted pewter butt plugs, then people will either do without or seek substitutes like butt plugs made of plastic, rubber, ceramic, Styrofoam, brass, depleted uranium, paper
mâché or wood.
In the world of the Hospital Cartel, they have "divisions" too. They have
Allergy and Immunology, Anesthesiology, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine, Trauma Center, Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Geriatric, Oncology, Hematology, Nephrology, Pulmonary, Rheumatology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Psychology, Neuro-Psychology, Radiology, Surgery, Sleep Hygiene/Clinic, Vascular, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition and Urology (to name a few).
Now, let's say the Diet & Weight Loss Clinic at Jewish Hospital is losing money faster than the US government can spend it. What does the Hospital do? Do the shut it down, sell it or spin it off?
Nope. They just raise the prices and fees for all other services to cover the fact that the Diet & Weight Loss Clinic is a sink-hole.
What about Price Elasticity? Not really valid here. Health care is like water. No matter what the price of water is, you will pay for it because there are few if any substitutes for water.
If you want water to bathe, cook, clean, wash your car, to drink or for other purposes, you're going to pay whatever it costs. Health care is the same way.
So if you want to see health care costs drop 350% to 700% in less than 24 hours, here's all you have to do:
1) Adopt the Sports/Radio Rule: One hospital, and only one hospital per MSA. That means the Sisters of Mercy who own all of the St Francis, St George, Mercy and Bethesda hospitals will have to sell off some of their hospitals, and so will the Sister of Charity who operate Good Samaritans and St Elizabeth hospitals in every major US city, and so will the others.
2) Shut down the Hospital Cartels and start prosecuting for price-fixing and collusion. I would say complain to the FTC, but the AHA owns Obama so the FTC isn't going to do squat, and if push comes to shove, Obama will just stick an AHA member as head of the FTC and that will be the end of that. Or maybe he'll put someone from Monsanto or Cargil there (like we don't have enough already).
3) Repeal that part of Obamacare that bans doctor-owned anything. That is
prima facie evidence of price-fixing and collusion, because the AHA blocked competition. From the point of view of the AHA, why should you pay $13,000 for open-heart surgery when you can pay $26,000 to $41,000?
Why do you think kidney dialysis at a clinic is cheaper than that at a hospital? Why do you think the AHA has been trying to outlaw kidney dialysis clinics for the last 10 years? They want you pay through the nose (and kidney) instead of paying Free Market fees and rates.
Do that, and if there are still problems with the costs, and I'm sure there will be because some have this bizarre idea that it should be for free, then start eyeballing the "health insurance" companies. I don't believe the world will end if "health insurance" companies have profits capped at 20% or they are banned.
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