Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Cool, while you are at healthcare expenditures. Why not attack US military spending. We spend 5-10X more on defense spending than any other country in the world. Why aren't people bashing military spending?
Because health care spending is 4 times as large as military spending. If America health care costs went down to the first world average, the yearly savings would be twice the military budget.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aneftp
Now explain how you fix the US health care sytem along with Defense spending. Like I said previously, you will be awarded the noble prize but you will be executed by lobbyists for big corporations before you can collect that prize.
Cart before the horse, I think. Any fix is going to take massive pressure, so you got to get people to realize that there is a problem, and not go "lalala, best in the world, Im not listening" as a response to real problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by middle-aged mom
Generally speaking other developed nations have substantially better outcomes with Cancer than occurs in the U.S. for patients younger than age 65. The U.S. has better outcomes with older patients who are able to get routine medical care via Medicare.
The US has better outcomes for over 65-s in lots of things. Reaching the over 65 group in the US is a process that self selects more heavily for good health than in other countries.
Cool, while you are at healthcare expenditures. Why not attack US military spending. We spend 5-10X more on defense spending than any other country in the world. Why aren't people bashing military spending?
You gotta realize the nasty truth about how the USA economy is run. Health care and Defense are the 2 biggest industries. It's a spider web of inter connected companies, sub companies all the way down to the janitors. People already freaking out by a 5% defense cut about "losing jobs". Cut health care 5%, you will face a huge unemployment in this country.
That's why the US isn't doing any thing substantial to cut health cost. Medicare and Medicaid which pay lower rates than many social countries pay already account for over 20% of the US budget each year. How much lower can you get from Medicare (well Medicaid pays the lowest)? And 15% of the US population is on Medicare already. Medicare is essentially the single payer for the elderly, has the lowest rates but takes up over 20% of the budget.
Now explain how you fix the US health care sytem along with Defense spending. Like I said previously, you will be awarded the noble prize but you will be executed by lobbyists for big corporations before you can collect that prize.
Seems pretty easy if you ask me.
The ex-bomb builders could start working in health and social services where they're badly needed. And the money saved in defense could go for better health and social infrastructure for everyone.
It may sound boring, but it's really what life's all about. Helping one another, rather than destroying one another.
You are wrong. People are denied necessities all the time. My sister in law died because she couldn't afford Cancer treatment. We gave her $5,000 and offered her another $5,000, but she turned it down.
There would be no health care, or anything else without Capitalism. It creates viritually everything of value. Hospticals, doctors, nurses don't fall out of the sky, It all take money.
Wrong again!!! I guess in your made up make believe world there were NO medical systems in Communist countries.
Even Cuba who is kept in a state of poverty because of the American embargo has Good medical facilities.
Poll: Should the United States have universal health care?
Where is the poll entry for "It already does - anyone can go to any emergency room and get care, whether they can pay for it or not"
??
A slip/fall can easily result in a $8-12K ER bill.
ERs bill the uninsured at the Charge Master rate which is multiples of the rates paid by Medicare or insurers for the same care. Payment plans are offered. Rate may be negotiable, especially if the patient know the rate that would have been paid by Medicare or private insurance.
Then there is increasingly routine stuff that ERs will not address:
Mammogram
Pap Smear
Prostate Exam
Blood testing, including cholesterol?
Diabetes testing
Skin cancer screening
Radiation
Dialysis
Colostomy
Insulin
Pandering by DemocRATS. Earnied Income Tax Credit. And to make matters worse, 80% of those who paid nothing in taxes, actually get a refund bigger than what they initially deposited. A negative income tax rate.
Reagan touted EITC as the one anti-poverty program that works.
Republicans have controlled Congress for 14/ 20 most recent years. It controlled the Senate for many of those years, too. And during that time, EITC has been expanded again and again.
Exactly why we need to apply market forces. You using your own money to shop around - eliminating all the middlemen, overhead and excess profits by legions involved in the process, but not delivering anything close to actual care.
You find a doctor, come to an arrangment of fees for service, get whatever service you need/want and pay according to your pre-arranged fee schedule. You would be amazed how fast prices would drop'
A. From the elimination of the middlemen (insurance companies and the like) as well as their "skim"
B. Direct competion for direct dollars paying for services demanded by and paid for by the patient or guardian.
There are 50 different insurance commissions. Governors make political appointments and protect the insurance lobby that put them into power. Imagine how much BCBS could save if there was one insurance commission.
Hospitals have been and continue to acquire the competition and medical practices and often times, there is only one provider in a geographical area.
It's a nice thought in theory, but unrealistic given the politics and the money behind it.
Tell that to the rest of the industrialized world.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
