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No one really wants to talk about the real reason heath care costs are so high. It is we spend to much money on the dying in the last two weeks of their life. Eventually economics will determine the fate of most dying patients and doctors and hospitals will let them die.
When my Grandmother was in her nineties and had lived a long fruitful life my Aunt kept sending her to the hospital and the taxpayers kept spending lots of money on her to keep her alive another week. Finally, my mother tried to convince my Aunt to let their mother die. They screamed and yelled at each other for hours. No conclusion was reached so Medicare kept paying to keep her alive. Finally my Grandmother got so sick that the Doctors could not keep her alive any longer, but in the final month of her life they spent over $100,000 on her care.
Let the dying die and we can finally control heath care spending.
Last edited by Weekend Traveler; 07-23-2009 at 07:48 AM..
Actually, I agree with this. Unfortunately, if you leave this decision to the hands of government, they may make the law much more draconian than simply letting a 90 something die. Maybe the age will be rolled back to 80, then to 70, then 60 depending on how poorly they manage the budget for health care.
In any case one person's Medicare payment is another person's medical paycheck. Without the insurance the woman would have died sooner and the medical suppliers would have less money.
BTW - I prefer that the medical people get the money instead of the warmongers and weapons builders. Better to spend money to keep people alive than to spend it to kill them. That is basic morality.
That is irrelevant when the good of the country is being considered. See how this works?
Quote:
BTW - I prefer that the medical people get the money instead of the warmongers and weapons builders. Better to spend money to keep people alive than to spend it to kill them. That is basic morality.
This is very true. An even better way is for the country to run surpluses and have a truly robust economy by not running war welfare OR social welfare.
While everyone is talking about their privacy going bye-bye with a national healthcare database that will give the government access to your medical records, there is something I don't hear anyone talking about:
Researchers use databases to do matching with other databases.
To hear politicians talk, you'd think the reason they want to spend a gazillion dollars on this national healthcare database is to move your records electronically from one doctor to another. Yeah, right.
Let's say the federal government purchases your supermarket's database that contains the record of your store purchases as placed on your supermarket store card when you buy stuff and then matches that purchase data with your medical records in their healthcare database. Maybe you don't buy enough vegetables or buy butter too often for a family of whatever size. Maybe you buy too much beer and wine. Maybe you have a sexually transmitted disease and they don't see any condom purchases. How do you think that information could be used? Right now, the store probably uses the info for ordering products/food and advertising. But with a federal government heathcare database matching program, that store card database has the potential for other nefarious uses.
What if they match your medical records in their national healthcare database to your credit card purchases to see if you lead a risky life? You know, they go to Visa, Mastercard, American Express and ask for data records of your purchases for the last 5 years and then match it to your medical records. Maybe you don't lead a risky life, but what about your teenaged son or daughter on your health insurance plan?
Maybe they'll take GPS data, Easy Pass data or red light camera data, match it with telephone records to see who is talking on the phone or texting while they drive and match it to your medical records in the national healthcare database. Maybe they'll share their results with your car insurance company.
What if they match your medical records in their national healthcare database to the State's database of your Motor Vehicle infractions to see if you are a risk?
I'm sure you can think of other databases that could potentially be matched to your records in the national healthcare database. But all anyone is talking about is privacy at risk after some government employees know your health history. I don't think that's the only threat.
No one really wants to talk about the real reason heath care costs are so high is we spend to much money on the dying in the last two weeks of their life. Eventually economics will determine the fate of most dying patients and doctors and hospitals will let them die.
When my Grandmother was in her nineties and had lived a long fruitful life my Aunt kept sending her to the hospital and the taxpayers kept spending lots of money on her to keep her alive another week. Finally my mother tried to convince my Aunt to let their mother die. They screamed and yelled at each other for hours. No conclusion was reached so Medicare kept paying to keep her alive. Finally my Grandmother got so sick that the Doctors could not keep her alive any longer, but in the final month of her life they spent over $100,000 on her care.
Let the dying die and we can finally control heath care spending.
politics as usual. The GOP knew better, of course... it behooves them to position themselves as victims, plus gets attention for the chart anyway.
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The Real Threat of National Healthcare Database
