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Tearing down our medical system would be catastrophic and dumb. With all its inefficiencies and problems we produce a super-preponderance of the world's best doctors and Ph.D researchers who drive nearly all of the world's best treatments and advances.
Speaking of inefficiencies in medicine an easy and very valuable place to start would be limiting emergency room "frequent fliers."
When he was a 4th year medical student my son was working in the ER at Parkland in Dallas. After a long day, about to leave an exceptionally heavy man was wheeled in. My son asked the guy if he had been in before that day.........this was trip #3 OVER A 12 HOUR PERIOD. They guy's gag was simple he'd eat M&Ms, donuts, fudge etc. until his blood sugar was off the charts and then he'd call an ambulance or have a buddy haul him to the ER. He knew a couple of magic words to avoid the line and he'd use the ER as his personal medical staff.
Turns out this guy was one of a group of roughly 15 people who over the course of ~18 months accounted for over 1,000 ER visits.
Everyone to the left of center should be forced to spend a couple of days inside a big city ER for a real look at government sanctioned, heck government required, waste.
Sounds like one of the ER docs should have had a psych evaluation performed on the guy and kept him for a 72 hour observation. But frequent fliers aren't the cause of high healthcare, the er costs are pretty much baked in, the staff is already there and the equipment is there so the cost of treating one patient or 10 is pretty much the same. and ER's can triage and refer patients who present without an emergency to a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant.
Our healthcare costs are the result of not containing fees charged by providers and allowing healthcare and health insurance to be a 'for profit' industry. I have no problem with a healthcare system with private providers but insurance and basic care should be non-profit, let insurers make a profit off of supplemental care like plastic surgery, but not on basic care.
Sounds like one of the ER docs should have had a psych evaluation performed on the guy and kept him for a 72 hour observation. But frequent fliers aren't the cause of high healthcare, the er costs are pretty much baked in, the staff is already there and the equipment is there so the cost of treating one patient or 10 is pretty much the same. and ER's can triage and refer patients who present without an emergency to a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant.
Our healthcare costs are the result of not containing fees charged by providers and allowing healthcare and health insurance to be a 'for profit' industry. I have no problem with a healthcare system with private providers but insurance and basic care should be non-profit, let insurers make a profit off of supplemental care like plastic surgery, but not on basic care.
I'm not going to argue with your first claim that ERs are nominally fixed cost entities. That's just a profoundly silly claim not worth further discussion.
Healthcare costs in The US are high for a lot of reasons. We spend astronomical amounts on people who about to die, we spend massive amounts of money on elective and cosmetic surgeries, we pay for most of the world's best research, our regulatory cost burdens on health care are staggering maybe $100 billion per, 1.4% GDP equivalent is spent on hospital administration (25% of hospital costs, 10% of doctor's office costs) many other countries impose half that burden and there is no denying that much of that is .gov mandated, we blow tens of billions on lawsuit avoiding defensive medicine etc.
We know a high risk OB-GYN in New York who pays nearly $250,000 per in malpractice insurance.
I'm not going to argue with your first claim that ERs are nominally fixed cost entities. That's just a profoundly silly claim not worth further discussion.
Healthcare costs in The US are high for a lot of reasons. We spend astronomical amounts on people who about to die, we spend massive amounts of money on elective and cosmetic surgeries, we pay for most of the world's best research, our regulatory cost burdens on health care are staggering maybe $100 billion per, 1.4% GDP equivalent is spent on hospital administration (25% of hospital costs, 10% of doctor's office costs) many other countries impose half that burden and there is no denying that much of that is .gov mandated, we blow tens of billions on lawsuit avoiding defensive medicine etc.
We know a high risk OB-GYN in New York who pays nearly $250,000 per in malpractice insurance.
Ok so what comprises that 100 billion in regulatory cost burdens for healthcare? If you're talking about lawsuits; California, Texas and a number of other states have had tort reform for quite a while no with no resultant cost savings to the patients, just lower priced malpractice insurance and fewer claims paid by insurance companies.
However, it remains to be demonstrated, how much of healthcare cost is due to devastating late-life ailments, and how much is due to chronic ailments that could have been forestalled through better taking care of one’s health.
There is a another deconstruction of healthcare costs that is illuminating. How much of total healthcare expenditures is for medical care, and how much is to pay for countless millions of administrative clerks who never see a patient, but spend all day long in front of a computer terminal interacting with insurance companies, HHS, pharmacies, PBMs and other entities, non of whom deliver medical care?
There is a another deconstruction of healthcare costs that is illuminating. How much of total healthcare expenditures is for medical care, and how much is to pay for countless millions of administrative clerks who never see a patient, but spend all day long in front of a computer terminal interacting with insurance companies, HHS, pharmacies, PBMs and other entities, non of whom deliver medical care?
and you believe handing over the administrative function of health care to government bureaucrats is an improvement of healthcare.
Who told you that?
Why did you believe them?
the US government is the least efficient means to administer anything. There's no incentive to complete any task efficiently or at a cost savings. People have been complaining about government purchased $300 toilet seats for decades ... there are countless examples.
Obamacare failed becuase it didn't have any cost controls, if they had put them in, it would have never passed Congress.
I know a local dr. who left his private practice to work for a bigger state organization of doctors because his overhead was high and around his area there were so many medicare people and they don't pay all that much...he claims he couldn't make much of a profit that way. Can you imagine what it would be if ALL of us are on medicare?
I know a local dr. who left his private practice to work for a bigger state organization of doctors because his overhead was high and around his area there were so many medicare people and they don't pay all that much...he claims he couldn't make much of a profit that way. Can you imagine what it would be if ALL of us are on medicare?
high percentage of doctors join practices, it's becoming the norm. If all of us were on Medicare, the monthly payments for Medicare wouldn't be $134 a month, but closer to $1034 a month,
and you believe handing over the administrative function of health care to government bureaucrats is an improvement of healthcare.
Who told you that?
Why did you believe them?
the US government is the least efficient means to administer anything. There's no incentive to complete any task efficiently or at a cost savings. People have been complaining about government purchased $300 toilet seats for decades ... there are countless examples.
Obamacare failed becuase it didn't have any cost controls, if they had put them in, it would have never passed Congress.
I never said I believe government involvement in either medical care or health insurance would improve anything. (If I did, it was a typo.) I agree with you regarding government inefficiency and bureaucracy.
Perhaps you're thinking of another poster.
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