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I don't think many can speak for how many people go the the doctor for a cold unnecessarily besides their own family. That is why I stated it was my experience, and that I imagined I was not alone in my own thinking. Like Jmking said. We know there are always a few, but feel they are in the minority.
Also, another thing he said was true. It is the doctor who insists you come back. I take blood thinners and have to go to the lab once a month for INR blood test, which is sent to my doctor. Since my initial visit, my doctor always instructs me and the sign out desk to schedule a "follow up visit" in three months. Last time he scheduled me, I called up and cancelled. However I had to go into see the doctor last week because I am going away for an extended time and needed him to sign new papers for new insurance I had purchased and send in 90 prescriptions to a new mail in order place for them.
The first thing he did was chastise me for not coming in. But what is logical to me is not to come in when I feel there is no need. If my INR is ever off, the nurse calls me up, and I adjust my dosage. So what is the point of making me come in? I'd like to hear from others if they have similar experience.
Old blood thinners like warfarin require pretty frequent blood checks to make sure you're ok - they can have some serious side effects (perhaps if you could sign a binding agreement not to sue your doctor or the drug manufacturer if something went wrong if you didn't go for the regular recommended blood checks - you wouldn't have to go - but I doubt that's in the cards).
More importantly - if you get your tests - and your doctor/his office has to review them - he/his office can't get paid for what he does without scheduling a visit. Do you think your doctor should be required to review your blood work for free?
Just FWIW - I sometimes have eConsults at Mayo - where I don't have to see a specialist FTF. Medicare will not pay for eConsults - and Mayo charges me $50 (which I have to pay myself). Worth it IMO.
But - since Medicare will only pay your doctor to review your test results if you have an appointment - well how do you think your doctor should handle it? Robyn
I know plenty of adults that run to the dr for every sneeze....they should know better but they do not....they are commonly referred to as "frequent fliers"...
Not only that, they also insist on an antibiotic to treat this sneeze and associated miseries, even though what they've got is a viral infection that will not respond to the antibiotic. But that is a whole 'nuther can of worms....
This hits on one of the aspects of health care costs that is often overlooked. Costs for a lot of services are patient driven, and if the patient does not have to pay anything, he is more likely to go to the doctor.
Yes, that's true.
The US government even says so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmking
Only in the US many believe that idiotic propaganda that if you allow easy access to healthcare a hypocondriac switch turns on in the brain, where hordes of Americans flood all hospitals and doctor offices with a sudden orgy of ills, at the same time everyday of the week, except Sundays.
Uh, that "idiotic propaganda" comes from the US government, but thanks for completely misrepresenting the issue just the same. What drives up the cost of healthcare? Survey says....
1] Technology up to 65%
2] Consumer Demand up to 36%
3] Expanding Health Benefits or Insuring more people up to 13%
4] Healthcare Price Inflation up to 19% (caused by Consumer Demand and insuring more people)
5] Administrative Costs up to 13% (caused by Technology, Consumer Demand and Regulations)
6] Aging/Elderly up to 7%
Source: United States Government General Accounting Office GAO-13-281 PPACA and the Long-Term Fiscal Outlook, January 2013 pp 31-36
American Culture is incredibly Hedonistic. You could learn a few things from Buddhists.
Quote:
Originally Posted by modhatter
Are we getting to the point now, where we can only pay for life threatening treatment, and older people must learn to live with pain for all their remaining years, or where even middle class families can no longer afford treatment when they get older.
Healthcare isn't free.
Quote:
Originally Posted by modhatter
When costs get this high, do you think maybe it's time to examine our whole health care system and do something to change it.
I already did. Why don't you take off your blinders and learn how your healthcare system evolved to be the nightmare it is?
If you want to change it, you can start here....
The Christ Hospital
2139 Auburn Ave.
513-585-2000
thechristhospital.com
* Additional Features: All-private birthing suites and post-partum rooms; feng sui and hydrotherapy birthing suites; nursing staff with an average 20 years experience; new interactive TV system; dine-on-demand room service; updated infant security system; no restrictions on visitation hours (some limitations may be in place during flu season); neonatologists on call 24 hours; Special Care Nursery with individualized bed space that can be personalized
Atrium Medical Center’s Family Birth Center
1 Medical Center Dr., Middletown
513-424-2111
atriummedcenter.org
* Children permitted in delivery room with mother’s approval. Additional Features: Board-certified doctors and nurses experienced in obstetrics, neonatal care, including nursery and fetal monitoring. Contemporary birthing suites include flat-screen TVs,On-Demand movies and bathrooms with showers and jet tubs. Babies may stay in nursery or “room†with mom; fold-out sofas for overnight guests. Prenatal services and childbirth education classes available.
Yeah.....that would be part of the grotesque Hedonism I mentioned.
Quote:
Originally Posted by golfgal
Like I've said about the high deductible plans..if you make people responsible for some of the bill, they use their plans more reasonably and aren't running to the dr every time they sneeze.
But, of course!
You don't have health insurance.
Health insurance has not existed in the US since 1954.
What you have is a glorified Fee-for-Service plan.
Fee-for-Service inherently causes costs to spiral out of control, since there are no mechanism to control costs. There is no incentive for the consumer to control costs, just as there are no incentives for the providers to control costs.
What inevitably happens? Government steps in and starts controlling costs, by limiting payments.
A tax on the Medi-Gap plans is just another form of control and interference in the Market, and does nothing to solve the root problem.
You can fix that by abandoning monopoly control and going to the Free Market. The whole point is to empower the individual. If healthcare ever needs to be rationed, then it should be the individual deciding how their healthcare is rationed, not the government, not hospital cartels and not health plan providers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nezlie
On many forums, not just this one, people always say that they know many people that do this or do that. I'm lucky if I know one or two at the most (is that many?) that do whatever the thing in question is about. Am I just out of touch, or what??? So when you say you know many, how many are you folks talking about, tens, hundreds? And, how do you know all these people?
~nez
Your questions demonstrate why anecdotal evidence has no place, especially concerning healthcare.
Only in the US many believe that idiotic propaganda that if you allow easy access to healthcare a hypocondriac switch turns on in the brain, where hordes of Americans flood all hospitals and doctor offices with a sudden orgy of ills, at the same time everyday of the week, except Sundays.
Actually - there is some truth to that (increased use as a result of increased access). There are studies that show that people who didn't have health coverage before they went on Medicare tend to be big users in the months after they got Medicare coverage. It's not a question of being a hypochondriac - it's a question of catching up with medical stuff you should have done 5 years ago. Robyn
...If you want to change it, you can start here....
The Christ Hospital
2139 Auburn Ave.
513-585-2000
thechristhospital.com
* Additional Features: All-private birthing suites and post-partum rooms; feng sui and hydrotherapy birthing suites; nursing staff with an average 20 years experience; new interactive TV system; dine-on-demand room service; updated infant security system; no restrictions on visitation hours (some limitations may be in place during flu season); neonatologists on call 24 hours; Special Care Nursery with individualized bed space that can be personalized
Atrium Medical Center’s Family Birth Center
1 Medical Center Dr., Middletown
513-424-2111
atriummedcenter.org
* Children permitted in delivery room with mother’s approval. Additional Features: Board-certified doctors and nurses experienced in obstetrics, neonatal care, including nursery and fetal monitoring. Contemporary birthing suites include flat-screen TVs,On-Demand movies and bathrooms with showers and jet tubs. Babies may stay in nursery or “room” with mom; fold-out sofas for overnight guests. Prenatal services and childbirth education classes available.
Yeah.....that would be part of the grotesque Hedonism I mentioned.
Grotesque hedonism indeed and totally bizarre IMO.
Sounds like a Four Seasons place to have a baby.
Perhaps it's because I'm older - and like sleeping my own bed in my own house - but I try to avoid staying in hospital rooms. And I'm glad my hospital of choice doesn't do obstetrics at all - because - like I said - this sounds more like a luxury hotel than a hospital to me. Robyn
Yup - that hedonism is necessary to hide all those profits for the "not for profit" institutions.
This is the reality:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea
Health insurance has not existed in the US since 1954.
What you have is a glorified Fee-for-Service plan.
Fee-for-Service inherently causes costs to spiral out of control, since there are no mechanism to control costs.
There is no incentive for the consumer to control costs, just as there are no incentives for the providers to control costs.
What inevitably happens? Government steps in and starts controlling costs, by limiting payments.
A tax on the Medi-Gap plans is just another form of control and interference in the Market, and does nothing to solve the root problem.
***
I liked the pic someone posted a while back of a hospital in Germany/Switzerland (?) - looked more like a three-story office building. In/out, get 'er done, no frills. Works for me. I, too, like my own bed. Haven't been in a hospital in 25 years, hope to keep it that way.
Last edited by Ariadne22; 01-13-2014 at 04:30 PM..
All the frills have come about because hospitals have to compete with one another. Since Mom usually decides where the whole family goes for care, luring her with luxury when she delivers pays off when Junior needs his appendix out.
Grotesque hedonism indeed and totally bizarre IMO.
Sounds like a Four Seasons place to have a baby.
Perhaps it's because I'm older - and like sleeping my own bed in my own house - but I try to avoid staying in hospital rooms. And I'm glad my hospital of choice doesn't do obstetrics at all - because - like I said - this sounds more like a luxury hotel than a hospital to me. Robyn
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariadne22
Yup - that hedonism is necessary to hide all those profits for the "not for profit" institutions.
You could rent a room at a Sheraton, hire your own doctors and nurses, rent your own equipment and spend far less for childbirth than what hospitals charge.
I wasn't trying to beat down pregnant women, it's just that those websites are readily available for people to see.
The Christ Hospital is swanky....I'm not kidding.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariadne22
I liked the pic someone posted a while back of a hospital in Germany/Switzerland (?) - looked more like a three-story office building. In/out, get 'er done, no frills.
I've mentioned before that the Hospital Model is the absolute worst in terms of healthcare delivery, costs, efficiency and anything else you can think of.
The Great Irony is that these people keep screaming they want UHC just like Europe, yet they refuse to do those things to be just like Europe.
The Euro-States ration healthcare, and the Euro-States abandoned the Hospital Model and switched to the Clinic or Poli-Clinic Model. Having UHC without rationing and without switching to more efficient delivery systems will not reduce the costs of healthcare.
The Poli-Clinics are relatively recent. Law and Medicine are very similar. You can be a GP lawyer and spend 120 hours a week reading law digests, or you can specialize in one area of law, and then two related areas, so that you only have to spend 20 hours a week reading law digests (better yet, hire a paralegal to read the law digests for you and then summarize them).
Medicine is no different: you can spend 120 hours a week reading newly published material, or you can actually practice medicine by specializing in one field and then only spending 20 hours a week reading everything.
A couple of States -- Germany most notably -- have realized that Medicine is Interdisciplinary, hence the Poli-Clinic, where you have a team of specialists instead of just a single specialist. Let's face it, one medical condition often causes other medical conditions or there is a relationship to other conditions, so it makes sense.
So, the Clinic and Poli-Clinic Models increase and enhance efficiency, while simultaneously reducing costs, especially extraneous costs. They don't have an $8 Million parking garage, that has to be maintained, and has to have CCTV to monitor and deter crime, and the cost to maintain the CCTV system, and spending money on liability insurance in the event a patient or visitor is assaulted or raped in the parking garage, and the cost of security guards, and 50 Million other things that go with big-bloated-bureaucracies.
They do have some hospitals, but they are nothing to what Americans are accustomed.
You'll find those in low-population density areas. Can't justify clinics or poli-clinics, so they have an hospital, but it is not full-service. If you need certain specialist services, you have to travel some distance.
I have to apologize that this data is from the European Commission of the European Union and not Yahoo!Answers or BigDaddyG, but for example, in 2011, 1.8% of Germans did not have their healthcare needs met, because it was too far to travel.
By comparison, that was 2.3% in France, 7.6% in Greece and 12.1% in Romania.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suzy_q2010
All the frills have come about because hospitals have to compete with one another.
Hospitals do not compete, but Cartels do.
Seriously, how is Bethesda North owned by the Sisters of Mercy competing against Mercy Anderson owned by the Sisters of Mercy? And, what, they are both competing against Mercy West owned by the Sisters of Mercy?
Which is like Good Samaritan owned by the Sisters of Charity competing against St Francis-St George owned by the Sisters of Charity?
And those hospitals are all in a monopolistic cartel called Tri-Health....who "competes" against another monopolistic cartel called the Health Alliance.
So.....depending on your employer, you are stuck with the Health Alliance, and if you use any doctors or facilities that are part of Tri-Health, then you are OUT-OF-NETWORK.
Or, if your employer is insured through Tri-Health, and you use any doctors or facilities under the Health Alliance banner, then you are OUT-OF-NETWORK.
And if your life really sucks....you're stuck with an independent and you have a choice of 1 hospital and about 3 doctors and both Tri-Health and the Health Alliance are OUT-OF-NETWORK.
Well, there's more than 3 doctors, but there's only one hospital you can use.
Actually - there is some truth to that (increased use as a result of increased access). There are studies that show that people who didn't have health coverage before they went on Medicare tend to be big users in the months after they got Medicare coverage. It's not a question of being a hypochondriac - it's a question of catching up with medical stuff you should have done 5 years ago. Robyn
There is also the fact that Medicare gives a one time free physical after signing up.
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