Time to Shop Health Insurance (Rear ended by ACA again) (schools, maintenance)

modhatter · 10-14-2015, 08:23 PM

The amount of medical procedures is vast, and other than routine office visits and few minor procedures, they are too numerous and technical in many cases to be understood by a lay person. It would be nice if we all could have a full understanding of all medical procedures, but unfortunately today we can not.

So although it might be nice to be able to deal directly with the provider of the service, this is just not possible in all cases. I don't necessarily agree with the analogy posed before with laser surgery. Yes the procedure has been simplified and is easier to perform than ever, so the price may have come down as new technology has been developed. But look at dental work. You go to the dentist and deal with him/her directly (unless you have insurance) They give you an estimate for the work, and you can take it or leave it. The chances are VERY good without insurance though, you will pay more for the same procedure. In other words the dentist will give a better price for the insurance company than they will to you. So with dental work, you as the consumer come out worse, when you are trying to go it alone. The same applies to lab work. You as an individual can pay over ten times what an insurance company is willing to pay for lab work.

I don't know what your experience has been with dental work in recent years, but I can tell you the cost has risen four fold over the last five to ten years. And that is working directly with the provider. So we do need a gatekeeper for cost control. What we don't need is 50,000 different insurance policies for doctors to deal with , all with different payout ratios.

Medicare obtains better costs generally speaking, because there is power in it's size. Most doctors (with the exception of general practitioners) would never dream of turning away medicare patients as it represents a very substantial part of their practice. This would be exemplified ten fold if we had single payer. Scandalous coding practices are a problem, especially when you are dealing with multiple different insurance companies, with different coding practices for different policies.

There is a lot to be said for standard pricing and coding, and huge potential for reform when pricing is standardized. We can't go back to the chicken in exchange for services now, so we must adapt to modern times. Consider this.

Why should a procedure requiring hospitalization in Norway or Switzerland, cost less than 1/2 and sometimes a third what it does here in the US. Norway as an example has an extremely high standard of living. There wages across the board are much higher than that of the US. Yet, they are able to provide the same services that we receive here for a much lower cost. Their doctors are well compensated. Their hospitals are state of the art. Real estate cost are three time higher than here in the US. And goods and services are generally more expensive there. But health care is not (compared to the US)

modhatter · 10-14-2015, 08:54 PM

This is my subject, so please forgive the multiple posts this once.

Taiwan was one of the later countries to adapt a single payer system. They wanted to get it right and not repeat the mistakes of other countries, yet they wanted their system to work for their country. So they put together a group of medical doctors, hospital and health care administrators, and sent them to about six or seven different countries to examine their health care delivery system up close and personal.

This group went into the hospitals and talked to the doctors, the nurses, the patients, and administrators. They met with the key government officials in charge of health care ad-ministry. They observed operations, acute care wards and all aspects of health care delivery. They made notes of all of their findings noting the good and bad. When they were all done, them came back to Taiwan, with their reports and sat down to devise a plan taking from the best of what they saw, while minimizing the bad.

That is how Taiwan did it. Now why can't we do the same? Why can't we go to Norway, and Sweden, France, Germany and Great Britain, and do the same. Find all the holes in our system, and devise a plan to remedy the ills of our system. Is it a big undertaking. You betcha. Can it be done. Of course it can. The only thing lacking is the will to do it.

The reason we don't have the will is because the healthcare, insurance, and pharmaceutical companies call the shots in our country and have been successful in making health care a political issue and dividing Americans, who would otherwise insist on it's implementation if they had the real facts instead of all the fear mongering promoted by their PR firms hired to cause decention among us. They know just how to do it. They know exactly how to keep us divided and the maintain the status quo for the corporations.

NLVgal · 10-14-2015, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by modhatter

This is my subject, so please forgive the multiple posts this once.

Taiwan was one of the later countries to adapt a single payer system. They wanted to get it right and not repeat the mistakes of other countries, yet they wanted their system to work for their country. So they put together a group of medical doctors, hospital and health care administrators, and sent them to about six or seven different countries to examine their health care delivery system up close and personal.

This group went into the hospitals and talked to the doctors, the nurses, the patients, and administrators. They met with the key government officials in charge of health care ad-ministry. They observed operations, acute care wards and all aspects of health care delivery. They made notes of all of their findings noting the good and bad. When they were all done, them came back to Taiwan, with their reports and sat down to devise a plan taking from the best of what they saw, while minimizing the bad.

That is how Taiwan did it. Now why can't we do the same? Why can't we go to Norway, and Sweden, France, Germany and Great Britain, and do the same. Find all the holes in our system, and devise a plan to remedy the ills of our system. Is it a big undertaking. You betcha. Can it be done. Of course it can. The only thing lacking is the will to do it.

The reason we don't have the will is because the healthcare, insurance, and pharmaceutical companies call the shots in our country and have been successful in making health care a political issue and dividing Americans, who would otherwise insist on it's implementation if they had the real facts instead of all the fear mongering promoted by their PR firms hired to cause decention among us. They know just how to do it. They know exactly how to keep us divided and the maintain the status quo for the corporations.

This.

ScoopLV · 10-15-2015, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by modhatter

That is how Taiwan did it. Now why can't we do the same?

Because we're not Taiwan. Taiwan is one of the best countries on the planet. I cannot think of a nation that is more grounded in the realistic governmental approach of "What works? What doesn't? Let's implement that which works and cast aside that which doesn't" than Taiwan.

That and the fact we spend more on defense* than the next 10 biggest-spenders combined.

* We should be honest with ourselves and rename it the Department of Offense. A sword is different than a shield, after all.

qingguy · 10-12-2016, 12:07 PM

Received an email from my insurance agent telling me to plan on a 20% increase in my rates and I'll have to select a new plan again as the plan I'm currently on won't be available next year. I'm losing count but I think since Obama told me if I liked my plan I could keep it I've had to change plans 4 maybe 5 times now. The Dr. I was told I could keep I've had to change twice and I think with this new price increase I'm probably coming close to 3x what my premium was when he delivered the great news. I've lost track of how much our deductibles have increased. Even Slick Willie thinks this is crazy!