Medical costs

[goeduck]

But you're saying we should stop helping anybody, because of the abuse of a few.

If we help those less fortunate to give them a helping hand to help pull them up from their dire circumstances, they have a good chance of becoming productive citizens and not a burden.

A Few? The abuse by the able bodied is by way more than by “a few”?

Too many today look at a helping hand as a crutch and continue to use it. I understand what you are trying to say, but there are more and more able bodied people these days that have no intention of being productive members of society and they are abusing your helping hand

 

[Redneck in training]

I don't ever remember reading in the constitution about guaranteed healthcare.

There is nothing in about roads, electric grid and power generation, internet and in general infrastructure in constitutionm either. Can you imagine life without those things. There are certain things necessary for society to function. Health care is not only moral obligation but one of those thing necessary for society to function.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

There is nothing in about roads, electric grid and power generation, internet and in general infrastructure in constitutionm either. Can you imagine life without those things. There are certain things necessary for society to function. Health care is not only moral obligation but one of those thing necessary for society to function.

Lots of things we need that are not guaranteed, like food for instance.
We have healthcare, it exists. Its not a right. Same with health insurance. It's not an infrastructure, so not a good comparison.

Health Insurance and healthcare are too tied together. It needs to be decoupled. I should be able to get price quotes from different facilities for a medical procedure, and then go to the one that i prefer based on cost, facility reputation, dr reputation, etc.., and my insurance should have an amount that they cover for that procedure.

Can you imagine if your auto insurance company told you who you could buy a car from, in their dealer network, with their prenegotiated prices. I guess some auto ins companies do for repairs, or try to force you to use certain shops, not one i would want.

I had a medical procedure today, will be interesting in what the billed cost will be vs the negotiated cost that insurance will cover. I still pay thousands a yr in health insurance so that i have a max that im obligated to pay. Thats what insurance is for, its a gamble, for me and for the insurance company. Most yrs the ins company makes out, thats how they make money. But one yr, having that insurance saved me.

Health care costs, the topic of this thread, needs to be made affordable. Separate it from insurance,
Competition between medical providers within regulations,
Limits on malpractice lawsuits,
Regulations on medicine costs.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

I wholeheartedly agree we need to decouple health insurance and health care, in fact I would prefer to get rid of health insurance altogether!

Having a healthy population is a huge resource and part of the basic infrastructure needed to keep our country strong and healthy.

Right now I think our health care system is more geared to fixing us instead of keeping us healthy, that's how they make their money. I think if we handed healthcare over to the government(us) simply because of costs alone we would make the transition to being more proactive instead of reactive in our health care system. I also feel it would force the costs down immediately.

I know a lot of you will say "who the heII wants the government screwing up the health care system", but it's already screwed up with out of control,costs!
If government health care is good enough for the poor, elderly, armed services, and even our spoiled politicians shouldn't it be good enough for all of us?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Unfortunately, turning it over to the govt is the worse thing to do. They have proven to be inept at running anything, especially efficiently.

Stop electing politicians who are getting filthy rich on backroom deals is the first step. Term limits is probably the first step.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

Ah yes the politicians, didn't want to go there or might never back to health care!

Term limits should be a given!

But you know what they call 1000 politicians on the bottom of the ocean?

A good start

 

[LD1]

Don't really want to turn it political either, but why do we really need term limits?

Senators, representatives, governor's, mayor's, etc. They all serve a fixed term and the go for re-election. That's their limit. If people are happy with the service they are providing, they get to continue serving. Why force out good politicians just because of some "term limit"?
And if the people are unhappy. Vote them out when their term is up. That's their "limit"

 

[rustyshakelford]

Don't really want to turn it political either, but why do we really need term limits?

Senators, representatives, governor's, mayor's, etc. They all serve a fixed term and the go for re-election. That's their limit. If people are happy with the service they are providing, they get to continue serving. Why force out good politicians just because of some "term limit"?
And if the people are unhappy. Vote them out when their term is up. That's their "limit"

You have career politicians that serve themselves. Their constituents don't know any better and keep voting them in. Things turn stale after a while and need to be replaced with fresh.

Check out Sheila Jackson lee from Houston. She's an absolute idiot and disgrace but her constituents think she's the best thing since fried chicken and sliced bred

Brett

 

[Dadnatron]

The reason is simply that the MD contracts with the facility. There is a facility fee ie you pay for the ER which covers Nurse, support, supplies, etc. And then there is what is called the 'Professional fee' which is the MD's part of the charge.

This was instilled long ago by most hospitals because the facility fee was so lucrative. The Docs are paid separately and most often are simply 'private contractors' with the Hospital, not direct employees. If you were to sue... you would have to sue each separately rather than get a 2 for 1.

I know it is frustrating, and my practice bills what is called a 'Global' bill, in which there is a SINGLE bill, essentially paid to the MD who then pays a % to the facility.

The real travisty is going to ANY hospital for ANY reason other than true life or death. You will pay more than 10X for the same care by the same MD if you see them in the ER rather than a 'Med Check' type facility.

In fact, I have a patient, whom I saw a couple weeks ago and recommended doing a specific procedure. She said it would cost her $6200 at the hospital. I told her to stop by my front office and get a 'Cash Quote' from my office before she left. I said if it is any more than 1/10th the cost she paid for the first 'In Hospital' procedure (same thing I recommended repeating) I'd do it for free. I was notified today that she is on my schedule for tomorrow with a quote just over 1/20th of what the hospital would charge if I did it there.

Obamacare was a joke... and cost far more than it helped. It didn't cause this, but rather than address it, it pretended to 'do something' by looking at the number of people who 'have insurance' rather than can get medical care. Its like handing out empty plates and declaring you have cured World Hunger.

 

[cqaigy2]

I wholeheartedly agree we need to decouple health insurance and health care, in fact I would prefer to get rid of health insurance altogether!

Having a healthy population is a huge resource and part of the basic infrastructure needed to keep our country strong and healthy.

Right now I think our health care system is more geared to fixing us instead of keeping us healthy, that's how they make their money. I think if we handed healthcare over to the government(us) simply because of costs alone we would make the transition to being more proactive instead of reactive in our health care system. I also feel it would force the costs down immediately.

I know a lot of you will say "who the heII wants the government screwing up the health care system", but it's already screwed up with out of control,costs!
If government health care is good enough for the poor, elderly, armed services, and even our spoiled politicians shouldn't it be good enough for all of us?

I agree, we need to do something about the current situation in regards health insurance and health care. They're two different things with two different priorities, one to make money and lots of it, the other is or should be to provide for prevention, which seems to reduce the overall cost of health issues and for more serious catastrophic issues. On the insurance side, it might be better if one could buy it from anywhere, instead of just the ones offered for the state you reside in, maybe that would be a more competitive market and possibly bring the rates down. As someone has already mentioned, insurance used to be for catastrophic health issues, that was the first type i had. I got it to because i was not technically old enough to not be responsible for myself and wanted to make sure my parents would not have to assume a large medical bill.

Another thing i just found out is called a medical bill advocate, and or claims assistant, not sure exactly what they do, but looked like look over your bill for errors and such. Apparently medical billing is prone to a whole slue of errors, and the larger the bill, the more likely there are errors, or even fraudulent charges.