"Researchers have already cast much darkness on the subject, and if they continue their investigations, we shall soon know nothing at all about it."
-Mark Twain
Cost and reality have a tenuous association at best...in any consumer transaction (see: diamonds).
America's highest paid CEO runs United Health Group...Stephen Hemsley made 102 MILLION FREAKIN DOLLARS!!! last year (source= Forbes)...so any discussion about health care cost and reality is already warped beyond recognition.
"I am the one who knocks."- Heisenberg
"Researchers have already cast much darkness on the subject, and if they continue their investigations, we shall soon know nothing at all about it."
-Mark Twain
Eliminate Medicare/Medicaid and replace them with what, exactly?
Medicare has administrative costs three times lower than private insurance plans, so what's the problem?
Last edited by clocker; 05-28-2011 at 02:57 PM.
"I am the one who knocks."- Heisenberg
Last edited by j2k4; 05-28-2011 at 03:25 PM.
"Researchers have already cast much darkness on the subject, and if they continue their investigations, we shall soon know nothing at all about it."
-Mark Twain
I'd like to ask you non ideological questions, but I need to borrow from ideological arguments to ask the question.
I'm not going to question the argument that the USA has the best, or some might say worst, healthcare because the conclusion depends on what measurement is used.
It has been suggested that the USA has the most advanced healthcare in the world. The USA has produced a heck of a lot of technological and medical advancements. Certainly the rate of advancement has been phenomenal. While the private sector has played a big role in this, government funding has been very significant.
To the questions.
If it were left entirely to the private sector, the free market, and government funding wasn't part of the equation would we have the tech and medicinal advancements we have today?
Without third party insurance (private or government) picking up some of the tab, we had a $50k tab a while back and we had insurance, would there be enough patients able to afford treatment thus making the advancements in medicine profitable enough for the market to invest?
What would you do with those that really can't afford to see the doctor? If you answer the emergency room, how would you pay for it and how do you reconcile that with your pay cash ideal?
My point being, and I really want to keep ideology out of it, is that while paying cash may force doctors to charge less, I feel the revenue loss could hinder the incentive for advancement.
When I was a kid I was told "We do these things not because they're easy, but because they're hard"
Now all I hear is " I won't do anything unless there's something in it for me"
Here's my non-ideological answer:
The Doctor performs a service - for you - and you receive a bill for those services.
Costs should be a fraction of their current level, and they would be, had third-party payer never existed.
If you end up owing the Doctor, so what?
Nobody seems to have a problem carrying an auto loan or a mortgage, so you've got a medical balance, too.
Big deal.
I've dealt with this in this very forum on many other occasions - try a search.
"Researchers have already cast much darkness on the subject, and if they continue their investigations, we shall soon know nothing at all about it."
-Mark Twain
When I was a kid I was told "We do these things not because they're easy, but because they're hard"
Now all I hear is " I won't do anything unless there's something in it for me"
Without any proofs, I'm going to say we'd be at least as far, perhaps farther, but we'll never know, now...I don't see a way back, anymore, that doesn't involve a total collapse/default of the economic end of healthcare.
It's truly the most powerful constituency extant.
Put it this way:
Fixing the health-care "payment" crisis would be tantamount to a successful excision of lawyers from our congress.
Lawyer-politicians earn their pay by tying the system in knots only they can untie, and if they can't, they don't care, c'est la guerre'.
As to the rest, if there are no insurance companies, all of those problems disappear, or ebb to manageable levels.
"Researchers have already cast much darkness on the subject, and if they continue their investigations, we shall soon know nothing at all about it."
-Mark Twain
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