Fixing Healthcare
Posted 07-22-2010 at 08:00 AM by VT_Alum
Any doctor will tell you that the wasteful spending in our current system all stems from greed/corruption charges (by doctors) and wasteful spending (by patients) as a direct result of our system involving a 3rd party payer. This meaning that you pay for Insurance through premiums (or are given it free through medicare), but after that you are not responsible for ever seeing what anything costs.
Actually, it usually isn't even greed - but just pressures from a business model to keep their practices afloat. This gives incentives for Doctors to run more expensive tests to get a larger check. Example: if generic test ABC costs Medicare, or your insurance $50, while test XYZ costs them $2,000 of which the doctor gets a larger chunk... even the most ethical of physicians realize that they are a business and if there is no harm done to the patient, they are going to push for the more expensive procedure even if it is of no additional benefit (gray area comes in when XYZ is only maybe 1/100th better than ABC... then how do you make those decisions? That's another story though)
On the patients side things are even worse. Lets say you are going to the doctors office and he just got a new machine to test for allergies or asthma in his office locally so you can get results asap. Back to the other point (doctor fronted $100,000 for the machine and wants it used so he can get his money back for it). So you hear that everyone in the office is being tested for allergies and dammit you pay insurance and you should get the test too (despite having absolutely no reason to need the tests. Your insurance gets bills, doctor gets his money and the cycle continues.
Sounds normal... maybe... but lets compare this to something else that is a lot like health - Food. Everyone needs food to survive and eating good or bad foods can have different health effects on people. Now lets say the food industry started working like insurance and you pay into the system and then a 3rd party purchases food for you. Everyone is going to run around demanding lobster for dinner every night increasing the cost of the entire system. People will get used to their lobster and one day when the system is trying to be "fixed" or overhauled they'll cry bloody foul if their lobster is taken away.
People need to start accepting some responsibility for their own health and it's costs and we really need to move away from this 3rd party system. My main problem with this Obamacare is that he is pushing us even deeper into a 3rd party payment system that will only increase this level of wastefulness down the line.
Not suggesting I know the correct answers... some say privatizing, like what Bush wanted to do with social security, where a family pays into a pot and uses the pot of money for health related costs... some say requiring deductibles that EVERYONE pays no matter who you are, so you'll think twice about getting that $10,000 MRI if you are footing $1,000 for it and maybe you'll just opt for the X-ray that could easily find the problem for you.
Fact is... if you really sit back and look at what you pay for insurance, are you getting your money's worth? I know at my company, we pay $1,792 a month (well employer pays most of that) for our coverage. Being in our mid to late 20's with a 1 year old we require VERY little in terms of health related costs. I can't help but see $21,000 a year going into the system to help pay for all this wasteful spending and wonder wtf is going on?
I know someday maybe I'll need a huge check to pay for a heart transplant... or cancer treatment... but shit, over my working career (40 years) I estimate that insurance companies will get between $800,000-1,200,000 in payments from my employer and myself into this plan.
What exactly am I getting for that? Good to know I have that MRI machine standing by whenever I need it... kind of like getting Lobster for dinner every night
REMOVE THE FUCKING 3rd PARTY PAYMENT SYSTEM... if you want to keep it for those on welfare... fine, but 99% of people shouldn't get to select from a plate of expensive treatments when they go to the doctor for a routine check-up.
Actually, it usually isn't even greed - but just pressures from a business model to keep their practices afloat. This gives incentives for Doctors to run more expensive tests to get a larger check. Example: if generic test ABC costs Medicare, or your insurance $50, while test XYZ costs them $2,000 of which the doctor gets a larger chunk... even the most ethical of physicians realize that they are a business and if there is no harm done to the patient, they are going to push for the more expensive procedure even if it is of no additional benefit (gray area comes in when XYZ is only maybe 1/100th better than ABC... then how do you make those decisions? That's another story though)
On the patients side things are even worse. Lets say you are going to the doctors office and he just got a new machine to test for allergies or asthma in his office locally so you can get results asap. Back to the other point (doctor fronted $100,000 for the machine and wants it used so he can get his money back for it). So you hear that everyone in the office is being tested for allergies and dammit you pay insurance and you should get the test too (despite having absolutely no reason to need the tests. Your insurance gets bills, doctor gets his money and the cycle continues.
Sounds normal... maybe... but lets compare this to something else that is a lot like health - Food. Everyone needs food to survive and eating good or bad foods can have different health effects on people. Now lets say the food industry started working like insurance and you pay into the system and then a 3rd party purchases food for you. Everyone is going to run around demanding lobster for dinner every night increasing the cost of the entire system. People will get used to their lobster and one day when the system is trying to be "fixed" or overhauled they'll cry bloody foul if their lobster is taken away.
People need to start accepting some responsibility for their own health and it's costs and we really need to move away from this 3rd party system. My main problem with this Obamacare is that he is pushing us even deeper into a 3rd party payment system that will only increase this level of wastefulness down the line.
Not suggesting I know the correct answers... some say privatizing, like what Bush wanted to do with social security, where a family pays into a pot and uses the pot of money for health related costs... some say requiring deductibles that EVERYONE pays no matter who you are, so you'll think twice about getting that $10,000 MRI if you are footing $1,000 for it and maybe you'll just opt for the X-ray that could easily find the problem for you.
Fact is... if you really sit back and look at what you pay for insurance, are you getting your money's worth? I know at my company, we pay $1,792 a month (well employer pays most of that) for our coverage. Being in our mid to late 20's with a 1 year old we require VERY little in terms of health related costs. I can't help but see $21,000 a year going into the system to help pay for all this wasteful spending and wonder wtf is going on?
I know someday maybe I'll need a huge check to pay for a heart transplant... or cancer treatment... but shit, over my working career (40 years) I estimate that insurance companies will get between $800,000-1,200,000 in payments from my employer and myself into this plan.
What exactly am I getting for that? Good to know I have that MRI machine standing by whenever I need it... kind of like getting Lobster for dinner every night
REMOVE THE FUCKING 3rd PARTY PAYMENT SYSTEM... if you want to keep it for those on welfare... fine, but 99% of people shouldn't get to select from a plate of expensive treatments when they go to the doctor for a routine check-up.
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