Health Care is a hot potato in American Politics. The problem is literally quality of life. A problem this deep requires a deeper response. Any true solution begins with the question: “What is the right thing to do?”
Insurance companies are demanding that the insured assume a portion of the cost because there is no other control. Ultimately, prices are negotiated before service is performed. Crass and harsh as it may sound, medical care is still a market. That is why insurance companies issue price schedules. It is up to the patient (customer) to see that the doctors office or hospital (vendor) manages affairs efficiently.
So we fix the system with lists. Lists are still being taught. You cannot have a program without a list. This idea is so simple, we all think it is the answer to our problems. Yet, when we are faced with a terrible situation, the lists thrown at us overwhelm. We have lists of surgeries, of drugs, of side effects (which we have to recognize), of costs, of options, of interest rates, of doctors, of other practitioners, all of which is compounded by a list of symptoms that so overwhelmed our personal system to threaten our very quality of life, and cause us to seek help. Remember, we are expected to remove emotion for our current actions. Now is when the negotiations matter most, and when we should rely on our insurance companies’ list of costs. Unfortunately, they are not allowed into the examination room.
Thus, the answer is to have an insurance system for the basically reasonable, with copays. Those of a less litigious nature will follow the system, like lemmings. So be it. But for the extremes, and we know there will be some, we need reform. Doctors are trusted with great responsibility, and thus can make some extremely bad mistakes. The answer here is loser pays. The method to separate the men from the boys is to induce stress. Loser pays, will make people much less susceptible to ambulance chaser lawyers.
And so, we arrive at two critical answers to health care, that have nothing to do with doctors or hospitals, on the surface. However, politics is rarely about the surface. The under currents are our education system and our legal system. Each is driving health care costs up in exponential ways. Fixing each will change the philosophy we live by. We need to return to a place where we all understand what we are asking others to endure. We need to change the way we raise our young, and resolve our conflicts. Enact tort reform and our health care system will right itself.
Loading ...
May 7th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Tort reform is a major requirement for our health system even if we get stuck with ’single-payer’ because it is driving the costs at least 30% and maybe 50% higher than they should be. I have posted an item (now pending) on health which includes a proposal on how to reform the tort system as well as dealing with drug costs and insurance cost/availability.
I would ask any of you interested in this area to read and comment on it
July 11th, 2009 at 11:44 am
We all seem to agree that health care costs are too high, so less people particpate and quality of care is weighed in medical decision because of high costs. So the root problem is the cost and yet no one seems to be able answer what is the true cost of health care. How much does it take to bring a product or service to market?
The key decision makers are the pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and providers, the insurance companies and our government. The consumer, or free market have been pushed out. So let us ask our congressmen and women to change the laws so that these industries must publish their prices and their plan design strategies. This will allow the free market, the consumer to dictate cost and open up competition. It will be a key solution in health care reform if cost is the key problem. Isn’t this how the other successful areas of businesses run? I want to add that there are those within these companies who feel and are acting responsible in this manner. They are finding it difficult because their competition is not obligate to be transparency. So if our government wants to be involved then change the laws that allow for the lack of pricing disclosure and mandate pricing and product transparency.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
While I agree there needs to be an overhaul of the of the medical system in this country, socilized medicine is not the answer. Operations that cost a quarter of a million dollars are ridiculous when you consider the time involved and then one particular case that I know of the patient died. I think a lot of the proplem is there are to many doctors that are in the business strictly for the money. There use to be doctors that were there becaused they cared, sort of like some of the older school teachers, they certainly weren’t there for the money. Some of the old doctors and school teacher really cared about their Patients/pupils.
Back to socialized medicine if the people that want it would only take look at the countries that have it, there is no way they could recommend it for any one else. And by fact that the politicians don’t want it for their own personal use tells the story of what they really think about it. We don’t need socialism in this country in any form let alone medicine.