By Jack Lee
Someone recently pointed out to me that almost all voluntary plastic surgery procedures have remained roughly the same price for the last 7-8 years. I checked this out and found out that breast implant surgery is indeed just about what it was 7 years ago, I wondered, how could this be? The only conclusion I could come up with is, it was not covered by insurance. To raise the price of this type of surgery proportionately to "insurance covered" procedures would eliminate too many potential patients.
The vast majority of doctors are profit oriented people just like us and they will charge the most that they can, just like us. Insurance is obligated to insured people who demand essential care when they need it, unlike uninsured patients seeking a voluntary procedure who can take it or leave it, depending on the price. These are just the natural forces we are dealing with here.
I've long considered that it was basically frivolous lawsuits that drove up the cost of malpractice insurance and that cost was ultimately being passed along to you in the form of rising insurance premiums, along with inflation of course. But, apparently this isn't quite the whole story. It's also doctors raising their costs, as well as the insurance and then lawyers and inflation. That's 4 to1 against your pocket book. Hmmm... 4-1, and you wonder why you are not winning this fight? You just buy the best plan you can afford and then it always seems like it's too much with next year threatening to be much, much more.
If this sounds like a pitch for something like a single payer system, no way, I'm only identifying a persistent problem for your consideration. Maybe together we can figure out how to fix it? Without turning to socialized medicine!
Now that the state budget is passed the press is getting excited for socialized medecine. Search today's articles and you'll see all over how they are claiming it's "what the public wants." We need to make more arguments against the disaster of socialized medecine or in ten years we'll all be suffering.
How about health savings accounts? It lets consumers save up their own money for health issues, lets them pay cash, they can collect interest, and it will encourage better health decisions from them. With government health care, everyone considers it a free-for-all and soon I'm having to pay for the poor decisions of my neighbor. NO WAY!!!
Jack, when you get doen with these political ambitions wanting to be a member of a state government that gets nothing done, you should look at being more of an issue advocate. That could be your higher calling.
Dane
I checked this out and found out that breast implant surgery is indeed just about what it was 7 years ago, I wondered, how could this be?
Jack, your conclusion was probably a good one regarding the breast implant procedure. Nobody wants to price himself out of business...just ask union workers who demanded more and more 'till they shoved their own jobs right out of the country! But I think the lower price is also indicitive of what would happen in the whole industry if people were paying their own way. This "free" business is just a shell game anyway. We all pay dearly whether it comes out of our own pocket or the boss just pays us less so he can cover the cost of your insurance.
Another thing that has driven prices up is all of the newfangled equipment. When a doc only had a little hammer, a stethoscope and a few of those big popsicle sticks, and his staff was one nurse and maybe a receptionist, it didn't cost that much to run an office, especially if the office was in his house and his wife was the receptionist! Things have changed...big time. We benefit from all of it but it has to be paid for somehow.
The number of times people go to the doctor, and the things they go for, is over the top. We had to practically be dying when I was a kid before the doctor was called. Colds and flu were toughed out with hot water bottles, vicks plastered on your chest and hot tea with lemon...and we certainly didn't use the emergency room unless it was a real EMERGENCY! Even high fevers were treated in a cool bath first.
How about health savings accounts?
Fabulous idea! Right up there with personalized social security investment accounts!!! It's a tough sell and it's so sad. People have trouble wrapping their brains around the concept because their used to the idea of getting something for nothing...the old shell game.
I think the personal medical savings accounts idea is good. I also agree people use the doctors office for many frivilous reasons and they do it because they feel they want to get their monies worth from the insurance they pay or its because they don't pay anything, we do! I am going to explore medical savings accounts more and see how viable this would be.
Good comments all around, keep em coming in, we need a lot of ideas on this one!
Give me a break, like a working class person can save enough in a year in a health savings account for that $100,000 operation. Dream on...fantasy dwellers.
L.A. you raise a valid concern regarding that $100,000 operation. So, lets explore a little deeper into our proposal of a medical savings account....
Let's say everybody that can, uses a medical savings account, to pay for those routine office visits and short term prescription costs and this is reflected in a lower cost health insurance premium geared towards covering you only for catatrosphic medical events.
And lets also say we have a very minimal copay for all but the most indigent of Medical users, just to let them know it's not free...so don't abuse it.
One might safely conclude the net savings would be fairly substantial and that's a good start in the direction of affordable healthcare.
If you don't like this plan, then please tell us your idea.
Signed, Fantasy Dweller
DUH!!! As Jack has pointed out catastrophic insurance coverage would accompany the health savings account.
The fact that we have to have congress pass some kind of law to accomplish what adult individuals should already be doing on their own is a testiment to the juvinile mindset of way too many adults in America.
American adults spend tons of money on fancy cell phones, junk food, fast food, cigarettes, beer, booze, DVD's, CD's, casino fun, concerts, weekend fishing trips, hair and nails at the salon, massages, bikes, boats, motorcycles and a gazillion other unnecessary activities before they will bother to put a dime aside in case their kid falls out of a tree and breaks his arm. They think someone else should pay for those "not so fun" things.
It's time to demand that individuals grow up and behave responsibly when it comes to family responsibilities...including health care.
If we don't wake up and smell the coffee soon it won't be worth a persons time and expense to become a doctor anymore... and then insurance or savings accounts won't mean zot!
Signed, Fantasy Dweller II
Your plan sounds all nice and dandy but you forget that insurance companies are in the business of trying to find ways to NOT pay for your medical claims. Therefore, if you do save for the deductable and you file a claim for the catastraphic insurance for $100,000.00 there is a
good possiblity that your claim may be DENIED for reasons like pre-existing conditions. Then what is a person to do, fantasy dweller?
My plan is univeral healthcare coverage, it is the MORAL thing to do, to treat the sick and dying, not to find ways to deny them treatment.
We already have a government run health care plan that could be extended for everyone and it works, it is called MEDICARE.
...insurance companies are in the business of trying to find ways to NOT pay for your medical claims.
This is a flat out lie! Insurance companies are in business to make a profit just like every other person or business. Their business is insurance. They offer a product to the public and have done their best to adapt to the public's demand for total coverage. You try that without needing to question whether some of the claims are valid.
The non-paying public doesn't give a rip whether the system is abused because it doesn't come out of their back pockets. At least that's how it seems. When providers don't have to explain or justify expenses directly to the patient, when regulations and restrictions dictate care, and when every decision and billing goes through layers of disinterested bureaucratic paper pushers the system becomes ripe for fraud, waste and abuse. Attempts are made to eliminate these things but good luck in such a maze.
you file a claim for the catastraphic insurance for $100,000.00 there is a
good possiblity that your claim may be DENIED for reasons like pre-existing conditions.
This is also a flat out lie. Any claim for that amount of money might need to be approved prior to surgery and it might be that the insurance you have doesn't cover everything BUT you would know that up front AND it is my understanding that insurance coverage may not be denied for pre-existing conditions, although you might pay a slightly higher premium. I have a pre-existing condition and I was able to get insurance.
My plan is univeral healthcare coverage, it is the MORAL thing to do
Ahhh...there finally is the truth. It is a universal truth for all liberals. You cannot stand that anyone might have to suffer. You cannot stand that some have more than others and you cannot stand that people have to make hard decisions...and so you, actual fantasy dweller, set about to make the world different than it is. You keep thinking that some new law, some new system, some new wrinkle in an old system will make the pain and suffering go away. IT WILL NOT. Todays solutions are tomorrows problems and when human beings try to fix the world with big complicated solutions it will inevitably make things MUCH WORSE. This is the all encompassing truth...are you ready...people are going to suffer and face difficult choices whether or not you screw up the works with controls and regulation and universal systems. Your need to feel better will not be fulfilled in this way but you will pretend that it does and your conscience will be cleansed forever. If this really matters to you I recommend volunteer work or donations to some private place that provides medical care to those who cannot afford it. it will be time and money better spent.
We already have a government run health care plan that could be extended for everyone and it works, it is called MEDICARE.
Like social security, Medicare is on a fast track to collide with a brick wall. The boomers are coming...the boomers are coming...the boomers are coming and the work force to pay for their MEDICARE is a very small group...and many of them have poor work habits and skills. Some of them still live with Mom and Dad!! Rotsa ruck!
You are on the right track though. I suggest you look at the system your congresspersons have. That will give you a good idea of the kind of coverage they prefer...the good Senator Clinton will have that coverage for LIFE on our DIMES!!
Dear L.A., actually your system has people being denied treatment too, surely you must have read some critiques or news reports about how socialized medicine works, right?
Certain types of high risk operations are denied to people based on their age, for instance many are cut off from needed surgery after age 60 because the productive life of the person to society is now limited, so it's not cost effective to the government.
Socialized medical treatments are based on financial reasons as well as need...how compassionate is that?
This is what happens when you turn over your medical system to the government . They prioritize, wants, needs and cost effective proceedures into a yes or no for what you need and your needs may not be the same as the state's.
In other cases you may need a life saving operation and you are approved, but you could die waiting in a long line with others who need it too. I have witnessed this and I know it's true in at least three socialized med countries I've checked, the UK and Canada in particular and the evidence is out there to support this claim.
Did you know we have more MRI machines in Chico than Canada has in the province of Alberta? It all has to do with economics, bean counters and government priorities.
Now if you have a mere broken leg, you are going to get great treatment and you will be in and out in day! But, if it's cancer, serious heart trouble, well, you could be in trouble and die waiting for treatment. This is why so many in this latter situation come to the USA, even though it is expensive.
When you think of compassionate care, look at your currrent system and see the indigent and elderly that consume vast resources of free medical treatment....yes, we do that for them all the time. We provide free care for illegals too, we care for anybody with an urgent need without regard to money or status, it's the law! That's pretty compassionate L.A., but what do I know, I'm just a fantasy dweller.