RRC Archives

Health care comes up every time we elect a new prez and nothing gets done every time. I'm betting on more of the same.

I have been working in a rural hospital for about 16 years and I can tell you that most of the US's rural hospitals are not getting rich. To answer the question Crankmas brought up is difficult because there are so many reasons for the increases in healthcare costs. Here are a few:

1. Overuse of healthcare resources in the last 1-2 years of life. This covers everything from temporary life prolonging treatments of all kinds of terminal disease as well as extended treatment of patients in nursing homes with little to no quality of life.
2. The legal environment causes practitioners to perform test that are not necessary to avoid the possibility of legal action.
3. Uninsured or poorly insured patients require all the same treatments that are listed above and are unable to pay, so the price gets passed on to everyone else.
4. The need for even the smallest hospitals to purchase the latest 64 slice CT scanner, MRI machine or laboratory equipement to remain competitive. The expense of these machine must be passed along to the consumer.
5. Lots of well paid experts who provide all the services.

I don't see this thing getting fixed any time soon and I don't have the slightest idea how to fix it without significantly decreasing the level of healthcare here in the US.

The Sherpa wrote: 2. The legal environment causes practitioners to perform test that are not necessary to avoid the possibility of legal action.

And don't forget the sky high malpractice rates caused by lawsuits (both frivilolous and legit). This is a huge part of our healthcare problem.

What does the Dem's plan do to address this? Nothing - they are in bed with the trial lawyers! If they put meaningful legislation in place to remove laywers from health care - that would be change we can believe in.

The Sherpa wrote:1. Overuse of healthcare resources in the last 1-2 years of life. This covers everything from temporary life prolonging treatments of all kinds of terminal disease as well as extended treatment of patients in nursing homes with little to no quality of life.

Making a decision about when to discontinue care because of its perceived effectiveness or worth is a mighty slippery slope. For every diagnosis of "3 months to live" where the patient lives for 3 days there is another where the patient lives for 3 years.

Edited to add... I'm not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

And don't forget the sky high malpractice rates caused by lawsuits (both frivilolous and legit).

The success rate of medical malpractice lawsuits is about 25% based on lawsuits occurring in the 75 largest counties in the US according to the Bureau of Justice statistics. Although this % is much lower than other tort cases, the amount of compensation awarded is significanly higher. The opportunity for a HUGE payout is certainly enticing thus driving up the occurrances of these frivolous cases.

I am certainly for holding people accountable for their actions but hearing some of the cases that are being brought up is baffling even to the most cynical.

I don't have the exact % but the number of tests being ordered because of the CYA attitude of the doctor is on the increase and it's difficult to blame them. I have several friends who are in the medical profession and many of them have a standard battery of tests that are ordered for all new patients they see.

There are several factors driving the cost of health care up, there's not a one thing cures all fix to this problem.

bcombs wrote:

The Sherpa wrote:For every diagnosis of "3 months to live" where the patient lives for 3 days there is another where the patient lives for 3 years.

Nice try. More like, "For every diagnosis of 3 months to live 1% live 1 week and 1% live 3 years, the other 98% live about 3 months.

Socialized Medicine critics have stated that those countries having socialized medicine have seen significant rises in the wait times for doctor's appointments. Based on a study run by Merritt Hawkins that measured the average appointment wait times for family practices and 4 other specialties, here are some of the results:

Boston: 49.5 days
Philadelphia: 27 days
Houston: 23.4 days
New York: 19.2 days
Seattle: 14.2 days
Atlanta: 11.2 days

Sure, there are mitigating circumstances on why Boston has the highest appointment wait times but it is interesting that 3 years ago, they pioneered health care reform by mandating that residents get health insurance and requireing employers, insurers, and taxpayers to chip in the cost of this program.

make cigarette smoking illegal

I think that healthcare should be based upon achievement and privilege. For example: a person born into a wealthy and successful family should receive the best possible care; a person wealthy but who has generated their own wealth or is moderately wealthy -great care; an educated person with a phd who is working at a good career - good care; a person with a masters working at a good career - pretty good care; a 4 year degree or less working at a good career - okay health care; high school and underemployed - some healthcare; unemployed and poor - no healthcare. This system would encourage two things: !. People would be strongly encouraged to succeed and to maintain their status and 2. it would help to generate an educated class of people who will work to succeed while slowly depopulating unproductive people.

Saxman wrote:

bcombs wrote:

The Sherpa wrote:For every diagnosis of "3 months to live" where the patient lives for 3 days there is another where the patient lives for 3 years.

Nice try. More like, "For every diagnosis of 3 months to live 1% live 1 week and 1% live 3 years, the other 98% live about 3 months.

Sax, don't be bending up my made up statistics... besides, you said the same thing anyway. I said for every 1 weeker there is a 3 year...er(?).... both are the 1% you speak of.