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'Perfect storm' brewing in health insurance: As premiums skyrocket, millions face losing coverage
Seattle Post Intelligencer ^ | May 20, 2002 | LARRY LIPMAN

Posted on 05/20/2002 1:09:58 AM PDT by sarcasm

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To: sarcasm
millions of workers and retirees will find themselves uninsured or paying a greater share of their health insurance costs.

LOL, The unions will never allow their minions to pay more. Every time our local teachers union contract comes up they sqquak if they have to may a measy 1% more of their contribution.

41 posted on 05/20/2002 10:49:10 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Mamzelle
Here's something you won't see added to the causes of the rising cost of medical care :
The sudden uptick of women in medicine has led to a DECLINE in the numbers of---
1) Hard-driving medical specialists such as surgeons, neurosurgeons, OB/gyns who still deliver babies, and other specialties that involve unpredictable schedules and great physical demands.
Interestingly, skyrocketing malpractice premiums lead to the lack of the same sorts of specialties. These are high-risk medical professionals who don't make any more than the other professionals.
Women want predictable work hours, and a surgeon on call just won't live that kind of life. Not to mention that a higher number of women docs just plain quit if they happen to marry another doc...

Besides the incredibly silly stereotyping going on here (which unfortunately does not surprise me), it is the decided lack of solid reasoning (which again does not surprise) which causes me to respond

Please demonstrate (using facts instead of hyperbole) how an increase in women in medicine is the cause of a decline in "hard driving specialists". You give zero evidence to back up your statement, but provide ample evidence of another cause...skyrocketing malpractice costs.

Do you really believe that an cardiology specialist makes no more than the doctor at your local HMO. Get real. click here for salary info. It took less than 1 minute to find this information. If you don't like that survey try this one. Maybe you'll like this one.

Your last point (if there is indeed a point here) that women docs "just plain quit" if they marry another doc needs substantiation, which of course you studiously avoid providing.

The reason (IMHO) that we won't see your reasons added to the costs is because they're not reasons at all, just your own personal opinion/agenda. I think we have learned more about you from your post as opposed to being enlightened about anything having to do with the health care debate.

42 posted on 05/20/2002 10:59:51 AM PDT by dmz
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To: all
The biggest problem from my perspective is Third Party payments. If healthcare was governed by free market forces instead of the current system many of the current problems could be averted. If people had to buy health insurance the way they had to buy car insurance, they would see what it really costs for medical procedures, and probably make wiser decisions about their medical care when having to face reality.

The problem is healthcare coverage is seen as an entitlement, so free market forces will never be allowed into play.

43 posted on 05/20/2002 11:03:13 AM PDT by caa26
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To: dmz
I didn't say cardiology--cardiologists happen to be internists, not surgeons. Cardiovascular surgery remains well-compensated. It is general surgery that is the hardest hit in the declines in applications to residency programs. The GS is the one who saves your life in the ER in many trauma centers, generally the one who gets your wrecked body in the OR after the ER stabilizes him.

Women don't want to go there...hours and demands too high. Women now make up over 50% of new med school attendees. Women prefer the cushy office or quieter hospital specialties. Internist specialties, gasmen, that ever-lucrative opthalms. GS's don't make those big bucks, either. Neither do the neuros, who have mal premiums in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in some states to contend with. We already know what's happening to OBs who deliver babies...there's fewer.

Women docs often marry men docs, and when they do, they often retire "temporarily" to tend to children. Then can afford to--

Sterotyping? Perhaps. Just observing, and reading about the alarming drop in GSs. How many female general surgs do YOU know? I don't know any. How many lady anesthesiologists? I happen to know several.

I'll play some more stereotyping. Gen surgs are a particular personality type (so are neuros), an arrogant sort that aren't too feminine . Most loved they are when they sew you back together again, but are often abrasive in other contexts. And, no, I haven't the stats to back that up. Just some experience.

Ask your local hosp how easy it is lately to get new gen surgs on staff to answer emergency call.

44 posted on 05/20/2002 11:11:22 AM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: sarcasm
I know how difficult it is to afford health insurnace. I've got a number of health problems that puts me into a "high risk" group. I wish that my health insurance premiums only went up 15% annually. Over the last 5 years, my premiums have gone up by at least 20% each year! In fact, next year, I know that my premium will be more expensive than my home mortgage payments! Thank G-d I can afford it... At least for now...

Mark

45 posted on 05/20/2002 11:16:04 AM PDT by MarkL
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To: Mamzelle;Landru
...An entire "compliance" industry of lawyering has sprung up to try to help docs figure out how to obey laws that don't make much sense to anyone, ...

That is an excellent point. I am intimately familiar with that BS as I once did Utilization Review--what a crock! We have a huge number of government bureaucrats trying to cut costs, while an entire industry has grown up trying to maximize reimbursement.

In the meantime, the health consumer is the loser.

46 posted on 05/20/2002 11:27:58 AM PDT by scholar
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To: Landru;Mudboy Slim;Sultan88
The Canadians can finally stay home for own healthcare, eh?

Yeah, Hillary Care will make sure that we are all EQUAL. No one will have decent healthcare. The Socialist Rules and Regs will make sure of that.

47 posted on 05/20/2002 11:51:11 AM PDT by scholar
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To: scholar
"In the meantime, the health consumer is the loser."

HA!!
~and broke & unhealthy as we've ever been, at that.
HA!

...just *nuts*.

48 posted on 05/20/2002 11:55:41 AM PDT by Landru
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To: dmz
You seem awfully grumpy, upon rereading your post. Do you take unimportant online quarrelling so very seriously? I have some humor for you...

How do you hide a ten-dollar bill from an orthopedic surgeon? (You hide it in his medical journals)

How do you hide a ten-dollar bill from a radiologist? (You hide it on the patient)

How do you hide a ten-dollar bill from a plastic surgeon? (You can't hide a ten-dollar bill from a plastic surgeon.)

It requires some familiarity with the various specialist sterotypes to laugh at such humor, but orthopods *are* known for disliking academics, just as internists *are* known for being compulsive anal-retentives, and women *are* known to prefer the tidier specialties such as radiology, anesthesiology, opthalmology the various internal medicine specialties.

If you need general surgeons, you need general surgeons. If half of the new medical school grads (women) veer away from that specialty, then there will be fewer general surgeons. Add to that other pressures, and there's no dressmaker (dressmaker?) waiting for you in the OR when you crash your car.

49 posted on 05/20/2002 12:08:04 PM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: Mamzelle
Then it's waaayyyyy past time to scrap such a system.

Is this a great country or what?

50 posted on 05/20/2002 12:38:49 PM PDT by Dick Bachert
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To: liberallarry
>>>Now it's all breaking down and nobody knows how to fix it<<

Nobody that is except Steve Forbes. Check out forbes.com in the subject...... Steve knows and his ideas work in practice.

51 posted on 05/20/2002 1:25:32 PM PDT by bert
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To: Mamzelle
not grumpy (at least not usually) - stereotyping is just one of those things that really gets me going...

and no, taking these online quarrels too seriously is not something that would show up on my profile

52 posted on 05/20/2002 1:56:48 PM PDT by dmz
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To: liberallarry
realize that medicine is a scarce resource - with the best going to the brightest, the luckiest, and the wealthiest.

As opposed to going to the politically connected, which is the Democrat goal.

53 posted on 05/20/2002 2:06:03 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: SteamshipTime
You misunderstood the thrust of my post. At the current time, the fact that we have the lawyers suing everyone in sight and malpractice insurance going out of sight, I was right to insist that a political solution is imperative.
54 posted on 05/20/2002 3:43:17 PM PDT by RichardW
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To: Billy_bob_bob
Absolutely. I have a chance to put it to the test. I'm trying to sell my community on that right now - to promote cheaper ways of taking care of oneself, ways that are affordable to everyone. I'll let you know if I make any progress. Thank God I'm not alone. There are many, many people in the health care industry who are aware this must be done. Noone is sure how to do it, however.
55 posted on 05/20/2002 4:05:25 PM PDT by liberallarry
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To: SteamshipTime
Market economics have pushed down the price for any complex technology you can name

True. But it takes time and - as someone else pointed out - the cutting edge will always be beyond the means of the average person.

... Solace for this uncomfortable, inescapable fact of existence can be had, among other places, in the teachings of Christ.

Solace can be found in many ways. You find yours in Christ. I find mine in intellectual and aesthetic exploration. There are many other - often much more destructive - ways.

What is clear is that a successful society must offer hope of a better lifetime - in this lifetime - to a sizeable segment of the population - or their children.

56 posted on 05/20/2002 4:17:15 PM PDT by liberallarry
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To: bimbo
The only solution I can see is a Market Oriented Solution: ELIMINATE THE 3RD PARTY PAYERS

You're no bimbo! This is exactly correct...

We already have socialized medicine in this country, and it is destroying all medicine with it. It's called Medicare. The government tries to fix 10,000 prices in 3000 counties across the United States. Doesn't work, never has, never will. Don't think doctors are getting a piece of these double digit increases in insurance premiums, either. Here in Montana, Blue Cross is raising cost of some products 10-15%, and did the same last year. Physicians overall saw no increase in their reimbursement either year, and for some physicians reimbursement has gone down every year for the last 8 years.

57 posted on 05/20/2002 4:29:54 PM PDT by Jesse
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To: parsifal
From Brittanica: Shark malpractice lawyers are scavengers. They feed off the remains of inept and sloppy medical providers. In doing so, they perform a vital service for the ocean community by removing sick and unhealthy doctors from the environment.

Whatever you want to believe is fine with me but frivolous malpractice suits cost US untold millions every year. Honest lawyers are there for when a malpractice suit NEEDS to be filed but they are way out-numbered by the sharks.

58 posted on 05/20/2002 8:45:03 PM PDT by this_ol_patriot
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To: this_ol_patriot
"Honest lawyers are there for when a malpractice suit NEEDS to be filed but they are way out-numbered by the sharks."

I admit that there are some lawyers who possess the same scruples as your average businessman and will do anything for a buck, but most lawyers are more professional than you realize. Malpractice suits are not easy to win. Most of the time the lousy doctors and hospitals get away with it. parsy

59 posted on 05/21/2002 3:45:50 PM PDT by parsifal
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