Health costs scare us toward socialism

PittsburghLive.com / Pittsburgh Tribune Review ^ | October 23, 2003 | Jack Markowitz

[alrea]

Most of the increases in health care costs can be attributed to government regulation! Does anybody see a grand plan yet?

Imagine this: your job is to agree to work for an employer that has significant power. Your employment is based on selling a solution that solves a problem you created.

Your customer is very concerned and must have your product. They are like zombies and most of them don't care if you created the problem they just want you to keep helping them.

It's not the crack cocaine business, but there are dealers involved.

[texastoo]

"Is there a place for the old operation?"

The old operation is performed daily especially on the obese patient. The laparascopic cholecystectomy is mainly for those who are not overweight. The gallbladder is located under the liver therefore sometimes hard to reach in the obese.

[Brilliant]

We need a supply side solution to health care costs. I'd start by getting the government out of the business of restricting the number of physicians and other health care professionals our schools can accept. This is a labor and skill intensive industry. Capital investment has been substituted for labor in a wasteful manner because labor is simply not available.

[texastoo]

You are correct that we have the finest medical system in the world. Look at the new laser techniques that don't involve surgery at all. We are progressing as long as we stay as independent of the government as much as possible.

The problem is we are heading toward socialized medicine with the influx of illegal immigrants. They are covered under the emergency medicaid act which you and I pay. Go to google and search emergency medicaid.

I talked to a night supervisor at a small border hospital who told me that medicaid paid from $350 to $1200 for a normal delivery of a baby depending on the problems of baby and mother. The charges for insurance paying patients for the same problems of having a baby are $1000 to $3000.

Hospital have to cover their loss. When they lose from one patient, they will make it up by charging the patient who can pay more. This is the reason for the rise in insurance premiums and deductibles.

Most people don't realise how much the illegals are costing our medical system.

[inPhase]

Repost, well said.
Brilliant wrote brillantly, no pun intended

"We need a supply side solution to health care costs. I'd start by getting the government out of the business of restricting the number of physicians and other health care professionals our schools can accept. This is a labor and skill intensive industry. Capital investment has been substituted for labor in a wasteful manner because labor is simply not available."

[riri]

They are striking for 100 % health care benefits

I didn't know that. Yeesh, I have never had 100% paid anything.

[freedomcrusader]

I saw a laparoscopic cholecystectomy go "open" once because the gall bladder was so jam packed full of stones, that it was impossible to get a hold of it with the grippers.

One stone had nearly completed the process of extrusion, with only a very, very, very thin part of the outermost layer of the gallbladder wall still covering it.

[texastoo]

That happens many times. The old gallbladder surgery is used daily. However, the lap choly is the best when possible and performed more than the old surgery.

[texastoo]

Times have changed. It used to be that unions would strike for increase in wages. No longer.

I have a friend who told me that she and her husband can no longer afford health insurance. They are a small business owner and their rates increased from $300 to $500 a month this summer. So they dropped their insurance.

[texastoo]

Wrong, the rates increased from $500 to $800 this summer. I guess I was thinking about the $300 difference when I posted the above.

[Mamzelle]

Well, I meant for economic reasons. But you see how the discussion of doing such a thing can be uncomfortable.