Posted on 11/13/2007 7:42:13 AM PST by shrinkermd
...Several American business leaders have come to believe that the American health-care system is not only bad for our health but also for national competitiveness. In the automotive industry, General Motors claims that it spends about $1,600 per car on health care. In Japan, according to GM, Toyota's per automobile healthcare expenditure is just $110.
Health coverage is indeed becoming more expensive for businesses. Over the past eight years, the percentage of firms offering health benefits to employees has dropped significantly, to 60% from 69%.
This decline, however, is almost completely accounted for by businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
These firms find health benefits unaffordable because states have laid a massive burden of over-regulation on small-group health insurance since the early 1990s, making it increasingly expensive
Consider four countries whose health-care systems are often held up as admirable alternatives: Canada, Germany, France and Great Britain. Certainly, the U.S. spends significantly more on health care than those countries do, but these nations also earn significantly less income per person.
Look at it this way: Even after paying for our health care, Americans have far more money left over than their neighbors to spend on other goods and services. It works out to about $8,000 more than the average German or Frenchman, and about $4,000 more than the average Canadian or Briton
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I didn't buy it then, I don't buy it now.
Perhaps a real dicussion of why our health care is now a national crisis, compared to the 50's and 60s, when families very comfortably dealt with it on their own would be instructive. Government had virtually no role in it then.
What changed?
If we could bring stability to health care/insurance, I firmly believe we would have an explosive growth of entrepreneurship.
But with an aging society which believes that unlimited access to health care technology is an entitlement, it's fantasy to think that health care costs will ever decrease without some form of governmental or market-driven rationing.
That has a way of holding health care costs down.
At 45 weeks most women would be doing a Ceasarian on themselves with a kitchen knife.
Oops, chalk that up to typing while coffee deprived, meant 25 weeks of course.
Man, you need some COFFEE!!! Quick!
45 weeks. ugh!
The 50's -- 60's didn't have 'health care' it was hospitalization. Office calls, dental insurance and few mental health treatments were paid for by insurance. Preventive medicine was not an issue--people went to the Dr when they were really sick. Hospitals did not want/need expensive equipment that they ALL believe they need today. Medical procedures of the expensive nature today were not readily available nor were they ordered solely to save Dr's from liability.
Liability insurance for Dr's has caused great problems and much added expense but I for one am sick of signing my name to every damn procedure and completing the same forms over and over again solely for liability protection. I just refused to again fill out my medical history for a dentist. I offered instead to sign and date stating no changes on the form to give him is safety net. That was not good enough--he did not want to treat me. I said fine. He provides a service, I pay the bill and I was no longer going to disclose my medical history to a dentist and left his office.
In the day and age of computers and because of HIPPA I do not see the necessity of having to complete forms over and over again especially when you are going to the same facility as you have for years. All this information is already on a computer somewhere and accessible by any clerk in any Dr.'s office. My Dr. does not require this.
Not sure what a dentist has computer access to regarding medical information but I think aside from knowledge of any heart problems I see no reason a dentist needs general medical information.
Socialized health care does not fix any of the real underlying issues behind what is driving health care costs. Many of those who are screaming at the top of their lungs that some government managed health care is the solution are also the ones intentionally hesitating and foot dragging when it comes to issues such as the enforcement of our boarders and deportation of illegals. In fact, much of the laws of recent years claimed to be for the children or to regulate care and costs have inadvertently caused the opposite to occur. Like the classical textbook example of “price fixing” in the housing market and the eventual loss of investment, acceleration of urban decay, and eventual shortages of housing, the laws and programs intended to do good have hurt the insured and the health care providers. The bureaucratic mess most physicians have to deal with today is near astonishing, and it is near entirely a product of our great government and all their efforts to help.
The only thing the federal government should do at this point is clamp down on illegal immigration and push to regulate the legal framework that allows many of these bogus law suits. The federal government can’t fix a population that is getting older. The fact that expectations are high and we want the newest technology, procedures, and medications administered to us in modern state of the art hospitals that are service oriented is nothing to be ashamed of, but it will cost us a lot no matter what since there is a correlation between cost and performance in this case. If you want cheap managed health care, expect older MRI machines, older procedures, older less capable and greater side effect drugs, older decrepit facilities etc.
Ronald Reagan once told us the eight worlds you should be afraid of: “We’re from the Government, we’re here to help.”
1. Government Meddling
2. Plaintiff Attorneys
3. Illegal Aliens
What branch of the culture of death do you belong to? What you are saying is that the lives of older people are worth less than younger people.Do you feel the same about those with low I.Q.s or those who are disabled?
Do you advocate the rationing of food, gasoline, clothing, housing or education? I imagine not because market forces control those items just as market forces control health care.
Three biggest problems with “cost of healthcare”
1. Government Meddling
2. Plaintiff Attorneys
3. Illegal Aliens
_______________________________
#2 I’m sorry I made a mistake would have gone a long way to eliminating lawsuits or adjusting costs due to their errors. We did not used to be a society of litigation. We became so because of past medical professionals (and some even today) put themselves at the God level. Litigation became prevelant I believe because of the lies, corruption and cover-ups. I don’t see a way back to honesty and I can’t believe most people want to go back to the philosophy that Dr’s are God and give up their right for redress.
Crafty accounting and good ole boy follow the $$$ between legislators/lawyers policies are a big problem IMO... My wife's employer, [state] claims to pay $460/month for her single 'basic' health policy. In a group pool that I would estimate in the 10s of thousands of employees, how is it that we could by the same coverage independently through Humana for half to a third of the cost, unless theres some real theft/corruption ???
Mind you, she isnt allowed to take the dollars and shop for herself,only accept their group policy or forfeit the 'income'. Competition could do wonders...
One thing that changed is the medical technology we have available.
In the 1950s and 60s, if you had a heart attack, you had a heart attack, and not too much could be done for you. Today advanced preventive and diagnostic tools--from color dopplers to cardiac catheterizations--are used routinely to save lives. Back then, if you racked up your knee they'd take an x-ray, but there wasn't a lot they could really do for you. Today MRIs, PET scans, and CT scans that did not exist back then tell your orthopedist exactly what went wrong inside you, and new laparoscopic surgeries will fix the problem. The technology available for fighting cancer is astonishing.
But somebody has to pay for this. Buying this machinery and paying for the personnel to run it is extremely expensive. Doing the basic-science research even to visualize such machinery before inventing it and developing it is enormously costly. Eventually it is the end user, the consumer of medical technology, who pays for it.
But I do think that all health care providers should be allowed to discriminate based on ability to pay, just as gas stations and clothing stores do.
MRI's were originally touted as a huge cost and safety improvement because they could replace many exploratory surgeries.
Well, that worked for a while, but the cost savings disappeared as soon as MRI's began to replace X-rays for routine injury cases.
45 weeks... sounds like my last pregnancy. I didn’t think she was ever going to be born.
Very true. Thank you for pointing that out. Every illegal who comes into an ER with a stomach ache gets an abdominal CT ($2000 + pro fee) on your dime, where once he would have had a stomach xr and some Pepto and sent on his way.
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