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I work with doctors. And honestly, they are so smart they blow me away. I am not dumb...but the doctors I work with are incredibly brilliant. They are worth their pay. The doctor I work with makes five times my salary. I am basically his assistant, my job is to do everything for him so he focuses on patient care.
Should we be communist? Pay doctors the same pay as trash collectors? I don't think so...in our society being outstanding is rewarded....whether it is a gifted basketball player or a brilliant doctor.
Many people say they want their medical costs to go down, and that the doctors are greedy for their high pay. When you have low paid doctors (and add in a dose of corruption), you could get a nice health care system such as Romania. Think if they start trying to rein in compensation other docs will start their own informal systems?
Dr. Vasile Astarastoae, a biomedical ethicist who is president of the Romanian College of Physicians, which represents 47,000 doctors, blamed a pitifully low average monthly wage of about $510 for doctors for the bribe-taking.
“Patients don’t want to go to a doctor who is distracted thinking, ‘How will I feed my kids or pay the rent?’ ” Dr. Astarastoae said. “So there is a conspiracy between the doctor and the patient to pay a bribe.”
He said that unlike in many Western countries, where doctors are respected and handsomely rewarded for years of hard study, the medical profession here had been denigrated under Communist leaders who made workers in factories the country’s heroes.
My oncologist charges almost $600 for a 15-minute (if I'm lucky - or something is really wrong) appointment. Most of the time, I see him for 5 minutes. That's more than my weekly salary, and at one point, I was seeing him several times a week. That $600 figure does not include the bloodwork that I have done every time I see him, scans (some that cost more than my car) a few times a year, or the chemo I had during treatment.
While I was insured and only saw a fraction of those bills, how is a normal person supposed to afford that? I was unable to get insurance due to pre-existing conditions before I got a benefits-paying job 4 months before I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer at 23. If that burden to pay was all on me, it would not be because I was lazy or because I was irresponsible.
While I absolutely think my oncologist needs to be paid, something must be done to fix the cost. When simple office visits outstrip the salary of your patients (and I am FAR from minimum wage), something needs to happen. As it stands now, I fear not my death if I relapse, but the medical debt I will be left in for decades of my life if I survive.
You can keep your doctor - One big Lie (of so many lies)
The whole point of Obamacare was not to improve medical delivery services for Americans in fact it will do the opposite. It will also make Americans dependent upon the federal government for those services. Once more and more Americans get used to subsidized health care, more and more Americans will become part of the Democrat base who dutifully vote for the government party in every election no matter what the prevailing issues of the day.
You can keep your doctor - One big Lie (of so many lies)
The whole point of Obamacare was not to improve medical delivery services for Americans in fact it will do the opposite. It will also make Americans dependent upon the federal government for those services. Once more and more Americans get used to subsidized health care, more and more Americans will become part of the Democrat base who dutifully vote for the government party in every election no matter what the prevailing issues of the day.
Such is the power of entitlements.
The United States has close to the WORST health record of all advanced civilizations in the world. Not my "opinion", look up on google to compare health results--infant mortality, deaths of mothers giving birth, longevity--virtually anything that is tracked. I don't give a rat's **** if it is socialist or communist or anything else. It's working in those other countries. Why do we have to cling to stupid, out-moded ideas so that we don't adopt anything "socialist?" The profit motive in healthcare as now set up in the U.S. came about with Richard Nixon, a great foreign policy president who was completely blind to the needs of our country. His followers continue to be legion.
Take a survey in ANY of those "socialist" countries and ask them if they want American style healthcare. No one does. The last major country to adopt a healthcare system was Taiwan. They initially looked at our system and rejected it out of hand as not able to meet the needs of their people. I know, novel idea, a health system by politicians that is concerned with their people.
The last major renovation to the "socialist" part of our system, Medicare, was introduced and pushed through Congress by, I believe, a Pennsylvania Republican, who stood on the floor of the House and said, "Would I want anything to pass this House that wouldn't help my dear old mama."
He left the House following the sucessful passage of all the "Advantage" healthcare initiatives for seniors. It was, in his opinion, going to provide choices for us poor old seniors. And it sure has. I'm in Texas and there are over 300 options that are so diverse and so confusing there isn't a supercomputer anywhere that can sort out the best plan for anybody. But it's making a profit for insurance companies.
Oh, and, by the way, that Republican Congressman who left Congress----he now sits on the board of a major health insurer who backed that plan to help his dear old mama.
Healthcare for profit equals no healthcare for millions upon millions, skyrocketing healthcare for those that have it along with increasing deductibles. Don't believe me, look at the statistics from 1972 to the present. Look at the quality of healthcare since that time using outcome based results.
There are those that believe that they get better healthcare if you get none at all. Maybe, Ray is one of those, whether he works in healthcare or not, who is angry over uninsured coming into ER's. But the only truly workable system is one that applies to EVERYONE, even Congressmen who have voted themselves the best dammed healthcare system in the world--at our expense. If you want to leave insurers in it, fine, do it like Germany. All companies must offer the same services and they may not reject anyone, and I believe Germany allows anyone to switch companies anytime they want. Efficiency, primarily in administrative operations, rules supreme.
Now there are those like Ray, I suppose, who thinks the uninsured should just be left on the street to die. But if we go that route, we become a sort of industrialized, middle ages Fiefdom, not a civilized nation. Bring EVERYONE, and I mean everyone into the plan. Make penalties for those who don't or won't and provide for some sort of minimal care. At least hospitals will get something from those that come into emergency rooms and it's not a cost to be borne by the rest of society. We have no problem requiring car insurance of some sort by everyone who drives--it's a function of danger on the highway.
We should have no problem requiring health insurance of some kind--it's a function of living.
Yes, it's going to mean longer lines at doctor's offices, especially for boob jobs and face lifts and other trivial things. But if we dont treat everyone for major epidemic type illnesses, sooner or later we will have a flu (or other) epidemic like 1918-20 that wiped out millions of people. I dont care if you have had your shot, the multitudes who get the disease will keep spreading it and SOME of those innoculated will die anyway.
The Rays of the world are self-sufficient and live with rugged independence and a lack of concern for anyone else. They are concerned with getting "theirs". Don't be too hard on the Rays, they learned it from major corporations in the U.S. who base themselves here, but run their profits through an off-shore company to avoid taxes (can you say GE?) And the for the Rays of the country, their concern appears to be that more people will become Democrats--so it's not about healthcare, but about politics for them. And Ray, when "ObamaCare" passed Congress I remember the Republicans on the committee doing the "right" thing and saying if it was brought to the floor, it ought to become the healthcare afforded to Congressmen--and I agree with that!! The Democrats proved they wanted to keep "theirs" in terms of healthcare.
There are many of us that recognize that in a nation of well over 300 million people there is a co-dependence that cannot be overlooked, and who believe "no man is an island". And that Congressmen are no different than the rest of us--that is, if you really want government by the people and for the people.
Good luck to all.
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 12-29-2012 at 06:06 AM..
There was an interesting article in the New York Times yesterday, about some doctors no longer accepting insurance, just flat cash fees, on a montly basis, like 35.- a month or so.
Yep, many are going that route. Many others are going the "concierge" route. Each patient pays a flat $1500 to @2000 per year to get "priority" service. In order to do that, a doctor must reduce their patient load from an average of 2000 to about 750, further exacerbating the ability to find service.
There has to be a fix. And profit in health care will NOT do it.
From WiKi on Universal HealthCare in the U.S.:
"The Congressional Budget Office and related government agencies scored the cost of a universal health care system several times since 1991, and have uniformly predicted cost savings,[98] partly from the elimination of insurance company overhead costs."
At the very least, all hospitals ought to be non-profit. One thing Obama recommended the government do was to help hospitals "funding" for going to digital medical records. I was and am totally opposed to that because virtually all the hospital operations aided will be "for profit." Non-profits don't spend their extra cash on shareholders or gigantic executive bonuses so they have already moved to electronic records.
Now corporations like HCA will benefit from a taxpayer "bailout" if you would, to help them digitize medical records. It's stupid.
While I absolutely think my oncologist needs to be paid, something must be done to fix the cost. When simple office visits outstrip the salary of your patients (and I am FAR from minimum wage), something needs to happen. As it stands now, I fear not my death if I relapse, but the medical debt I will be left in for decades of my life if I survive.
Yes, the cost of a simple office visit can be more than you make.....think about this:
The doctor also pays out of your fee, his receptionist, his nurse, other staff including janitorial and house keeping, his malpractice insurance, the rent, utilities and the cost of all that medical equipment. And let's don't forget the cost of keeping everything clean and sterile.
He's also got to think about a bookkeeper or office manager. He pays a sum for his employee's SS. There is also unemployment insurance, and disability contributions (thanks to Uncle Sam) even though he may never have an employee that needs unemployment of disability income.
If he files your insurance for you, he bears the cost of insurance forms, stamps, envelopes, etc. If he uses a computer service, he will also pay a fee for the service.
Yes, he charges for doing drawing blood...he also pays for the sterile latex gloves and the sterile needles used. He will pay the lab for processing the blood and sending him a copy of the report.
He will even have to pay for things like emergency medication. Tongue depressors, cotton balls, alcohol wipes and trash collection. Hazard materials disposal. Even the cost of that paper covering on the exam table costs.
I did a run-down on what a doctor "earned" on a simple Medicare payment once. He lost money on every Medicare visit. Other patients had to make up the difference plus the lost from patients that simply don't pay.
So what is the solution? Do you really think that most doctors would continue in practice if they couldn't clear enough to make up for all the hazzle involved? The answer, of course, is some sort of socialized medical care with all doctors on the government payroll. Is that what we want?
Yes, the cost of a simple office visit can be more than you make.....think about this:
So what is the solution? Do you really think that most doctors would continue in practice if they couldn't clear enough to make up for all the hazzle involved? The answer, of course, is some sort of socialized medical care with all doctors on the government payroll. Is that what we want?
I want what works, I don't care if it is socialized or communist or anything else. That doesn't affect the rest of society. We have "socialized" police protection. Imagine giving police offers a commission on how many people they arrested!!! Or, in some rural areas, where fire departments are locally funded, how the fire team watches houses burn because the owner didn't pay the cost of joining the association. Incidentally, two hundred years ago that's how it worked in the metro areas until they figured out that once a fire got started, if it wasn't stopped, it spread all over the place. Then they went to "socialized" fire department protection. Cause it works.
What we got in healthcare, don't work, except for the well-to-do.
If we took profit out of healthcare and went to Universal coverage, then there would only be one insurance form for the doctor's staff to know. The "profit" margin for health insurance companies (varies from 5-15%) would be gone and out of the system. If we removed the cost of liability insurance from doctors and made error in healthcare like workers compensation--you still get compensatory and lost income judgement but no punitive damages, then the cost of their insurance would drop dramatically (they would pay into the Health Compensation fund, instead) and doctors, hospitals and other healthcare professionals would not be encouraged to lie, cover up, or be deceitful about mistakes. It would be a much less expensive system because it wouldn't be for profit. You would eliminate insurance companies that want profit and wish to avoid losses and you eliminate lawyers on both sides looking for huge settlements to get their substantial cut of the pie.
I repeat, I want what works. What we got, doesn't!
I agree! What we have, doesn't work. But some of the solutions are worse. I think one solution that would help for many would be to have clinic type service for those that didn't want to pay for having their own personal doctor.
It just makes good sense to have a yearly check up. But how many need the same personal doctor to see year after year after year. Make it cheaper, I'll see anyone. Let me keep my records with me. I'll take them with me next time.
And the lawyers that make a bundle on court cases! This MUST go. Sure, there are mistakes made. But is it right to make everyone pay a bundle to lawyers because of it? It doesn't seem to have kept mistakes from being made.
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doctors and cash only
