Health Care in America
by Larry Lubell
The US health care system now equals about 17% of the US economy. With that in mind, there is little reason to wonder why so many people feel so passionately about any possible changes.
It appears that the greatest single factor in whether one does, or does not support attempts to change legislation; is whether or not you currently have insurance. The key explanation is that people in the US are for the most part happy with the level of care they receive, creating a chiasm between the “Have’s and the Have not’s.”
The US health care system now equals about 17% of the US economy. With that in mind, there is little reason to wonder why so many people feel so passionately about any possible changes.
It appears that the greatest single factor in whether one does, or does not support attempts to change legislation; is whether or not you currently have insurance. The key explanation is that people in the US are for the most part happy with the level of care they receive, creating a chiasm between the “Have’s and the Have not’s.”
This leads to those who are happy with the status quo speaking about the upper-end care available at the finest collection of hospitals in the world. While those “Outside of the system” find themselves waiting in long lines at the E. R. and a times having to make the choice between buying food or paying for meds.
Our system does have it’s strengths; in fact one could easily point to aspects our current structure that single it out as the finest in the world. Clearly there are reasons that people travel to the US for certain procedures, even from countries where, as a citizen of that country, they could receive that care for free. This is particularly true of those who have the financial resources necessary to travel to, and pay for private care in the US. I assume if Mick Jagger wanted dental work done, he would have it done here in America. More>>>
Our system does have it’s strengths; in fact one could easily point to aspects our current structure that single it out as the finest in the world. Clearly there are reasons that people travel to the US for certain procedures, even from countries where, as a citizen of that country, they could receive that care for free. This is particularly true of those who have the financial resources necessary to travel to, and pay for private care in the US. I assume if Mick Jagger wanted dental work done, he would have it done here in America. More>>>
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2 comments:
Alan Edelson" aedelson@verizon.net
Right now, I have dropped my participation in every insurance plan EXCEPT Medicare. I can tell you from first hand experience that the private managed care plans have gone OUT OF CONTROL with their denials, pre-authorization requirements, and drug formulary restrictions.
Plain old Medicare is the last bastion of healthcare plans that actually allows the doctor to make a decision on what a patient needs without having to fill out reams of paperwork or spend endless amounts of of time on hold waiting for a "representative" who usually has barely a high school education to tell me if I can provide needed procedures or specialist referrals for patients that they've never laid a hand on.
How about the patient that I'm trying to get authorization from the Formulary morons for Symlin, a new diabetic drug specifically for Type II diabetics on maximal treatment including insulin that are not reaching goal in controlling their hemoglobin A1C levels. They rejected it based on the fact that her sugar numbers were... get this... TOO HIGH. Trying for 3 weeks to get their physician on the phone, but he's never in the office and every time they promise he'll call me back within 24 hours, he never does. Understand that anyone who would take this kind of job does so only because they either are unable to make it in the patient care world, or are too plain stupid or unqualified to get a real job. I've reported them to the Commissioner of Insurance in NY State, but that could take months and meanwhile this poor lady is suffering a slow death from her uncontrolled disease.
And so my friends, I am currently working on my exit strategy, as are many of my friends in Primary Care Medicine. And if you think there are younger people eager to fill my spot... guess again! With an average $300,000 in student loans, 8 years of school and 4 years of indentured servitude at minimum wage, these poor fools will be at age 30 starting in a job that MIGHT earn them $100K if they're lucky. Compare that to the average teacher who starts work right after college, gets 3 months off a year, probably ends up in the low 6 figure income by retirement and gets a pension that is probably bigger than most starting primary care physician's salaries. Add up the profit/loss here and tell me which is the better paying position?
Yes the system is badly broken, but not by the doctors. It's broken by greed from the Insurance and Pharmaceutical giants who have sucked every dollar out of the system, and the lame politicians who take their money and are in bed with their lobbyists. So enjoy your new healthcare system, with the Nurse Practitioners and Foreign Medical Graduates as your Primary Care providers who will manage 95% of your needs. Hope you don't get anything serious that would actually require someone with training, knowledge and experience .... as we'll all be long gone.
WOW!
But what about the Millions of dollars in cost to create these drugs, and the millions of dollars it costs in insurance.
It might only cost Warner Brothers $2 dollars to make a DVD of the new Harry Potter film,(Including all packaging) but what about the $100 Million dollar cost to make the film.
Again, there is something here, but it is not quite that simple.
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