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Why can't communities have low cost clinics opened 24/7 for those kinds of emergencies? It seems the cost would be cheaper, and leave the ERs open for accident victims, heart attack patients and the more serious situations? They could easily be located adjacent to the ERs and if warranted, patients referred there.
We need to be clear in our focus:
1. We are being fleeced by Big Pharma, the insurance companies, etc. and not the poor.
2. That there are some of us who have greater needs does not invalidate all needs.
3. As other countries manage decent health care for far less per person, and with better outcomes, other than some 'start-up' funds that may needed to ramp up any new program, this should actually SAVE money over time.
To make a worrying story short, she got an ambulance ride, an immediate CT scan, they cleaned up the cut on her head, and the doctor gave her a lengthy interview, and on the way out the door we paid $18.
Why so cheap? Because we live in Japan! Yay!
May Daschle give you just a little of what we have here.
Since the French Gov't had no national insurance agency to remit the bill to in America, the patient has to pay full cost for all treatment.
"The French hosiptal said that if I couldnt pay they usually send such bills to the US embassy.
My Blue Cross/Blue Shield wasnt recognized by them. When I got back and submitted he bill, Blue Cross had to break the bill down into so many sub-sections like first 72 hours for emergency treatment and second 72 hours for hospital outpatient and such money wasting paper work and had to call the hospital in France with an interpreter to be able to find the details, while the hospital bill was just one price for the VISA card and for French people who would have the bill all taken care of with the single number. "
The hospitals in USA are fragmented into mini-byzantine empires, the opposite of France where one office had the total price. One hospital in Boston, Mass General I think, has more office staff than an entire province of Canada uses for paperwork. US health care is so completely inefficient specifically because of the kafka-like nightmare specifically created to enrich the capitalist based insurance scheming companies.
Why can't the USA nationalize the immoral for-profit insurance companies? Why can't the USA be like every other 1st world country in the world? Want to save the Big Three and the UAW in one stroke? Eliminate their health 'insurance' bill by nationalizing medical finances.
Basically, House Resolution (H.R.) 676, the “New Expanded Medicare” bill now in sub-committee in the House of Representatives simply creates a new and far more functional “single payer” method of paying for medical services while leaving the medical system itself completely alone and intact. This will eliminate the hundreds of complicated and redundant payment plans currently imposed on the system by private “for profit” health insurance companies and save literally BILLIONS of dollars every year by eliminating such wasteful duplication. This will allow your doctors offices and hospitals to function much more efficiently and serve your needs much more effectively as well. Just imagine what a huge benefit this will be!
http://www.hr676.org/
We Don't Need Insurance, We Need
Guaranteed Healthcare
http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/
UHC, Cigna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the rest, buh-bye.
I read a couple of years ago that the SSA has about 1/2% administrative costs; can you imagine private investment companies doling out the investment accounts Bush wanted to replace SS with, and how much that would reduce people's monthly checks (assuming they had anything left after what we're witnessing now with people's retirement, IRA and 401k accounts).
Joke: Whenever we hear a conservative on the TV talk about how gay marriage threatens the Sancity of Marriage, we turn to each other and ask, 'Yeah, right, our marriage is *really* threatened!'
* starts from the consumer's needs,
* demands that all American residents be put into ONE pool,
* mandates that providers' administrative costs be no more than 10% of revenues (very generous),
* mandates that pre-existing conditions be eliminated
* guarantees mental & physical care parity
* requires that pharmaceutical companies negotiate fair pricing
* mandates electronic data storage while eliminating paper from health care data systems,
* requires that all health care providers participate in a modern, non-punitive program to identify medical errors and eliminate them,
* requires that all for-profit and non-profit health care providers adhere to the same rules.
I've suggested that an initial grant or tax rebate, based on caseload, be offered to assist with the cost of electronic data systems. I prefer non-profit health care but if for profit companies can operate and compete under the same rules as non profits they should be allowed to.
Of course the best of all worlds would be single payer for all. If we provided health care coverage for all American residents we would eliminate the emergency room as a doctor's office and save a ton of money. It would also eliminate dual systems serving the haves and have-nots.
Even the WSJ points out the absurdity of it all:
-------------------------------------------------
MERCED, Calif. -- One day in late July, Jim Dawson happily returned home. He had spent the previous five months in the hospital battling an infection that nearly killed him. The phone rang shortly after Mr. Dawson and his wife, Loretta, entered their house.
It was the hospital. California Pacific Medical Center was calling to remind the Dawsons that they owed it $1.2 million.
Jim Dawson survived a catastrophic illness only to face a $1.2 million medical bill.
Mr. Dawson, 61 years old, had health insurance through his employer, but had maxed out his plan's $1.5 million lifetime cap halfway through his long hospital stay.
...
As spending on health care has climbed to almost $2 trillion a year, or 16% of the U.S. economy, the number of Americans burdened with massive medical bills has soared as well. According to a 2005 survey by the Commonwealth Fund, an estimated 34% of adults aged 19 to 64 face problems with medical bills or have accrued medical debt. A majority of those people -- 62% -- had health insurance, the survey found.
...
Another issue is the widespread practice of bill padding by hospitals and other health providers. While hospitals say bill padding is their only defense against the aggressive cost-reduction efforts of insurers and government programs, the end result is that individuals can, with little warning, be left stuck with wildly inflated medical bills.
For instance, CPMC charged Mr. Dawson $791 for stockings designed to improve blood circulation. The same pair can be purchased on the Internet for as little as $12.
Allan Pont, CPMC's chief medical officer, acknowledges that the charges on Mr. Dawson's bill are "Disneyland numbers" that health insurers and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid never pay.
...
Mr. Dawson returned to see Dr. Golden, who only diagnosed him with gout. Dr. Golden gave him painkillers for his back and an anti-inflammatory drug to reduce swelling in his arm. But Mr. Dawson continued to feel ill and lost his appetite. In just a few months, he went from 305 pounds to 223 pounds, his skin turned grayish and he continued to experience terrible back pain.
In February 2007, Mr. Dawson collapsed at a convention in Las Vegas.
...
On March 6, Mr. Dawson was admitted to Seton delirious and screaming. It was there doctors realized he had a staph infection that had spread through his bloodstream and invaded his entire body. His organs were failing and he was going into septic shock. A nurse told Mrs. Dawson her husband was very sick and might die.
...
On June 29, Mrs. Dawson says she was leaving the hospital when she was ushered into a small conference room by Ema Beronilla, an employee from CPMC's financial office. She says Ms. Beronilla told her that her husband's insurance had run out and showed her a sheet of paper indicating that they owed the hospital more than $1 million.
...
CPMC discharged Mr. Dawson on July 26, and Mrs. Dawson drove her husband home. As they entered their house, Mr. Dawson lost his balance and fell. Mrs. Dawson was trying to help him up when the phone rang.
It was Ms. Beronilla, the hospital's financial counselor. Mrs. Dawson says Ms. Beronilla reproached her for declining to meet with HCLS and fill out the Medi-Cal enrollment forms, and told her the hospital would start billing immediately. With her husband still splayed out on the floor, Mrs. Dawson remembers replying: "Do what you have to do."
...
CPMC charged Mr. Dawson between $2,225 and $6,675 a night for an oxygen mask to help him breathe while he slept. After he was discharged from the hospital, the Dawsons rented one from a medical-supply store for $250 a month. Mrs. Dawson resolved to try to negotiate the bill drastically down.
"I do not deny that our charges look insane," says Dr. Pont, CPMC's chief medical officer.
...
Earlier this week, Mrs. Dawson was contacted by a CPMC official with surprising news. The hospital said Mr. Dawson had qualified for financial assistance under its charity-care policy and wrote off his entire bill. Asked why the Dawsons hadn't been told they could qualify for charity care before a reporter contacted the hospital, CPMC said Mrs. Dawson never gave it the opportunity to explain its policy to her.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119610495315004...
Just read the whole thing, it's unbelievable.
and now it's their turn. Everyone working for the insurance companies and health organizations can go back to community college for retraining as plumbers. MEDICARE,
including prescriptions, etc., etc., FOR ALL. Oh, yes, the cost? Well, 700 billion here, 700 billion there -- appears we have lots of money for everything but universal health
care. And, make it effective January 21, 2009.
That oughta do it.
I agree that whatever system the Obama administration comes up with, it will never work if it is not mandatory and covers everybody and everything. Why does the whole world understand this except America? The bigger the pool, the better the system will be. Imagine the pressure you can put on Big Pharma if you represent 300 million people (and counting).
I'd like to see a mandatory enrollment in health classes for all, maybe dependent on their health status, for example diabetics would be required to attend and perform their understanding of specific education for diabetics. Would that be too much to ask for others who actually take some responsibility for their health? Okay now diabetics please don't get all bent out of shape thinking that I am catagorizing ALL diabetics as ignorant health underacheivers, but we all need to sacrifice some time to become more proactive in our own health care. The other systems would not work nearly as well wothout a collective consciousness of this ideal. And we must change our thinking that health comes in the form of a magic bullet or surgery for removal of "useless organs ".
This comes from a health care provider who has seen oth sides of the system.
Kindof ironic, eh?