Why is emergency medicine different than police, fire, and military?

Your opinion

 

Igor?

Your anarchist is shining through. At a basic level, you're correct, no one is obligated to give you anything. That said, as compassionate human beings, we've more or less come to an understanding that we are going to give people who need things some support. Way back in the beginning, the question asked was why did we draw a line at saving people from crime and fire, but not from injury. It's still not really be discussed. Why do we have a problem with "for profit policing" but not with "for profit emergency medicine"?

 

Doctors are "forced" to provide the services the hospital will be reimbursed for through your insurance while making sure there is no possible way you could sue them...they really don't get paid at all for your health or accurately treating your ailment. You may choose another doctor or hospital next time (free market)...as long as you don't have an HMO and there are other providers in your network. Also assuming the largest local hospital group isn't feuding with the largest local insurer (which is happening to all the people in our Ohio office currently).

Insurance reimbursement rates for acceptable services combined with lawsuits ranging from poor hospital signage to wrongful death have created a service and industry that is completely unaffordable to the customers. Unless we tackle some of the harder things at the core driving pricing in the industry, all sides will just argue over how and where to pay for it through our taxes. Do we all pay upfront via universal or do we pay in lost revenue, taxes, etc. from unpaid bills and abuse of the system?

 

http://www.nwitimes.com/niche/get-h...l&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share

 

How long do you think folks will stay compassionate if people keep demanding something for nothing, show little gratitude and then expect you to bend over again for Igor?

 

Rose colored glasses jokes aside, I'd hope that fixing some of these issues would result in more people working and less sitting on their asses demanding something for nothing. It's funny what happens when you're not dumping nearly 20% of your GDP into the healthcare vacuum. People might actually have spending money. Other people might actually open up businesses to provide things for that money to be spent on. Those businesses might have to hire people to make the things the people want to buy.

 

There is no such thing as no cost health care. Someone is going to pay. Until the reasons for high cost are addressed, you are simply going to get more government control over your life.

 

Privilege IMO. Hard to convince people that social well-being has the same ROI when it comes to helping people succeed versus removing them from the equation.

 

Except that the current equation does not include succeed.

 

Nobody said no cost. But you cannot deny that it is exponentially more expensive than it needs to be. I've tried to discuss the reasons it's so high but I keep getting called a socialist!

 

Okay...
Let's go for an overly simplistic solution.....
1. Insurance is a disconnect. Insure against catastrophic care, pay basics out of pocket.
2. Health Departments or taxpayer funded doc in a boxes can cover most health needs without full blown medical care or abuse of the ER.
3. Make birth control free, pills/condoms/IUD/IED
4. Tort reform
5. Not every hospital needs an MRI or the latest and greatest diagnostic equip
6. PREVENTATIVE CARE AND DIET.

Get those done and we can see what else needs to be fixed.

 

Damn straight my anarchist is shining through. I'm consistent in my arguments. Which you counter with "yeah but's"

 

Yeah but....


Anarchy is cool and all, it's just not feasible. Human beings naturally congregate together, form packs, tribes, and ultimately governments. We subconsciously crave oppression.

 

Would this do it?

 

That's not accurate, there are lots of places in Maine for example that are competing on price. The way the Dr's Offices are doing it is by no longer accepting insurance. They publish their rates for things, you can see up front what you'll be billed, negotiate if you want, and must pay up front for services rendered. After that it's up to you to run it through your insurance for reimbursement if you want. By cutting that part of the paperwork nightmare out of the equation on the office side, they save a CRAP TON of money and as a result can charge MUCH less. It's to the point that for most stuff, particularly routine care insurance doesn't make sense. Ya know, kinda like how insurance is everywhere else, only for catastrophic oh shit scenarios, not a yearly checkup.

 

See post 124. My wife's doctor recently went to this structure. I've yet to hear of a hospital in the US that's doing anything remotely like this.

 

You can't compare a doctor's office to a hospital, they perform different functions.
I can recall a Dr in NYC changing to a subscription business model and I believe he was shut down real fast.
That was a few years ago, so maybe things are changing.
It's a reasonable model that should be available everywhere, but for that reason alone you know it will draw opposition.

It's ironic that you rail against the churches that used to be the main sources of the kind of social help that you say is needed.
As government has taken over the job of serving the poor and sick and old, the church agencies have dwindled, and of course, the government does what it always does, a poor, one-size-fits-nobody job.
Even with their reduced numbers, church groups still provided 80% of the organized relief efforts in Houston, and are probably doing the same in Florida.
It's a shame that that resource shrinks more every year.

 

When did I rail against churches? I posted about some flawed teachings and the logical progression of how they can become hateful, but I didn't rail.

 

Maybe a NY thing. My Mom's primary care physician went that route in NC just before she moved in with us. The costs were not astronomical, but still to much for her fixed income. Service would have been stellar, but hospital costs still would have been Medicare or supplement.

 

The hospital is where most of the big bills come from.