People seem to have many issues with our health care system. I want to present some problems that I see with the health care system as it currently stands and open it up for debate/discussion. I have included numbers with each point to make discussing each issue easier to follow.
1. One of the main problems with our system is the greed that runs so rampantly through it all. If people aren't in the health care industry to help others, they should get out. Health care is supposed to be about making people get well, not putting money in doctor's, corporation's, or insurance company's pockets. Some people are bound to be harder to get healthy, that's just a fact of life.
2. We need to place more emphasis on prevention of health problems. If more insurance companies paid for things that could help prevent something expensive from happening we wouldn't have to spend so much money on the complications that arise from those conditions.
3. We need to figure out ways to cut excess expenses out of our system. Do assistants really need their own assistants? Do we need to have 10 different people to check you into the clinic to see if all of our information is current? Yes= go to appointment. No= update information. Is it that hard? One or two people should be all that any place should need.
4. Insurance companies need to stop putting conditions on what they will and will not cover. If they will pay for one well visit a year great. I HATE the fact that our insurance will only pay for a dietician IF someone has been diagnosed with diabetes. Not for a person who's prediabetic. HUH???
5. I think we need to put caps on what can be charged for procedures. Does it really cost a hospital $3,000 for someone to be in their ER for 1/2 an hour with kidney stones? I hardly think so. IF it does, they really need to find a cheaper way to do it!
6. Doctors should trust the results of tests run by other doctors. Why does each doctor of three need to run their own tests? If some of them are duplicates can't they just use the results that you've already gotten? No wonder some people pay their medical bills for years!
7. Drug companies should not be allowed to give incentives to doctors or clinics in order for them to prescribe their products. No wonder some of the name brand prescriptions cost so much! Between payoffs, research, and advertising it's just crazy!
8. More tests does not make for better service. Find the problem in the most logical way possible.
9. Do we need to run to the doctor for every little cold we have? Antibiotics will not cure a cold. I know people that take their children to the doctor every time they run a fever. I wonder if they've ever heard of teething causing a fever...
10. If companies are going to charge money for services provided, shouldn't they actually provide services? Why pay $600 per month for insurance in order for us to pay 1/2 of the bill when we're really only supposed to pay 20%.
11. It's not really the fact that I'd be against universal coverage if it really was universal. I am afraid that it will end up being a welfare suplement and I will be excluded because of my finances. It seems I always make too much money to qualify for any type of services.
12. The government has a way of goofing up a lot of well intentioned things. I do not want them running our health care system though I would appreciate more oversight pertaining to some issues I have discussed above. The way they run medicare and medicaid is going to make them run out of money. They need a better strategy.
13. Did I miss any important major issues?
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
3 comments:
I agree with you 100%. You covered the issues very well. You mention the fever that little ones have when teething. You know why don't doctors admit that babies run fever when teething. My babies and my grandbabies - when going to the doctor they say "teething does not cause fever - it must be something else". WHAT - every mother knows this - why don't the doctors. And the incentives for doctors to write certain RX to pad their own pockets is rediculous - but it's true.
Our health care system sucks big time but government run health care is not the answer either.
Good notes. Send it to our leaders.
1. Agreed.
2. Agreed. Part of the current health care bill is meant to make Medicare pay for quality care, not quantity. Currently, Medicare does not always pay for doctors to do the right thing.
3. Clinics are in trouble, too, due to the costs of healthcare and I think they have trimmed down to the lowest levels possible to ensure safety. But I agree when it comes to insurance and pharmaceuticals.
4. Agreed. But insurance companies are trying to cut costs as much as possible and they have to provide dieticians for diabetics to keep them alive. Preventive care is unnecessary as an upfront cost and even though it would theoretically save money later, there isn't always money available for it.
5. The problem is that charges are inflated because they assume a certain number of people can't/won't pay. ER procedures are especially expensive because it's the only place some people can go to get care when they don't have insurance - most can't pay.
6. I don't know. Things get messed up - the x-rays I got for my leg to bring to the ER included some random person's wrist x-ray. Multiple tests can detect errors in testing.
7. Absolutely agreed. It's criminal bribery.
8. I think there needs to be more discussion with the patient of how they want to continue when the initial, obvious tests come back negative. How invasive? How far? What are the alternatives?
9. Agreed.
10. I do wish insurance pricing was more clear-cut so we could plan for it better. But I can see where co-pays are an incentive to make sure you really need to go to the doctor, as a solution for #9.
11. From what I've read, it sounds more like a public option would be available to anyone, just like any insurance company, but at a reasonable price. We aren't really looking at universal healthcare right now, not as it is known in other countries like Canada or the UK.
12. Medicare uses only 2-3% of all funds for administration as opposed to 10-20% of insurance company funds that go for services other than actual medical care. Any of the other issues with Medicare that I have heard are also issues with private insurance, with the exception of Medicare not being able to negotiate lower drug prices for prescriptions. This is a result of drug company lobbying and I believe it is very wrong and needs to be fixed. The VA can negotiate lower prices as a group, as can private insurance companies.
I agree with a lot of this, but my take on it is that we won't get good insurance while insurance and drug companies are "for-profit" organizations. They are playing with people's lives while they are out to make a buck.
"It's not really the fact that I'd be against universal coverage if it really was universal. I am afraid that it will end up being a welfare suplement and I will be excluded because of my finances. It seems I always make too much money to qualify for any type of services." I wonder how many other people feel this same way - it may explain the aversion to universal coverage. I work in the health care field and a HUGE part of our costs go to trying to figure out each insurance's coverage and billing procedures! If there were only one insurance it would GREATLY reduce these costs.
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