When The Medicare Part D prescription drug bill was formulated, it was
the big drug companies who essentially handed the Congress all of the
elements of the legislation. Who then, is the beneficiary of this little piece
of artwork? Certainly not us.
This week a report that the federal budget now stands at 17% of our GNP, entitlements included. The report stated that 4.5% is social security, 4.5% is Medicare/Medicaid, and 4.5% is spent on Defense, the balance (not much runs everything else). The place to start is to rebuild the healthcare system. It is my belief that our health care system has morphed into a version of Wall Street, where the almighty dollar takes precedence over the actual health of Americans.
Healthcare premiums are killing our businesses and our budgets.
My wife recently had to go to the emergency room after a fall. We received bills from the Ambulance company, the laboratory, the x-ray outfit, the doctor who treated her...and finally a $3200 bill from a collection agency for the hospital. Who apparently lost our insurance info, never sent us a bill. When they realized it was over 90 days...went right to collection. I could
not figure out what the $3200 was for ...using their billing for an hour?
We got billed by all the people who did the work. It is simply put, another form of pillaging the people. President Elect Obama has made health care one of his priorities. Medicare and medicaid should be placed into a new health care system and placed under the Department of Health and Human services. I just don't see it as an effective stand alone agency.
If healthcare is to be legislated then lets get rid of part D and this time write it for the
people and not the drug companies. Use the buying power of the program to get deep discounts on prescription drugs. The people currently receiving Medicare/Medicaid can be placed under a new system where based on a sliding scale & reasonable premiums can be collected from those who are able to pay.
Another example of pillaging our government are all these little sweeteners that allow state governments to use Medicare to pay for resident placement and services for certain groups. It takes the burden off of the state. An example is the "Medicare based waiver" that pays for housing and staff to care for persons eligible to be placed in institutions, they have to be considered untreatable. As a result, you have a mini institution in a neighborhood near you
and you have no idea it is there ...but you are paying for it.
States need to step back up to the plate and stop relying on Federal funds to solve these problems. Get rid of the pork, I guess you would call it. States need to learn how to run
lean, mean government (so do the Feds), use cuts and not tax increases. A new health care system, needs to reign in separate billing by hospitals. Just like the grocery store you don't pay the butcher and the deli separate. You go to the register. So we have one bill, not 5 because they each have to pay for their Porsche that month.
Electronic records...as a veteran I can go to any Veterans facility in the country and my records are there. Create efficiencies in the system. As in the emrgency room...there appears to be 2 people treating patients and 40 people sitting at computers waiting to pounce on your insurance company. In many of our cities huge Medical facilities are taking over the skyline, gobbling
up block after block. It is a signature of the problem. If you analyzed the amount of space actually used to treat people. I would say is less than 25%. I would presume that most of the balance is for administration.
The cost of delivery is tied to the mortgages these facilities have. In the city of Portland Maine, which is nearby, the Medical facility is the most prominent landmark. It towers above and sprawls along the skyline. Gone are the shipbuilders, the fisherman, the foundries, the locomotive factory, the chandlers and all of the businesses that once marked a thriving vibrant city.
My great grandfather started a foundry in 1898. It went out of business in the 1980's. We could not compete with cheap foreign products. We had an efficient foundry. All our products were quality...not cheap. As we have gone over to a "service" economy health care has become
one of the largest economic sectors. The problem is ...it is not an industry...it is a symptom of our problem.
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Bob,
34 States are bankrupt at this very moment. And that is WITH federal dollars assistance for the health care of the poor and aging retired.
Sorry, but, if health care were left to the states, 3/4 of the nation would immediately begin to see an eruption in bankruptcies, crime, civil unrest, and incredible suffering and mercy killings of those suffering without health care access.
A national health care system that can reap the benefits of economies of scale and make adjustments to the system as needed to ensure America does not fall into 3rd world health care status due to the disparity of wealth and health care affordability.
The problem, as I see it, with out health care system is that there are too many participants exploiting the system for wealth and profit, or out of ignorance, and the system fails to promote healthy lifestyles and avoidance of high injury risk activities, all in the name of more profits. There is no system at all when millions of participants all are focused on their own unique method and way of profiting from the suffering and high risk behavior of others. That is more akin to capitalist anarchy than a sound health care system.
Every other modern democracy on the planet has a more holistic health care system. Ours is no system at all. It is rather a collection of private profit endeavors working at odds with national system primarily designed for those who cannot afford the private sector operations.
When you add into the cost of our health care system premiums and taxes spent on health care, charities supporting health care, and the write-offs of Emergency Room treatments to the indigent, our cost per capita for health care is equal to what the British pay for a socialized national health care system. Yet, the British provide health care to all regardless of means, have longer life spans, lower infant mortality, and enjoy virtually all the cutting edge medical technologies we do here.
These facts indicate that we are getting much less health care quality per dollar spent on health care than other nations with nationalized health care systems. Which says to me, ours is isn't working efficiently by a long shot.
I understand the federalist's arguments. And if you want to argue that each state should retain certain immunities from federal and national systems for libraries, or state Parks, or funding of religious charitable organizations, that's fine. But, when the federalist's argument results in nation operating inefficiently with 100's of billions of wasted dollars and resources, and failure to address basic humanitarian concerns, then there argument falls flat.
America can lead the world in other endeavors like space exploration. But, in the arena of health care, America needs to follow the examples of other nations and provide a holistic health care system that gets better care per dollar spent and provides everyone with basic human dignity that comes from not having to suffer pain or illness or untreated injury due to lack of income or wealth.
I sometimes think Americans forget that a nation is nothing without its people. And a nation can only be as great as it treats its own citizens. Americans may have thought themselves great during slavery or the Civil Rights riots that burned American cities, but, that is not how other nation's civilized peoples viewed America during those periods. And a nation which refuses to provide for basic human dignity of its people would not be highly regarded by Muhammed, Siddhartha, Buddha, Jesus, or Moses, either.
We need a holistic system that promotes health, safety, and preventive measures, and delivers health care quality per dollar spent that rivals, or surpasses, that of other civilized nations, in order to consider ourselves as great in the area of health care.
Bob,
I am not much in depth in our health care system, but I do know the basics about it. I partially agree on your statement. In my opinion, we should go half way between the people who pay for bills and the people who send the bills. Well, what I am trying to say is, your wife for example. Of the many bills you received, of course you should pay them, but only half. In a similar situation, if the insurance does not pick up some of the cost, and you cannot afford to pay everything, or everything else, that is where the Federal dollars should be stepping in, or where the Medicare/Medicaid should step in. I just think costs should be split between people, so some people or businesses do not go out of business or lose their job. You are right on saying we should receive one bill, then five. I-phones have the same kind of bill. You get a minimum of five bills in one "box" saying what you need to pay for. They, like the people who sent you the five bills to pay for your emergency, should keep it simple and send one bill. Most of us hate dealing with complex things in life, so I guess this is just a simple way of making life easier to live.