Post by Moose on Feb 27, 2009 15:12:28 GMT -5
July 27, 2008
By doing something about it.
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I'm sure all of you know about how messed up the country's healthcare system is. I won't talk about that. There are plenty ways of fixing it, but I won't talk about that either. Instead, I will talk about WHY healthcare is a problem and WHY it gets worse every time somebody tries to do something about it.
What's the biggest problem with healthcare in the world? Rather, what is the only problem? The answer is simpler than you may think: people are selfish! All other problems branch off of that one simple fact.
Just look at this list...
--Doctors want to keep making ridiculously high sums of money without doing anything. Thanks to direct to consumer drug ads, sick people (who are in no position to make any health decisions because they don't know anything and sickness could impair their judgment) demand that the doctor prescribe a drug. The well-trained professional who should be making all the hard decisions is just writing names of pills on pieces of paper and getting paid a lot of money from both the patient and the drug company to do it.
--Insurance companies give us wonderful plans to choose from like HMO's. You don't have to watch Michael Moore's documentary to understand why HMO's are awesome.
--Lawyers want to keep suing for malpractice because they know it's a great way to make money. If you're not a lawyer because you want to get rich, you'll be one of those public attorneys or something, and they get neither money nor respect.
--The drug companies want to keep selling you overpriced magic pills that you have to take every day for the rest of your life even though an overwhelming majority of them are extremely dangerous if used long term.
--Even though the business press has said countless times that only a tiny percentage of the rise in malpractice coverage rates are due to the increase in lawsuits in recent years, of course the insurance companies will hide behind malpractice as an excuse to raise doctors' rates.
--The hospitals want you to go to the ER for little things so they can essentially do nothing for you and then charge a ridiculous amount of money. For example, a few years ago my brother started throwing up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason so my parents took him to the ER. The doctor examined him and disappeared and the nurse gave him a few OTC pills. He was in there for about an hour and a half and then sent home. What was the bill? About $900. This was only a few days before our new insurance policy took effect. My brother was fine the next day and he didn't throw up again. The problem turned out to be food poisoning.
--These days, hospitals see themselves as so competent that they feel that any mistake they make is probably somebody else's fault. For example, they routinely make all kinds of mistakes and give their patients infection. These mistakes are often paid for by either the insurance company or the patient.
--In inner city areas, there are plenty of hospitals and clinics that give everyone living in the city unlimited free healthcare services. Who picks up the bill?
--The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to regulate all those nasty drugs, but why are they so biased in favor of the drug companies? Because the people working for the FDA are either ex-pharma employees or vice versa. Can you say, "conflict of interest?"
--Your elected politicians want to keep getting lobbying money from all of the above special interest groups, so of course they won't do anything that will result in them getting less money. People who run for office do so to get elected, and once they're elected, they'll do everything they can to make sure they hold that seat.
--You benefit from this system too. You don't want to eat and live healthy because that's too much work. Why bother when you can swallow magic pills that will cure everything for you? And if you can't pay, the government will pay for things for you.
--When you start a retirement fund, what do your brokers speculate on? Drug companies and insurance companies! Why? Because everyone knows they're guaranteed to make ridiculously high sums of money no matter what happens to the economy. Also, when doctors make even the slightest mistakes, you sue and get enough money to live in Beverly Hills for the rest of your life. Who wouldn't want that?
Over the past couple decades, any attempt at fixing healthcare (Medicare in 2002, CHIP in 2007) has ended up being a complete disaster, raising the costs of EVERYTHING related to healthcare for EVERYONE.
Compared to every other country in the world, our system is a disaster. Socialized healthcare would be better. Free market healthcare would be better (we don't have that). Even a managed care would be better if the government made it work properly.
There you have it folks. ANY system would be better than the one we have right now. So why hasn't there been a big change? Because nobody wants to change. Everyone's too selfish. The problem with healthcare is not whatever people say it is. It's YOU, America. YOU are the problem.
=======================================
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Your thoughts? Share any personal stories you may have.
By doing something about it.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
=======================================
I'm sure all of you know about how messed up the country's healthcare system is. I won't talk about that. There are plenty ways of fixing it, but I won't talk about that either. Instead, I will talk about WHY healthcare is a problem and WHY it gets worse every time somebody tries to do something about it.
What's the biggest problem with healthcare in the world? Rather, what is the only problem? The answer is simpler than you may think: people are selfish! All other problems branch off of that one simple fact.
Just look at this list...
--Doctors want to keep making ridiculously high sums of money without doing anything. Thanks to direct to consumer drug ads, sick people (who are in no position to make any health decisions because they don't know anything and sickness could impair their judgment) demand that the doctor prescribe a drug. The well-trained professional who should be making all the hard decisions is just writing names of pills on pieces of paper and getting paid a lot of money from both the patient and the drug company to do it.
--Insurance companies give us wonderful plans to choose from like HMO's. You don't have to watch Michael Moore's documentary to understand why HMO's are awesome.
--Lawyers want to keep suing for malpractice because they know it's a great way to make money. If you're not a lawyer because you want to get rich, you'll be one of those public attorneys or something, and they get neither money nor respect.
--The drug companies want to keep selling you overpriced magic pills that you have to take every day for the rest of your life even though an overwhelming majority of them are extremely dangerous if used long term.
--Even though the business press has said countless times that only a tiny percentage of the rise in malpractice coverage rates are due to the increase in lawsuits in recent years, of course the insurance companies will hide behind malpractice as an excuse to raise doctors' rates.
--The hospitals want you to go to the ER for little things so they can essentially do nothing for you and then charge a ridiculous amount of money. For example, a few years ago my brother started throwing up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason so my parents took him to the ER. The doctor examined him and disappeared and the nurse gave him a few OTC pills. He was in there for about an hour and a half and then sent home. What was the bill? About $900. This was only a few days before our new insurance policy took effect. My brother was fine the next day and he didn't throw up again. The problem turned out to be food poisoning.
--These days, hospitals see themselves as so competent that they feel that any mistake they make is probably somebody else's fault. For example, they routinely make all kinds of mistakes and give their patients infection. These mistakes are often paid for by either the insurance company or the patient.
--In inner city areas, there are plenty of hospitals and clinics that give everyone living in the city unlimited free healthcare services. Who picks up the bill?
--The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to regulate all those nasty drugs, but why are they so biased in favor of the drug companies? Because the people working for the FDA are either ex-pharma employees or vice versa. Can you say, "conflict of interest?"
--Your elected politicians want to keep getting lobbying money from all of the above special interest groups, so of course they won't do anything that will result in them getting less money. People who run for office do so to get elected, and once they're elected, they'll do everything they can to make sure they hold that seat.
--You benefit from this system too. You don't want to eat and live healthy because that's too much work. Why bother when you can swallow magic pills that will cure everything for you? And if you can't pay, the government will pay for things for you.
--When you start a retirement fund, what do your brokers speculate on? Drug companies and insurance companies! Why? Because everyone knows they're guaranteed to make ridiculously high sums of money no matter what happens to the economy. Also, when doctors make even the slightest mistakes, you sue and get enough money to live in Beverly Hills for the rest of your life. Who wouldn't want that?
Over the past couple decades, any attempt at fixing healthcare (Medicare in 2002, CHIP in 2007) has ended up being a complete disaster, raising the costs of EVERYTHING related to healthcare for EVERYONE.
Compared to every other country in the world, our system is a disaster. Socialized healthcare would be better. Free market healthcare would be better (we don't have that). Even a managed care would be better if the government made it work properly.
There you have it folks. ANY system would be better than the one we have right now. So why hasn't there been a big change? Because nobody wants to change. Everyone's too selfish. The problem with healthcare is not whatever people say it is. It's YOU, America. YOU are the problem.
=======================================
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Your thoughts? Share any personal stories you may have.