The USA Medical System

Look, you can be bitter about what happened to your family all you want...what I said is still true, for everyone. It comes down to the extent of entitlement you feel. It's amazing to me that in a country that outlawed slavery 150 years ago, the mentality is still alive and well...the mentality that other people are obligated to work hard on our behalf at whatever price we feel like paying, simply because we want their labor. Our need becomes their mandate.

Why on earth would one human being feel entitled to treat another in this way? I will never understand it.

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"I'm not mean. You're just a sissy." - Happy Bunny

"I think you should be able to flush anything you want. Just don't call me when your toilet clogs." - BlueHeron Farm

No problem with paying their own way. What I'm trying to explain is often times CARE IS NOT AVAILABLE TO YOU when you don't have literally thousands upon thousands of dollars stacked away somewhere.

So far medical expenses are totalling almost $100,000...were we supposed to have stashed that much away while trying to live? Thank GOD the insurance got straightened out and I DID pay COBRA for a few months and my new employer rocks. Insurance is part of MY COMPENSATION for a job well done, I pay part of it myself, too.

Do you really think that charging $800 dollars to take 6 stitches out of my 6-year-old's forehead is "reasonable" (although I agree it's probably customary ) (that was many years ago, too). THAT is what I'm talking about. They (ins cos, docs, whatever) have made it IMPOSSIBLE to pay your own way.

Um, haven't read it all, but what do you expect for a system that makes a profit on sickness? Can you imagine? People getting rich on sickness? Making $$ on your adversity. What's the incentive to cure or prevent?

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Rudeness is a small man's imitation of power.

trixiwick,

Re: ENTITLEMENT

I feel entitled to do my own "doctoring". I am neither ignorant nor incapable.

I am not only "offended", but also "limited", in the restrictions placed upon my "free choices" by our Medical System.

I believe that Americans should be able to buy their medicines in the same manner as Mexicans in Mexico. (without prescription)Perhaps the word should be: proscription.

pro·scrip·tion (pr-skrpshn) KEY

NOUN:

The act of proscribing; prohibition.
The condition of having been proscribed; outlawry.


Bruce

It really only cost about 100 bucks to take your daughters stitches out. The other 700 bucks went to pay for malpratice insurance and the fees the hospital never collected from people who could not pay for their own treatment.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

Yes, this is all true. It all sucks.
I dont think any of us on here are saying that insurance is great, fair or working. It does often fail and no one is fixing the bad guys.
BUT the argument is not about this. It is about the fact that so many feel it is their right to free medical. It is their right to get what everyone else has.
Many of us are of the opinion that that is not a right. It is a privilege. You have to earn it.
It truly is another issue that when you have worked for it and it is RIGHTFULY yours and its not there. Or it fails you. I think we can al sympathize with bad medical. But it is because of a bad system. A system that needs Ron Paul as President. OK, I just could not help myself there.

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Mutton and Chocolate! YUMMMMMMMM!

Darn right I felt/feel entitled...that insurance was/is PAID for, and they were the ones screwing up. Then the doctor not seeing him because we didn't physically have the card. I'm entitled to those "hard workers" doing their job and doing it well because our well being could be in their hands, and not for whatever price *we* are *willing* to pay, but fees and charges that not rediculous and outrageous and undoable. I'm entitled to have a physician LISTEN to what I have to say and consider it, not just brush me off because he has to see 40 more patients in the next 3 hours. Our need IS their mandate - that's their business, they chose it - and they entitled to and receive fair compensation. Because oil companies fill our "need" for fuel, does that mean there would be no problem with them charging $6000 a barrel or whatever? Because you have a knowledge and skill that not everyone can attain, does that justify taking advantage of people? THAT I will never understand.

I have some sympathy with you there. I'm not sure what the ramifications would be of lifting prescription requirement for all drugs, but we must have the most hyper-regulated system on the planet right now.

Otherwise, we're bumping up against the problem between what we expect from medical care and what we are willing to pay for it. We want our doctors to be the best-trained professionals, who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their education and put in back-breaking years of study and interning. We want to be at a clean, bright facility with private rooms, plenty of nurses, state-of-the-art equipment, and an in-house lab (how 'bout some good food, too?). And we're unwilling to tolerate any errors in the process of diagnosis and treatment, so we (as a nation) are incredibly sue-happy and want reimbursement in the millions if a Band-Aid is put on upside down.

Shockingly, this creates a really expensive system. Then it comes time to pay, and we cry, "That's way too expensive!"

I haven't heard a better idea for a solution expressed here apart from individual insurance purchase. A lot of people are just complaining and have no viable answer.

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"I'm not mean. You're just a sissy." - Happy Bunny

"I think you should be able to flush anything you want. Just don't call me when your toilet clogs." - BlueHeron Farm

Thanks for understanding what I was saying. I thought the question at hand was about the whole system, which indeed stinks. It's broken.

So..."from those according to their ability to those according to their need"? Hmmm, where have I heard that before, it sounds oddly familiar?

(I'm not a doctor, BTW, in case you thought I was and that's why I feel the way I do)

And yes, I agree the system is a mess, though I do not blame highly skilled professionals that believe they have earned high pay, but rather bloodsucking insurance companies and litigious Americans.

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"I'm not mean. You're just a sissy." - Happy Bunny

"I think you should be able to flush anything you want. Just don't call me when your toilet clogs." - BlueHeron Farm

:applause:

Culpeper - I did not count how many times you used the word "free" in your post....but it is NOT free. It is free to YOU, but the taxpayers pay for it. So it's wonderful for you and I am glad that you have it, but it stinks for all those healthy taxpayers who are paying for it. At 3%, I would have paid $1260 last year. The catch there is that our medical expenses last year (I looked this up!) were $127.35 that includes prescriptions. So, basically, I would have been paying $1100 for your "free" healthcare.

I am NOT saying you should be left to suffer.....it just irks me when people go on and on about their free care. it's NOT free. Here is why it bugs me: I have a good friend that has 4 kids. Her husband works, but they are on medicaid (he is a farm hand and they have food/housing/utilities paid for them. Not all their food - but they have a huge garden spot they COULD be using, and they get beef, eggs, milk, etc. They get food stamps and medicaid. She takes those kids in every year for "well child" checks, twice a year for dental cleaning, once a year for eye exams, and to the doctor for every little sniffle and fever. She raves about how it's FREE. No, it is not.


I think that all insurance should be abolished and we should go to a self pay system. The prices, in theory, would go down drastically. Also, people might try preventing more problems such as obesity and blood pressure, rather than running to the doctor and getting pills for every little thing. Catastrophic care would have to be handled differently. I don't know - I don't have any answers.


Now, for the OP......The medical system is just plain wrong. Doctors have to sell their souls to become doctors. Then they have to pay outrageous malpractice premiums that force them to make stupid and unnecessary decisions, ordering tests that aren't really needed just so they can say they took every precaution possible if they get sued. Doctors will murder unborn babies, but refuse to prescribe medications so a terminally ill person can ease their pain because they might take too many or might get addicted. We have had doctors refuse to see us because we do not vaccinate, and one refused to see us when he found out we give our kids raw cows milk from our own, healthy cows. That was none of their business.

My opinion is that most doctors think they are mini-gods. They are in it for the power and the money.

As I stated before, when a system makes a profit on sickness there's really no incentive for prevention or cure.

I think I single handedly paid for my DR's BMW to treat my allergies. Think about it. Profit on sickness. Isn't that just twisted?

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Rudeness is a small man's imitation of power.

You have a point, but we're also dealing with a population that views medicine as magic that is supposed to undo a lifetime of dreadful habits. Ask any GP you know how often they've told their smoker patients that they really should quit, or instructed their obese patients to lose weight. Then ask 'em how often their suggestions are followed.

Each of makes our own decision about preventive care, and in my experience doctors do what they can to keep their patients informed...patients just don't do it.

...says someone whose MIL was just diagnosed with inoperable stage four lung cancer...who knew smoking caused that...?

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"I'm not mean. You're just a sissy." - Happy Bunny

"I think you should be able to flush anything you want. Just don't call me when your toilet clogs." - BlueHeron Farm

metastatic cancer doesn't appear overnight.....in order for early detection a patient must have regular exams...including colonoscopy as well as not ignoring symptoms because they scare us!

If a person is going to gamble with not getting sick they should have at least that amount of $$ on hand to pay their way......or not seek help.

If a person is going to gamble with not getting sick they should have at least that amount of $$ on hand to pay their way......or not seek help.

Well, BobK,
How much $$$ were YOU born with? (or did you 'gamble' on not getting sick until you saved up enuf?) I don't think that you thought much about this comment before posting it.

Bruce

When I was born I was under my parents policy...when I started working on my own I got my own insurance for medical coverage......if 'you' have a family it is 'your' responsibility to make sure they have medical coverage...to do otherwise is negligent IMO....so I never had to worry about having lots of $$ saved up for an emergency....I had/have insurance so I don't (did not)have to worry!!

I guess I haven't been paying attention. All this time I thought you were a guy!

Sorry!

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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world" - Thorin Oakenshield to Bilbo Baggins, in JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit"

DING DING DING DING We have a winner!!!! a bit confused, perhaps, but she used the reference to lawyers! I was about to give up on this thread....

One clarification... Although it appears that insurance companies are bloodsucking entities, the reality is that they are the victims. They are the one that end up ponying up for the lawsuits brought by attorneys 'on behalf' of their clients. Most of the time the client doesn't understand why they are suing the hospital or pharmaceutical company or doctor or... The insurance companies are simply the ones that end up litigating and paying any judgments awarded.

Insurance premiums are not set by a board of directors or president of an insurance company. It's a calculated amount based on the demographic profile and statistical data compiled by the company and digested by their actuarial computer program - it's pretty cut and dried. And that's certainly an oversimplification, but that's the essence of it. They know that a 42 year old white male that has and does work in a West Virginia coal mine is going to have X% chance of becoming ill with pneumonia, and a Y% chance of dyeng in that coal mine, and a Z% chance of any one of 20 illnesses and injuries common to that profession AND what the cost of treatment of each is - crunch the numbers, add 10% and you end up with a premium...

If you handcuff the attorneys... limit the amount of money they can bring a medical malpractice or personal injury lawsuit for, you'll see malpractice insurance rates drop, then health care costs and then medical insurance. It's pretty simple economics.

I'm not saying the medical system doesn't need some fixin' - but start with the obtuse economic strain on the system and a lot of the rest will either be easier to deal with or fix itself...

I don't understand why YOU don't understand what I posted. I posted my opinion on how I think insurance is expensive. I was just stating something. I don't know how you think, or interpet that I was whining, or complaining or feeling that I was being treated unfairly. WHERE?? Tell me WHERE in my posts did you read that???