US healthcare "in danger of collapse."

It seems to be an international phenomenon - the British NHS is also struggling. The chance of survival in the case of a serious illness depends largely on location. Those who can afford private healthcare are sorted - unfortunately most of us can't.

I blame, amongst other things; an ageing population, increasing costs of medication (along with increasing profits for pharmaceutical companies), and (ironically) improved healthcare meaning we Westerners do live longer (and depend heavily upon modern medication to do so). In other words, modern healthcare is a victim of its own success - which is bad news for those who have to rely on it.

So, then: HMOs don't work. Socialist-ish health agencies don't work. What does work? Running around in the streets with syringes and injecting everyone that looks sick? Hmm...

.......slowly mounting his soapbox.........


What I will say about insurance companies can be said about all business' today. They make me sick!! I'm not sure of exactly when it happened, but at some point in our (american) recent history a change took place. It was subtle at first, but now screams out for some sort of action.

There used to be a time when someone built a factory to make shoes. The shoes were marketed and sold. After expenses (material, payroll, etc.) either a pfofit was made, or money was lost. But the purpose never changed, to make a shoe. I think it was the same for insurance companies. They were in the business to "insure" that people were covered for unforseen loss or expenses. The company was successful if it could do it and still make a profit. But the focus was to "insure". And then a new generation of businessmen crawled out of some cesspool somewhere and decided to change things. No longer happy with making shoes, i-beams, and icecream they decided to make money. And the insurance company decided to fund footbal stadiums. And the shoe company figured they could make "more" money by using oversea slave laborers.

The CEO's no longer happy with second homes and pleasure boats now wanted third world countries, offshore islands and such.  And they sold the "investor" a share of this dream.  I recall in another thread, somone was asking "what's the difference between taking half your paycheck to Vegas and putting it into a 401k?"  They are both a gamble these days.

Back to the OP.......

Insurance companies are a for profit company, and as long as they continue to be so we can expect our services to go down as our premiums go up.  Greed, greed, greed, it's all about the benjamins.  Here in PA and across the river in NJ hospitals have closed their trauma centers because the doctors won't show up because their insurance premiums are insane because the insurance company wants to sponsor a baseball park.  There are those who try to shift blame to lawsuits (and as far as lawyers are concerned) there is a lot of blame there as well.  But until companies return to providing a service or a product instead of printing money we are heading for deep doo doo.

Here in America we have let Hmo have to much control.

 the doctors at least some of them can't afford the malpractice insurance.

 It is hard for doctors to make a good living anymore.

 Patients find any excuse to sue around here. 

  Lawyers are killing doctors with their petty law suits.  Evee