Got Health Insurance? It's not enough anymore.

[Philodox]

The healthcare system is broken because it has perverse incentives, complicated reimbursement strategies, and cuts the patient out of the billing process. When patients don't care what something costs, and believe that everything should be free, doctors will charge as much as they can. Third party payers use medical records to deny coverage to patients, collectively bargain for lower reimbursement, and set arbitrary fees that reward tests and procedures. This creates a bizarre positive feedback loop that results in a feeding frenzy of billing and unnecessary charges, tests, and procedures. Unlike any other sector, more competition actually drives up costs.

 

[Philodox]

And enough of the talk that socialized systems can't innovate. If Cuba, with a mere fraction of the per capita wealth America has, can have a vaccine for lung cancer alongside a highly socialized system...

Well, lets be fair. That (CimaVax EGF) has bene in production since 92 and only really extends quality of life for five or six months. Add to the fact, that this therapy is just entering large clinical trials now, also leaves much to the unknown...


http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2286043.htm

Associate Professor Michael Boyer who's director of the Sydney Cancer Centre is keeping an open mind about the vaccine.

MICHAEL BOYER: It's obviously great news if there is a product available that helps improve the quality and duration of life of people suffering with lung cancer, but at this stage, we don't really have details of clinical trials that led to this approval so it is very, very difficult to judge just how affective this drug is.

JAYNE MARGETTS: Associate Professor Boyer says the results of other global trials won't be known for several years.

MICHAEL BOYER: The trials are actually currently recruiting patients. That means they're in the phase where people being treated. We need to wait till all the people that are going to enter the trial have entered and they'll probably need to be followed for a couple of years after that. So we are still talking, in the case of lung cancer, of some years.

JAYNE MARGETTS: Professor Jim Bishop from the NSW Cancer Institute says previous trials have been unsuccessful.

JIM BISHOP: Unfortunately in this area of vaccines for cancer it's a bit of a cautionary tale. There's been a number of things that have been tried in this area and things that look very promising in early phase studies with just a few patients treated. When on large randomised clinical trials have not shown to be of benefit. And this is the case for both melanoma vaccines, but also for some vaccines for lung cancer.

 

[Philodox]

What is the solution? I'm finally trying to do something about my health but in the meantime I've been nickel and dimed to death with copays here and there and everywhere. I swear I ought to take out an insurance policy on my teeth and let myself sit around and rot. Golly.

Find a Doc, that doesn't use Private insurance that will bill you for his time and not a battery of tests. Hard to find, but if they lower their overhead, it can be much more affordable.

 

[jamesrwright3]

The healthcare system is broken because it has perverse incentives, complicated reimbursement strategies, and cuts the patient out of the billing process. When patients don't care what something costs, and believe that everything should be free, doctors will charge as much as they can. Third party payers use medical records to deny coverage to patients, collectively bargain for lower reimbursement, and set arbitrary fees that reward tests and procedures. This creates a bizarre positive feedback loop that results in a feeding frenzy of billing and unnecessary charges, tests, and procedures. Unlike any other sector, more competition actually drives up costs.

Agreed..the problem is people have a soialized system now in terms of knowing the costs of their care..They only pay 10 bucks and don't see the real costs of their care..They have no incentive to look for a lower price because regardless of where they go they will pay the same price..Providers have no incentive to lower their costs..would you if you had a guaranteed price and the customer was not affected by the price charged? The other problem is malpractice reform needs to be addressed as well.

The only solution I see now is to have the government run it..that will enable to control costs and administrative expenses..We can't go back to a pure market system...people expect a baseline level of care.

 

[Trogdor the Burninator]

Agreed..the problem is people have a soialized system now in terms of knowing the costs of their care..They only pay 10 bucks and don't see the real costs of their care..They have no incentive to look for a lower price because regardless of where they go they will pay the same price..Providers have no incentive to lower their costs..would you if you had a guaranteed price and the customer was not affected by the price charged? The other problem is malpractice reform needs to be addressed as well.

The only solution I see now is to have the government run it..that will enable to control costs and administrative expenses..We can't go back to a pure market system...people expect a baseline level of care.

The other thing people have to realise is that healthcare will never behave like a free market – because it isn’t one. In a truly free market I have the power of choice, and that includes the choice to not buy the product. If car makers jack up their prices too high I can simply not buy a car, or keep the one I already have and repair it. I can carpool, catch a train, telecommute or ride a bike.

People don’t have that choice in healthcare. People won’t choose refuse treatment and get sick, because the effect of that choice is catastrophic. So they are forced into a market where providers have little incentive to drop prices. Therefore the only way to properly run health is to have universal healthcare provided by the government using tax revenues.

Besides, having people with chronic illnesses which they can’t afford to treat is bad for business, as is forcing people to effectively go broke in order to pay HC costs or access charity programs. Properly run, cheap HC is a benefit to society, not a cost.

 

[jgarden]

Originally Posted by Philodox

"The healthcare system is broken because it has perverse incentives, complicated reimbursement strategies, and cuts the patient out of the billing process. When patients don't care what something costs, and believe that everything should be free, doctors will charge as much as they can. Third party payers use medical records to deny coverage to patients, collectively bargain for lower reimbursement, and set arbitrary fees that reward tests and procedures. This creates a bizarre positive feedback loop that results in a feeding frenzy of billing and unnecessary charges, tests, and procedures. Unlike any other sector, more competition actually drives up costs.

jamesrwright3
"Agreed..the problem is people have a soialized system now in terms of knowing the costs of their care..They only pay 10 bucks and don't see the real costs of their care..They have no incentive to look for a lower price because regardless of where they go they will pay the same price..Providers have no incentive to lower their costs..would you if you had a guaranteed price and the customer was not affected by the price charged? The other problem is malpractice reform needs to be addressed as well.

The only solution I see now is to have the government run it..that will enable to control costs and administrative expenses..We can't go back to a pure market system...people expect a baseline level of care."

***************************************************************************************************
COMPARISON OF US VERSUS CANADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS

AREA COMPARED - AMERICAN / CANADIAN
**********************************************************
Country Life expectancy - 77.8 years/ 80.2 years
Infant mortality rate - 6.8 / 5.3
Physicians per 1000 people - 2.4 / 2.2
Nurses per 1000 people - 7.9 /10.0
Per capita expenditure on health (USD) - $6,401 / $3,326
Healthcare costs as a percent of GDP - 15.3% / 9.8%
% of government revenue spent on health - 18.5% / 16.7%
% of health costs paid by government - 45.1% / 70.3%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Canada
***************************************************************************************************
- When patients don't care what something costs, and believe that everything should be free, doctors will charge as much as they can.
- feeding frenzy of billing and unnecessary charges, tests, and procedures.

The facts contradict these criticisms.
The average Canadian spends less on healthcare, outlives his American counterpart by 2.4 years and has a substantially lower infant mortality rate.

 

[Philodox]

***************************************************************************************************
COMPARISON OF US VERSUS CANADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS

AREA COMPARED - AMERICAN / CANADIAN
**********************************************************
Country Life expectancy - 77.8 years/ 80.2 years
Infant mortality rate - 6.8 / 5.3
Physicians per 1000 people - 2.4 / 2.2
Nurses per 1000 people - 7.9 /10.0
Per capita expenditure on health (USD) - $6,401 / $3,326
Healthcare costs as a percent of GDP - 15.3% / 9.8%
% of government revenue spent on health - 18.5% / 16.7%
% of health costs paid by government - 45.1% / 70.3%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Canada
***************************************************************************************************
- When patients don't care what something costs, and believe that everything should be free, doctors will charge as much as they can.
- feeding frenzy of billing and unnecessary charges, tests, and procedures.

The facts contradict these criticisms.
The average Canadian spends less on healthcare, outlives his American counterpart by 2.4 years and has a substantially lower infant mortality rate.

What exactly are the contradictions? My post would seem to explain the difference, not contradict it.