U.S. ranks 25th in life expectancy while we pay the MOST for health care

[kx250rider]

Barry is Barack Obama

And European-style health care is one of the few things that could accelerate our breakneck-speed bankruptcy.

I will say this though: With as much warning and notice as the US is giving, China and the rest of the world have no right to act the least bit indignant when we go bankrupt and take them down with us.

Amen.

The fundamental problem is not the cost of health care, it's people having F*CKED UP priorities, and the greed in suing doctors and hospitals every time they make any mistake (or if you can make it look like they did). I hear union workers WHINING about having to pay $60 co-pays to see their HMO doctor, while they're making $800/month payments on a truck, and $500/month payments on a boat or RV. Jeezuz wheezes!!! Wouldn't it make more sense to dump the boat, and put $400 a month in a tax-exempt savings account and have $25,000 sitting there after a few years, to just walk into any doctor or hospital and write a check when the time comes? The big lie, which is cause by insurance itself, is the cost. It only costs about $200 for a complete physical, although the "insurance price" is something like $2500. My wife had to have a kidney stone procedure last year, and the bill-out cost was $56,000 including hospital, labs surgeon, followup doctor visits, meds, CT & MRI scans, etc etc etc. The actual cash price was $4800, which because our priorities are right, we paid on the spot, and it's a done deal. AND, it was about 6 days from the first diagnosis to surgery. Not months of waiting for HMOs to approve tests, and all. And this is even considering that the largest part of any doctor or hospital fee is simply to cover their costs of malpractice coverage.

What a sad, sad, greedy country we have made out of the Good Old USA.

True facts, all documented & provable.

Charles

 

[ceo]

Amen.

The fundamental problem is not the cost of health care, it's people having F*CKED UP priorities, and the greed in suing doctors and hospitals every time they make any mistake (or if you can make it look like they did). I hear union workers WHINING about having to pay $60 co-pays to see their HMO doctor, while they're making $800/month payments on a truck, and $500/month payments on a boat or RV. Jeezuz wheezes!!! Wouldn't it make more sense to dump the boat, and put $400 a month in a tax-exempt savings account and have $25,000 sitting there after a few years, to just walk into any doctor or hospital and write a check when the time comes? The big lie, which is cause by insurance itself, is the cost. It only costs about $200 for a complete physical, although the "insurance price" is something like $2500. My wife had to have a kidney stone procedure last year, and the bill-out cost was $56,000 including hospital, labs surgeon, followup doctor visits, meds, CT & MRI scans, etc etc etc. The actual cash price was $4800, which because our priorities are right, we paid on the spot, and it's a done deal. AND, it was about 6 days from the first diagnosis to surgery. Not months of waiting for HMOs to approve tests, and all. And this is even considering that the largest part of any doctor or hospital fee is simply to cover their costs of malpractice coverage.

What a sad, sad, greedy country we have made out of the Good Old USA.

True facts, all documented & provable.

Charles

They bill insurance $56,000 and insurance pays them about $8,500 a year after the fact. Plus, think of all the people that come in and don't have insurance, still get the procedure and never pay the bill! They have to make up for that somehow! And yes, not to mention the greed factor. I'd be curious to know how many of the people who don't have ins and don't pay their bill end up trying to sue the doctors/hospital. LOL!

Who says we don't need tort reform?

All this is just prepping us for some sort of Euro/Barry Care type system. Problem is politicians/gov't will implement it poorly and fuck it all up like they do with everything else and like Plunkey said, it will actually speed up the USA's impending bankruptcy.

How is it that the people who seem to have the absolute least amount of applicable common sense get elected into office and end up running our country?

 

[Mr. dB]

One thing for sure, if "Obamacare" is shot down, healthcare prices will skyrocket immediately, just like they did when "Hillarycare" was shot down in the '90s.

 

[Mr. dB]

Barry is Barack Obama

And European-style health care is one of the few things that could accelerate our breakneck-speed bankruptcy.

Fortunately, "Obamacare" is absolutely nothing like "European-style health care".

 

[Headholio]

1) Our level of acuity and co-morbidity would easily bring a European-style health care system to its knees.

2) We do spend a lot of money on the wrong/inefficient/fraudulent things, but that's just an effect of our centrally-planned benefits structure.

Acuity and co-morbidity? That doesn't even make sense. Perhaps you should provide links to back up what you are trying to say?

2. Also doesn't make sense. If central planning is somehow the cause of waste, then how does a socialized system cost half as much and get better results?

 

[PICK3]

Acuity and co-morbidity? That doesn't even make sense. Perhaps you should provide links to back up what you are trying to say?

2. Also doesn't make sense. If central planning is somehow the cause of waste, then how does a socialized system cost half as much and get better results?

^^^
RS alter alert!

 

[mrplunkey]

Fortunately, "Obamacare" is absolutely nothing like "European-style health care".

Ridiculous absolute. Obvious troll attempt.

 

[mrplunkey]

Acuity and co-morbidity? That doesn't even make sense. Perhaps you should provide links to back up what you are trying to say?

2. Also doesn't make sense. If central planning is somehow the cause of waste, then how does a socialized system cost half as much and get better results?

If you aren't familiar with the concepts of acuity adjustment and comorbidity in measuring clinicoeconomic outcomes, then you really should sit on the sidelines of the health care debate.

 

[mrplunkey]

They bill insurance $56,000 and insurance pays them about $8,500 a year after the fact. Plus, think of all the people that come in and don't have insurance, still get the procedure and never pay the bill! They have to make up for that somehow! And yes, not to mention the greed factor. I'd be curious to know how many of the people who don't have ins and don't pay their bill end up trying to sue the doctors/hospital. LOL!

Who says we don't need tort reform?

All this is just prepping us for some sort of Euro/Barry Care type system. Problem is politicians/gov't will implement it poorly and fuck it all up like they do with everything else and like Plunkey said, it will actually speed up the USA's impending bankruptcy.

How is it that the people who seem to have the absolute least amount of applicable common sense get elected into office and end up running our country?

Amen.

It's not really hard to figure-out hospital margins. Most hospitals operate at little or no profit -- 1% to 2% margins are the norm.

So here is the math:

Assume overall Hospital Margin: 0%

Payer mix:

15% indigent/no-pay = -100% margin (customer pays virtually nothing)

40% medicare/medicaid = -10% margin (medicare covers some operating costs but doesn't cover fully-burdened overhead)

45% private payer

So to get back to 0%, what does the private payer margin need to be?

X = -1*(0.15*(-100) + 0.40*(-10)) / 0.45 = 42%

So when a private pay patient experiences $1 in cost, the hospital has to collect (not bill... collect) $1.87

So if the liberals ever do succeed in taking over health care, the price increase they'll need to keep hospitals afloat will be so large that it would immediately bankrupt the country.

The government is already getting a free ride off the backs of private payers, and it's still bankrupting us. I can't imagine how fast it would happen if we gave them more of it.

 

[Mr. dB]

Ridiculous absolute. Obvious troll attempt.

You must be speaking about yourself.

Since Obamacare is mostly just forcing people to buy health insurance, I don't see how it compares with European single-payer plans in which all medical commerce is transacted through tax money.

Your lies make Baby Jesus cry.

Just like the lies that Obama's regulatory madness is killing American business, when Obama's administration has been slashing regulations in every field except health and banking/finance.

Obama Office Alters More Federal Rules Than Bush : NPR