The unemployed laborer severely injured in a car crash or the farmer who collapses will be given the best care possible. No expense will be spared, all needed consultants will be called, all necessary surgery and definitive care completed.
The patient who presents for planned, scheduled health care gets a different reception. Those needing elective heart surgery, or joint repair, for example, are filtered carefully. Care is rationed by ability to pay.
Insurance coverage, pre-approval, deductible, non-covered services, co-pays, will all be scrutinized. If the patient cannot pay, he or she will either not receive the needed care or will be directed to public facilities or programs that depend heavily on outside or tax-supported funding.
What is certain is that the hospital bill for the well-insured will be sufficiently high to cover expenses generated by poorly insured or uninsured patients.
If "spreading the wealth" is socialization, our system is already socialized, with the "haves" paying for the "have-nots" by a tax on the wealthier group. This explains a $15 aspirin, $10,000 to $15,000 antibiotic bills, and bills for heart surgery of $250,000 or more.
Dr. Maxwell uses this as an argument for more government involvement in healthcare.
Well-insured Americans say, "I got mine. To hell with you!"
Unless personal selfishness can be refocused to the common good, health care in the United States will remain with irrational rationing and inappropriate and financially unsustainable socialization by insurance, drug and medical supply industries.
He indirectly hit the nail on the head. Self-interest can indeed be focused for the common good. There is no substitute for self-interested buyers considering the amount of money they have to part with an weighing the value of what they’re getting. There is no substitute for self-interested providers trying to provide more value per unit cost to get more customers.
Nothing about this has to mean we do not care about the needy. On the contrary, everyone has a responsibility to help the needy. We do not, however, have to accomplish that by having the government overhaul the industry, just as we do not need to overhaul the food, clothing, shelter, utilities, education, and daycare industries to help the needy acquire those items/services.
Apart from the suggestion that opponents of overhaul don’t want to help the needy, Dr. Maxwell makes a powerful point: If we are going socialize and ration care for the needy, as we do today, we should at least do it in a well-thought-out way.
CJ,
ReplyDeleteWho is Doctor Maxwell?
And secondly, your what are you or Chris basing your opinion on?
Since I have had both Heart surgery and a full knee replacement I can
assure you that I did not wait for
any undue amount of time. The only time I had to wait was during my heart surgery due to a more serious case where an individual came in through Emergency and his surgery was a bit more critical than mine. When I had my knee surgery I shared a room with an older gentlemen who had his surgery at the same time I did.
He was a veteran and on Medicare.
His surgery was scheduled by his Doctor at the same time my Doctor had scheduled mine. I have worked in the medical emergency services for over 40 years and your example is outrageous. I have taken patients into the emergency room from the homeless to the extremely wealthy and I personally have never witnessed a critical needs patient left waiting because of their ability to pay was in question. My 30 year old daughter had life threatening cancer surgery and did not have to wait an undo period of time because of her inability to pay. As a matter of fact it been almost five years and she is still paying some of the bills.
She continues to see the same specialist and Doctors that she had that were involved in her surgery and treatment.
Are there problems in the health care industry, Yes. Are they as bad as you seem to make them out to be, NO. If they were you would not find the numbers of illegals crossing the border as there are.
Why? Because in Mexico they have socialized health care. In Canada they have socialized medicine and a majority of patients are coming to the US and paying for their surgery out of pocket because even out of pocket it is cheaper and better then the treatment they are receiving from their government. Are some treatments and surgeries better than they are here in the US.
YES, but they are also more expensive.
Hospitals and Insurance companies are charging higher rates to cover the numbers of individuals who are not insured. I can hardly wait for the first individual who gets fined $5,000 dollars or is thrown in jail for not choosing to purchase insurance.
Or you have to decide which job to take based on weather the union you have to pay dues to will invest you pension money wisely.
Or you have to wait a couple of years because the Doctor's and nurses have retired and no one wants to spend the six figure tuition and eight to ten years of their life to work in a profession that does not pay anymore than a
car mechanic. Or you make a living playing a musical instrument and a poorly trained surgeon botches the surgery and you can only sue for a certain amount but you've lost the primary way you make your living.
Your young my friend and I was just like you in my younger days but you still live in a country that has the best health care of any country in the world.
And if you don't believe that take a trip to Europe,Canada, or China or Russia where the only people who have health care are those who join the communist party or are in the military, or service jobs. You can then spend most of your time working while the government takes most of your paycheck in taxes to pay for all the free services that you receive.
If you think that this is an exaggeration, think again. I have worked for almost 45 years and I have watched as more and more of my paycheck goes into worthless government programs to save us all from the bogeymen while my salary gets smaller and smaller because of government mandates on businesses increase to the point where they can no longer pay employee wages and suddenly your out of work. And wait until the employer you work for decides that since the government has taken over your health care that they no longer have to pay for your health insurance. Instead they can pocket the extra money to pay their own bills.
@John
ReplyDeleteI invite you to read this post that you commented on. You make many of the exact same points my post and Dr. Maxwell's piece make, except you seem to think I disagree with them.
It is interesting that your argument against gov't involvement in healthcare sites an example of someone on Medicare.
I am not deadset against any government involvement, but my goal is the minimum involvement possible, probably less than we have right now