BGFalcons82;518537 wrote:Iggy -
So that's it? It's over now? Nothing can be done to stop single-payer? We should just lay here and take it up the keester?
One of the major problems with health care is that the end user has virtually no say in the cost, when to get the services nor where to obtain the services. There is a 3rd and 4th party (Insurance providers and governmental agencies) involved in the dealings between the provider and the patient. In almost every instance, these parties determine rates, who gets covered, who doesn't get covered, how often the service is necessary, and when services will no longer be provided. Can you think of any other industry where the consumer has such limited choices and no choice in how much to spend (or not spend)? Why is this industry so convoluted and corrupt?
To me, one other major problem with health care is that we've been taught as a society to run....no, check that....race to the ER or call 911 for sniffles, fevers, and simple cuts. The idea of insurance being just for catastrophic injuries/illnesses disappeared decades ago. Although lately, these type of insurance packages have come back into vogue as a way to save money and allow for people to save for these high deductible plans with tax-deferred Health Savings Accounts (HSA's). If people are in charge of their health care dollars, then they will be more wise in how they spend them. This includes bandaids for cuts, OTC meds for headaches, and Kleenex. We have become a "victim society" and we need a pill, a doctor, or a hospital to care for everything. We are reaping what we sow.
Finally...it ain't over. Single payer is socialism. That isn't my America.
BG-
I agree with you 100 fold about the personal responsibility end and general removal of people from the cost side of health care. With a 3rd party paying, most people never see nor have any idea what the treatments they are getting actually cost and there for don't think twice about whether it is necessary or not.
The problem we have though is that even if we went to a more market based system, we are still screwed because being the only open market Americans pay significant premiums on everything healthcare related over the rest of the world to supplement the profit margins of companies that can't charge what they would like in the rest of the world because of government price controls.
We pay $10 a pill for something Candians pay $1 for because we are the only market out there. That is just an example using pharma, but the principle applies to medical tech companies and every other area in healthcare that requires innovation.
Congress has continually passed bills that extend the lifespan on patents to stifle competition from generics, so Americans are going to continue to be left in the untenable position of supplementing the world's healthcare costs on our back.
I am not a single payer advocate, but how do we ever get our arms around the cost inflation problem when we have rigged the game for insurers, pharma and device makers to protect their profit margins since they have to make up for 180 country's worth or profit in just the U.S?
We can't change the way the rest of the world governments act with regard to healthcare and price controls, so isn't there going to come a point in which single payer becomes inevitable if only because we can't afford the bill of what one market (notice I didn't say free) pricing costs us?
It's like the global warming hoax to me at this point. County's that limit their carbon emissions are cutting off their nose to spite their face because unless everyone else is playing by the same rules, you are really only hurting yourself in the long run by putting yourself at a competitive disadvantage.
By being the only country that has no sort of price controls (not that I want it), I see no scenario in which we can ever get health care costs under control as we are always going to be forced to make-up for the profits not being made in the rest of the world (by paying drastically higher prices than everyone else) because every other government doesn't allow for market pricing in their country's.
Don't misunderstand me. I am not advocating for socialism or single payer. What i am doing is acknowledging the reality that the way the system is we are doomed to the inevitability of it because we won't be able to afford the alternative as long as the other 180+ countries of the world operate with price controls.
If company A needs to meet X cost on a certain thing, and Government B says you can only charge Y amount, that means that Company A is going to charge Americans cost plus whatever the difference is between X and Y. That is a fucked up system, but the way it is when there are 180+ closed markets and only 1 open one. Costs overall have doubled in America the past decade, and will double again in the next as long as we are paying the world's tab. It is just not sustainable if we can't get the rest of the world to open up their markets as the pricing inflation dynamic is not going to change for us sadly.
