as somone how was involved in the business side for over a decade, The problem with the out of control costs in our system are: 1) Everyone wants the best. We have the best treatments and the latest technologies. We are opening medical centrers on every corner. I think this is a good thing, but it costs money. 2) The Medical system is a complete cartel - Doctors are a controlled cartel, the regulate the supply of doctors via medical boards and schools, to maintain their incomes. Many times the cover up for the bad ones so as not affect their standing. However overall most doctors are decent hardworking brain, who truly care for their patients. And hate the current system. - Government regulations over aspect of healthcare add many costs to the layers of healthcare, and in many instanced delay needed treatments and products, they also increase the delivery time of new treatements. Additionally, the create situations of scarcity thereby adding even more to the costs of treatments. Government regulation has not added much to the health care system in the last 50 years except more costs. - Government Subsidies: Here is the real destroyer of the healtchare system. Government Medicare has destroyed any market based understanding of what the medical delivery costs are, because they pay and the don't check for fraud. As such provider's clients are not the end user(patients) but the government and other insurance agencies. There is this battle between insurance agencies who try to understand costs and pinch every penny and the government who right now doesn't care and enables an enormous network of fraud and corruption to exist which is a cancer on our healthcare system. - MEDICARE is a highly inflationary program which is the main cause of our runaway healthcare costs. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/337/3/192 1997 NEJM Medicare costs are a major concern of Congress these days, and it is easy to see why. This program accounts for about 20 percent of personal health care expenditures in the United States and 11 percent of the federal budget.1,2 Policy makers are worried not so much about the absolute costs as about the rate of increase. Medicare inflation has consistently outstripped the consumer price index, averaging about 10 percent per beneficiary annually since 1969.2 Adding to the problem is the steady growth in the number of beneficiaries. As we are frequently reminded by the media, Medicare Part A's trust - Illegal immigration: Illegal immigration has destroyed healthcare in the border states. IT amazes me that the same people who scream at the SEC for not doing their job, who scream at Treasury, or at the DMV, Public Schools, or any other government organization, excpect government to centrally plan healthcare and deliver it below cost, and on time. Its not going to happen its not happening anywhere else in the world, regardless of all the bullshit UN stastics you cite. If you truly need medical attention, not fixing a fracture pinky but, trauma surgery, neonatal, cancer specialist, cardilogist, this is the best healthcare system in the world, bar none. But we have problems because our country is offering free healthcare to the most expensive patients, the elderly and that is going to bankrupt the country. We already have a defacto socialist healthcare system by the effects of medicare. In the end even if we do nothing medicare will be the majority payer of healthcare costs because of the boomers. The next step is simply rationing, which is going to suck if you are over 65 and have little resource. The government will tell you to drop dead as they are doing in all other national healthcare programs, like the UK Government needs to get out of healthcare. Patients need more control over their healthcare costs. Monopolies need to be broken up. There is no free market in healthcare because the costs are so high for entry. All thats left is some giant monopolies that control the market and the act every bit a Bureaucratic as governments. We need to reduce and streamline government regulation, break up medical companies, purchasing cartels, provide incentives for startups, and abolish medicare and medicaid and offer a healthcare voucher system, thats need based, if you are poor you get more help, if you have more money, you open tax free healthcare savings accounts. If don't follow this road, we will end up bankrupt and busted, and some new government will enact this in 30 years.
The medical industry is one of the very few where new technology drives costs up, and not down. To those complaining about increased premiums, they'd be far worse if not for governmental regulations - and when I say far worse, you can stack another 4% to 7% PER YEAR on top of what you've seen, for the policy, and even more for prescription medications.
Lots of good points, with exception to this one I believe. Remember, this is just a wealth transfer program (just as the Fed's existence to banks and control of money supply) ... The health care industry become the new wealth holders, taxpayers, and treasury buyers. So I wouldn't say the country ends up bankrupt and busted. In the end, I believe laws of physics will take over, as enough of our population become part of the health care providing system, they'll tire of facilitating the transfer of wealth to the oligopolists/monopolists in the biz...
Last year, I was admitted to the hospital with appendicitis. I was in the hospital for exactly ONE day, during which time my appendix was removed. The total hospital bill was 19,900 dollars !! This is in low cost NH, not some urban area. (Thank goodness, I had health insurance which covered a major part of the bill.) I am outraged,. How can the hospital industry let their costs reach a level that it has to charge 6 months of wages of an avg. american for one day's stay at the hospi ? No wonder my insurance cost is over a grand a month.
ANYONE who put any incumbent politician back into office for another day shares responsibilityfor this horrendous situation... only people dedicated to changing this situation(((((((((((not the media scum , dickweeds lobbyists and the corrupt self serving politicians who only exist to promote the in power agenda......stop whining and accept it or do something about it........
The health care system fiasco in the US is probably the #1 reason to get the **** out of here when you hit 50,
Self employed, I was nailed with a debilitating chronic illness seven years ago. Went to a conventional doctor, totally clueless - no help and some discouragement. After I was on the road to recovery (lots of digestive and nutritional supplements with a severely sugar free and starch free diet) and was fairly sure I wouldn't be hospitalized (or die), I dropped my medical insurance to focus my remaining resources on the (super)nutritional approach that was cheap and effective. I haven't looked back since and agree that lifestyle with a supernutritional approach can displace 80-90% of conventional medicine. Catastrophic Major Medical Insurance, say, $1- 2 million limit with $25,000 - $50,000 deductible from 2-3 years medical expenses still seems reasonable. see also: doctoryourself.com, lef.org, orthomolecular.org, Atkin's "The Vitanutrient Solution" I get most of my supplements at Costco and bulk online. Before any naysayers start on it, I also went to a tech oriented school more selective than any Ivy and work in biotech.
I agree that healthcare itself is expensive, the bill to put a catheter in my bladder, when i had an infection, was $1,200
This is 100% correct....I have severe adrenal fatigue and "conventional" DRs are not only worthless, but corrupt. Conventional American DRs are not worth 25% of their salary and do more harm than good in most cases. Yet t6he suckers keep paying them more each year......