Those who go after Medicare/Medicaid/govt should at least go after the monopolization, or the ever increasingly high market share concentration, of private healthcare insurance in the various states. Benny Hinn should not be considered a healthcare alternative.
It's just a few bad actors who really take advantage of medicare. One or two fraudsters can cost Medicare millions. It is amazing what they can get away with. Eliminate the bad actors and costs will come down.
The worst form of government is one where corporations and government are allies. The people lose in that scenario. Americans are losing their health freedoms slowly as Big Pharma tries to get more and more control over schools, the supplement industry, etc.. Doctors are technicians that speak Latin for the most part. I'm dealing with one currently that is hardly awake.. we had him on the witness stand, he could hardly answer questions at all, he had no problem admitting that he had reached a diagnosis and it was used to convict a woman, but the diagnosis had been reached with no testing at all. My Bible says "heal yourself daily" and that is what it takes to be healthy.
physicians are smart people; i respect their academic achievements. however, as people they tend to be very greedy and selfish. i know some on a personal level. the reason they are paid so highly is because the industry is controlling how many physicians graduate from medical school. on top of that we have employee-paid healthcare plans that pay for every little thing. got the sniffles? see the doctor. your kid got a papercut? see the doctor. when so many people visit the doctor over every little thing, it increases demand for their services.
Well, in Europe doctor's salaries are not as high but are very much tax supported. Also, the same could be said for the college industry in general.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is something I've never understood and is rarely discussed... We have gov't regulated prices on electricity, cable TV. The rest of the world and the state of Maryland regulate pricing on medical services. But only in the rest of the US we do not regulate pricing on medical services? For advanced services, including"the best healthcare in the world", I can understand high prices, but for the rest of us and everyday healthcare why the high costs?
It's not a lack of regulation--sheesh, all we need is more regulation and red tape. See the link I posted earlier on the first page of this thread. In spite (not because of) regulations, this clinic beats the price of most other facilities by a large margin. In their own words: "The pricing outlined on this website is not a teaser, nor is it a bait-and-switch ploy. It is the actual price you will pay. We can offer these prices because we are completely physician-owned and managed. We control every aspect of the facility from real estate costs, to the most efficient use of staff, to the elimination of wasteful operating room practices that non-profit hospitals have no incentive to curb. We are truly committed to providing the best quality care at the lowest possible price."
Take the profit factor out of health care. Destroy the USA medical cartel. We need true national health care.
In any field where competition is regulated out prices tend to be high. American medicine is a government (State and Federal) protected cartel. When you do business with a cartel expect to be fleeced. The AMA, AHA, drug and insurance industries --and a host of other related teat-sucker industries-- all have powerful lobbies and a lot of money to spend on behalf of political campaigns. Medicare does in fact introduce a small measure of price control to the extent that congress has permitted it to for political reasons, but the AMA, AHA, drug and insurance industries are far better at playing the game than the medicare bureaucrats, who must play with one hand tied behind their back. What will be interesting to see is what happens when some huge company like Wal-Mart wants to tap into this goldmine. Wal-Mart also has a lot of money to spend on lobbyists and advertising! Will a company like Wal-Mart be allowed to join the cartel, or will they have to break it -- one small step at a time -- before they can tap into that jackpot? http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/compensation/2011