Wages have NOT soared. That is a very big misconception. Reimbursement has decreased for virtually every surgical procedure. A coronary artery bypass used to pay a surgeon around 10-15 thousand dollars. Now it reimburses about 2-3000 dollars. This reimbursement includes all post-operative care by the surgeon for 90 days.
The only way physicians have kept up with similar annual salaries is by substantially increasing their workload. Salaries have trailed the rate of inflation for the last decade or more.
Group rates are quoted based on experience by actuaries. The risk is pooled, so the larger the pool the more accurate the pricing can be. Larger groups are systematically easier to administer. Enrollment/disenrollment is automated through payroll extracts. The sales process is over 100's or 1000's of insured so your marketing expenses are cheaper per life.
And all the opposite is true for individual policies.
1). Drugs should never require a prescription.
Do you people have any idea how much it costs to see a doctor? Most of you are Americans so I guess the answer is yes. It costs my government roughly $120 every time I see a doctor. I need to see a doctor at least once per month because my medication can only be given 1 month at a time. Oddly enough, my medication with no insurance only costs $20. Think about that. To buy a $20 product, the total cost is $140. Would you be satisfied if you tried to buy $20 worth of gasoline and were forced to pay a $120 service fee for some asshole to pump it for you?
12 months * $120 = $1440 per year to get a doctor to sign a piece of paper. Is he diagnosing a problem? No. Is he giving medical advice? No. Is he doing anything productive? No. All it does is cost my government tons of money and it ties up the system so people with real problems can't get help.
If I could buy my medication without a prescription, my government would save billions of dollars and the quality of everyone's health care would be a lot better.
Just in case you're wondering how many prescriptions are filled in Canada, here's a page from our friends at Pfizer. press release
Do you people have any idea how much it costs to see a doctor? Most of you are Americans so I guess the answer is yes. It costs my government roughly $120 every time I see a doctor. I need to see a doctor at least once per month because my medication can only be given 1 month at a time. Oddly enough, my medication with no insurance only costs $20. Think about that. To buy a $20 product, the total cost is $140. Would you be satisfied if you tried to buy $20 worth of gasoline and were forced to pay a $120 service fee for some asshole to pump it for you?
12 months * $120 = $1440 per year to get a doctor to sign a piece of paper. Is he diagnosing a problem? No. Is he giving medical advice? No. Is he doing anything productive? No. All it does is cost my government tons of money and it ties up the system so people with real problems can't get help.
If I could buy my medication without a prescription, my government would save billions of dollars and the quality of everyone's health care would be a lot better.
Just in case you're wondering how many prescriptions are filled in Canada, here's a page from our friends at Pfizer. press release
1 million * $120 = $120M of tax payer money to sign pieces of paper to get penis medication, and all this time you probably thought prescriptions were a good idea.
Ok so you want toprescribe your own medicine. You have history of seizures and Atrial fibrillation and are a diabetic on metformin. You develope shortness of breath and a productive cough. What is the diagnosis and what medication do you give yourself.
You get a chest xray and have to read it yourself. What does it show. Is it normal? Is it pneumonia? Is it heart failure?
There is a reason that to practice medicine in this country you must complete 4 years of undergraduate, 4 years of medical school and at least 3 years of residence( as much as 10 if you do a fellowship), thats a minimum of 11 years of training. Your 29 before you even start your career. 26 before you earn a dime(about 30k/year for residents today).
Here's how my last doctor visit went.
<doctor walks in>
Shawn: Hi. I'd like a new prescription of this but 300mg instead of 150mg.
Doctor: Does this medication seem to be working?
Shawn: Yep
Doctor: ok then
<signs paper>
$120 right there. Could I have walked to the shelf and just picked up the 300mg bottle instead of the 150mg bottle? I don't have 20 years of medical experience but I'm pretty sure that I know how to pick things up and read the number on the side.
On a side note, yes I did diagnose my own problem and figure out what medication I should be taking. I told a few doctors what my symptoms are and what medication I would like, and I ended up with 3 other medications before getting the one I wanted. Did any of those professionally recommended medications work? No, they did not. Want to know why? It's because doctors know nothing about medication. That's a whole different field called "pharmacology".
Asking a doctor for information about drugs makes about as much sense as asking the people at Home Depot how to build things. Sure they work in that department and they sell you that product, but they don't actually know how that product works. The Home Depot guy cannot tell you how to safely wire your house, just as a medical doctor does not understand the difference between serotonin medication and dopamine medication. I know this because I got 3 serotonin medications when I specifically asked for a certain dopamine medication. Like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, their stupid ideas obviously didn't work.
If that was the extent of the exam then your physician is fraudulently billing for services that he did not render. Medicare rules which all insurances adhere to state what you must examine and document to justify each level (1-5) visit you may bill for. That documentation in primary care office would justify a level one which is about 50$ visit for affluent area insured at a 30% discount with your copay make about $35. If you have medicaid thats a $6 visit.
There are a lot of factors why coverage is so expensive and why the system sucks.
I like Frontline Warriors assessment. I would like to add one thing to his thoughts. When it comes to spending 30% of all health care money in the last few months of a person's life, I think insurance companies are NOT adapting fast enough to preventative measures. They are seriously not planning ahead in terms of risk/reward.
Case and point: My teeth are very healthy and I don't have a single cavity. What my dentist noticed though is that I am wearing my teeth out at a faster rate than normal. He thinks that I either grind my teeth or clench them at night. His suggestion was that I get a custom made tooth guard that is molded to the shape of my upper teeth. This item costs 640 dollars. I asked him, well I don't think my insurance covers it, so what if I don't get one. He said that he has seen people with teeth worn out so much, that they either need to be capped, or totally replaced. What does something like that cost? Thousands of dollars, in some cases he needs to get a dental surgeon to come in and put false teeth in who he specifically flies in to do such work.
I called my insurance company because although not covered explicitly in my policy (funny, they consider this as a COSMETIC PROSTHESIS so its not covered) I thought maybe they would cover 50% or something. I got turned down even though I posed the question, do you want to share the cost of 640 bucks now? Or do you want me to eventually have surgery that can cost 5-10k if not more. They really did not have a good answer to that.
The other major problem with health care is that you have 47 million people WITHOUT health insurance, and all of us that do subsidize their health costs. Imagine if 47 million drivers were uninsured.... would never happen. I don't see why we can't make it a law so that you HAVE to have health insurance. Then its society's job to make sure that people can afford to have it.
I like Frontline Warriors assessment. I would like to add one thing to his thoughts. When it comes to spending 30% of all health care money in the last few months of a person's life, I think insurance companies are NOT adapting fast enough to preventative measures. They are seriously not planning ahead in terms of risk/reward.
Case and point: My teeth are very healthy and I don't have a single cavity. What my dentist noticed though is that I am wearing my teeth out at a faster rate than normal. He thinks that I either grind my teeth or clench them at night. His suggestion was that I get a custom made tooth guard that is molded to the shape of my upper teeth. This item costs 640 dollars. I asked him, well I don't think my insurance covers it, so what if I don't get one. He said that he has seen people with teeth worn out so much, that they either need to be capped, or totally replaced. What does something like that cost? Thousands of dollars, in some cases he needs to get a dental surgeon to come in and put false teeth in who he specifically flies in to do such work.
I called my insurance company because although not covered explicitly in my policy (funny, they consider this as a COSMETIC PROSTHESIS so its not covered) I thought maybe they would cover 50% or something. I got turned down even though I posed the question, do you want to share the cost of 640 bucks now? Or do you want me to eventually have surgery that can cost 5-10k if not more. They really did not have a good answer to that.
The other major problem with health care is that you have 47 million people WITHOUT health insurance, and all of us that do subsidize their health costs. Imagine if 47 million drivers were uninsured.... would never happen. I don't see why we can't make it a law so that you HAVE to have health insurance. Then its society's job to make sure that people can afford to have it.
GTKeeper, the reason insurance doesn't want to pay for your mouth guard is because you can get a similar product at a sports store for less than $50. It's not a perfect fit, but I wore one for hockey and I think they're fairly comfortable.
Actually I have tried those. The one my dentist can make lasts for 2 years (warranty) up to 5. I have been through 3 over the counter ones already in the last 8 months. Them being not a prefect fit is part of the problem.
I don't see how spliting the cost with the insurance company is unreasonable.
GTkeeper, you didnt say but I assume that you are speaking of your dental insurance not your medical. Most if not all Medical insurances will not cover dental problems. Partly this is because many dental proceedures are debatably cosmetic and most have undesirable but cheap alternative therapies. Also few dentist will participate with insurance and those that do still have the right to balance bill you, since the rules preventing that in medicine do not apply to dentistry.
I agree with many who say dentisty should be included in medical coverage, as preventive dentistry can prevent many illnesses including non-dental ones. The problem is that I still want the option to pay extra for the better fillings, caps etc, which would require a system that allows balance billing even for in network patients, something that would make the rest of medical providers able to do. IE If you want to go to the more prestigious cardiologist and he wants to charge twice what everyone else charges then he could even if he participates with your insurance.
Hey wait isn't that how lawyers work?
I agree with many who say dentisty should be included in medical coverage, as preventive dentistry can prevent many illnesses including non-dental ones. The problem is that I still want the option to pay extra for the better fillings, caps etc, which would require a system that allows balance billing even for in network patients, something that would make the rest of medical providers able to do. IE If you want to go to the more prestigious cardiologist and he wants to charge twice what everyone else charges then he could even if he participates with your insurance.
Hey wait isn't that how lawyers work?
I was refering to dental insurance. Yes, its not medical but dental insurance practices are similar to medical ones. Braces are rarely covered (which I agree is more cosmetic most of the time) but wisdom teeth procedures and things like griding your teeth are in the same category. You either take care of them early or have problems later.
That 47 million is a bit misleading. That number included anyone that was without insurance for any length of time for the last year. It also includes those that are here illegally. It also includes those that can afford to buy insurance, but choose not too.
Healthcare costs are a problem, but that number is quite misleading.
nobodyknows
Diamond Member
- Sep 28, 2008
- 5,474
- 0
- 0
SMOGZINN
Lifer
- Jun 17, 2005
- 14,359
- 4,640
- 136
There are good reasons for needing doctors to prescribe drugs. Starting with drug interactions, and ending with all type of problems surrounding the misuse of antibiotics. (Just ask my father, he will tell you that antibiotics can cure anything from a headache to cancer if you just take them regularly.)
Even with all this, I would be agreeable to vastly reducing the number of drugs that require prescriptions, but some small group of drugs need to be controlled because either there use is too complex or they need to be controlled to remain effective.
start here
from these tables you find
about 20M non citizens with about 1/2 uninsured. That is 10M right there.
You will also find that the older people get, the more likely they will carry insurance. 30% of those 19-24 do not, but only 12% of 55-64 do not.
You will find 15% of those 3x over the poverty line do not have insurance.
another link
link of links...
The number of chronically uninsured is could very well be less than 10M.
I began to write out a post, but I see the FrontlineWarrior, Anubis, and mattpegher have pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to debunking some of the bull.
in this case, and many other cases, yes it is vastly more efficient, and has been documented time and time again
and this is where the extra costs come, they need to hire lawyers for when they get sued; its a nash equilibrium outcome, where the best choice from and individuals perspective is not the most efficient choice.
How about making it legal for a Company in NJ to sell a policy in GA?
The Feds prevent my ability to shop across state lines for health insurance, why shouldn't it be sky high because of that?
The Feds prevent my ability to shop across state lines for health insurance, why shouldn't it be sky high because of that?
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 23K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter