GM says medical system is fubar

[Squisher]

Text

Excerpts:

On an average day, General Motors Corp. estimates that one person it insures dies because of medical errors, and 40 are sickened by prescription drug mistakes.

The automaker loses about $4 million a day because of medical errors and inefficiencies.

GM is legendary for its tight control of purchasing, often dictating the price it will pay suppliers for parts. Yet GM pays an average of $10,662 for the treatment of bacterial pneumonia in Metro Detroit and $26,327 for the same treatment in Kansas City

Medical errors and inefficiencies account for an estimated 30 percent of health care costs, according to the World Health Organization
If GM sells a car that's a lemon, the automaker loses money, either by having to pay for costly repairs or by customers looking elsewhere for their next vehicle. But when a hospital makes errors that keep a patient in bed longer, the hospital is paid more.


I heard that 1 out of every 87 people over the age of 65 are recieving GM medical benefits. :roll:

The automaker pays $1.9 billion for prescription medicine every year. :roll::roll:

 

[acemcmac]

damn

 

[fbrdphreak]

If someone as inefficient as GM calls you out you know that's bad

:laugh:

 

[Paddington]

I'm in medical school.

The healthcare system has a lot of redundancies, many of them probably unnecessary, but all of them there in an attempt to prevent mistakes and lawsuits. The leading theory is that mistakes don't happen so much because of incompetent doctors, but because the system is flawed. Therefore many redundancies must be setup to catch things falling through the cracks.

A typical inpatient in a hospital gets woken up at 5 in the morning to be seen by a medical student. An hour later, a resident comes and bugs them with the same questions. Then around 10 the senior doctor comes in and asks the same exact questions. Then there are 1-2 consult doctors from other services who drop by at various times and ask the same questions. Everyone writes a half page, of mostly irrelevant ****** that no one ever reads, and that often times no one can read because most of them have such God awful handwriting.

In most other countries like England, from what I've heard, typical inpatients get seen once a day - if that - by one guy, who writes about 4 lines in their chart.

 

[MikeMike]

interesting article with some crazy ass stats.

 

[iamwiz82]

In other news, GM wants to build MORE Hummers

 

[Paddington]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
In other news, GM wants to build MORE Hummers

Yeah, why not? Hummer sales are up 50% this year. Jeep used to be a big money maker for Chrysler, but now Hummer has taken a lot of the high end sales away from Jeep and is GM's most profitable division.

A future Hummer would probably be the H4, to take on the Jeep Wrangler, and as a further hedge against high gas prices.

 

[preslove]

We will get socialized medical coverage when large corporations realize that employer payment of healthcare is the most moronic system ever conceived. There is no incentive for health insurers to cut costs or improve service. There is no incentive for hospitals to improve service. Our system is broken.

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: preslove
We will get socialized medical coverage when large corporations realize that employer payment of healthcare is the most moronic system ever conceived. There is no incentive for health insurers to cut costs or improve service. There is no incentive for hospitals to improve service. Our system is broken.

And how in the world will Socialized Medical Coverage fix that?....if anything it would make it worse and less competative.

 

[SpanishFry]

GM is a social program. not a corporation 🙁

 

[preslove]

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: preslove
We will get socialized medical coverage when large corporations realize that employer payment of healthcare is the most moronic system ever conceived. There is no incentive for health insurers to cut costs or improve service. There is no incentive for hospitals to improve service. Our system is broken.

And how in the world will Socialized Medical Coverage fix that?....if anything it would make it worse and less competative.

Every single nationalized health care system has less red tape and administrative costs than our private system. Our system is just too complicated. One, single payer health care system would be much (and is in the case of other countries) more efficient. Most successful, private doctors who accept insurance have to pay a full time employee to deal with insurers. That person is an absolute drain on our economy and health care system (their pay could be going to improve service).

Private insurers for the most part don't deal directly with consumers, they deal with employers. Most employers don't give a sh!t about the quality of the insurance service. Thus, there is no incentive for private health insurers to improve service. This is the reason why health insurance doesn't work like a normal market and is therefore less efficient than government.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: preslove
We will get socialized medical coverage when large corporations realize that employer payment of healthcare is the most moronic system ever conceived. There is no incentive for health insurers to cut costs or improve service. There is no incentive for hospitals to improve service. Our system is broken.

And a blank check from the governemnt, along with the ability to lobby corrupt congressmen for more money to their gov't funded health program will be better?!?!?

You think the military has runaway bloat, wait 'til you see this.


:roll:

 

[preslove]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: preslove
We will get socialized medical coverage when large corporations realize that employer payment of healthcare is the most moronic system ever conceived. There is no incentive for health insurers to cut costs or improve service. There is no incentive for hospitals to improve service. Our system is broken.

And a blank check from the governemnt, along with the ability to lobby corrupt congressmen for more money to their gov't funded health program will be better?!?!?

You think the military has runaway bloat, wait 'til you see this.


:roll:

Medicare is more efficient than any private insurer. How can you defend our system? There is no incentive for insurers to improve service.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: preslove

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: preslove
We will get socialized medical coverage when large corporations realize that employer payment of healthcare is the most moronic system ever conceived. There is no incentive for health insurers to cut costs or improve service. There is no incentive for hospitals to improve service. Our system is broken.

And how in the world will Socialized Medical Coverage fix that?....if anything it would make it worse and less competative.

Every single nationalized health care system has less red tape and administrative costs than our private system. Our system is just too complicated. One, single payer health care system would be much (and is in the case of other countries) more efficient. Most successful, private doctors who accept insurance have to pay a full time employee to deal with insurers. That person is an absolute drain on our economy and health care system (their pay could be going to improve service).

Private insurers for the most part don't deal directly with consumers, they deal with employers. Most employers don't give a sh!t about the quality of the insurance service. Thus, there is no incentive for private health insurers to improve service. This is the reason why health insurance doesn't work like a normal market, and is therefore less efficient than government.

You've given a series of reasons why the current system is broken. I agree.

but there is no actual reason in your post why the gov't would be more efficient in this case. Having a single red tape filled insurer and a blank check would be little better in terms of paperwork, and you've taken away the efficiency impetus produced by the cost cutting insurer.

Also, if you want to get rid of the most totally pointless employees, abolish the income tax. Think about all those attorneys and accountants who spend so much time and cash inefficiently pushing and pulling money for the government.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: preslove

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: preslove
We will get socialized medical coverage when large corporations realize that employer payment of healthcare is the most moronic system ever conceived. There is no incentive for health insurers to cut costs or improve service. There is no incentive for hospitals to improve service. Our system is broken.

And a blank check from the governemnt, along with the ability to lobby corrupt congressmen for more money to their gov't funded health program will be better?!?!?

You think the military has runaway bloat, wait 'til you see this.


:roll:

Medicare is more efficient than any private insurer. How can you defend our system? There is no incentive for insurers to improve service.

Medicare...efficient? What have you been smoking.

I'm not defending the current system? Where do you see that? I just think your proposal is even worse.