Originally posted by: SammyJr
Originally posted by: EXman
And as long as their governments can run them for us we might have a chance. Went to the doctor again yesterday with one of my kiddos and the office manager was fighting with medicaid for 20 minutes on the phone. They are inept and the lady was getting so frustrated. I felt her pain. If the government does not take serious steps to make healthcare more simple we will have the complexity of a tax code with the service of a post office that is about to close.
And UnitedHealthCare still owes me $400 for an ultrasound from when my son was in utero. They never paid the claim, despite the fact that the doctor was in network, radiology services are covered, the referral was properly done, they had paid a similar claim from the same doctor, and said they were going to pay the claim.
My daughter was born at home and I had to call Social Security to figure out how to get her a number. One 5 minute call and no hold time later, I had my answers on the documentation needed and advice on the fastest way to get her number. I followed the instructions and had her number very quickly.
Quality of service is entirely dependent on the people hired and who is running the department. Private service isn't magically better than public.
Anyhow our "crappy system" still provides the most cutting edge care and most of the worlds drug innovations. That didn't happen under a government socialized system. Innovation dictated by goverments in healthcare just does not work as well as innovation brought about by the chance to make it rich.
The NIH, a Federal Government agency, funds most basic research in the United States. Most basic research is done at state funded Universities. Without this cutting edge research, the Pharmaceutical firms would have to fund the very expensive, very time consuming basic research themselves. Simply put, our high health care and insurance costs DO NOT contribute to most innovation. Our tax dollars do.
And its not greed that drives most researchers. Most of these guys make comfortable salaries but are far from rich. The drive comes from a desire for personal accomplishment, love of science, and to make the world a better place.
Most Big Pharma companies have larger advertising budgets than R&D budgets. That ought to tell you something. Also, look up where the large pharmaceutical firms are headquarted. Many are headquartered in Europe.
That is America. This America was not set up by people who wanted a strong end all centralized government like in europe. The Entrepreneurial Spirit made America great and financial freedom to risk what you got to reap the rewards from your hard work. It still makes people come here for the financial freedoms as well as the best health care possilble on earth that we enjoy.
Society has evolved. Being able to read used to put you in the top 1% of people by intelligence. Now, its so basic we expect children to be able to do it. Health care used to be leeches, cocaine, and booze. Now we have things that work. All of these things cost money and are essential for a modern society. Taxes are the price of maintaining a modern society. If you want a free for all, go to Somalia, but instead of taxes, you'll pay for protection, schooling, travel for any kind of remotely decent health care, etc.
We really screwed things up when somehow your employer had to provide its workers healthcare. Can you imagine where GM would be if they had nothing to do with healthcare? What if they paid their workers more money and had them purchase their own insurance? Would it cost the company less? Sure it would. I'm not saying that would have saved GM but ultimately they got screwed by the weight of their healthcare obligations.
I agree.
I think we should have done as FDR wanted and implemented an NHS system back then. Without the added health insurance costs, American business would be a hell of a lot more competitive. I doubt you agree with that part, though, since conservatives seem to view health care as akin to buying a DVD - purely optional.
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