| Subject: Re: Federalizing Medicaid |
Author:
pa
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Date Posted: 10/15/04 10:42:30am
In reply to:
krz
's message, "Re: Federalizing Medicaid" on 10/15/04 9:55:48am
good points krz.
for me the question is the dimensional difference between the quality of health care and the rising costs of health care. I think we have exceptional medicine in this country....I also think that our costs are very high. These two things are related as well...I think primarily manifesting in the cost of pharmaceuticals.
When you hear complaints about our health care system it is primarily that its expensive...when Francis and tz got hurt recently we were shocked at the costs. We were schocked that the cost of the nurse practicioner putting a sling on francis' arm was double what it cost for an orthpedic dr. reading the xray and putting a cast on his arm. When we called to inquire about this common sense deiscrepancy our bill doubled (perhaps accidental?) but then we were approached repeatedly by the hospital business office, the emergency room doctor and others to apply for funds from Medicaid. This is conspiracy land, but I couldn't help but think that the original complaint, then the bill doubling had something to do with their perspective that we were a 'live' one in terms of getting medicaid. When we continued to insist that we would pay for it the business office said they would reduce the bill to the original cost i.e. pre-doubling. A little too curious for me...
Also, through this I had a long conversation with the Emergency room managing doctor about costs of health care...He told me they are a not-for profit (Presbyterian hospitals. in New Mex. are the main NM hospital) earning less than 4% profit each year to reinvest in the business) He told me part of the problem in the high costs is they bill for everything...from the sling to how much it costs to transport that sling to the nurse practioner's station to the heating in the nurse practioner's station. (in terms of a for profit model, this is not unusual...these are your daily business costs) According to him though, the biggest carnivore of funds were: people who don't pay (but there is medicaid!) and malpractice insurance and lawsuits against the hospital and doctors. I do recall reading maybe now two years ago how the bureacry of unsurance billings/ records etc. has also led to major bleeding...I think, even though Bush was made fun of in the last debate for talking about the need to high tech the medical industries information technologies it occurs to me that this is a legitimate point.
Last question for pjk: its curious to me why a federalized healthcare plan would be okay, yet a federalized educational standard is a right wing conspiracy to privatize schools.
krz great story here. one of my 'libertarian' arguments against federalized health care is then what....are the feds going to tell me what to eat? are they going to keep track of how many times I go to McDonald's :) and then on the flip side why should I pay the same amount of taxes for fed insurance if my neighbor (who makes the same as me) doens't take care of himself, is overweight, never exercises, smokes like a chimney etc.
love the story!!!!
>I recently asked the members of the support group that
>I run in conjunction with the pro bono clinic how much
>they would be willing to pay out of pocket to join a
>health club that would be tailored to meet the needs
>of individuals with disabilities (correct equipment,
>supervision, support, etc...) - the answer?
>$10/month. (They all have cable - I asked that too.)
>This is a perspective inconsistent with our national
>ability to provide services that will directly hit
>whichever camp chooses to take this issue on. I don't
>envy them their fight, but expect to join in.
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