This is Ridiculous

Who likes to go to the doctor? I don't. Aside from my fear of bad news, needles and old magazines, when you get to the end of the visit you have to pay. Then comes the whole insurance thing -- did you get this form, they will pay for this and not for that, only to find out your insurance is paying less and it is costing you more than it did the last time.

It's just a little nuts that health care costs so much. And we can only hope that politicians come together to find solutions to this. But until then, we are all stuck.

It's not just you and me. This is happening to everyone as the cost of health care is skyrocketing for everyone. Over the last 30 years, the cost of health care has grown 2.5 percent faster than the Gross Domestic Product. Health care costs are increasing at a level that far surpasses the growth in our economy. Yikes.

Even for the few dozen people who had the foresight to make a plan long ago on how much money they needed to live, health care has become a monster that is rapidly eating their fixed income, maybe even sometimes forcing tough choices between health care and other basic stuff. And those are the smart people who planned for their retirement. What about those who haven't? Or those who have but have seen one unexpected thing wreck their plan? There some really heartbreaking stories out there.

Some might think Medicare is the easy answer, but not exactly. Medicare premiums have doubled since 2000 and Social Security has not kept up with these increases. As premiums go up, more Medicare doctors are threatening to leave the system. Higher premiums and fewer doctors are especially silly when you consider that special interests are getting paid handsomely -- billions of dollars in excess payments over the next 5 years -- to provide coverage to less than 1 in 5 people in Medicare. It's kinda ridiculous and exceedingly unfair that everyone that uses Medicare is funding these over payments.

What can be done? Congress can step up to keep Medicare strong, limit cost increases and make the program fair for everyone. It won't solve everything that's wrong with the visit to the doctor, but it certainly seems like a good first step to ensuring that people of all ages can afford their health care. Ask your member of Congress to end the ridiculousness.

Comments

[mandycane]

Healthcare is in absolute full-blown crisis! We, the people of these United States, see it clearly and deal with it every day as we make important decisions regarding our health and, indeed, our very lives.

Those who say that government-run health care will be a disaster and will result in red tape and treatment delays must live in a different United States than the one I live in. My health care now is ruled by the faceless insurance companies whose profit margin, not my life, is priority. Long waits and treatment delays are already reality for many of us. Our government needs to wake up and find solutions for its people.

[DueTruthiness]

I always have to scratch my head whenever I hear about how government provided health care will result in huge lines at the hospitals. I lived for 5 years in Japan where they have a government controlled health care system and I never experienced a wait any longer then the ones I had waited through here in the states. The facitilies were just as nice and my health care needs were met by concerned and knowledgable doctors and nurses. Something tells me that if France, England, Canada, Japan and many other countries that currently rank ahead of the U.S. in life expectancy can do keep up with the flow then perhaps our own medical professionals can do the same. But hey, at least we rank above Slovenia. Mission accomplished!!!

[traveler501]

Why do we have a capitalist system delivering health care...does that make any sense at all? Uh, Mr Smith, you have cancer and it will cost $4billion dollars to save your life for another couple years...and Mr Smith simply pays assuming he has any way of begging or borrowing $4 billion.

Meanwhile, what good is a government that spends a fortune of our money, but neglects healthcare??

This is silliness...pure and simple. Let's take our government back.

[mosh]

Anybody in the mood for mind boggling numbers? Last month my premium was $620 per month for a self-pay, individual membership with comprehensive coverage, meaning if I stay in network, which isn't always easy, I only pay the $25 copay. Hmmmm. Well, last month I got a notice from my insurance carrier that as of Jan 1, 2008 the premium for the same service was going up - $200!! Not 25 or 50 or 100 bucks - nope - 200 bucks - just like that! The only explanation - they got some kind of state wide, across the board, premium increase - and I live in a small, rural town where some people's monthly rent is less than that and minimum wage is standard fare. Can you imagine!

Well, I'm not alone,thousands of other folks got the same bad news.

So, as of Jan 1, my health insurance will now cost $820 per month!! Amazing. And I am healthy (I hope) and young and seriously thinking of canceling everything but the catastrophic coverage piece. That seems like my only viable option. But perhaps that's what they are banking on.

[S1m0n]

What can be done? The answer to the problems plaguing american healthcare isn't difficult to discern: it's Canada's efficient single-payer system, which gets better results at half the cost, in a system in which every patient has unlimited 'choice' in selecting physicians, because very doctor in each province is on the same plan.

The only problems to this approach aren't practical or medical: they are its incompatibility with American economic ideology. The system america has no longer works, and the system which does work is distateful.

Something will eventually give, and given the absence of ideas that both work and are ideologically comfortable, that something will be ideology. It's only a matter of when.

[GuiltyByStander]

As a Canadian working in Iowa and getting good, but really expensive health care for a serious illness, I won't presume to lecture Americans about what they should do, except to point out that I would have the same level of care in Canada -- and most important -- so would every other Canadian.

The most realistic health care insurance proposals can be read at:

http://www.joebiden.com/issues?id=0003

While universal, single pay will have to happen eventually -- before you see your entire auto industry emigrate to Canada -- it won't happen in this election. Joe Biden can't get you all the way there, nor can any other candidate, but he can keep you out of bankruptcy if you suddenly face the kind of medical needs that people like me have.

[kittykonservative]

You guys are pathetic. Government is NOT responsible for your health and happiness - read the Constitution.
Your anger should be directed to yourself for maybe not making lifestyle choices so that you could afford more.

[Mormondude]

'Billions' over 5 years? Outrageous!

Wait, we spend 15 billion per WEEK on Medicare. Maybe it's not so outrageous after all...

[LadyXoc]

Hey, if you had a heart attack from Vioxx or got cancer from hormone replacement therapy...that's part of the cost of health care, too.
But think of the money we saved - over 200,000 persons who will never need health care again.

[MitchW]

How about allowing states to purchase the very same drugs we use from foreign countries at 50% below the cost in the US. Somehow that got defeated a couple years ago...lets bring that legislation back for another vote- why wait for another damn election to do anything about the problem...congress can act now!

[Dandy12]

The Bush administration has done virtually nothing to contain healthcare costs, even for Medicare.
It would contradict his interests not to help make the rich - even richer. Al Gore when he was VP, had a graph and showed that healthcare costs were then rising by 14% per year, claiming that it "fueled inflation". Just look where we are now! Thanks W!!

[blooddoc]

The continued rise in health care costs, and the tragedies of non- and under-insured people, cannot be sustained. The system, if not fixed, will eventually collapse under its own weight and the potential ramifications of that are too extensive to go into here. Suffice it to say there would be actual or defacto rationing (some say we have that now) with limited access to all but the most basic health care. By that time, the health care systems of Britain, Canada, and Europe will be looking REALLY good. Physicians can't fix this - government and business won't listen, preferring to paint them as too self-interested to hold a viable opinion. Only the public can change things, through their elected officials and their own outcries. As much as I would like to see this happen, I'm not holding my breath. The American public has simply become too passive when it comes to the two biggest killers: political incompetence and greed.

[Crowhaul]

It's been years since I've walked into a doctor's office for many of the same reasons. What really gets me is when they ask me for my insurance information and I tell them I have none. (Something about the way their jaw drops that would be funny if it wasn't quite so serious a thing...) It's sad (but true) that I had better care as an expatriot living abroad in communist China with no insurance than I have here in the states as a citizen.

[RalphJoseph]

Good Luck! 40% of healthcare costs goes to administration and accounting. For every doctor in a hospital there is an infrasrtruture of clerks, secretaries, offices, faxes, computers, IT support personnel, telephones, softaware, heat, air conditiong and that's in the hospital. And then there's the infrastructure of the insurance compnay that needs to be paid for. All to keep track of how the hospital is going to be reibursed for serveices from the insurance company.

The insurance companies laugh all the way to the bank, not straight to the bank, they make a stop on the way to pay off the politians so the system is protected.

What is worng with this picture? Welcome to another Great American Scam.

For $100 of heathcare we pay $40 in overhead.

[kkuchenb]

I remember reading back in 1992 that it costs something like 100 times as more for basic drugs here compared with else where in the world. Ever wondered how those charitable organizations manage to do cleft-palate surgery for $250 in the Third World? It would probably cost $25,000 in the U.S. system. This is known as price-fixing, cartel behavior, charging what the market will bear.

I find it interesting that absolutely no one paid attention when 9 years ago Warren Beatty's brilliant satire "Bulworth" showed the medical insurance industry for what it is, a giant, mean, avaricious sucking machine that pays off politicians to keep itself rolling in dough.

Now our economy and maybe our very democracy is growning under the strain of supporting this beast. Even alleged free market capitalists don't believe in a free market when it comes to medical products and services.

What we have is beyond ridiculous.