Big Fitz
User Quit *****
- Nov 23, 2009
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Well to be honest, what you want is not realistically sustainable. Although it may last for a very brief period, what will result is a catastrophe of cataclysimic proportions.
1. Everyone does. There are far better ways to do this though. The question is HOW MUCH? It's an odd thing that everyone in this world, save the healthcare workers themselves seem to believe that their care SHOULD be free to them because of their need. This just isn't so. Healthcare costs, and costs dearly now. Of course these costs are exacerbated now by mandates for treatment, bureaucratic and governmental hurdles, exacerbated and harried employers, litigious insurance companies, greedy middlemen and lobbyists, and cancerous monopolies on both sides of the treatment issue.
So yes, the ideal method is that the doctor provides you with a service you require, and you pay him directly, cash. That's the ideal. If you can't pay him outright, get a payment plan. But so many people have inserted themselves into this equation, removing them will require a team of horses, two whips (one for the interlopers the other for the horses), and a six foot prybar.
But we must expunge the notion that it should be 'free'. There IS no free here.
2. Actually that is a falacy. The name of the game is convenience, economy and expediency with a healthy dose of simplicity. None of which will be achieved but all will be striven for. The government has such a poor record of paying doctors their owed fees, many and soon most doctors and hospitals will be opting to shut down and move overseas, where they can be paid fairly or just retire. We are going to see a rapid rise in the doctor shortage.
But why would they opt out? Not only is it the lack of pay, it's the increase of work. More bureaucracy, more red tape, more politics, more people looking over your shoulder. Why? Because it's the government's (HAH! that's a falacy unto itself too) money and they seem to believe that gives them license to control your entire life.
And as we know, as variety shrinks, so does competition, and therefore costs rise. But what about a single party payer? If it were that the government was stuck to living within their means instead of taxing for more, this may matter. But since they don't have to live in a budget, who cares about rising costs. They don't truly pay for it, the patient does out of their taxes. So prices inexorably skyrocket because there is no impetus to control them. Fundamental fact of reality, government NEVER controls costs well if at all.
3. Actually, studies funded by corporations and insurance companies have proven that preventive care do nothing to slow down the average health care costs. But they do make the insurance companies a healthy chunk of coin of the industries. Many corporations are now dropping preventive health care coverage for their employees as an expensive 'luxury' with little to no benefit. This was cited on the Jason Lewis Show about 2 weeks ago. You can find his podcasts on www.ktlkfm.com. I'm sure you'll find it if you go back and start listening.
4. No. They won't drop you, they'll ration you to death. Here's another economic fact. When a service is "free", it is abused and overused. If you have a service that is being charged for, people will use it less because, unlike the government, they can't make someone else pay for it against their will. There is a cost. So instead of going to the doctor for every little sniffle or twinge, they weigh the cost of spending 100 bucks to go to the doctor, or try to 'tough it out'. If it's serious or incapacitating them, you bet they'll go.
Now, make it 'free'. People will flood the doctor's offices, demanding Bently care for Festiva emergencies. I had a sniffle and want anti-virals and a CAT scan? Sure why not? We'll throw in a blood panel too and a barium enema to be safe. Usage goes berzerk and capacity is still limited.
So instead of getting to a waiting room where half the chairs are empty, it becomes standing room only. The government seeing the bills flying in for services rendered at 200, 300, 400% of what it was when people were charged will have to do something to manage costs because even they know you can't increase taxation 100% or more on people. They'll revolt. SO, in with the death panels deciding what is 'appropriate'. Who deserves what? Who is too old, young, sick, lazy, stupid, white, smelly, argyle to get treatment. When does grandma become a burden when we need beds to get that 40 year old back to work ASAP because he has to pay taxes.
It becomes economic triage that makes an meatgrinder out of the healthcare system with petty little accountants and bureaucrats having the final say on your healthcare, not you or your doctor. After all...
they're paying or it.
5. They have insurance like that already in the private sector. Why would you want to screw it up with a bureaucracy who hasn't won the war on drugs, poverty, terror, or anything else they've created a program for? These people are collectively incompetent in every task we've set them to compared to a private sector alternative.
Please realize, what you want can't be had. It is economically unfeasible. It creates a use/overload spiral that overwhelms even the most robust system. Capitalism works because it naturally sets the price based on scarcity, necessity and complexity. Simple treatments, rarely used and easy to make are cheap and plentiful. Treating Alzheimers is both complex, new and needed desperately by more and more people. This makes treatment very expensive. This is capitalism regulating the market.
It cares not about the ethics, or morality of rich and poor or what people feel is 'right'. The poor saints die the rich sinners live. It is the best system in an imperfect and finite world for distributing resources. If morality and goodness could be used to produce, they'd be used to pay for medicine too. It's just this is the sick sad world we live in, and warts and all, lightly regulated capitalism, equally enforced, is the most ethical and effective manner in which to distribute the goods and services we need.
Sucks to be us, but never the less... fantasies of a better world do not feed or heal the masses. Pragmatic capitalism with light ethical regulations as it's guide not only is the most 'fair' (God I hate that word but it fits) it is the most successful in helping it's people, who desire to, thrive.
