Healthcare

I am so f’ing tired of all the BS about the town halls currently taking place around the country. Does the media really think we have such a short term memory that we can’t even remember the 2008 election with Obama’s ‘grassroots’ movement? How about the `90s with Medicare reform?? It’s amazing how the US Reps are running or hiding from the meetings. Oh, and news flash, yes the little folks are a wee bit upset and don’t need to be ‘organized into mobs’.

On healthcare, since I work in the biz I naturally have an opinion!

Since healthcare was employer mandated during the `30s, it’s moved from personal responsibility to ‘someone else supplying it’. This takes the personal ownership away from the primary responsible individual to one of a view of becoming a ‘right’. While healthcare is not really a right, I do believe it can/should be classified as something of a sub-right, where responsible folks should not be penalized for things like pre-conditions or transportability.

First…this should concentrate on functionality currently able to be fixed such as fore mentioned pre-existing conditions and transportability, but also tort reform. I see doctors having to order a whole menu of tests just to cover themselves. Yes, I know some folks may think this is only ‘talking points’ but I’ve seen it in action… Blanket tests covers a shotgun approach for diagnosis.

Second, tort reform. How to handle this?? If a doctor, screws up an operation leaving a loved one as a vegetable, how do you compensate for this? Who takes care of this person for 30-40 yrs? Is the family penalized by sacrificing everything for care? Who pays? I don’t have the perfect answer to this very complex answer. I do know that doctors are brought before peer review boards and are slapped on the wrist for offenses you and I would be thrown in jail for. I would be in favor of a cap of ‘personal suffering’ with life time medical care by Social Security as long as the provider lost their license in ALL states. It’s not much but a start in the conversation.

Third. No one seems to talk about the MASSIVE influx of patients if a public coverage is instituted. Right now the ratio of patient to doctor is 1 to 400+. If you add 40 million, PLUS the 20+ million illegals currently the leading drain on hospital care, that ratio will sky rocket. Talk about a decrease in care!!! If Medicare dictates the reimbursements to providers, this will truly scare away some of our brightest. (believe it or not, not ALL doctors do it for the love of their patients…) Obama has already said part of the cost control was reimbursement. Contrary to what Obama said, if a doctor know he's going to be paid $.50 cents on the dollar, he's more likely to NOT order the procedure if it takes more effort to fill out the paper work than to pass the patient on to another provider...

Finally, I happen to work for a major healthcare institution, so I don’t have to worry about them ‘canceling’ my healthcare. But think about this ‘public option’, if the govt is in direct competition with private coverage, we already KNOW they compensate providers at a lower rate than what should be paid to doctors (see Medicare). So…a company of 100 has to pay out thousands of dollars for healthcare. BUT since there is a ‘public option’ they can discontinue their coverage and pay an eight percent ‘tax’ to have their employees be cover by the govt. Right now, we know by the metrics that a person earning $50,000 is REALLY earning about $60,000 with healthcare and matching IRA. So, WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY WILL DO?? They are going to drop the healthcare upon the govt!!!!!

This, with the massive influx of 'new’ patients (IE uninsured and illegals) will overwhelm our current system!!! It's doomed to failure. This with Medicare, and the monetized debt, will bring us down just like a lion brings down a gazelle on the Serengeti. While we may not suffer, know that I children will...


Side notes:

Obama said during the primary campaign, he was in favor of single pay. Now he says he’s not….

He also said he’d ‘suggest’ giving the elderly patient a ‘pill’ to alleviate the pain instead of an operation. But when asked about his own grandmother, he said ‘he would pay’ for the hip replacement. Who would pay for your grandmother, if you couldn’t afford it?

His czars for health care and regulation (as well as Rahm’s brother) have advocated RASH ideas (aka eugenic). Deny this ALL you may, but it’s published and scary. As Obama said during the primaries, judge him by who he surrounds himself with…

If government dictates what you do and if they own major industries (auto, financial, energy), what form of government would you call it??? Is it Progressive? How about National Socialist? No matter how loud the Liberals cried out during the Bush II administration, what he had was not fascist. They just cried out about government intervention without knowing the true meaning of fascism. But with government control of major industry (auto, financial, energy), this will truly lead us down that path. God help us when the government institutes an emergency…