Medical Cost Outrage

[Minimalist]

Kids are not even the worst example...although it is understandable that parents panic every time a kid gets ill. The elderly are little more than cash cows to the medical profession. And they do not shop around. They do what they are told by the guys in the white coats.

[Faith No More]

But then I think "unscrupulous people can make money from this" and suddenly it all makes sense.

'Tis the American way to make a buck where a buck can be made regardless of the human cost.

[CapnAwesome]

And thats why the UK NHS are the greatest health system

In other news: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/world/....html?_r=0

[Tiberius]

And thats why the UK NHS are the greatest health system

I call bullshit on this. Haven't you been watching the news recently?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/pol...20473.html

Heck, criticism of the NHS even has it's own Wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_o...th_Service

Now, I'll grant you that when the NHS works, it works well. The problem is, it rarely does.

A great deal of the US healthcare problems stem from the lack of any decent competition between insurance companies, especially over state lines. People are limited in their choice of health insurance providers, often because of the hospitals in their area only dealing with certain companies. Making it law that hospitals have to accept any kind of insurance, and that insurance from a Californian company works just as well in Florida would be a good start.

[festive1]

Kids are not even the worst example...although it is understandable that parents panic every time a kid gets ill. The elderly are little more than cash cows to the medical profession. And they do not shop around. They do what they are told by the guys in the white coats.

I'd add maternal medicine to the list of cash cows… (no pun intended) But have a doctor tell pregnant women to tap-dance, naked, in a parking lot to ensure a healthy baby, and most will comply.

[CapnAwesome]

I'd add maternal medicine to the list of cash cows… (no pun intended) But have a doctor tell pregnant women to tap-dance, naked, in a parking lot to ensure a healthy baby, and most will comply.

Not to mention all the physical therapy quacks who wouldn't even exist without insurance. For ever legitimate physical therapist there are two people who do acupuncture and quackery and ride insurance while not helping patients one bit.

[festive1]

I like my chiropractor

[Minimalist]

The elephant in the room, unfortunately when it comes to Medicare is the tremendous amount spent per patient in the last six months of life.

http://www.thirteen.org/bid/sb-howmuch.html

It's not surprising that individuals in their last year of life consume a disproportionate share of medical resources. One percent of the population accounts for 30 percent of the nation's health care expenditures. Nearly half of those people are elderly.

Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly, spends nearly 30 percent of its budget on beneficiaries in their final year of life. Slightly more than half of Medicare dollars are spent on patients who die within two months

However, it is impossible to have an adult conversation about the topic because as soon as you bring it up, some idiot.... let's make up a name....



starts shrieking "DEATH PANELS!! DEATH PANELS!!!"

Then, add on the fucking jesus freaks...like these catholic shits....

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congre...sa_en.html

Second question: When nutrition and hydration are being supplied by artificial means to a patient in a “permanent vegetative state”, may they be discontinued when competent physicians judge with moral certainty that the patient will never recover consciousness?

Response: No. A patient in a “permanent vegetative state” is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means.

Odd doctrine coming from an organization which had to change its name from the Inquisition, huh? If only they would have been so concerned with life while they were flaying heretics.

Still, how do you deal with psychos like this?

[festive1]

Have a living will? Doesn't help the people currently dying, but I for one don't want to live in a persistent vegetative state. Please, pull the plug.

[Psykhronic]

Oh my god, if I end up in a vegetative state please just fucking shoot me.