How to Make Health Care More Efficient

[Toro]

Interesting article, I thought.

McKinsey: What Matters: Can the United States provide health care for all?

 

[We Are They]

No you can't afford health care for everyone. You need to save your money to buy bombs to drop on people you don't even know or give a shit about. Pretty sad really.

 

[Oddball]

How to Make Health Care More Efficient

Abolish Medicare/Medicaid, and all of their mandates to state programs.

Declare the medical insurance business a field of interstate commerce (hell, virtually everything else has been declared as such), so anyone and everyone can shop for the insurance products they want, rather than what a patchwork of state mandates force insurance companies to provide.

Abolish the FDA, and devolve its functions to a private entity, like Underwriter's Laboratories.

That'd about do it.

 

[caela]

How to Make Health Care More Efficient

1)Abolish Medicare/Medicaid, and all of their mandates to state programs.

2)Declare the medical insurance business a field of interstate commerce (hell, virtually everything else has been declared as such), so anyone and everyone can shop for the insurance products they want, rather than what a patchwork of state mandates force insurance companies to provide.

3)Abolish the FDA, and devolve its functions to a private entity, like Underwriter's Laboratories.

That'd about do it.

*The numbers in the above quote were added for ease of replying and were not in the original post.*

1) So totally agree. Medicare/Medicaid set unrealistically low reimbursement rates for physicians which causes them to increase their costs on their other patients (trickling up to the insurance companies who then raise their premiums) to compensate.

This is something the doctors I work with bitch about all the time and why many physicians offices simply refuse to deal with Medicare/Medicaid.

2) This would probably make BCBS pee in their pants but I think it's a great idea...at least in theory. It would take awhile for people to research their option but then at least insurance would have to become a truly competitive field.

3) No quite sure what the ramifications of this would actually be so I'm going to go with a "No opinion" on this one.

 

[mskafka]

I hope that those of you who say "abolish medicare/medicaid" never need it. That is amazing self-centeredness.

 

[caela]

I hope that those of you who say "abolish medicare/medicaid" never need it. That is amazing self-centeredness.

I don't consider it self-centered at all. I believe in personal responsibility not in quasi-socialist programs. I don't think anyone else should have to pay for MY healthcare and by that same token, I don't believe I should have to pay for theirs.

The simple fact is that the way these programs are run, runs up the premiums for the rest of us on top of the taxes we already pay to have those programs in place...so we actually pay for them twice. I get to hear on a daily basis how both these programs fuck the doctors that are willing to take these patients. They set unrealistically low reimbursement rates, reimburse on a screwed up scale (for example, a doctor can do a procedure at a surgery center or a hospital and be paid differently based simply on where he did it even though it's the EXACT SAME procedure and only the location changed) and they've also recently started tacking on more and more reasons for which they WON'T reimburse a doctor at all. Some are valid and some are outside the doctors control and have more to do with patient compliance which the docs can't control.

All of the above makes the doctors charge more for their services to those patients who have something other than the above 2 which makes other insurance carriers jack up their prices. Get rid of these two and open up insurance to interstate trade and you'd see premiums come down fairly quickly and with the money not being ripped out of their checks in medicare/medicaid taxes people could probably afford at least some basic insurance on their own.

 

[auditor0007]

I hope that those of you who say "abolish medicare/medicaid" never need it. That is amazing self-centeredness.

I don't consider it self-centered at all. I believe in personal responsibility not in quasi-socialist programs. I don't think anyone else should have to pay for MY healthcare and by that same token, I don't believe I should have to pay for theirs.

The simple fact is that the way these programs are run, runs up the premiums for the rest of us on top of the taxes we already pay to have those programs in place...so we actually pay for them twice. I get to hear on a daily basis how both these programs fuck the doctors that are willing to take these patients. They set unrealistically low reimbursement rates, reimburse on a screwed up scale (for example, a doctor can do a procedure at a surgery center or a hospital and be paid differently based simply on where he did it even though it's the EXACT SAME procedure and only the location changed) and they've also recently started tacking on more and more reasons for which they WON'T reimburse a doctor at all. Some are valid and some are outside the doctors control and have more to do with patient compliance which the docs can't control.

All of the above makes the doctors charge more for their services to those patients who have something other than the above 2 which makes other insurance carriers jack up their prices. Get rid of these two and open up insurance to interstate trade and you'd see premiums come down fairly quickly and with the money not being ripped out of their checks in medicare/medicaid taxes people could probably afford at least some basic insurance on their own.

The basic result would be very cheap premiums for healthy younger people, and a denial of coverage to anyone over the age of 65. Great idea.

 

[Oddball]

The basic result would be very cheap premiums for healthy younger people, and a denial of coverage to anyone over the age of 65. Great idea.

I guess that depends upon the overall health and habits of the 65-year old.

That aside, who has any right to a private risk pool scheme??

 

[PoliticalChic]

Interesting article, I thought.

McKinsey: What Matters: Can the United States provide health care for all?

Agreed, interesting.

You might like to consider some of the points made in a speech given at Hillsdale College, February 18, 2009 by John C. Goodman, President Center for Policy Analysis
Ph.D, Columbia University

The alternative is to rely on private sector use of individual choice and free markets. To fix Medicare,
a. Liberate patients by designating what they can pay for with the money, and then giving them more control over the money, at least one-third of their Medicare dollars. People with ‘health savings accounts’ managing their own money make radically different choices: they are more prudent and economical.
b. Doctors currently have no ability to re-price or re-package their services the way every other professional does. Medicare dictates what it pays for and what it won’t pay for, and the final price. Because of this there are no telephone consultations paid for, and the same for e-mails, normal in every other profession.
Most doctors don’t digitize records, thus they cannot use software that allows electronic prescription, and make it easier to detect drug interactions or dosage mistakes. Again, Medicare doesn’t pay for it.
Another free market idea aimed at better quality is have warranties for surgery as we do for cars. 17% of Medicare patients who enter a hospital re-enter within 30 days because of a problem connected to the original surgery. The result is that a hospital makes money on its mistakes!
c. The new system must be pre-funded. We cannot expect today’s teenagers to live in poverty to pay for their elders’ medical bills, so everyone must start saving now, at least 4% of their income- perhaps 2% each from employer and employee, into a private account invested in the marketplace.
If consumers save and spend their own money, and doctors are allowed to act like entrepreneurs, health care can be prevented from rising faster than our incomes.

The free market examples in health care:
a. Cosmetic surgery behaves like a real market. It is not covered by insurance, consumers compare prices and services, and doctors act as entrepreneurs. Over the last 15 years, the real price of cosmetic surgery has gone down, even though the number of people getting cosmetic surgery five- or six-fold.
b. In Dallas, a health care provider has two million customers who pay a small fee each month for the ability to talk to a doctor on the telephone. Patients must have an electronic medical record, so that whichever doctor answers the phone can view his medical records. The company is growing due to the fact that it provides a service the traditional health care system doesn’t provide.
c. Walk-in clinics are growing around the country, where a registered nurse sits at a computer, the patient describes symptoms, the nurse types it in and follows a computerized protocol, the nurse can prescribe electronically, and the patient sees the price in advance.
d. Concierge doctors, doctors who don’t want to deal with third party insurers. In Dallas, these doctors charge $40 per employee per month, give telephone and e-mail access, and keep electronic medical records.
e. Medical tourism: hospitals in India, Singapore and Thailand are competing worldwide for patients. They have lower costs, and high quality, with doctors board-certified in the United States, and publicize their error rates, mortality rates, infection rates, etc.

 

[Oddball]

a. Cosmetic surgery behaves like a real market. It is not covered by insurance, consumers compare prices and services, and doctors act as entrepreneurs. Over the last 15 years, the real price of cosmetic surgery has gone down, even though the number of people getting cosmetic surgery five- or six-fold.

Ditto Lasik treatment.

Funny how the pimps for medical Bolshevism gloss over these two areas of the medical services industry, where a real free market model is in full effect.

 

[auditor0007]

Switzerland's system actually makes the most sense, but there are still guidelines. First of all, insurance is mandatory. You don't have an option of opting out. Secondly, there are only three age groups for which premiums may be set. Last of all, there are caps on how much may be charged for various procedures. And finally, the vast majority of Switzerland's multiple insurers are all non-profits.

The idea that we should all just go without insurance and pay out of pocket would be a great idea if all procedures were relatively affordable. But that is not the case. At minimum, catastophic insurance is absolutely necessary as very few people can afford things such as organ translants or stem cell transplants, and even long term cancer treatment.

The biggest problem is that our current system does everything it can to exclude anyone who might be at risk. Even those who make the choice to purchase insurance can find themselves in a position to later not be able to purchase that coverage through no fault of their own. Of course, if you are dirt poor, then the government will pay for you. The other problem is that costs continue to rise well above the rate of inflation.

 

[Oddball]

The idea that we should all just go without insurance and pay out of pocket would be a great idea if all procedures were relatively affordable. But that is not the case. At minimum, catastophic insurance is absolutely necessary as very few people can afford things such as organ translants or stem cell transplants, and even long term cancer treatment.

Medical procedures would be relatively affordable (and minor ones still are) were there not insurance mandates in most states and the Medicare/Medicaid scams.

Did the more competitive costs of elective plastic surgery and Lasik get by you??

 

[Old Rocks]

How to Make Health Care More Efficient

Abolish Medicare/Medicaid, and all of their mandates to state programs.

Declare the medical insurance business a field of interstate commerce (hell, virtually everything else has been declared as such), so anyone and everyone can shop for the insurance products they want, rather than what a patchwork of state mandates force insurance companies to provide.

Abolish the FDA, and devolve its functions to a private entity, like Underwriter's Laboratories.

That'd about do it.

 

[Oddball]

I expect no better from Old Rocksinthehead.

 

[Old Rocks]

Sure now, and we need more contaminated peanutbutter. What we really need is the Chinese method of dealing with the people that made the decisions that resulted in people dying from consuming their products.

 

[Oddball]

So, you're going to use the communist Chinese model as an example of what happens in a free market??

Seriously?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??????

 

[jgbkab]

So, you're going to use the communist Chinese model as an example of what happens in a free market??

Seriously?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??????

I think he was referring to imports.

 

[Oddball]

So, importing a contaminated communistic model for medical services is supposed to be any better than contaminated peanut butter imported from communists in what way??

 

[jgbkab]

So, importing a contaminated communistic model for medical services is supposed to be any better than contaminated peanut butter imported from communists in what way??

Ok, I think he meant importing food from China without FDA oversight. Go.

 

[editec]

No you can't afford health care for everyone. You need to save your money to buy bombs to drop on people you don't even know or give a shit about. Pretty sad really.

Well of course we drop bombs on people we don't know.

Dropping bombs on people we do know would be incredibly rude.

Silly man!