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Originally Posted by merrylander
To return to your original post, yes the cost of healthcare is rising and IMHO it out of control here even moreso than countries with universal healthcare, so leave them aside. What do you suggest can rein in these rising costs.
I certainly doubt that setting up a Senate comittee under Max Baucus with six senators who among them represented less than 3% of the population was a half assed way of resolving the issue.
In another thread here someone posted a link to a C-SPAN video of a Representative from Florida and near as I recall he stated that over 47,000 families a year are bankrupted by medical expenses. This is unacceptable.
Due to some recent family problems I have been investigating certain drugs, a common thread among all modern drugs ". . . do not take XXX if you have liver problems." say what? The page after page of side effects make most seem worse that the disease. My favourite is ". . . may cause death, if this occurs consult your doctor." Really?
Some drugs (Avastin, Ritalin) should never, never have been approved and have caused heart attack or severe personality change.
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I've got some more "realistic and politically feasible" ideas, a couple of which I've already posted, but let me try this one on you first. There's no way in hell this idea would see the light of day in our current political climate, but here goes:
Let's eliminate health insurance completely, or at least scale it back significantly. Health insurance is an idea that has been distorted far beyond its original intent, pushed by regulations, market conditions, good intentions gone awry, and utilization that is off the scale.
The rationale is pretty basic: insurance is insurance. At its core, there's no magic or mystery that makes health insurance unique from home, auto, or any other insurance product.
Most folks, for example, buy home owners insurance, they size the policy appropriately based on their needs, and they hope like hell that they never, ever have to file a claim. However, when it comes time for open enrollment at work, employees will look for what they consider the "best" policy: the plan with the lowest deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance. Many end up buying more insurance than they need, spending money on premium for a product that they didn't use much last year, won't use much this year, and might not use much next year. For the occasional medical need that they have, they could have "bought down" to a more affordable policy, pocketed and saved the money they paid out in premium for the richer plan, and used that savings to cover the stay doctors office visit or prescription if they ever needed it.
When many of these folks buy health insurance, they fully expect to generate claims. This stands in stark contrast to how and why individuals buy just about any other kind of insurance product.
These folks might also be less inclined to engage in more healthy lifestyles if there was a financial incentive to do so. The latest health plan designs that reward healthy lifestyles with premium rebates, or offering richer plan designs without premium increases do show promise. If these programs caught on and folks truly worked to achieve healthier lifestyles, economies of scale could be achieved that prevented the delivery system devoting resources to minimize the health impacts from poor individual health maintenance, and allows resources in the system to be devoted to dealing more cost - effectively with those who have chronic health conditions or disabilities. I think PPACA acknowledges the need for some of this by creating a pool of funds to help businesses install wellness programs. It also requires non-grandfathered health plans to provide first - dollar coverage for many preventative care services.
We certainly have those who are chronically ill, disabled, or otherwise in need of more focused care. Certainly the marketplace, or government reforms, would need to deliver well - conceived options for these individuals. Possibly expanding health savings accounts would be one element of a solution. Deregulation of insurance would potentially allow customization of insurance products that might better meet the needs of those with chronic health issues. Reducing the overall cost of coverage as outlined above would positively impact this group as well. Other solutions would need to be brought to bear on this segment of the population as well.