Health Care Rant

[CheezeFlixz]

I haven't had time to read this entire thread but I know that HILLERY CLINTON want to require that everyone have health care insurance and equates that ill logic with that everyone is required to have car insurance.

Ok
1. You don't have to have a car, thus insurance is optional based on your choice to have a car or not. You carry insurance not to protect you but the other drive as liability is the minimum coverage.

2. I'm sure most people would think twice about getting auto insurance if it cost you $600 or more a month. The average American can not afford to carry health insurance if they had to flip 100% of the bill. If I was to carry full health coverage on myself it would cost in excess of $10,000 a year. That is insane, I haven't spent that much on health care in my 44 years of life.

Health care in this country is out of control and with double digit increases in cost every year soon no one will be able to afford it. Many companies no long offer coverage, they can't afford it, the leading cause of bankruptcy is incurred medical cost. Many Doctor's with respect to Zap don't go into the medical field because they want to help people it's because they are nearly assured wealth. Ever met a poor Doctor? I haven't. Now I'm not saying that don't want to help people, just the money that comes with it is more attractive.

Anyway the health care industry is screwed up in the country and I don't think government is the answer, they rarely are. But something has to be done, just what it is I don't know.

We need health care people can afford.
Doctors not afraid of being sued.
Lawyer's not chasing ambulances.
And a public not looking for a reason to sue.

What happened to the country Doctor with the little black bag that would help someone out for affordable payment or perhaps a chicken or pie? What happen to human decency and compassion for your fellow man?

[Zapranoth]

Ulthar, that was a very helpful reply.

Agree, that if some kind of national insurance option were made, it would have to allow a fair way to opt out.   Absolutely agree.  Require people to buy insurance?   No.

I am in favor of each person taking more responsibility for his/her own health, and thinking long-term about what the implications of each choice are.   But in practice I find it to be a personal challenge to balance respecting (and requiring!) each person's individual responsibility for his/her lot in life with having compassion for each person.

It's easy to be compassionate for people who are struck down..   The people who make choices that I can't understand are the ones that are much more personally challenging, to me.

What can we do to make our system better?   I'm curious to hear specifics from people.   My thoughts:

1.     Physicians must police themselves.  We need to stop taking gifts from drug peddlers (big pharma), and we need to quit kidding ourselves -- we are not immune to the sales pitches. 

2.     The primacy of the doctor-patient relationship must be honored and strengthened.  Doctors must center their focus anew on what is best for each patient, and must regain the public trust.   (I don't think we have lost the public trust, but I think it's clear that the trust has eroded to some degree.)    At the same time, doctors have to help make the difficult choices (the ones that involve caring for the most people in the best way possible, with the resources that we have which are finite).    Patients must find a way to strike a balance between being their own best advocates and consumers of information, without trying to become the doctor.

3.     Tort reform.

4.     Somehow (and someone who understands these things better should chime in) we need to curtail the health insurance lobby.

5.     As a race, we need to rise above our short-sightedness and grasp the concept of stewardship of our own bodies and our ecosystem, and of the dignity of our fellow human beings.