Sicko

[Monroe]

Being sick right now and going through the health care system I went to the Urgent Care in town waited half an hour to be seen, not a big deal. But it did cost me $70 for the drugs + being seen and I had insurrance. Be really nice if it was free.

[mlsnoopy]

Be really nice if it was free

In other countries the price is paied from taxes. So it is not free.
The thing that I don't understad in the US system is that you pay your insurance and the hmo still has huge profit. So if it would be a goverment run program you would pay less becuse the goverment wouldn't be interested in the profit part.

[Tsukiyumi]

...becuse the goverment wouldn't be interested in the profit part.

Yeah, they still would, unfortunately.

[Sionnach Glic]

And that's why running hospitals like a business is a bad idea.

[Tsukiyumi]

And that's why running hospitals like a business is a bad idea.

I endorse that statement 100%, Rochey. Here's another reason why they shouldn't. This is from one of my MySpace blogs:

We trust 'health professionals' why?
Current mood: enraged


I've known about this problem for a long time now, and I finally decided to say something about it. These people command salaries in the range of $400,000 a year, even though they openly admit they are 'practicing' medicine. I say they should call us when they're done 'practicing', and in the meantime, cut us a price break for their ineptitude.

It is a well-known fact that medical mistakes, malpractice, and and general incompetence in the medical community account for more deaths in this country every year than gun violence, drunk driving and lung cancer combined. Why don't we hear more 'activist groups' crusading against this horrifying slaughter?

Instead, we have dozens of groups campaigning against violence to animals, we have 'Mothers against drunk driving' and dozens of sheep protesting (bleating) against the 'war' in Iraq and trying to take the right of self-defense away from law-abiding citizens.

Here's an interesting fact for those of you who have their eyes open:

A recent study by Healthgrades found that an average of 195,000 hospital deaths in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 in the U.S. were due to potentially preventable medical errors. (1)

And:

According to a 2005 study of 39 million patient records, 241,280 deaths during Medicare hospitalizations were attributable to one or more common preventable medical errors. In each year from 2001 through 2003, the study found that the number of medical errors or "patient safety incidents" at America's hospitals was approximately 1.18 million, with a cost to Medicare of nearly $3 billion annually. (2)

My sources:

(1)^ In Hospital Deaths from Medical Errors at 195,000 per Year in USA. Medical News Today (2004).

(2)HealthGrades, Medical Errors Gap Widens Between Best and Worst Hospitals: Healthgrades Study, (May 2005)

Anyone else think the penalties for such grievous misconduct should be punished by more than fines and increased health care costs due to rising insurance premiums? May I (not lightly) suggest beheading as a penalty? Maybe then the so-called 'professionals' would concentrate on work that is not a career but a calling, instead of perfecting their golf swings.

Anyone who disagrees should rue the day they have to be admitted to a hospital for any reason.

I'll admit, some of that is pretty harsh, but the facts are all there. If you treat heath care as a business, you get an abundance of problems like those, where they throw money at victims' families to quiet them down, rather than spending it to correct the problem.