"We are blessed in this country to still have the world's best medical treatment - hands down. We just need to make sure we don't PC it right down to single payer, or worse."
We have heard quite a bit of bitching and moaning about what ObamaCare has done to the price of our healthcare. And quite a bit of that bitching has come from the Old Bird. Today, I had a medical day. I have had a nagging bronchial infection for about a month now, so I was way overdue for my monthly maintenance visit to treat my neuropathy. So that was first up today. Then I made the decision that my body cannot rid itself of this bronchial stuff, so right after neuropathy I headed over to Urgent Care.
First neuropathy. Not too long ago, when you were diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, the treatment was simply to "live with it". As it was told to me when I first found out I had it, it will not kill you, but will disable you. When my wife and I first started going to classes about this disease, there were many folks in attendance with canes, walkers or chairs. I had already started using my Mom's old cane, and I did not want to travel any further down that path. I told my wife, whatever the treatment is for this stuff, I am in.
As it turns out, I was blessed to have the Class 4 Laser treatment work well for me. It does not cure it, but it does treat it. If after it is stopped and if you do the maintenance treatment, you can keep it from getting worse. I am still clumsy, shuffle way more than I once did, have numb feet all the time, and always have to be mindful of falling. But my wife and I can travel, we can walk around together, and play with the grand kids. No complaints from this old guy.
Then I got to Urgent Care at our clinic. I walk in, with no appointment, and they checked me in. After a few minutes, two nurses came to get me. Back to an examination room and then taking my vitals. After a few minutes, they were done, and they told me the doctor would be in to in see me in fifteen minutes.
The doctor came in, listened to my heart and chest, and determined that I had acute bronchitis. She wrote me out a prescription for a strong antibiotic, and sent me on my way. By lunchtime, I was home with the first two pills taken.
Why do I bring this up? Because in spite of how ObamaCare and MNSure has really hosed up the cost of medical insurance, our treatment is still excellent in this country. One of my friend's father had to go down to Mayo for a heart valve replacement. Not too long ago this was major open heart surgery. The fix for my friend's father had it done through a blood vessel is his leg. He was up and walking three hours after the procedure.
Right now, our medical care is the best I have seen it in my life. Miracles in this state are done each and every day. And I hope it gets even better when my kids are my age. And better yet when my grand kids are my age. We are blessed in this country to still have the world's best medical treatment - hands down. We just need to make sure we don't PC it right down to single payer, or worse.
What does the quality of care have to do with the payor?
ReplyDeleteSounds like you don't want single payor health insurance.
Myths about National Health Insurance (NHI)
The government would dictate how physicians practice medicine.
In countries with a national health insurance system, physicians are rarely questioned about their medical practices (and usually only in cases of expected fraud). Compare it to today’s system, where doctors routinely have to ask an insurance company permission to perform procedures, prescribe certain medications, or run certain tests to help their patients.
Waits for services would be extremely long.
Again, in countries with NHI, urgent care is always provided immediately. Other countries do experience some waits for elective procedures (like cataract removal), but maintaining the US’s same level of health expenditures (twice as much as the next-highest country), waits would be much shorter or even non-existent.
People will overutilize the system.
Most estimates do indicate that there would be some increased utilization of the system (mostly from the 42 million people that are currently uninsured and therefore not receiving adequate health care), however the staggering savings from a single-payer system would easily compensate for this. (And remember, doctors still control most health care utilization. Patients don’t receive prescriptions or tests because they want them; they receive them because their doctors have deemed them appropriate.)
Government programs are wasteful and inefficient.
Some are better than others, just as some businesses are better than others. Just to name a few of the most successful and helpful: the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and Social Security. Even consider Medicare, the government program for the elderly; its overhead is approximately 3%, while in private insurance companies, overhead and profits add up to 15-25%.
To your blog's point, we have access to the greatest system in the world. That would not change. Only the method of payment would change with NHI.
NSC meetings are recorded. Tillerson's characterization of 45 being a "moron" will be confirmed. Pack of liars, makes me sick.
ReplyDeleteI can't hear that word "moron" without thinking about Dave Moore. I loved his Sunday night parody show "Moore on Sunday".
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