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American Health Care – Isn’t The Problem Really Just Greed?
Topics: Politics | 2 CommentsBy admin | July 30, 2009
What would YOU do to fix America’s health care?
I’ve always thought that health care would improve significantly if doctors started out at a very high salary which went down with every patient they lost. Since that will never happen, it appears health care costs are going to remain a slight problem. I must confess that I’m about as ignorant as one can get when it comes to what’s going on with the health care plans the senate is working on right now (it’s more than one bill). I’m also astounded that there is so much disagreement about the root causes of our high health costs. I have a simplistic belief about why health care is such a shambles in the states, and almost zero faith that legislation will fix it. I believe that most discussions about the topic skip over the two fundamental causes: greed and denial. I think that our national psyche has lost touch with the fact that taking care of each other is a fundamental aspect of being a happy human, and that when we turn human life into a commodity that can have a price, you’ll end up with the morass that is American healthcare. And if you don’t think it’s a mess, look around at other capitalist democracies . Pretty much across the board, America fails, with the highest cost per-capita , lowest life expectancy (38th out of 100), and highest infant mortality rate. Do you think Washington is on track to fix these problems? What do YOU think is the problem or the solution?
Posted by kristin on 07.30.09 8:37 pm
greed – totally. insurance companies get to dictate the care that their policy holders are allowed to get. if it’s not covered, it comes out of pocket. from the physician’s end, it’s all about the procedure. that’s why there aren’t many GPs out there. they refer out to other docs to have “procedures” done. procedures are billable. being kind and knowing a medical history aren’t. there’s also way too much “cya” medicine going around. docs have to rule out everything to avoid getting sued – which leads to many mostly unnecessary procedures and more $$$$ floating around.
that is, if you have health insurance. if you don’t, you get poor treatment or none at all.
and most americans are in denial about their own health. eating, drinking, smoking to excess are fine. part of me doesn’t have a problem with it. i believe in quality of life, not quantity. know the risks and do it anyway. just don’t bitch about it and enjoy it.
i have no idea what Washington is thinking about doing about this problem. you’ve got the insurance lobbyists freaking out because they don’t want to lose out on the tons of money they make. the republicans don’t want more government involved in their lives – and also want to make Obama look as bad as possible. i can’t see a win-win situation here. i just can’t. just recently, i was all for health care reform. now i’m just scared. that reform isn’t for us – the american people. it’s just people with money jockeying for position and pretending they’re going to something good for american people.
i feel a lot better getting that out of my brain.
Posted by admin on 07.31.09 1:33 pm
I’m right with you on most of this Kristin. On the deepest human level, the fact that wellness has a price tag -especially one so high – is one of the vilest aspects of modern capitalist living.
And you really hit what I think is the key point about government legislation of health care at this point in time: since only lobby groups or PACs with millions of dollars at their disposal are going to get a congressperson’s attention, it’s not going to be the average citizen that benefits from changes in health care legislation, it’s going to be insurance companies, large hospitals, and medical/pharmaceutical suppliers.
I’m just planning to stay well for now.