Well, it has all started! Let the debate begin. That is the idea behind this blog.
Like all debates, we need some kind of objective to judge the direction of the debate and I don't think we have one. Our Jewish friend from New York seems to feel that the objective is a system that provides "insurance" to those who could not afford to buy their own "insurance". Rather than processing this whole thing thru some complex insurance company, why isn't it to cut out the middle man and make healthcare more affordable? We could make healthcare more affordable by several methods, (1) Make healthcare cost less. (2) Get people to earn more so they could pay for their own healthcare. (3) Get people to take better care of their health by prevention. Making insurance more complex only makes the cost of healthcare increase from it's starting point of 17% of our GNP. I don't know what it is now or how high it will go if Obamacare is not changed.
We need to ask why countries who spend much less in terms of dollars and as a percentage of their GNP's have a longer life expectancy than we do here in the USA? That alone has to tell you that there is something seriously wrong with our healthcare system! The fact that over 50% of our new doctors were born outside the USA is another indicator that something is seriously wrong too! I want to see a focus on lowering the cost of healthcare by all measures and so far no one is focused on that key point.
I blogged in the past that doctors in the USA are too expensive, they cost too much. What is the root cause of this fact? (1) We produce too few doctors. (2) Our doctors are too old when they start being doctors. (3) The cost to produce a doctor is too high. (4) Our legal system make doctors practice defensive medicine that adds to the cost. (5) We spend too much on "miracle: cures. (6) We spend too much on the final days of life. (6) We do not negotiate medical services like we do for other expenditures. (7) We process too much of our healthcare bills thru insurance companies rather than paying directly in cash. These are just a few ideas that come to mind and there are more. Why is it that we do not hear a debate on any of the above? Are we all that stupid? Don't answer that one!
Here is a little story that I think relates to our situation with healthcare in the USA. When I was a kid, we made most of our toys and our parent spent very little on toys. The percentage of our GNP devoted to toys was very small. As time went on smart inventors and marketing people created fancier and fancier toys that us kids demanded and that our parents paid for. Look at the situation today with all the electronic gadgets and games that our kids have? The percentage of our GNP that goes to toys is much bigger than it was in the old days, but areour kids any happier or smarter? I don't think so. Most measures of education show that we are going backwards and what was the cause? Life expectancy is also going backwards in the USA while in most of the world it is going up!
In the old days, if you had a bad knee or hip you just had to live with it, but today, I know people who have had hips replaced when they were over 80 years old at public expense and only lived another year or two. On the news today, there was a prisoner who was taking $50,000 worth of special drugs that were only slightly better than drugs costing less than $5,000. What did we taxpayers and the prisoner get for the additional $45,000? Pharmaceutical companies know that they can sell drugs that only have marginal value since, in most cases, the tax payers are picking up the bill and that there is no one minding the store. Even kids know not to spend the money they earned like they spend the birthday money from grandma.
I want to stop hearing politicians touting the fact that we have the best healthcare in the world and start thinking in terms of either "good enough" or the "best we can afford". When you start hearing statements like that, you will know that someone is on the right track. That is the way we buy homes, cars, clothing and food, so why not healthcare?
Like all debates, we need some kind of objective to judge the direction of the debate and I don't think we have one. Our Jewish friend from New York seems to feel that the objective is a system that provides "insurance" to those who could not afford to buy their own "insurance". Rather than processing this whole thing thru some complex insurance company, why isn't it to cut out the middle man and make healthcare more affordable? We could make healthcare more affordable by several methods, (1) Make healthcare cost less. (2) Get people to earn more so they could pay for their own healthcare. (3) Get people to take better care of their health by prevention. Making insurance more complex only makes the cost of healthcare increase from it's starting point of 17% of our GNP. I don't know what it is now or how high it will go if Obamacare is not changed.
We need to ask why countries who spend much less in terms of dollars and as a percentage of their GNP's have a longer life expectancy than we do here in the USA? That alone has to tell you that there is something seriously wrong with our healthcare system! The fact that over 50% of our new doctors were born outside the USA is another indicator that something is seriously wrong too! I want to see a focus on lowering the cost of healthcare by all measures and so far no one is focused on that key point.
I blogged in the past that doctors in the USA are too expensive, they cost too much. What is the root cause of this fact? (1) We produce too few doctors. (2) Our doctors are too old when they start being doctors. (3) The cost to produce a doctor is too high. (4) Our legal system make doctors practice defensive medicine that adds to the cost. (5) We spend too much on "miracle: cures. (6) We spend too much on the final days of life. (6) We do not negotiate medical services like we do for other expenditures. (7) We process too much of our healthcare bills thru insurance companies rather than paying directly in cash. These are just a few ideas that come to mind and there are more. Why is it that we do not hear a debate on any of the above? Are we all that stupid? Don't answer that one!
Here is a little story that I think relates to our situation with healthcare in the USA. When I was a kid, we made most of our toys and our parent spent very little on toys. The percentage of our GNP devoted to toys was very small. As time went on smart inventors and marketing people created fancier and fancier toys that us kids demanded and that our parents paid for. Look at the situation today with all the electronic gadgets and games that our kids have? The percentage of our GNP that goes to toys is much bigger than it was in the old days, but areour kids any happier or smarter? I don't think so. Most measures of education show that we are going backwards and what was the cause? Life expectancy is also going backwards in the USA while in most of the world it is going up!
In the old days, if you had a bad knee or hip you just had to live with it, but today, I know people who have had hips replaced when they were over 80 years old at public expense and only lived another year or two. On the news today, there was a prisoner who was taking $50,000 worth of special drugs that were only slightly better than drugs costing less than $5,000. What did we taxpayers and the prisoner get for the additional $45,000? Pharmaceutical companies know that they can sell drugs that only have marginal value since, in most cases, the tax payers are picking up the bill and that there is no one minding the store. Even kids know not to spend the money they earned like they spend the birthday money from grandma.
I want to stop hearing politicians touting the fact that we have the best healthcare in the world and start thinking in terms of either "good enough" or the "best we can afford". When you start hearing statements like that, you will know that someone is on the right track. That is the way we buy homes, cars, clothing and food, so why not healthcare?
