We’re doomed! I just read Atul Gawande’s June 1 New Yorker article (“The Cost Conundrum“) on the huge regional variances in U.S. health care costs. Just as in the banking calamity the problem has its roots in simple greed. Doctors and hospitals make more money in a system that allows them to see selected patients on a piece-work basis, order multiple tests, prescribe numerous drugs and operate on as many of them as possible. The profit is in quantity not in quality of care; and certainly not in preventative medicine. Thus were a nation stuck with mediocre health care at the highest per capita cost in the world. I can’t imagine the lobbyists in DC will permit any real changes in this cash cow.
Nutmeg50@hotmail.com
%d bloggers like this:
#1 by pjb on 26-Jul-2010 - 2:52 pm
If you think five weeks for your hand surgery was excessive, you haven't seen anything until you see the results of 35 million more people in the system. Results of this beast have already affected me. I will lose my private insurance in January 2011 as will most of us who have private policies. My private policy paid all the $200,00 medicals bills last year. Medicare and Tricare, (government)policies paid ZERO. Good luck!
#2 by djb on 27-Jul-2010 - 12:48 am
It's a trade off, I think. It wasn't right that those 35 million people couldn't get health insurance… and we would have been in that group when Trisha retires. So as imperfect as the change is it's a step in the right direction.