On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:34:46 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:
snip
You make sure it isn't unpaid. First, you try to reduce it with a universal
system that, one hopes, will lead to more early detection.

As indicated in another post the US ALREADY has universal medical
care. If you show up at an emergency room, they must treat you
as a matter of law, without regard to citizenship, ability to
pay, or legal immigrant status. Unfortunately this is about the
most expensive system possible, as crisis management and heroic
medical care are then the norm. The less expensive and more
effective preventative measures such as immunization and prenatal
care are not covered for many people, and are thus avoided.

For example, once Gunner had his stents a few years back, he should have
been on a regular stress-test schedule that could have detected his
impending second heart attack. They may not have had to saw him open. Then
he may not have had a stroke.
Another question is what meds did they have him on? The correct
meds may well have prevented further problems, and a lifetime of
such drugs would be cheaper than the heroic hospital treatments
for a second heart attack and then stroke. The problem being
that the drugs are expensive, and are frequently skipped if you
have a marginal income. Another example of "penny wise and pound
foolish" by contemporary society.

This is all statistical/actuarial stuff. The numbers are out there, in the
professional medical literature.
snip
This is one of the major areas of weakness of the Obama health
care effort. (The other is completely ignoring the
history/experiences of the other OECD nations with their
universal health care programs. We appear to be determined to
make their mistakes all over again.)

It appears that the accumulated medical data from the
governmental programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and the VA and
the private insurance data bases were *NEVER* used to create a
computer model of medical care costs and benefits. Thus, *ALL*
of the numbers being discussed are SWAG estimates.

By this time it should be possible to input changes such as
medical priorities, exclusions or $ caps for certain conditions
and population groups [e.g. illegals in or out? to see how the
total cost changes. What we getting are ever increasing amounts
of heat and smoke (as in blowing up the public's ***), but no
light.

Such a computer model is a major undertaking, but very necessary
if we are to minimize the chances for unpleasant surprises as the
priorities and caps for conditions change and various
demographic/socio-economic groups are covered or excluded.

The Communists were widely ridiculed for making scientific and
medical decisions on the basis of ideology. This is no better,
and we should be taking a close look at what went so wrong in the
USSR before we go down that same road.


Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).