Gordon Shumway wrote in :

On 11 Aug 2011 18:03:29 GMT, Han wrote:

busbus wrote in news:a8552c7c-5604-4c2e-8a14-
:

Reasonableness. I'm sorry that the pendulum has swung way in the
opposite direction butt he fact of the matter is that is has.
Adjust.

I have hardly ever complained about the salary I was getting.
Considering what it takes around here to live, a real cut in
disposable income for my kids here is a hardship. They would live,
even if I didn't help, but they would definitely spend less. And the
real issue is why healthcare costs are so crazy in the US, compared to
elsewhere. Example:

I broke my leg while on vacation in Holland (Wed, 7/7/10, ~10:30 AM).
An ambulance crew picked me up and brought me to the local ER, where
they determined that both tibia and fibula were badly cracked just
above my ankle to halfway up my lower leg. A trauma orthopedic
surgeon said he needed to operate right away and put "plates" and
screws in my leg. Operation was done and by 2:30 I was out of
recovery in a semiprivate hospital room. On Friday afternoon I was
released, and was told it was OK to travel by train to Paris on
Saturday. Followup care here in Jersey had the orthopedist amazed at
the techniques used by the Dutch surgeon. For the hospital stay
including ambulance, OR, anesthesia and medications, the total bill
was less than 10K. It's difficult to compute because of the changing
exchange rates around that time. Luckily my insurance paid except for
a $250 deductible. Of course, no one but me paid for my exchanging my
tourist class seat for a first class one, so I could keep my leg
elevated during the flight to Newark. I'd love to know what a similar
operation and hospital stay would have cost hereabouts.

The main reason for our high healthcare costs is the need for
malpractice insurance coverage for the medical community. Eliminate
that from the equation and our costs would be significantly lower.

I guess the bottom feeding lawyers are the legal systems counterpart
to the anointed ones desire to redistribute the wealth.

The lawyers are certainly a factor, but there are others too. First of
all, there is the feeling that the newest, most expensive treatment is
the best. Uh, uh, not necessarily. Some of those are mere fancy ways to
package an old treatment in a new patent protected envelop. Then there
is the fighting between you, the doctor's office, and the insurance
company as to what is allowed, covered, proper, whatever, with the myriad
codes for medications and treatment. The Dutch system is simplified.
The hospital sent me a 1 page bill, half of which was addresses
(hospital, mine) and a few lines that pointed to a single code that
covered all. Doctor was very satisfied with the system. He wanted to
practice medicine and heal people (had a kidney transplant and wanted to
pay back, also). Didn't want to fight about reimbursements. He
basically just had a salary, I believe. I also got an extra page with an
explanation of the system in (sort of) English. I was indeed glad I
still spoke and understood Dutch when this all happened. Good thing it
didn't happen in Italy ...

--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid