On Oct 19, 12:12*pm, RickH wrote:
On Oct 19, 11:02*am, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:





On 10/19/11 11:06 am, Robert Green wrote:

I think many of the Tea Partiers realize that they acheived financial
security in a much hotter market with jobs that provided significantly more
benefits and they fear redistribution of that wealth to people living in
today's much tougher times. *Back then, a man could raise a family and send
his kids to college without his wife having to work. *Those days are long,
long gone. *Retirees starting to draw from their 401K's probably don't
realize that unless they have kids who are struggling. *Try getting a job in
your 50's. *Most companies won't admit it, but they know older employees
will cause their health costs to soar so they avoid them unless there's no
other choice.

Thia is another reason why we need universal health insurance coverage
with premiums dependent on income rather than on employment. Employers
paying health insurance premiums was an accident of US history that has
no advantages and serious disadvantages.

Perce

What we need in health care is open pricing, bigger suppy of
providers, and insurance used in a way it is meant to be used, that is
as protection from financial devistation. *Do these three things and
the "cost side" of the equations will come under control. *As long as
health services are always provided with "somebody elses money" via a
health insurance policy that covers things that people should be
paying out of pocket for (like flu shots, stitches,etc) costs will not
come down natually. *Insurance should oonly pay if the cost os over
$5000 (or some formula that would cause financial devistation). *The
govt should make policy that drives down costs. *All they have done
recently is make policy that guarantees higher costs, by covering
every possible little ailment, reducing incentives for more people to
enter medicine, allowing hospitals to hide their pricing, etc. *Unless
costs are encouraged to go down, the current trajectory and recent
legislation (obamacare) is unsustainable. *Hell they just got rid of
the long-term care mandate last friday because they relize it does
absolutely nothing on the cost side and would bankrupt the whole plan.

Try calling 4 hospitals some time to get their "standard price" for a
colonoscopy because you want to pay out of pocket. *You will get 4
wildly different, non-competing, capricious prices all of which are
artificially inflated, if you get any answer at all or they dont give
you a blank stare like "wow nobody ever asked us that before". *That
my friend is an indicator of a "sick" market on the cost side. *No
business model is sustainable where pricing is not widely known,
advertised and corrected by competition and advancements in
efficiency. *Our system is doomd simply because pricing is a big
secret with many hands trying to get their piece of it under the
table, and the doctor is shafted further increasing the cost by
decreasing the doctors available.-

HINT: If you can find one that doesn't accept Medicare or Medicaid
you will find the lowest price by an order of magnatude.