"Obamacare"

The right-wing pundits keep talking about repealing “Obamacare” and letting consumers drive the free market of health care. 

Really?

Consumers are the ones who would dictate prices?  NOT insurance companies?  NOT HMOs themselves?

Because when it comes to being shrewd health care consumers, we’ve been educated by… whom?

And when the choice is between preventive and critical, do you really expect an average American to be forward-thinking enough to invest in something that’s not impeding normal function on the daily basis?

Until the focus of health care shifts from fixing major health crises after they manifest to preventive measures, the costs of health care will remain astronomical. 

No one likes to go to the doctor.  Unless it’s free and relatively painless, most will wait until it can no longer be put off.

So, when the “free consumer” is rushed to the emergency room with a bursting appendix, when exactly is he supposed to review the price list of services being offered, when should the “estimate” be provided and contract negotiated? 

At this point, aren’t you willing to agree to and promise anything, to save your life?  Doesn’t seem like much of a bargaining position. When you negotiate from the place of weakness, you will always lose.

Ok, let’s say we DON’T cut insurance as the middleperson out of this appendicitis negotiation.  Let’s say, you have health insurance and in that critical moment of your life, your insurance card gives you access to all the medical services you need to get better.  After the fact, the negotiations resume, but now the service has been provided and paid for, and all you’re discussing is whether it was necessary to save your life – a fluid concept.  And now the creditor is no longer the HMO who want your business, but the insurance company who own your balls.  The very insurance company that promised you’d be taken care of, now requires innumerate pieces of unknown documentation to prove you really needed the hospital to do what it did.  Mind you, the desired documentation is not always clearly described.  Often it’s a case of “we don’t knoooow what would convince us, but we’ll know it when we see it.  Keep’em coming!” 

The first “non-essentials” to get denied in insurance claims are the diagnostic and preventive measures. When it comes to excessive testing they have half-a point: don’t even get me started on the needless diagnostics, ballooning off the medical malpractice risks.   Which brings us full circle to another source of insurance company revenue: medical malpractice insurance.  They’re worse than organized gambling! With casinos, at least you enter the relationship knowing “the house” is out to get you and it always wins.

And, oh yes, cancer patients?  Fuck off.  What? You didn’t know you had cancer when you signed up?  Tough shit!  Get lost, money pits!  Gosh, you actually expect your insurance carrier to pay for some to ALL of your treatment? We don’t even know you!  And had we known you were going to get cancer, we’d never sign you on.  Mistake corrected. Drop dead – it’s cheaper that way.

Which brings me to another point:  as long as insurance companies rule health care, we will NEVER cure cancer, or AIDS, or the common cold (although I’m kind of partial to the cold – it’s not that dangerous and pretty admirable how resilient it is).  Because it’s just not cost-effective to look for the cure – it’s a lot more profitable to keep making the money off of the maintenance drugs and procedures. 

Headdesk

Headdesk

Headdesk

Headdesk

Headdesk

At what point is any of this process “driven” by the consumer????  The only cost-saving choice we, the consumers, have is to stay as far away from doctors for as long as we can. 

The goals are:

·         To free up the doctors to only worry about finding the best solutions for preventing and treating disease, regardless of the patient’s insurance status.

·         Lower medical care costs by greater emphasis on prevention and cure – not eliminating symptoms.

Roadblocks?

·         The added burden and expense of health care system administration.

·         The loss of tax revenue that insurance companies will not pay on the profits lost to the government?..

What is the solution, then?

·         Prohibit private insurance companies from offering health insurance and medical malpractice insurance.

·         Create a government-funded system of health care, available free to any citizen.

·         Limit damages available through medical malpractice litigation but regulate the industry and have a set list of monetary awards for common mishaps.

·         Raise all taxes by 0.5% - individual and corporate, income and sales/use.

·         Remove all corporate tax breaks other than a modest one for new and re-hires.        

The bottom line is:  it is unethical and stupid to think of health care as a for-profit industry.  This concept assumes consumers who can make the decisions independent of those who offer the services, optional products, and healthy competition among the businesses.  I’m off to pray to the tooth fairy to take my wisdom teeth.  My negotiating position?  I’ll forgo the cash under the pillow as long as all four teeth are gone.  It’s just as likely as a free market health care system.

 

Is “whooped” a technical term?

Coffee-credit has run out – time to pay up. With interest.  Take it out of my eyes...

I think some cartilage just snapped in my noggin.