For profit medical treatment?

[peeonme]

In the real world private companies cut costs, cheat and just want profits and don't care about patients.

Words of wisdom...

 

[thewiz]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-ed-import-prescription-drugs-yes-20150730-story.html

A word on prescription drugs from a friend of mine.

 

[peeonme]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-ed-import-prescription-drugs-yes-20150730-story.html

A word on prescription drugs from a friend of mine.

Back in 2009 I was unemployed, I had no insurance and my wife need Humulin-n insulin, I bought it at a Canadian Pharmacy for 50%
of the US price.
It was actually manufactured in India.

 

[Kabluey]

...But a independent doctor has a financial interest in doing the best job possible to keep and attract clients, and an incentive to work hard and not make his clients wait weeks or months so the doctor can enjoy a light work schedule.

Funny how you drift in to idealism so quickly.
What about jerks?

Jerks make sure they've eliminated their competition so they can charge whatever they want, work at their own leisure because there's nowhere else to go, take fantastically long holidays and lobby corrupt politicians to protect their positions and avoid repercussions for things like accidentally killing people.
Jerks are everywhere.

 

[Benvolio]

Funny how you drift in to idealism so quickly.
What about jerks?

Jerks make sure they've eliminated their competition so they can charge whatever they want, work at their own leisure because there's nowhere else to go, take fantastically long holidays and lobby corrupt politicians to protect their positions and avoid repercussions for things like accidentally killing people.
Jerks are everywhere.

Since New Zealand has national health care, I wonder how much experience you have with the jerk doctors you describe? Yours is not an accurate description of US doctors, and I would wonder where in the world a doctor is able to "eliminate his competition"? Most doctors are motivated to work long hours to make the big money which is available in the US. Doctors from all over the world immigrate to the US to make the money.

 

[Kabluey]

Since New Zealand has national health care, I wonder how much experience you have with the jerk doctors you describe? Yours is not an accurate description of US doctors, and I would wonder where in the world a doctor is able to "eliminate his competition"? Most doctors are motivated to work long hours to make the big money which is available in the US. Doctors from all over the world immigrate to the US to make the money.

Dentists aren't publicly funded - they seem to like Porsches here. And eye surgeons have been prosecuted for anti-competitive behaviour in NZ - price fixing to be exact.

I've also been to the US and experienced your healthcare.
You're duped if you think the standard of care is any better there than public is in other western countries.
Plus even here you have the option of going private, which is still much cheaper than in the US given it has to compete with free.

Jerks are everywhere. If you want to see private providers really on their game, make them compete with free public healthcare.

 

[kev]

See the problem with Single Payer is that your health care dollars are competing with the same dollars that are going to pay for roads, and controlled therefore by politicians. And we all know how they are.

Why is political self interest nobler than economic self interest?

 

[peeonme]

See the problem with Single Payer is that your health care dollars are competing with the same dollars that are going to pay for roads, and controlled therefore by politicians. And we all know how they are.

Why is political self interest nobler than economic self interest?

Perhaps we should then privatize the roads?
How about we privatize the government? Hold on, that has been done, read the pre amble to the U.S. constitution..."we, the people"
We are the they.

 

[kev]

I am not sure what your point is, but your legs look good.

 

[peeonme]

I am not sure what your point is, but your legs look good.

The avatar reminds me of the time my friend fucked me, he was so sexy!

My point is that people point at the government and complain, why, they can't be trusted!
These people did not get beamed down from an alien space ship, we elected them.
It's a cop out to use the "government is no good" excuse, we are the government.

Again, the intent of this thread was to question our system, I hear few complaints from people who have national health care, no complaints from providers who work in that system. I have asked on this forum in the past.

In the U.S. a Doctor in many cases has to get permission from an insurance company to do a procedure or a test, the insurance company likes to collect a premium, it does not like to pay benefits.

Hospitals like to charge for items such as medications, I was in for 2 days, I take 1 prescription. The over the counter cast for 30 days to me at the time was $6.00. The hospital charged the insurance company over $100.00 per pill.

My wife had an ileostomy, because of ulcerative colitis. She had been on Asacol before the surgery for a number of years, this is used to treat colitis, my over the counter cost would have been $2000.per month without insurance. God knows what a hospital would charge an insurance company.
My wife had a stroke while in surgery, she was in the hospital 4 weeks, I went over the various meds. that she was on with an intern
and found that she was still on asacol 4 weeks AFTER her colon was removed. A mistake? I really don't know, but I can't help but to think that the hospital was making big bucks on that med. and since it did no harm they left my wife on it.

I don't trust a system where profit is involved, it produces a conflict of interests.

 

[bankside]

See the problem with Single Payer is that your health care dollars are competing with the same dollars that are going to pay for roads, and controlled therefore by politicians. And we all know how they are.

Why is political self interest nobler than economic self interest?

All of my dollars are already all competing. I get better value for my healthcare dollar (by far) by paying into a national healthcare system, than I would as a single private sector consumer (this isn't even a close competition here).

I have far more control over my politicians than I do over the boards of directors of private corporations. As a consumer what am I supposed to do? Comparison shop for the best-value emergency ward? Health care is THE example they give in economics classes to illustrate what it looks like when the free market is massively unbalanced against the interests of a private consumer: there is no elasticity of demand; people will pay anything to live, or die trying.

The only way to deal with a market like that is regulation, which....brings us right back to government. If you can't trust your government to fund hospitals properly, you could never trust them to regulate private medicine properly either. In other words, this is an area where you should dump the government if they underperform.

 

[kev]

Well...that has worked so well everywhere it has been tried...Cuba, China, the Soviet Union...

Capitalism is the only system ever devised that has lifted people out of poverty and enabled them to flourish. The only reason that the US healthcare system is so dysfunctional is because of government intervention, not despite it.

 

[peeonme]

Well...that has worked so well everywhere it has been tried...Cuba, China, the Soviet Union....

No one has implied that our economic system convert to communism.
What has worked and worked well is national health care in free nations, Canada, The United kingdom and others. They did not go commie just to recognize the human right to have health care.

Right wingers love to point at wrecked systems that bear no relevance to the issue, this is not the Rush Hour, it won't work here.

 

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

Well...that has worked so well everywhere it has been tried...Cuba, China, the Soviet Union...

Capitalism is the only system ever devised that has lifted people out of poverty and enabled them to flourish. The only reason that the US healthcare system is so dysfunctional is because of government intervention, not despite it.

actual nots butt no spoilers

pinkyu

 

[kev]

So you can emit some epithets, and it doesn't impress me.

Canadian health care is communism...pure and simple. I have a friend and colleague who is a surgeon, who needed a knee replacment. He lives in Calgary, and his waiting time was 18 months for that. He could not stand up, and could not work. He ended up coming to the US to get it done and paid for it, because, otherwise, he couldn't work.

Where will people like him go when they throw in with your philosphy? Go look at the town hall meeting where then-candidate Obama said, "well, maybe you should just take the pain medicine." What a prick.

What USA Democrats want in health care is communism...pure and simple.

It has never worked over the long term.

YOU are the best person to determine what is the best health care for YOU (well, you and your doctor)...not you and your bureaucrat.

 

[peeonme]

So you can emit some epithets, and it doesn't impress me.

Canadian health care is communism...pure and simple. I have a friend and colleague who is a surgeon, who needed a knee replacment. He lives in Calgary, and his waiting time was 18 months for that. He could not stand up, and could not work. He ended up coming to the US to get it done and paid for it, because, otherwise, he couldn't work.

Where will people like him go when they throw in with your philosphy? Go look at the town hall meeting where then-candidate Obama said, "well, maybe you should just take the pain medicine." What a prick.

What USA Democrats want in health care is communism...pure and simple.

It has never worked over the long term.

YOU are the best person to determine what is the best health care for YOU (well, you and your doctor)...not you and your bureaucrat.

Well, Kev, I can tell you that my knee went out about 5 years ago, oh, I can walk most of the time. When I went to my Doctor he gave me a shot to mask the pain, it lasted 3 weeks.
Surgery was not even on the table. I had insurance, an HMO through my employer, the Doctor and I both knew that they would not approve of any surgery.
So, if you are rich and have good health insurance you are ok, back when the workers of this nation had decent health care through their employers my knee would have been fixed.

I could go on, I could tell you more. But, to you this is not about health care being a human right, it is about pitting your precious capitalistic greed against human need.

I will say this, national health care is on it's way in America... get used to the idea, you can't stop it.

 

[kev]

My friend was over 65, and he definitely qualified for a knee replacement.

Just say you are a leftist, that you know what is better for everyone else, and we can fuck.

But you gotta defend the killing of 150 million people by communism in the 20th century.

 

[peeonme]

Just say you are a leftist, and we can fuck.

But you gotta defend the killing of 150 million people by communism in the 20th century.

And, what does that have to do with the price of potatoes?
We are in a thread about health care.
But, I would ask why, we the great USA are in bed with China? I don't hear right wingers who hate the commies and their evil deeds complain that we borrow money from a communist nation, or that we exploit their cheap labor and flood our shores with inferior and dangerous goods.

China still oppresses it's people, no free speech, no right to peaceful assembly, no freedom of the press, no freedom of religion.
Oh, hells bells... they do partake in capitalist exploitation of workers... I guess that they are ok then.
Damn, I forgot, China does not have national health care. I guess that they are now a free country.

 

[JohnnyAnger]

So you can emit some epithets, and it doesn't impress me.

Canadian health care is communism...pure and simple. I have a friend and colleague who is a surgeon, who needed a knee replacment. He lives in Calgary, and his waiting time was 18 months for that. He could not stand up, and could not work. He ended up coming to the US to get it done and paid for it, because, otherwise, he couldn't work.

Where will people like him go when they throw in with your philosphy? Go look at the town hall meeting where then-candidate Obama said, "well, maybe you should just take the pain medicine." What a prick.

What USA Democrats want in health care is communism...pure and simple.

It has never worked over the long term.

YOU are the best person to determine what is the best health care for YOU (well, you and your doctor)...not you and your bureaucrat.

Why did he go to the US? You do realise they have private healthcare in Canada right?

Anyway seeing as you have no idea what communism is, I will imagine the entire story is fantasy. I mean why would a doctor that worked in a national health service (working in it means he most likely supports its continued existence, he can work for private companies if he wants) be friends with a guy that screams communism every time the state runs something.

 

[lambdaboy]

All now weird to me. This American and his partner live in London with dual American & British Passports and pay the following for all medical Care;

$12 for any prescription until we are 60 then free for all else
$ 0