For example, I would use my turn to shoot a dart into the neck of Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia. My dart would have a potion that would make him tell the truth for just five minutes.
Before: Obamacare is going to bankrupt the country. I am going to fight to repeal it.
Keep an eye on this guy. He is going to be the Majority Leader in the House when Boehner becomes Speaker. Watch how he answers question...or doesn't.
My plan on health care: Keep it but, drop the part that makes states pay for those that don't have insurance. Also, add in some tort reform. Ask your doctor what his single biggest cost is and he will tell you Malpractice Insurance. There is an even bigger, hidden cost. To keep malpractice insurance low, they perform all sorts of needless tests just in case. I think that every medical symptom should have a list of things to test for. So long as you follow that list, you are immune from prosecution. Don't follow the list, lose your job or go to jail or something.
Right now, a doctor can cut off the wrong foot and his insurance will pay out millions. His rates go up and we all end up paying for the missing foot. Meanwhile, a guy with a missing foot is now rich. We pretend the money equals a foot. There has to be a better way.
On to more important things...
There are two shows over here, in Budapest, that are the equivalent of American Idol. Now, I never watch shows like this but my wife does so, I am a viewer by default. There was a sing-off between two women. The loser would be kicked off the island, or show or something like that. They sang. One was good, the other sounded like an injured bloodhound. The injured bloodhound won.
Now, I know nothing about singing but I can tell when someone forgets words or can't hit the high notes. This was such an obvious miscarriage of justice. I couldn't believe what had happened.
The next day, we are having a lunch gathering and the big subject was how this show kicked off the wrong woman. We started saying stuff like "this show lacks credibility" or "this show won't last if they keep cheating." Then it hits me. The show did this on purpose.
By doing what they did, keeping the bloodhound, they managed to draw even me into the drama. Everyone was talking about their show. Everyone was already planning to watch the next one to see what other travesty would happen.
Brilliant.
On a final note, have a good day. I don't mean that in a "pre-packaged" good-bye sort of way. I really mean it. Have your morning coffee and read the comics. Listen to your favorite song on the way to work and say hi to someone you've been thinking about but haven't gotten around to. Help someone across the street and yield the right of way. Hold open a door and complement someone. And, just for today, keep your dart gun in its holster.
Until we all do these things, all of the time, I will be busy...world saving.
Up, up and away.
Posted by Chas,
ReplyDelete1) Put realistic limits on lawsuits. Multi-million dollar settlements because someone cut off the wrong foot are simply ridiculous. Let's face it; if a doctor cuts off the wrong foot, someone wins the lottery and everyone else pays for it.
A couple of problems with this one. A personal injury law suit has two types of “damages” – economic and non-economic. Economic: Objective. Easy to measure. You have bills for your medical treatment. You are out of work for x weeks and lose y dollars of income. Non-economic: Subjective. Loss of the enjoyment of life. You were a great golfer (not us!) and really loved the game. You lose your hand through a surgical blunder. How much is the end of your ability to play golf worth? Now let’s further complicate matters. You are a PGA professional pulling down big $$ playing golf. Now that missing hand is causing you economic damages. But let’s say you are a professional singer, probably no significant loss in income from the missing hand. But a world renown concert violinist? Again, big loss of income. Our legal system equates and compensates loss with $$. It isn’t perfect but until they figure out a way to restore a fully functioning hand, it is about the best we can do. Finally, having a jury of your peers decide the final outcome has worked for us for a long time. Would it be better to leave the quantification of damages up to some government bureaucrat?
2) Create a standardized set of tests per condition. Someone comes in with symptom A is given the following tests in the following order. Do this and you are exempt from law suits. There are unusual cases but, let's face it, not every case is one for Dr. House. If an outlier case is misdiagnosed but the doctor followed the accepted procedures, he is in the clear.
I am okay with this idea but not sure that you could get the medical experts to agree on the “minimum”. The entire science of diagnostic medicine is structured so as to either consider or eliminate possible causes. Long before any expensive tests are performed, the doctor starts off taking the patient’s medical history to assess possible or eliminate possible causes of symptoms. Family history, lifestyle, etc. all have potential impact on the final diagnosis. I have seen medical malpractice cases where the doctor was clearly at fault but the insurance company ran up huge legal fees defending a clear case of unprofessional conduct. I have also seen the opposite end of the spectrum where the doctor was slammed with a huge judgment because of an unfortunate result for the patient when the medical science was not exact enough for the jury’s tastes. I agree with you that it is a problem but (unfortunately) not one with an easy solution.
Posted for Chas,
ReplyDelete3) Let health plans compete across state line and enforce anti-monopolistic practices.
This is so obvious that I find it mind boggling that it hasn’t been legislated. However, it was essentially the Republican “position” (coupled with “tort” reform) so it was not very popular with the majority of Democrats – particularly, not with the left of center folks that I believe will not rest until there is a “single payer” government health care program in place. On that note, I just suggest that anyone considering that this is a good idea stop off at the local motor vehicle department offices and tell me if the government should be running healthcare!
4) Everyone should get health care, and they do. However, you must work for it. If I go to an emergency room and I am not insured, then I must be willing to work off my debt. Create a federal or state organization that simply has jobs for people to pay off their debts. Have a broken arm set and you have to help re-shelve books at the local library or cut grass at a local park.
Sorry. The Democrats are bought and paid for by organized labor and no “poor” recipient of medical care is going to “work off’ their tab and possibly displace good union help at the library or the park department.
5) Bring healthcare into the 21st century. Online office visits. I should be able to Skype my doctor and tell him what is wrong with me. I can have a home Blood Pressure machine. I can weigh myself. There are all sorts of things that can be done online without my going down and taking up someone's (and my own) time. Agreed and I think the science is moving in that direction. However, new technology isn’t always “fool proof” and that kind of “new” stuff gets us back to the malpractice problem.
Create better preventative systems. Smoking, drinking, risk taking etc., are all personal choices. If I do none of those but I get regular exercise, eat right and do yogo, I should be less of a risk and my costs should go down. There are some companies that do this now with great success.
Agree again. But there is no avoiding the fact that there is more risky behavior/poor choices being made in the lower socio-economic strata. Insurance is nothing more than managing risk. The problem is when the government creates “mandates” for private insurance companies and then tries to micromanage the underwriting process. If you make poor choices regarding your personal health, you have volunteered to have more risk of disease and your premiums should be higher than someone who is spending their spare time at the gym. But try and sell that to the progressives in local, state or federal government.
6) Don't make me insure my employees. You (the government) have no idea what my financial situation is.
Agreed. But then the progressives will just go back to their “single payer” government health care program idea.
7) Don't make insurance companies spend a certain percentage of money on patients. Instead, create an environment which fosters competition. Make it easy for me to change plans. For example, I use to be stuck with a single cell phone company just to keep my number. A law was passed that allowed me to keep my number. Competition went way up and prices dropped. Another, solid idea. Unfortunately, I am going to have to go “conspiracy theory” on this one as I believe the “true believer” progressives want to eliminate private insurance companies. This is the root of the demonization campaigns of the progressives.
Chas
Healthcare,
ReplyDeleteOK, this topic is really not so complicated to me.
Health insurance is a business - they need to make money, the more the better - that is why they are in business. Soooooo - why do we think they are there for us like some caring auntie? They have run the numbers and they know what they plan to pay for and what they don't etc... for max dollars, this is business. But we are not without blame - for the most part we have become very dependent on healthcare. It's a doc visit for every sniffle - instead of good old fashioned taking care of ourselves, eating right, exercise, nurse your cold properly, the whole routine. Insurance is just that, insurance - for catastrophic events. We pay for maintenance on our cars and all other issues when hoses break etc... insurance is for a "catastropy" or accident. Healthcare can be the same. Education for preventative care - stay away from that giant extra cheese pizza with the zillion colesteral laden calories.
But I digress, back to point A - healthcare is a business. And as a business, it needs competition to stay healthy. I see no problem in a government healthcare system that we can opt into if we so chose. Hey, if I'm in a bad spot, and that's all I got for the time being, then I'm not too proud to take it and be happy to have it. And it will keep the big boys a little bit more honest as an added bonus.
Joyce