I think I've brought this up before, but as some of you might know I come from two generations of Doctors. One thing that my Dad and his Dad before him got to see change in this country was the change in peoples feelings about healthcare. As a group of people we have gone from the opinion that a person should pay for his and his family's healthcare just like anything else in life to feeling someone else should pay for it. That someone else being an employer, government, etc, etc.
I'm curious, how do the rest of you cover your medical cost. Whom do you think should pay for your healthcare and why?
can't wake up
I think people should pay for their own healthcare, but in a true free market system. What we have today is not a free market system, its a failed system.
But under the current system, yea, I dont know. No payer is ideal. Our system should be scrapped entirely and HMOs should be set on fire.
The current system is pretty much a combination of the worst parts of free market and socialized medicine. It lacks the streamlinedness that leads to cheapness from a free market, and lacks the freeness of socialized medicine.Originally Posted by diffusionx
I understand why people in the past would feel that way. People have worked and paid for things to keep themselves alive for like forever. If you have to pay for water, food, a house, and other things to keep yourself alive, it only makes sense that you should have to pay for your healthcare too.
But why do you feel the way that you do? Do you have an opinion on why we have had such a change in opinion over this?
I havent had health insurance in four years, and have ignored things that I'd have definitely seen a doctor for if I had healthcare. Basically, it's impossible for me to afford insurance, for my employer to pay for it would probably set him back 20k a year or something. It's bullshit and sucks, I wish I was born in Canada.
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I have Empire BlueCross Blueshield PPO thanks to my job. I pay a $20 co-payment for visiting a Empire-approved doctor, and I don't need a referral to visit a specialist.
I would like there to be a universal healthcare system, simply because it is abhorrent to be unable to go to a doctor because you can't afford it. However, a universal healthcare system like Canada's has its own problems, such as long waits, doctor brain drain (Canadian doctors move to the US because of higher salaries), and lack of MRI machines.
I wouldn't mind a system where you pay just a little a bit to visit any doctor, regardless of your employment status.
R.I.P. Paragon Studios
But why do you feel that way?
Do you feel someone should step in and buy people water, toilet paper, houses, food, toothpaste, tooth brushes, clothes, and perhaps even cars?
can't wake up
The problem, IP, is that thanks to the insurance industry, costs are out of control. It shouldnt cost $80 to see a doctor for five minutes. When I broke my thumb it cost nearly $600 in X-Rays, for about 30 minutes of work.
If the costs were affordable and reasonable then people wouldnt have a problem paying them. Nobody complains about the price of the things you listed because the market keeps them in check, and there is always generic 1-ply whitebox toilet paper if you cant afford the expensive 4-ply baby on a cloud stuff. Not so with healthcare (unless you go to the free clinics in urban centers, I guess, but those are already overworked thanks to bums and illegal immigrants).
For the record, I dont think we will ever get a viable free market system, so I think in this current situation, the government should step in and take over the whole damn thing. Probably not gonna happen though.
Last edited by diffusionx; 26 Jul 2005 at 05:31 PM.
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No on question #2. You want those items, you have to work for it. However,
Dave might have some things that could seriously affect his health, but he's unable to do anything about it because he can't afford it. And if one of those ailments seriously affects him to the point that he can't work anymore, he's really screwed because he won't have an income to support himself (on top of being sick).
You can't have a productive working environment if people are unable to cure themselves because the cost is too high.
R.I.P. Paragon Studios
You may not be aware of it but the healthcare system we had about 50 years ago gave more elbow room than the one we have now.
When my granddad was a doctor if someone could not pay, they often gave him a vegetables, livestock, or they or someone in their family would do some work for him. This was possible because healthcare was a lot more free market than it is now.
Those high prices and no one giving him alternatives to cash come from socialized reforms and bad politics.
Last edited by Fe 26; 26 Jul 2005 at 05:44 PM.
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I do believe induvidual states should offer an alternative insurance program to compete with the current system. A federal program would simply get bogged down in national politics while state systems could experiment with a better way to serve the public rather than always being concerned with maximizing profit margins. It would exsist to reduce the costs of the state providing free emergency care by offering preventitive and regular care to avoid catastropic problems that could have been detected early and treated cheaply at that point. IE perscribe/cover a medication to treat a problem now rather than waiting for it to get so bad that the person needs EMS care.
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