Time to Weigh in

I bet many of you thought this would be an update on my weightloss. Ok, here is the good news. As of today (Monday, Nov 9, 2008) I am down to a sveldt 238 lbs. Net loss, 12 so far. More to go.

Now, for the real reason for this mundane, yet important rant. Healthcare. I don't often engage in political rantings and ravings, but at this juncture, I think I may as well have my two cents. Not that it will sway anyone, especially those who listen to the talk radio people. But here goes...

The President and Congress is going about this whole thing wrong. Yes, we need reform, but they need do only one little thing to make healthcare affordable. Get rid of healthcare's protection under the anti trust act of 1945. If insurance companies can be charged with fixing prices (and we all know they are), then prices for care may fall as they all must COMPETE for our business. Also, hospitals and doctors should have to justify their bills. They also need tort reform to help return them to the days when they really had to screw up. (Like the guy that operated on the wrong finger of patients TWICE out east.)

For instance, I told you last week about my son, James and his surgery for a retina detachment. And the cost of the follow up care (see blog of 10/21/09). He received the first round of bills the other day for the surgery center of Scottsdale Healthcare Surgery Center on Osborn. This was the place referred by his doctor, with 80% of the cost paid by his Aetna Insurance policy. The bill was for drugs that were administered to him. The price tag? $2000! Jim is, of course, asking for an itemized bill. We want to see what the individual cost was. We still have not seen the total cost for the use of the surgery room (one hour), the recovery room (4 hours here) and the services of a consult for diabetes which Jim did not ask for. We suspect that Jim will have to pay roughly $3000 dollars, or 20 percent of 15,000! Looks like he will be staying with his sister for while...

The health insurance industry and the doctors and hospitals have people over a barrel.. We can't live without them, and we can't afford them. The proverbial "Catch 22". They know it.

Most of you do not remember the days when the doctor was also a family friend. When going to the hospital was a necessity, not a first idea to avoid law suits. Doctors's have technology to help them make diagnosis, but the patient pays an astonomical fee to use this technology. When is the MRI Machine or CT Scan Machine paid off? At three or four hundred dollars a pop, it should be paid off within a year! But we still pay the high price for it! Maybe they should SAVE and then buy a new machine, not go out and get a new one every two years.

Insurance companies need to be realistic. They help set the "usual and customary" prices. They need to stand up to doctors and tell them that $25 dollars for a 10cent Tylenol is too much, $300 dollars for an office visit that lasts less than 5 minutes is outrageous. Instead, the industry just fuels the fire and then gives lobby money to Senators who are cornered into coming out against real change.

Select Senate members like Kent Conrad, Max Baucus and John Kerry take millions from the healthcare lobby for their campaigns (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-lovinger/its-the-health-insurance_b_269761.html) And the Senate now says it will not even consider the bill passed by the House last weekend! No wonder, huh?

Republican senators say the proposed healthcare will doom the industry and raise prices. Let them come up with a plan, then. They have not. This group wants more freedom and competition. Then take the protections off the insurance industry and make them play by the same rules as other industries. Investigate why costs are so high, don't just sit there and take it. The President is trying to do something to help out, why are they not doing it?

Wednesday, something light hearted.

Doughnut