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
Showing posts with label healthcare issue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthcare issue. Show all posts
Monday, November 9, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
My Eyes Are Opened on Healthcare
I think I understand healthcare issue now. My son, James, had surgery on Monday to correct a detached retina. He has no idea how it happened, but it happened, according to the doctor, because he is severely nearsighted. The optometrist spotted the problem and referred him to an ophthalmologist. This specialist then did surgery to correct the problem. He blew a gas bubble into Jim’s eye and then told him to lie face down on my couch for a week. This is not much different than what Jim did during his teenage years, so I agreed.
Before the surgery, Jim’s blood was drawn and he was diagnosed as being a diabetic. Now he has to go to an internist to have the problem addressed. It’s hell getting old, or so I am told.
Luckily, Jim has insurance. But, if he did not, he would have been paying for this for a long time. When we returned on Tuesday to the doctor for the “post op checkup,” Jim saw another doctor (not his surgeon, who was supposedly off doing more surgery type things). We went into the waiting room which was set up in a theatre like atmosphere with the patients facing away from the reception, but towards a 50 inch LED TV which was playing “The Lake House”. Oddly enough, next to the window where patients check in is a sign that says, “Expect to be here 1-3 hours” (At least they warn you, other doctors don’t.) Jim was called back immediately because he was priority patient.
Once inside the magic door from the waiting room, we were led through a maze of hallways into another waiting room where there were more people. (It began to feel like the stages of purgatory, or a Disney waiting line.) Jim was taken into a room where an assistant checked him out, undressed the surgical eye, and did some preliminary things. After this, he was taken again around a corner, down a hall, and into…ANOTHER WAITING ROOM! Luckily, because of his “priority patient” status, he was put into an examining room. The doctor came in (at least I think he was a doctor, he did not have on the official doctor coat, nor the heart listening thingy). He looked in Jim’s eye, said, “Keep following your doctor’s orders.” And left. Jim saw the Doctor a grand total of two (2) minutes!
When Jim went to leave, he was given a copy of the bill for services had he not been insured. The grand total for the two minute visit and the ride through Doctorland, was $268.00! Or, about 134 dollars a minute. We tried doing math on the intake of this particular doctor’s office. IF he and the other doctors saw only 30 patients each that day (There were more waiting to see him and the five other doctor’s in the practice. Jim had an early appointment.) the office would have pulled in close to $48,240 that day! For the week, it would have been 241,200 and over a year period, $12,060,000, assuming that they take two weeks off for vacation. Now, I know there are overhead costs, but …
Jim has not gotten the bill for the surgery center yet. But he was in there for about 6 hours. They called in another doctor for the diabetes who may or may not be covered under his insurance, even though Jim did not ask for the consult. That bill will be interesting.
Total cost for the eye surgery? My bet is on about $20,000.
How do people that have no insurance afford health care? Those that would oppose changes and even a public option are probably those who can afford it. But, we have to ask ourselves, if the government is to “promote the general welfare” as it promises in the Preamble to the Constitution, is it not its duty to be sure all citizens can be treated?
Next time you go for a doctor’s appointment, ask what the “usual and customary” charges would be for the services provided had you not had insurance. Could you have afforded it?
Food for thought.
Doughnut
Before the surgery, Jim’s blood was drawn and he was diagnosed as being a diabetic. Now he has to go to an internist to have the problem addressed. It’s hell getting old, or so I am told.
Luckily, Jim has insurance. But, if he did not, he would have been paying for this for a long time. When we returned on Tuesday to the doctor for the “post op checkup,” Jim saw another doctor (not his surgeon, who was supposedly off doing more surgery type things). We went into the waiting room which was set up in a theatre like atmosphere with the patients facing away from the reception, but towards a 50 inch LED TV which was playing “The Lake House”. Oddly enough, next to the window where patients check in is a sign that says, “Expect to be here 1-3 hours” (At least they warn you, other doctors don’t.) Jim was called back immediately because he was priority patient.
Once inside the magic door from the waiting room, we were led through a maze of hallways into another waiting room where there were more people. (It began to feel like the stages of purgatory, or a Disney waiting line.) Jim was taken into a room where an assistant checked him out, undressed the surgical eye, and did some preliminary things. After this, he was taken again around a corner, down a hall, and into…ANOTHER WAITING ROOM! Luckily, because of his “priority patient” status, he was put into an examining room. The doctor came in (at least I think he was a doctor, he did not have on the official doctor coat, nor the heart listening thingy). He looked in Jim’s eye, said, “Keep following your doctor’s orders.” And left. Jim saw the Doctor a grand total of two (2) minutes!
When Jim went to leave, he was given a copy of the bill for services had he not been insured. The grand total for the two minute visit and the ride through Doctorland, was $268.00! Or, about 134 dollars a minute. We tried doing math on the intake of this particular doctor’s office. IF he and the other doctors saw only 30 patients each that day (There were more waiting to see him and the five other doctor’s in the practice. Jim had an early appointment.) the office would have pulled in close to $48,240 that day! For the week, it would have been 241,200 and over a year period, $12,060,000, assuming that they take two weeks off for vacation. Now, I know there are overhead costs, but …
Jim has not gotten the bill for the surgery center yet. But he was in there for about 6 hours. They called in another doctor for the diabetes who may or may not be covered under his insurance, even though Jim did not ask for the consult. That bill will be interesting.
Total cost for the eye surgery? My bet is on about $20,000.
How do people that have no insurance afford health care? Those that would oppose changes and even a public option are probably those who can afford it. But, we have to ask ourselves, if the government is to “promote the general welfare” as it promises in the Preamble to the Constitution, is it not its duty to be sure all citizens can be treated?
Next time you go for a doctor’s appointment, ask what the “usual and customary” charges would be for the services provided had you not had insurance. Could you have afforded it?
Food for thought.
Doughnut
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