The Road to a Bailout They Don't Deserve

Perhaps the USA spends more on healthcare because there are so many
opportunistic individuals and insureds out there that want to get "their
money's worth", even if they aren't paying for it? Perhaps another
reason is all of the latest and greatest medical devices, machines, or
whatever that we seem to demand?

There is a HUGE number of people involved in the billing and collection
of medical bills. Even in Medicare, there are some ins and outs of
coverages and codes, by observation. If the coding might not be done
correctly or misinterpreted, it CAN lead to large expenses which the
insured has to pay.

It has seemed strange how far behind the billing can be from when the
office visit took place. It also seems like "a waste" to send the
insured a bill for 92 cents for the part of the office visit or
procedure that Medicare or the insurance company didn't cover. If
you've been there, you can relate, I suspect, by observation.

And then you have doctors who might not release their patients to go
back to work as soon as they might. Or order tests that might not be
really needed, other than to ensure the lastest test is current and done
to their specs. Some of these things might be driven by malpractice
issues, but some also seem to be driven "by opportunity". with all due
respect.

Our USA system might have many inefficiencies or ballooned costs in it,
but to fix it would require a complete culture change for many in that
industry AND for the insureds. It seems that every time I hear a radio
show extolling the virtues of socialized medicine or how much better the
Canadian system might be, I also hear about many other things which are
not as good as our system is and THOSE things will matter to a whole lot
of people in the USA.

It has become a system driven by PPOs and such, which negotiate their
rates with the doctors. If you are a doctor and need business, you'll
probably become aligned with one of the PPO systems. In those systems,
all doctors now seem to be "generic" with one being as good as another,
it seems, as reliance upon the licensing board to do their job is where
the buck gets passed to rather than a physician's personal knowledge of
another physician's medical background, experience, or demeanor.

Regards,

C-BODY

 

Might this be another "point of reference" situation?

Many seem to use the Canadian system as their panacea, but the facts
seem to indicate otherwise (from other sources, too).

Regards,

C-BODY

 

"Sad" because he didn't buy into your orientation? Where's the
bullet-proof "stand up in court" information to counter his argument OR
support yours?

Diverse orientations can make for good discussions unless one party
wants their orientation to be accepted "as fact" without any supporting
information or evidence--whether in this situation or others.

Regards,

C-BODY

 

PBS, being a "funded" entity, typically, might not have had the
necessary funding to travel to Oz and fully investigate the situation
down-under for this report. Trying to use one resource in this
discussion can have its pitfalls.

Regards,

C-BODY

 

I think "Mr. Higgins" needs to complain to his George Soros handlers of
his poor preparation to make a case. Then again, they probably can't be
too choosy on the level of intelligence in the pool of people they have
to work with - IOW, they are taking what they can get. Eventually they
may realize it only hurts their agenda to put people like him out here,
but they have blinders on anyway, so it may take them a while, but
eventually the chickens will have come home to roost.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')