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This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Topic: Regal cuts employee hours to stay out of Obamacare
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 04-23-2013 09:49 PM
quote: Joe Redifer
Anyway the issue really isn't insurance. It's super-high health care COSTS.
Agreed...if there's an area begging for regulation, that's got to be it. How can a hospital justify charging something like 8 or 10 dollars for a bandage when you can go buy the same bandage at a CVS for $4 for a box of 10? And that on top of charging thousands of dollars a day for the room you're being sick in.
There are two hospitals in Billings. Both are CONSTANTLY building new wings, "birth centers," or what-have-you, or adding things like art galleries or spacious luxurious lobbies or such. There has never been a time as far as I can remember that there weren't scaffoldings and cranes around those places, building the latest multi-million dollar expansion. I guess they have to do something with all the money they rake in so they can maintain their non-profit status.
If the costs were brought under control, insurance rates would go down, and more employers could afford to offer insurance.
According to the latest issue of "The Week," starting in 2000 the number of employers offering health insurance has dropped every year, and in 2011 only 52% of employers offered it. And, the cost of said insurance has doubled in that time.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 04-24-2013 01:58 AM
quote: Joe Redifer
Anyway the issue really isn't insurance. It's super-high health care COSTS.
Anecdote: working at a theatre in 1997, I tripped over on a floor that had just been mopped and whacked my head on the side of a platter deck on the way down. Even though I felt fine a couple of minutes later, the manager insisted that I go to Casualty (ER) and get it looked at. After a three-hour wait, the junior doctor took a 20-second look and told me to go back to work and come back again if I felt light-headed or in any way strange. I left, and that was that.
In 2006 I was one of three passengers in a taxi from Anchorage Airport to the downtown area, which skidded on some black ice, hit the central reservation and was then hit by another car, not very hard. Within five minutes or so, several ambulances had shown up, and despite insisting that I wasn't hurt, I was taken to hospital with all sirens blazing. They took a blood sample, x-rayed me, gave me a pain killing injection for the slight ache in my shoulder that had developed by this point and insisted in keeping me in overnight for observation. The two people I was going to the conference with also got the same treatment. I was later contacted several times by the taxi firm's insurer, insisting every time that I hadn't been injured, wasn't suffering from whiplash and didn't need any more treatment, something they had a hard time believing.
Maybe the British hospital wasn't being cautious enough, but I can't help thinking that my experience in Anchorage was a case of complete overkill.
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Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 04-24-2013 05:28 AM
quote: Leo Enticknap
They took a blood sample, x-rayed me, gave me a pain killing injection for the slight ache in my shoulder that had developed by this point and insisted in keeping me in overnight for observation. The two people I was going to the conference with also got the same treatment. I was later contacted several times by the taxi firm's insurer, insisting every time that I hadn't been injured, wasn't suffering from whiplash and didn't need any more treatment, something they had a hard time believing.
This illustrates a HUGE issue that causes the cost of healthcare in the U.S. to spiral out of control. It's called the fear of getting sued. The hospital did all that stuff because if you had been released and then had a 1 in a million brain aneurysm you or your estate (if you were the typical U.S. citizen that gets a lawyer) would have sued them for malpractice (and at least gotten a huge settlement if not won outright). Worse, if you had had an unrelated heart attack the same thing would happen.
People don't want to believe how much of health care costs is related to frivilous lawsuits. In addition to the high cost of malpractice insurace, providers in the U.S. perform hundreds of billions of dollars per year in "defensive medicine" for no other reason than protecting themselves from lawsuits. A couple of years ago I saw an AMA (American Medical Association) estimate that this practice cost $610 BILLION which is around 23% of all healthcare spending.
Yes, there are other issues in the cost of healthcare but a huge step would be tort reform. Two things that could lead to a huge improvement are:
1) A "losing party pays" system where the losing party has to pay all Attorneys fees for the defendant and the Plaintiff's Attorney is responsible to pay. That way, a Plaintiff can't get out of paying due to income or assets.
2) Create a special court system for Medical Malpractice where the "Jury" is made up of a committee of Doctors. A Jury does not understand the difference between a mistake and negligence. Sure, a patient should get some compensation for a mistake (to pay to fix it and pay if they can't work because of it). But, mistakes shouldn't lead to ridiculous punitive damage. Now, if a provider is "negligent" then they should pay more and be sanctioned.
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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!
Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 04-24-2013 06:03 AM
quote: Lyle Romer
1) A "losing party pays" system where the losing party has to pay all Attorneys fees for the defendant and the Plaintiff's Attorney is responsible to pay. That way, a Plaintiff can't get out of paying due to income or assets.
2) Create a special court system for Medical Malpractice where the "Jury" is made up of a committee of Doctors. A Jury does not understand the difference between a mistake and negligence. Sure, a patient should get some compensation for a mistake (to pay to fix it and pay if they can't work because of it). But, mistakes shouldn't lead to ridiculous punitive damage. Now, if a provider is "negligent" then they should pay more and be sanctioned.
While I agree on tort reform and that our (US) medical system, from a billing, insuring, abusing, sueing...etc. needs a radical reform...including tort reform in general (we are way too sue happy)...one only need to look slightly down the road as to see why the solutions you present will not work.
Item 1)...a company becomes too big to sue. If I have deep pockets...I'll have the ability to hire a team of REALLY GOOD lawyers such that you don't dare sue me on the chance you might lose and have to pay not only your lawyer but all of mine too.
Item 2) It would be unfair to the patient to only have doctors, who may have their own vested interest in not seeing another doctor being sued over a practice they themselves may use...it puts the jury way too slanted. While it is obvious doctors should be used for the medical position...any jury/board...etc. should have a bit of a balanced make up with parties that don't have a vested interest in a particular outcome.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-24-2013 09:43 AM
quote: Chris Slycord
Using the same reasoning there, how can a theater charge over $8 for a bucket of popcorn when the materials used all come to maybe 50-75 cents? Or how I can get a 6 pack of soda for less than a medium drink?
With tongue in cheek anecdote noted, movie theaters can still explain to a certain degree why snack bar items are priced so high (mainly to offset costs of running the theater). Prices at movie theaters are pretty standard too. There are some differences between a multiplex in the downtown of a giant city like Los Angeles and a rural theater in Kentucky. But the pricing differences aren't all that extreme.
Hospitals, clinics, etc. don't really have any pricing standards. They gouge whatever they think they can get away with gouging. For example I've seen clinics here in Oklahoma charging over $5000 for a colonoscopy or just a stress test examination. One could get those services for under $1000 in Colorado Springs.
A local hospital kind of works as its own vertically integrated monopoly. Various doctors, specialists, clincs, etc. are aligned with it to respect its local pricing model. Hospitals, clinics, etc. don't exactly check around to make sure their prices are competitive with other hospitals and clinics in the next town or next state. That's because patients often don't have the time/luxury to shop around for health care. People often only need health care in some sort of emergency. You're not going to drive to the next town to get a better price if you're having a heart attack.
quote: Mike Blakesley
There are two hospitals in Billings. Both are CONSTANTLY building new wings, "birth centers," or what-have-you, or adding things like art galleries or spacious luxurious lobbies or such. There has never been a time as far as I can remember that there weren't scaffoldings and cranes around those places, building the latest multi-million dollar expansion.
I see the same thing happening here in Lawton. Comanche County Memorial Hospital looks like it has doubled in size during the time I have lived in Lawton. I watched the same kind of thing going on where I lived in Georgia -freaking million dollar marble waterfall style structure in the damned lobby.
The health care industry in this country has such an air of douchebag entitlement to it that it makes me sick. It continues to carve out a larger and larger piece of the United States' GDP for itself -leaving less less and less for all other businesses and industries.
I can't figure out why so many business people jealously defend this broken system when this so-called for profit based system is working as hard at it can to take away from them. It's very simple math: the more this nation spends on health care the LESS it has for everything else.
The health care industrial complex has grown way the hell too big and too greedy for its own good. It's long overdue for that monster to be cut down to size.
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