If we (USA) went to socialized medicine…

My wife and son would be able to be treated for their pre-existing conditions that are currently not covered. Gotta love individual policies with underwriting! (sarcasm)

 

Alleluia! I will have no more pain! Give me drugs, drugs and more drugs.

 

As far as safety is concerned, universal health care does not mean that employers would get off the hook for workplace injuries. If we adopted a Canadian style system, the workplace insurance would pay first.

 

Here's another result of SM. Doctors will perform all kinds of unnecessary proceedures for minor ailments to rake in more money. After all, "SM" is paying for it.

I used to work billing in a hospital. We already have this problem with medicare and medicaid, and SM would only make it worse.

 

It depends on how far we go to SM. If we adopt the British system, that might not necessarily be the case. Doctors as employees of the government would undoubtedly be compared to each other in terms of the use of resources. Even if we adopted an insurance-based approach, you can bet that the government would make greater use of utilization review.

Also, it would be possible to change the compensation schemes. The current system already tends toward unnecessary procedures because of profit and defensive medicine.

Of course, doctors and hospitals currently have to milk every dime they can get out of the insured patients to offset the costs of treating the uninsured. With universal health care, that wouldn't be as big of an issue.

I also worked in a hospital. The casuistry that the social workers employed to make sure that the hospital got paid would make biblical Pharisees blush.

 

I have another option:

Businesses would be more competitive internationally because they wouldn't have to foot the bill of health insurance for their employees.

Small businesses would be more able to attract good workers from larger corporations because they wouldn't have the disadvantage of no or inferior health coverage.

People with health problems will be more able to start their own businesses without fear of being unable to attain health coverage, thereby creating jobs and encouraging new economic development.

I support universal health care because I think it's the right thing to do morally and because I think it's the right thing to do economically. We are eating up our GDP in health costs while hindering economic innovation.

The ONLY ones who benefit from this arrangement are the insurance companies and possibly doctors. Hospitals don't. They have to bear the cost of the uninsured. Businesses don't. They have to bear the skyrocketing costs of health coverage. Why on earth are we trying to maintain this destructive system for the sake of the "free market" when it only makes all businesses other than insurance companies less competitive?

 

I currently work in a hospital and although there is room for error and I am sure there are people that pad the bill, it's not a complete run away system.

Insurance won't pay for unnecessary procedures... The procedures that are covered are in a locked in rate. We get quotes and contracts for say the price of a MRI or a CT Scan. Each hospital don't pay the same.

So, although there is some run away bills now, I don't think it would get any worse or better with a SM system.

The biggest thing I see wrong with billing now is the number of bills you get when you go to the hospital. Each group has a bill, then each department, then the hospital, ER Docs are separate as are the EMT's.... I think it would be cheaper if they simplfied it... Get one bill from the hospital.. Then after the hospital is paid, they can in turn pay whoever is owed.

Jamie

 

I choose the "questionable, perhaps false, assumptions" option I am sure it would just offer a bunch of new questions.. I think overall, if done right it would benefit most people.
Jamie

 

If SM comes, read up on "Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital." There will be many more like it.

 

By socialized medicine, do you mean a system run by the government?

 

Juat another thing for the goverment to control in our lives. It can not be a good thing. Where does the money for a program like this come from? Would that be higher taxes?

 

I'm not so sure it would be a bad thing. I'd rather have more government control (which I can still influence through the ballot) than be controlled by insurance companies.

Higher taxes would be a part of it, but if you aren't paying for private insurance, there is an offset.

 

Thanks, Alcott! I was going to ask if "socialized medicine" meant the same as our National Health Service, where heralth care is paid for through taxation, not through the health insurance of individual patients.

 

Good physicians would probably opt out of socialized medicine and only accept private insurance.

Already some physicians are choosing to limit the patients they accept into their practices.
Those that can pay their fee get their special service and care.

The great benefit of socialized medicine is the availability of limited, mediocre health care to the poor and middle class.

Rob

 

We have plenty of good doctors, nurses, surgeons, etc. in our National Health Service, which I am still assuming is the sort of thing that is meant by the term "socialized medicine". I certainly wouldn't call our health care "mediocre", though I am sure every country's health care system has room for improvement.

 

I've talked to people in England who say they have to wait months to see a specialist.
I also worked in billing. I found Medicare was very stingy about paying some bills. It was sometimes very difficult to assure them all the procedures we were doing was absolutely necessary. Medicaid was even worse.
The doctors I knew didn't do any unnecessary procedures, because 1) they probably wouldn't get paid for it by the patient's insurance, and 2) they would get a huge fine if caught. It wasn't worth the gamble. Now, if patient's are paying out of pocket, that's a diffenernt story. Not only do the patients not have the resources to keep their doctor's in check, but they also pay full price for medical care. Medicare and other insurances pay about 80%.

love,

Sopranette

 

Would you say that you are mostly satisfied with NHS?

I ask because I have a suspicion that most of these "socialized medicine is awful" arguments don't come from those who actually experience it on a daily basis.