Hospital Crisis and Obamacare

[rgG]

Pam wrote:

Costs are already going up and have been for a long time. Care has been rationed much longer via financial limitations of patients and health insurance companies denying or restricting treatment overriding doctor decisions. Tort reform is one of those portions of Obamacare that could be addressed if both parties sit down to do their jobs and stop pandering to bases or who lines their pockets.

I applaud the USPSTF's recommendations on mammograms. They had the balls to fight the groups that are pushing for more. Not because it helps women, but because it makes money! Talk to radiologists! The money made on these machines, on the unnecessary biopsies that result, on the groups fundraising for breast cancer, and you should be sick. Women have been sold a huge ball of crap and gratefully shell out the money, and pooh pooh the stress because they were told it was benign. The numbers are huge. The amount of money is even larger. People always revert to, well if it saves a life, but that's not the case. Which is why the guidelines were changed. You find a lump, you get checked out. You have family history, you start earlier. Otherwise you follow the guidelines. I truly, sorely wish all of that well intentioned, donated money went to research to determine the cause of breast cancer and identify which cancers are worrisome and which are not. Not spend the money lining pockets and putting women through the wringer.

1.6 million biopsies are done each year. 90% are benign. That means 1.44 million women were subjected to cost, pain, and stress. That number should be far, far lower. It should invoke outrage just as similar numbers did for prostate cancer. But that cancer involves men and is not a sexy money maker. They tried.

I agree. Could not agree more.

Also, we have to realize that good medicine is not treating every illness with the latest and most expensive high tech machines and drugs when often an older, more proven, and cheaper alternative exists. But the drug companies sell doctors on the latest and the greatest, and many doctors don't even consider the cost, they just figure that insurance will cover it, like it is a free lunch. And the drug makers advertise all the latest drugs directly to the consumer and tell you to ask your doctor about prescribing them for you.

There is way too much overhead in medicine. You should not have to have a staff of people just to code bills, how insane. It is this overhead, coupled with high malpractice insurance, the subsequent overuse of expensive testing and procedures to cover the doctor's liability, that have driven up the cost of health care.

The current health care bill needs work, a lot of work, but to just leave things as they are is not an answer. As has been said, the politicians, doctors, insurance companies, drug companies, and the states need to work this out. It can be fixed, but everyone is going to have to give a little.