31–40 of 94 posts
Check out healthcare costs by age: http://blogs-images.forbes.com/danmunro/files/2014/04/hccost... Hence the importance of research into life extension technology combined with provision of assisted suicide for those who wish to die.
Part of what the article is saying is that spending isn't a great proxy for cost.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Routine medical care should be like food and shelter: something you are expected to pay for yourself. That would put price pressure on providers. Insurance should be a backstop for catastrophic accident or illness. It should be sold by competing local and national providers. It should be untangled from employment as a benefit. You should buy it like car insurance. Obama, Trump, Clinton. senators, representatives -- n…
Maybe it should be that way, however in practice it doesn't work. The ACA specifically requires free preventive services because research has shown that when patients have to pay they often skip it. And when they skip preventive care that causes the spread of infectious diseases, and allows small problems to turn into serious problems that are more difficult and expensive to treat. So this is important from a public…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The democrats couldn't do it when they had WH and Congress... they had to go with Plan B - "Obamacare". Personally, I believe that Plan B was written to fail. Government creates problems. How do you solve the problem? More government. Obamacare, imho, was created as the groundwork for single payer. I just don't think they expected it to fail so hard and so fast. I have no faith in single payer... for example, look at…
Single payer works well in many places other than the US. People on private insurance plans in the US die or suffer while waiting for care their plans allegedly offer, while executives of those private insurance companies get "lavish bonuses".
Why did the patient in the first story absolutely need to travel from Ohio to Texas for treatment? Isn't medical knowledge shared between providers? Some of the blame in many of these situations should fall upon the patients for choosing the care they did. Especially when it is a planned operation. I haven't finished reading the whole article, but so far it doesn't seem to be considering this point. I don't wish to d…
I used to work at M.D. Anderson and I can attest to their quality of care. People travel from around the world to receive treatment, for good reason. Also, my mother was a patient there. She started treatment just a couple of months after I got my job actually. She's still doing well years later, and is glad she waited an extra month to get into M.D Anderson. The decision to wait was excruciating though.
This medical center in Texas seems to be providing a great level of service. I am wondering why patients need to attend directly to get this level of care. I thought that medical findings were published in journals and shared among professionals in the field.
If M.D. Anderson has a dozen (or a hundred) doctors that are experienced in the treatment of certain diseases, why aren't they sending half of those doctors out to other parts of the world to spread that knowledge?
These debates about insurance and payment models are important, but still ignore the biggest issue. US healthcare expenses increasingly go to treating conditions caused by poor lifestyle choices: obesity, substance abuse, and sedentary lifestyles. Certainly there are ways to cut waste and shift costs around more equitably but unless we can improve those root cause factors we're only going to be kicking the can down t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to work at M.D. Anderson and I can attest to their quality of care. People travel from around the world to receive treatment, for good reason. Also, my mother was a patient there. She started treatment just a couple of months after I got my job actually. She's still doing well years later, and is glad she waited an extra month to get into M.D Anderson. The decision to wait was excruciating though.
But...Ohio has Cleveland Clinic, Case Western University Hospital, Ohio State Medical Center...it is not like it is a total medical backwater. Cynically, Cleveland Clinic has an InterContinental hotel inside the hospital for visiting dignitaries/medical tourists...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Single payer works well in many places other than the US. People on private insurance plans in the US die or suffer while waiting for care their plans allegedly offer, while executives of those private insurance companies get "lavish bonuses".
the people who die, i assume are the ones that cant afford that care and need to knoww beforehand its going to be completely covered?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to work at M.D. Anderson and I can attest to their quality of care. People travel from around the world to receive treatment, for good reason. Also, my mother was a patient there. She started treatment just a couple of months after I got my job actually. She's still doing well years later, and is glad she waited an extra month to get into M.D Anderson. The decision to wait was excruciating though.
You seem to have some firsthand knowledge of the situation, maybe you can help me with the question I posed earlier. This medical center in Texas seems to be providing a great level of service. I am wondering why patients need to attend directly to get this level of care. I thought that medical findings were published in journals and shared among professionals in the field. If M.D. Anderson has a dozen (or a hundred)…
1. Some knowledge is shared in journals; most knowledge isn't published until years after it's established. Much is never published, and is learned through word of math, and institutionally encoded. MD Anderson is world-renowned for being a center for excellence in cancer care.
2. Doctors don't read every article published in every journal related to their work. Even if they did, or read much of it, synthesizing into practice is a very different (and difficult) matter. Many of them don't read at all.
3. Why would MDs want to be send worldwide? And why would MD Anderson want to send them all over? Who pays for this? How can a doctor affect change in a large hospital system?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But...Ohio has Cleveland Clinic, Case Western University Hospital, Ohio State Medical Center...it is not like it is a total medical backwater. Cynically, Cleveland Clinic has an InterContinental hotel inside the hospital for visiting dignitaries/medical tourists...
Definitely not - but in cases where healthcare is involved, especially cancer, people are motivated to travel to what is considered the best. In cancer's case, it's the big three: MD Anderson, Sloan-Kettering, or the Mayo Clinic.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe it should be that way, however in practice it doesn't work. The ACA specifically requires free preventive services because research has shown that when patients have to pay they often skip it. And when they skip preventive care that causes the spread of infectious diseases, and allows small problems to turn into serious problems that are more difficult and expensive to treat. So this is important from a public…
Preventative care that actually works is super cheap and not controversial (mostly vaccinations). This idea that we can save vast sums via preventative care is a fantasy. You may find anecdotes to support it, but the serious literature doesn't bear it out.