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The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

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Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#11
post #10
post #7

As someone who lives in a country with socialized medicine, (Canada), the discussion of hospitals removing "normal" (shared) rooms to replace them with more-profitable private rooms is disturbing. Here, private rooms have become the standard that all new hospitals are built to. Not only are patients generally happier, but they drastically reduct the spread of germs between patients in hospitals. When my kids were bor…

Can you explain your first sentence? What is the discussion surrounding shared vs. private rooms?

If it's anything like Europe, doctors and hospitals get to charge extra (not covered by the state medical insurance) if the patient is in a private room. Plus the private room itself costs extra too.

It has different names depending on the country.

PS. private medical insurance may cover the private room thing. Also, doctors are effectively incentivized to give private room patients preferential treatment. So it is one source of inequality in Europe's health services.

Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#12
> “They’re taking him to a local hospital,” Mr. Battelle’s wife, Michelle, told Dr. Shlain as the boy rode in an ambulance to a nearby emergency room in Marin County. “No, they’re not,” Dr. Shlain instructed them. “You don’t want that leg set by an E.R. doc at a local medical center. You want it set by the head of orthopedics at a hospital in the city.”

So, tying up an ambulance for a couple hours because they "too good" for an ER (which would be completely capable of dealing with a broken leg)?

Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#13

> He sees no reason that the medical world should not respond to consumer demand like any other player in the service economy. “Whenever I bump into a bleeding-heart liberal, which I am, I mention that schools, housing and food are all tiered systems,” he said. “But health care is an island of socialism in a system of tiered capitalism? Tell me how that works.” I can't decide if this is the "two wrongs make a right"…

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Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#14

> “They’re taking him to a local hospital,” Mr. Battelle’s wife, Michelle, told Dr. Shlain as the boy rode in an ambulance to a nearby emergency room in Marin County. “No, they’re not,” Dr. Shlain instructed them. “You don’t want that leg set by an E.R. doc at a local medical center. You want it set by the head of orthopedics at a hospital in the city.” So, tying up an ambulance for a couple hours because they "too g…

Yeah, setting a leg bone isn't normally a challenging or delicate procedure. I feel like either there were complications we don't know about or Dr. Shlain was bullshitting them to justify his bill.

Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#15
post #10
post #7

As someone who lives in a country with socialized medicine, (Canada), the discussion of hospitals removing "normal" (shared) rooms to replace them with more-profitable private rooms is disturbing. Here, private rooms have become the standard that all new hospitals are built to. Not only are patients generally happier, but they drastically reduct the spread of germs between patients in hospitals. When my kids were bor…

Can you explain your first sentence? What is the discussion surrounding shared vs. private rooms?

Many hospitals house patients in shared rooms with two (or more) beds separated by a sliding curtain. It's cheaper, and is otherwise basically all downside, as jbeales says.

Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#16

I just love how seemingly everyone involved in this is like "Wow this is so much, I mean I can't believe money gets you this, but I have the money/have been given the money so I guess we should do it" like this somehow manifested out of the thin air and everybody was just going along with it. Horseshit. At some point, someone sat down with a few other people and proposed "Hey what if we charge rich entitled people in…

This, until it is your child who is waiting with a broken leg and crying with pain.

This is the moment where theoretical political ideas go down the drain and you pull your gold credit card.

Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#17

I just love how seemingly everyone involved in this is like "Wow this is so much, I mean I can't believe money gets you this, but I have the money/have been given the money so I guess we should do it" like this somehow manifested out of the thin air and everybody was just going along with it. Horseshit. At some point, someone sat down with a few other people and proposed "Hey what if we charge rich entitled people in…

This, until it is your child who is waiting with a broken leg and crying with pain. This is the moment where theoretical political ideas go down the drain and you pull your gold credit card.

I guess my theory is take more of that persons money via taxation and make the hospital work faster and better for everyone, not just his lucky offspring.

Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#18

I just love how seemingly everyone involved in this is like "Wow this is so much, I mean I can't believe money gets you this, but I have the money/have been given the money so I guess we should do it" like this somehow manifested out of the thin air and everybody was just going along with it. Horseshit. At some point, someone sat down with a few other people and proposed "Hey what if we charge rich entitled people in…

This, until it is your child who is waiting with a broken leg and crying with pain. This is the moment where theoretical political ideas go down the drain and you pull your gold credit card.

And that makes it okay?

Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, until it is your child who is waiting with a broken leg and crying with pain. This is the moment where theoretical political ideas go down the drain and you pull your gold credit card.

And that makes it okay?

No it does not make it ok, as the fact that my wife is seriously ill, that my parents have to worry about money for their treatemenrs, and like many other things.

It is just reality.

Re: The Doctor Is In. Co-Pay? $40,000

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, until it is your child who is waiting with a broken leg and crying with pain. This is the moment where theoretical political ideas go down the drain and you pull your gold credit card.

I guess my theory is take more of that persons money via taxation and make the hospital work faster and better for everyone , not just his lucky offspring.

This has never worked in the history of humanity, except maybe in some remote tribes.

The closest was communism and French Revolution, which failed, among others, the idea of equality.

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