31–40 of 262 posts
Do health insurance companies have to follow similar requirements? If so, individual cases of insurances denying insurance would be bad, but would indicate that the overall system is still working reasonably well.
I'm not American and grew up (and work) in Western Europe. Everyone is born, and, at some point, will get sick and die. Why does each of these cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars? I've heard American doctors at conferences describing their system as "the worst imaginable". Every American I know hates their system. It costs a lot more, has worse outcomes and shovels money and privilege towards the rich. Why…
not an American, but it seems to me that the reason is purely ideological. They like a small state, especially the federal government. This would give too much power to the government. The idea of federal government providing care for citizens is not acceptable to people. Now, weird thing is this doesn't work for the military somehow.
I'm not American and grew up (and work) in Western Europe. Everyone is born, and, at some point, will get sick and die. Why does each of these cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars? I've heard American doctors at conferences describing their system as "the worst imaginable". Every American I know hates their system. It costs a lot more, has worse outcomes and shovels money and privilege towards the rich. Why…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Oddly, it's not currently considered to be. Odd indeed. Is it some semantic thing? Denying care is the purest form of not practicing medicine?
Denying care is the default state. It's the basis of the Hippocratic Oath, "First, do no harm." I.e. the determination of whether a treatment is beneficial is made by comparing it to doing nothing.
I'm not American and grew up (and work) in Western Europe. Everyone is born, and, at some point, will get sick and die. Why does each of these cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars? I've heard American doctors at conferences describing their system as "the worst imaginable". Every American I know hates their system. It costs a lot more, has worse outcomes and shovels money and privilege towards the rich. Why…
> Why don't you change it? I suspect because nobody can agree on what the new replacement system should look like.
Ironically, I think that the increased attention to the denial of claims plays straight into insurer's hands. Healthcare isn't expensive because insurers don't pay enough to healthcare providers. In fact, it's the opposite. The ACA mandates that at least 80% of premiums must go towards medical expenses. This means that insurers are actually incentivized to overpay for care to maximize the size of their 20% slice. If…
You can negotiate all you want but ultimately the productivity improvements have to come from providers (hospitals, pharmaceutical companies) if you want to lower costs. There are ways to make insurers better agents (one simple step would be to make their customers the actual patients, rather than the employers of patients) but I'm not sure how much power they actually have to keep costs low
I'm not American and grew up (and work) in Western Europe. Everyone is born, and, at some point, will get sick and die. Why does each of these cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars? I've heard American doctors at conferences describing their system as "the worst imaginable". Every American I know hates their system. It costs a lot more, has worse outcomes and shovels money and privilege towards the rich. Why…
> Why don’t you change it? Who do you think should change it, exactly? You’re making the classic mistake of assuming the US works like the average European country: a functioning democracy where if something makes sense, politicians will promise it in their manifestos, and then implement it once they get elected. In reality the US works completely differently and is not a functioning democracy. Making any major refor…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Oddly, it's not currently considered to be. Odd indeed. Is it some semantic thing? Denying care is the purest form of not practicing medicine?
In many circumstances denying care is not malpractice. Even a doctor saying "I'm not taking on new patients" is technically denying care.
I'm not American and grew up (and work) in Western Europe. Everyone is born, and, at some point, will get sick and die. Why does each of these cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars? I've heard American doctors at conferences describing their system as "the worst imaginable". Every American I know hates their system. It costs a lot more, has worse outcomes and shovels money and privilege towards the rich. Why…
Because money is just a tool for allocating resources. And having well trained people with equipment ready to attend to every person in that situation requires a lot of resources.
I’m not justifying our systems inefficiency - let’s just be clear that medical care costs a lot of money.
So the challenging political question is how to manage access and costs (often devolves into rationing) and who should pay for it.
I'm not American and grew up (and work) in Western Europe. Everyone is born, and, at some point, will get sick and die. Why does each of these cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars? I've heard American doctors at conferences describing their system as "the worst imaginable". Every American I know hates their system. It costs a lot more, has worse outcomes and shovels money and privilege towards the rich. Why…
The best way I can describe our healthcare is that it's freakishly complicated, so complicated that pretty much every argument made by any side at any given time is both correct and incorrect.
For your example about single payer, with that scheme costs will likely be much lower but on the flip side, we also would not get immediate access to care (that is you can't attend a doctors appt within 72 hrs of scheduling) and we also would not get access to the latest and greatest drugs and therapies because those are always expensive and SP schemes typically do not cover that.
Now with that said is single payer good or bad? Well it all depends on who you ask. If you ask a 20 something that just visits the doctor once a year for a checkup and maybe calls into urgent care once every few years when the get the flu or food poisoning, that person will be all over the moon about a single payer system.
Now contrast that with someone in their 50's or 60's that has pre-existing conditions, sometimes chronic conditions, and needs constant care and access to the latest drugs. Well for that person single payer is dogshit and won't cover half their needs.
And that is the essence of the problem, two sides with vastly different needs from the healthcare system and a government that has to make one decision that will somehow satisfy both parties, even though that could really never happen. You're either going to pick the 20 year old and screw over grandma or you're gonna pick the grandma and screw the 20 year old.