11–20 of 118 posts
This Time article seems particularly apropos: http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medica...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If necessary, I will pay the penalty. I assume the credit for health care costs and taxes charged on health care should make up for any penalties incurred by the PPACA. If I read correctly, my penalty should only be $950-1300. Inevitably, with my insurance rates, I would spend that on 2 months of health coverage for my small family. Just to break down costs: $600/mo health for wife/kid. $7200/yr. vs ~200/mo + 1000 pe…
I'm not in the USA, but 'only $950-1300'? That's more or less what I pay for a whole year of health insurance in the NL. How much does insurance cost in the USA?
* 9 out of 10 physicians would discourage their children from becoming doctors.[3] There are many reasons for this. Malpractice insurance premiums are a factor. Not the only factor.
* California physicians have the lowest insurance premiums in the country. This is directly the result of tort reform, and caps on pain and suffering payouts. His survey of physicians he knows in the area is subject to this sampling bias. Malpractice is a big issue in other states.[0] California is the model for tort reform for this reason, by not acknowledging this fact, he's missing a big aspect of the national (not just Californian) issues regarding healthcare.
* California physicians also have some of the lowest reimbursement rates in the country.
* As he indicated, internal medicine docs pay far less in premiums (as he noted) than other specialties. Surgeons pay much higher premiums. [1]
* The California Department of Insurance does a good job of keeping most premium information public. It's not a secret what your average doctor pays in insurance.[2]
[0] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_Injury_Compensation_Re...
[1] : http://cl.ly/image/0m390m1F2D2D
[2] : http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/0800-rate-filings/
[3] : http://www.thedoctors.com/ecm/groups/public/@tdc/@web/docume...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not in the USA, but 'only $950-1300'? That's more or less what I pay for a whole year of health insurance in the NL. How much does insurance cost in the USA?
$200/mo per kid. $350/mo for wife. $600 for wife and unlimited kids.
This Time article seems particularly apropos: http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medica...
Read it this weekend: I'd love to see a response from the health care industry that wasn't hand waiving. If he's right on 50% of his facts, it is disgusting how the system works.
There were only a handful of actual statistics in there. The one thing he is wrong about though is that healthcare isn't "roughly 20% of the GDP", rather it's about 17.9%. The furthest out cms.gov gives yearly projections is to 2021, and even then healthcare is only supposed to be 19.6% of the GDP. And I think that might even include things like herbal supplements 'other non-durable medical supplies', I'm not positive about that though.
Source: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Sta...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not in the USA, but 'only $950-1300'? That's more or less what I pay for a whole year of health insurance in the NL. How much does insurance cost in the USA?
$200/mo per kid. $350/mo for wife. $600 for wife and unlimited kids.
I haven't read the whole site yet but I jumped to the topic I know fairly well, medical malpractice. Just some additional notes to consider: * 9 out of 10 physicians would discourage their children from becoming doctors.[3] There are many reasons for this. Malpractice insurance premiums are a factor. Not the only factor. * California physicians have the lowest insurance premiums in the country. This is directly the r…
I'm skeptical about tort reform as a panacea. However, lawsuits are incredibly expensive, and so doctors take steps that we would otherwise call economically unreasonable to avoid them.
The amount of tort reform I think is really necessary is whatever would allow me to set up a private equivalent to the UK's NHS here. If someone thinks they are getting denied care that they deserve to have, the decision needs to be very cheap to adjudicate.
Ofcourse this raises a lot of questions about responsibility. But in our society health care is making money when people are unhealthy. That is an unhealthy situation.
After visiting the ER with a 108F temp due to pneumonia, I can attest to the fact that ER visits are a rip off. 3 unique doctor visits to the room + 1 IV + phlegm sample + 1 $60 pill + 1 prescription = $4200 for 50 minutes of office and 120 minutes of wait. Afterwards, I explained I did not have insurance. $60 pill was wrote off instantly. $4200 turned into $1200. Govt reimbursed 3/4ths of the bill instantly to the h…
1. You are paying for a standing army. 1 hour of scheduled doctor time is much different than 1 hour of doctor time ready to deploy in an instant.
2. The ERs need to cover all the non-paying clients.
These two items probably feed on each other.
Emergency departments are about 1% of total health care costs. They can be a good indicator of other symptoms that are wrong (medical billing is a maze, on purpose[1]), but fixing it won't really address health care costs.
[1] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/22/how-hospita...