11–20 of 221 posts
Can anyone grok what the actual proposed reforms are? It’s missing from the article.
I agree with the three issues they identify driving up costs. But I fear “Medicare for All” won't fix all the issues, which go much deeper. For example, the US has extremely high standards restricting who can practice medicine compared to the rest of world, limiting the supply of doctors and artificially driving up their demand. There is a need for standards, but perhaps the AMA has too much political influence. Like…
If the preventables (e.g., Type 2 Diabetes) were prevented, otherwise mitigated (less sugar!) then the resources / system could focus on real disease.
The issue with the USA is it wants its cake, it wants to eat it, and expects to pay less for consistently making unhealthy choices.
I agree with the three issues they identify driving up costs. But I fear “Medicare for All” won't fix all the issues, which go much deeper. For example, the US has extremely high standards restricting who can practice medicine compared to the rest of world, limiting the supply of doctors and artificially driving up their demand. There is a need for standards, but perhaps the AMA has too much political influence. Like…
Rest of the world, yes. Rest of the developed world, not at all. The major difference is that becoming a doc in the US is much more expensive than pretty much anywhere else. You could also argue it's proportionally harder because of the more numerous competitors. But on an absolute level of knowledge and capability no, it's not harder than say, in western european countries.
Recently I got laser eye surgery to help my vision. This was not covered by my insurance. It also happened to be the simplest medical procedure/payment I ever had to interact with. They told me "this procedure will cost $X.XX and we have a discount we can offer you that will save you X%" I said okay and paid them the money. Compare that to insurance being involved recently in my wife's diabetes supplies. My wife is a…
I was able to walk into a fairly large hospital, get a full battery of tests along with a thankfully minor diagnosis and medication for a small amount of money paid up front. The bill was itemized, translated, and I received excellent customer service.
I agree with the three issues they identify driving up costs. But I fear “Medicare for All” won't fix all the issues, which go much deeper. For example, the US has extremely high standards restricting who can practice medicine compared to the rest of world, limiting the supply of doctors and artificially driving up their demand. There is a need for standards, but perhaps the AMA has too much political influence. Like…
The bottleneck is not the number of people with an MD. The bottleneck is the number of residency programs. These are funded by Medicare and I believe they are not profitable for hospitals.
Edit: But there are still way too few residency spots. I think it has to do with the difficulty and administrative work around starting a new program or with getting federal funding for more spots.
I agree with the three issues they identify driving up costs. But I fear “Medicare for All” won't fix all the issues, which go much deeper. For example, the US has extremely high standards restricting who can practice medicine compared to the rest of world, limiting the supply of doctors and artificially driving up their demand. There is a need for standards, but perhaps the AMA has too much political influence. Like…
Agreed. Entrenched institutions are the general problem with America. It's the police unions protecting bad policing, the restricting of doctor supply via the residency bottleneck, and local governments preventing new building for burgeoning populations. They're all the same problem really. Beneficial to the incumbent group at the expense of those they service. It's kind of amazing.
Assuming that you're referring to the AMA here, their role is pretty unclear to me. They appear to have played a lobbying role to get Congress to freeze residency funding in 1997 to avoid having lots of doctors [1], but for several years now, the AMA has at least publicly claimed that they've been lobbying congress to increase funding for residency slots [2]. Maybe they're lying? But I for one don't actually know who is keeping residency funding low.
[1] https://qz.com/1676207/the-us-is-on-the-verge-of-a-devastati...
[2] https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-bui...