That last bullet in the tldr is putridly horrifying to imagine. Seriously ill in America? You might want an administrative consultant.
... and a patient advocate.
Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
121–130 of 189 posts
Re: Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Medicare for all is not a panacea and would cause dramatic breaks in care in other places. The fragmented private model sucks, but the belief that single-payer would fix much of anything is faulty. Reform should happen, but it shouldn’t be based on a bumper sticker, and it should be thoughtful about the vast differences between SF, NYC, West Texas and Southern South Dakota. “Fixing” things for people in major cities…
You provide no examples of your statement. I say Medicare for all is a panacea and will cause no breaks in care. That was easy.
I didn’t realize you were looking for a sourced essay.
Medicare-for-all extends a fee for service model that results in poor care, poorer outcomes, massively increases expense, and simultaneously lowers physician reimbursements. Given the increasing doctor shortage, that’s an issue that will be immediately exacerbated. Further, the FFS model incentivizes throughput, not quality of care. Your care won’t get better.
Re: Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t reform - I’m saying we should be careful about what that reform is, and what its goals are. I would generally suggest that CMMI and provider groups is/are more heavily involved than big city voters who know very little about a very, very complicated issue. Lastly, rural healthcare is in trouble because reimbursements are bad (especially Medicare reimbursements), FFS (fee-for-service) is a…
Why is it Medicare’s problem to fix that educated people choose not to live in certain places?
So your solution to healthcare in this country is to light rural America on fire so that you, personally, can have cheaper care?
That sounds workable.
Re: Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why with single payer would there not still be instances of treatment being denied? >rather than deal with faceless automata at health insurance companies Would this not be replaced with faceless automata in government? Just look at how the VA is run and complains about it. Looking at that I have exactly zero confidence in the government being able to run things better than the shit show at the insurance companies. B…
The government is mostly just there to manage contracts, the actual work would be done by the same doctors that are doing it today. You would just pare n profit-seeking entities down to one principally administrative entity. If you wish to pay for your own medical procedures out of pocket there will be nothing stopping you. That is not to say this does not have problems. Insurance is anti-competitive on top of that.…
You can still have an entirely "private" but heavily regulated system like those in the Netherlands or Switzerland.
Re: Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t reform - I’m saying we should be careful about what that reform is, and what its goals are. I would generally suggest that CMMI and provider groups is/are more heavily involved than big city voters who know very little about a very, very complicated issue. Lastly, rural healthcare is in trouble because reimbursements are bad (especially Medicare reimbursements), FFS (fee-for-service) is a…
State politics absolutely are driving hospital closures and OB/GYN deserts because the 'desirable places' metrics includes places that won't prosecute doctors for routine prenatal care. That's literally why we're seeing Texas and Florida suffer from an increasing lack of OB/GYN care. I don't dispute the rest of your arguments about healthcare, but you cannot fix education and/or brain drain without fixing state polit…
These issues were occurring before Dobbs - suggesting that’s a major driver in the long term creation of care deserts is incorrect.
Hospitals are not closing because of shitty prenatal laws. They’re closing because reimbursement rates are insufficient, in part, because we’ve allowed too much consolidation, in part, and because there aren’t doctors/nurses who want to live in the sticks and make peanuts.
Re: Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
#126Great article but the author is missing the fact that this is all designed on purpose. The insurance system is designed around a consistent strategy called “don’t pay out”. The USA spends more GDP on healthcare than any country on earth and the insurance companies are immensely profitable. Every company involved is making money off the status quo and wants to maintain the current system. when a patient comes along wh…
> companies are immensely profitable
That's not necessarily true. If all the for profit insurance companies reduced their profit margins prices wouldn't go down that significantly. I think it's mainly the extreme inefficiency and much higher labor costs.
Re: Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Health insurance profits are capped by government. They aren’t immensely profitable in the strictest sense of the word. That’s why they had to refund premiums during COVID.
A quick search shows they made more than 40 billion dollars in profit last year. That seems immense to me.
> That seems immense to me.
From an emotional perspective sure. Their revenue is more than 1 trillion, so while less than 4% lower prices would be nice it wouldn't really fundamentally change anything.
Re: Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
#128My boyfriend woke up one day to find out they couldn't pee. After a few ER visits and an MRI, they determined he had Stage 2 bladder cancer. However, because they had the audacity to seek immediate medical treatment for a life threatening health issue, they have now been saddled with thousands of dollars in medical debt. I had to personally dip into my earnings from my Big Tech internship to help pay some of it off.…
Not an ad hominem attack or a microaggression, but hopefully constructive criticism. Your use of the "them" pronoun makes the post confusing. Does it refer to "they," presumably the doctors, the employer (job), the insurance, UT Southwestern, or to the gendered "boyfriend." Since you already decided to use a gendered noun, perhaps use it instead of the "they/them" or use a matching gendered pronoun "he/him" to distinguish the particular person from the other "them."
I'm glad that your boyfriend has a wonderful and caring person like you to lean on.
Re: Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Medicare for all is not a panacea and would cause dramatic breaks in care in other places. The fragmented private model sucks, but the belief that single-payer would fix much of anything is faulty. Reform should happen, but it shouldn’t be based on a bumper sticker, and it should be thoughtful about the vast differences between SF, NYC, West Texas and Southern South Dakota. “Fixing” things for people in major cities…
You provide no examples of your statement. I say Medicare for all is a panacea and will cause no breaks in care. That was easy.
So healthcare providers would be fine with significantly lower incomes just because the government tell them to suck it up?
Also, it's not like the fact that the private insurance model failed in the US means that it can't work at all. For instance, not all countries in Europe have single payer. In some the health insurance system is privatized to a much higher degree than in the US, no equivalent of Medicaid/Medicare with governments directly subsidizing insurance premiums for low-income individuals.
Re: Post-apocalyptic life in American health care
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Medicare for all is not a panacea and would cause dramatic breaks in care in other places. The fragmented private model sucks, but the belief that single-payer would fix much of anything is faulty. Reform should happen, but it shouldn’t be based on a bumper sticker, and it should be thoughtful about the vast differences between SF, NYC, West Texas and Southern South Dakota. “Fixing” things for people in major cities…
Rural healthcare is being crippled in part due to state politicians posturing for political clout. Major reforms like medicare for all shouldn't be held back because they're not perfect, because otherwise we're going to continue having the same problems we've been having where compromised half-assed bills make the system overall worse.
Wouldn't proper regulation of the health-insurance industry be easier to achieve than Medicare for all? It's not like single payer is the only real option. A 100% privatized system can work just fine with proper regulation. US could more or less just copy paste the Dutch insurance system..