131–140 of 345 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's extremely cool, and has my gears turning about how to encourage that kind of behavior.
That ISN'T cool, that's quite dangerous, because if it was indeed broken, that may cause harm. Rule #1 of being a doctor is violated. X-ray imaging on a finger is virtually harmless. Using a tuning fork to vibrate a potentially broken bone and causing a patient to feel pain is not harmless.
I took my 4 year old to the ER because he had a 103 fever. The doctor put an ear thermometer to him and told me to give him some childrens ibuprofen. The visit lasted all of 5 minutes. The cost: $756.00. I refused to pay it. It was the first time I did not pay a debt and the first time I was sent to collections. I refused based on principle, and not because I couldn’t afford it. Collections called me for about 3 mont…
On holiday in Rarotonga, our 2 year old got a chest infection.
We made it way up the hill to the hospital. A stray dog watched from the side of the road as we drive into the parking area. No one in sight. Eventually we saw someone who pointed us to a building wherein sat the duty doctor.
Super efficient, trained in new Zealand, she examined the sprog, diagnosed him and gave us the appropriate meds. No waiting, all sorted in less than 20 minutes.
Finally she said apologetically that we would have to pay - $2.50.
She took the money and out it into an old fashioned money box and cheerily sent us on our way.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That ISN'T cool, that's quite dangerous, because if it was indeed broken, that may cause harm. Rule #1 of being a doctor is violated. X-ray imaging on a finger is virtually harmless. Using a tuning fork to vibrate a potentially broken bone and causing a patient to feel pain is not harmless.
Sure it's dangerous, but $400 out of pocket for an xray of your finger is also quite ridiculous. If my finger wasn't obviously broken, I'd probably take my chances with a tuning fork, too.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then how do you explain countries like India where it's drastically affordable and high quality at the same time?
You pay at the entrance, not at the exit. Also, standards of care, facility costs, and compensation for medical professionals is much lower.
I took my 4 year old to the ER because he had a 103 fever. The doctor put an ear thermometer to him and told me to give him some childrens ibuprofen. The visit lasted all of 5 minutes. The cost: $756.00. I refused to pay it. It was the first time I did not pay a debt and the first time I was sent to collections. I refused based on principle, and not because I couldn’t afford it. Collections called me for about 3 mont…
In the US, the journey to become a doctor is made unnecessarily complicated and once people become doctors, they do gatekeeping and make sure it's equally as hard for others to become one. But the reality is that the physicians who treat garden-variety diseases can be trained much less expensively. No wonder physicians make loads of money while complaining about their massive student loan. My gf is a medical resident; my host parents in the US are both doctors; I have so many doctors as acquaintances; and I know that what they do is NOT even remotely difficult in terms of intellectual demand (only physically tiring and emotionally draining sometimes when you have to deal with difficult patients). I, as a programmer, would switch my salary with them in a heartbeat (regret leaving medical school in after second year in my home country, though I hated it at that time because of the sheer amount of rote memorization one had to do) and I do believe what I do everyday requires at least equally tasking mental load than what doctors do.
Insurance is not supposed to make routine things more affordable. It's supposed to spread the risk of catastrophic loss from unlikely events around to a large group of people so you don't have to worry about losing your house if you get struck by lightning. Everyone needs routine medical care at some point so an insurance model doesn't work there. You don't have gas or grocery insurance, do you? If that were a thing…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's extremely cool, and has my gears turning about how to encourage that kind of behavior.
That ISN'T cool, that's quite dangerous, because if it was indeed broken, that may cause harm. Rule #1 of being a doctor is violated. X-ray imaging on a finger is virtually harmless. Using a tuning fork to vibrate a potentially broken bone and causing a patient to feel pain is not harmless.
If a doctor has a treatment with 80% efficacy that costs $1,000, and another with 90% efficacy that costs $100,000, there is nothing immoral about giving the patient the choice. "Doing Harm" would be prescribing treatment that leaves the patient worse off than they started.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/10/25/doctors-sal... Providers are the core problem. Various doctor associations (AMA et al) have strangled supply side of healthcare through State licensure and scope of practice laws. Just read medical forums to get an idea of what an average doctor thinks about competition in the form of midlevels: https://www.auntminnie.com/Forum/tm.aspx?m=581583 "Don’t teach your mid le…
> Various doctor associations (AMA et al) have strangled supply side of healthcare To add more details to this here's something I recently read about the supply constraint and its origins. > Then as now, Medicare reimbursed hospitals for a significant share of residents’ salaries. The Balanced Budget Act established limits on those reimbursements, effectively fixing the number of funded residents at 1996 levels. (In…
I took my 4 year old to the ER because he had a 103 fever. The doctor put an ear thermometer to him and told me to give him some childrens ibuprofen. The visit lasted all of 5 minutes. The cost: $756.00. I refused to pay it. It was the first time I did not pay a debt and the first time I was sent to collections. I refused based on principle, and not because I couldn’t afford it. Collections called me for about 3 mont…
I recently took my GF to the ER because she had been stung by a bee and was worried she was allergic. She was feeling dizzy but once we were in the ER she started feeling better. They basically took her vitals, waited 30 minutes or so, gave her a steroid, and then sent us home. They told us it probably wouldn't be very expensive as she was uninsured. Later the bills arrived: $1300 from the ER ($1900 minus a $600 unin…
If you’re not bleeding, have a broken limb or other trauma or an expectation of being admitted, you don’t belong in the ER. Take a benadryl.