In 20 years I could reduce Healthcare cost in half

[AllentownJake]

So we all believe in supply and demand. Whatever your political ideology it is a basic law of human nature, which is what economics is.

How would I do it?

I'd offer a totally free education to any person in the country wishing to become a Doctor, Nurse practitioner or Nurse.

No student loans, no requirements of service in any community or military, nope totally free education in medicine.

I'd also offer the same for people wishing to become research scientist for biology.

Totally free, an investment by the people in this country in their future.

Wonder what

[Hannah Bell]

1. fine to drive down the price of docs & researchers, but not so fine for driving

down the cost of pharmaceuticals & medical technology.

change the patent/intellectual property laws while you're at it.

[AllentownJake]

2. actually insisting American citizens

get the same treatment from those groups as citizens in other western democracies would be the first step.

Which is why the drug re-importation thing got struck down in the Senate bipartisanly.

[Lasher]

3. The American Medical Association is limiting the supply of physicians.

US medical schools currently accept fewer than half of all applicants. That's probably the biggest single reason US doctors get paid twice as much as those in other countries.

But I like your idea. I think 4 years of college should be free to US citizens.

[Uben]

4. Wouldn't work....

....oh, a lot of Americans would love to be able to get a free education to be a doctor or nurse, but, they would be doing it for the money, just like the ones we have now do. Unfortunately, we would just be paying to educate another bunch of doctors who think they should be millionaires, and would act accordingly. Instead of placing mandates on the citizens, they should place mandates on doctors to treat 20% of their patient load for free.

My wife blew her knee out again this week, so she called an orthpedist. The first thing they told her was that she would have to have $250 for the exam and $200 for an xray before she could see the doctor!
They didn't ask her if she was a referral, what her problem was, or how much pain she was in, they asked her if she had insurance! She was so pissed, she gave the gal on the phone a good tongue lashing and hung up. These surgeons do not care about you, they care about their money first!

We have insurance. The premiums alone cost me over $18K/yr, and that is for a $5K deductible. This is the first claim in several years since my wife had breast cancer. The premiums are draining our reserves quickly. We are trying to hold on until we get some reform, but it appears we are just pissin in the wind. Eventually, the insurance companies will get everything we have and we will be in the same boat as everyone else that does not have insurance.

At some point, there won't be enough insured patients to support all these medical millionaires. Then they will bitch because they can't make the payments on their mansions and their state of the art clinics, and will lobby the government for help....again.

We can't win. We are fighting against a force that is stronger than we are. Until we level the playing ground, it will not change.

I like your idea, but it would have to have mandates for the doctors to treat some part of their patient load for free, or at extremely reduced rates. Untill we get healthcare based on ability to pay, we will see them drain the American economy down to nothing.

[DrDan]

5. I would add teachers to that list - public school teachers, and

anyone gaining the education free be obligated to practice/teach in depressed areas for some period of time - for example 5 years.

[HillbillyBob]

6. Not to shoot you down, but those students should have the

aptitude for medical education. Which is a good idea and the education that requires 22 hr days as a resident for what ever term(i can't remember if it is 1 yr or more, its early and I still don't have my second cuppa coffee down yet)edit to finish;
the 22 hr /7 day a week residency should be eliminated, running people until they are insane tired is just stupid and counter-productive.
First 4 yrs free, cut out some of the stuff that is really not necessary, but put back the foreign languages, Latin, Greek and at least one other language, say Spanish, Frency or German would be useful. Learning other languages seems to help one to understand other folks thinking and aids in Critical Thinking which is so lacking now. In fact foreign languages should be taught early in education system, it makes for better all around students. We should have more intensive civics and health(and I don't mean this keep it in your pants, but all around medical type knowledge with special emphasis on healthy living and not that shit I was taught by our gym teacher in 7 grade.
That mostly consisted of him telling us to eat fiber and don't F strangers and wash yo ass.

Something else that would help contribute (and no Nanny state bullshit please you assinine idiots have no clue). Would be to divorce USDA/FDA from Monsanto et all, and outlaw all these chemicals that are going on sale in our grocery stores, they are not food they are fillers, preservatives, excess salt, untested genie foods(after independent testing proving they are not harmful(which I don't believe they are harmless in the least).

I personally was 90 lb overweight from eating garbage from mcd etc, I quit eating that and eliminated 98% of HFCS, most processed foods, I still have a limited amt of snacks.
My way of going about it, if I want chips or something I take a handfull or a 4 6 oz bowl(1/2 c) and put some in it, put the rest back.
I stop eating as soon as I feel a little full, learned to listien to my body, slowed down how fast I ate, I used to bolt food because I was over the road salesman, my ex was an amateur chef..really good cook, but would come home from work and start cooking while drinkin beer and dinner would be at 10, then go to bed right after eating.
I try to make it a rule not to eat within 2 hrs of bed time.
Be Mindful, don't eat in front of the tv or at least don't take the bag of chips to the tv, take the little bowl I mentioned, I love sweets, but I will make brownies from scratch, it takes 5 8 more minutes to make them from scratch than it does from a mix, and you know what is in them.

Veggies, get frozen ones and steam them if you cannot get fresh. Canned veggies have tons of salt those off the shelf have stuff in it that I cannot even pronounce let alone digest. I drink 2 4 cups of coffee with honey, rarely use sugar in anything. I might have ice tea 1 or 2x a week and use a little of the pinkstuff, but never splenda(made with chlorine) or aspertame(gives me migraines). Maybe 3 cokes/sodas per month.

I use no salt in cooking, I only use peanut oil(not cotton seed or soy.) and olive oil.
Sounds expensive in time and effort..get to know your crockpot. Make your own soups and stocks, simmer never boil that preserves the good stuff. Eat 3 5 slices of bacon some weekend breakfasts eggs(home grown usually) a coupe times a month.

I am 29 yrs hiv/aids, I have bp and heart condition, but I have been able to lower my bp and cholestoral by eating more natural foods, my bp, heart and cholestoral are 80% because of the meds I have to take to control the HIV virus, they raise triglicerides and cholestoral levels. When I was able to workout even just walking or biking a few miles I went from 40%bmi to 14%, now Im about 25% which is too high, but with back injuries and foot problems its a bit hard to bike and walking more than a few hundred feet is agony. I try to do dumbells a couple times a week.

[Odin2005]

7. K&R

[maryf]

8. All Education should be free!! nt