Medical Cost Comparative Cost List

[bindelh]

Medical Tourism

Someone needs to send a bill to Senator McConnel for his Open Heart Surgery at Bethesda since it is definitely 'Socialized Medicine' and he could have just as easily had the surgery in his home state of Kentucky.

[Skittles]

1. fuck that rightwing asshat Forbes

this shit is "exciting"? It is PATHETIC as a "solution" to healthcare problems in America. We need to fix what is wrong in America, not tout pimping operations offshore.

[bindelh]

2. pimping offshore operations

but.. but... but that's what the RepuboCare option is all about... Send granny to India to have that operation..



Stay at the Hilton New Delhi while yer there.

See the sites.... kick back ... let Granny pay for the trip.

[Skittles]

3. I've worked with offshore folk

I'll take my chances here

[MindandSoul]

9. With so many Indian doctors. . .anyway?

[Recursion]

4. The price question is a tricky one.

Does socialized medicine work so well because it lowers prices, or has it worked in the places it's been implemented because the prices were already low?

(Before anybody says "of course it lowers prices you moron", figure out why the VA isn't significantly cheaper than private practices.)

[bindelh]

5. I know.. I know...

umm is it cuz it's subsidized-ed by the American Tax Payers??

[Recursion]

6. Eh?

The VA isn't so much 'subsidized by' as 'completely owned and operated by'

[bindelh]

7. So what yer sayin is

that if we were not gonna pay any more taxes (like them thar Repubs n TeaBaggies want) then there wouldn't be enough money to run the VA Hospitals any more?

Then these 2 million+ folks wouldn't get any more help??

Special report: For U.S. veterans, the war after the wars

[Recursion]

8. No.... my point is that the VA faces price problems just like the rest of the US system

We have, in this country, a system like Canada (Medicaid), a system like France (Medicare), a system like England (the VA), and we will soon have a system like Switzerland (the post-HCR private insurance market). All of these cost more than their equivalents in other countries. Without an actual reduction in delivery costs, any system we implement is going to go broke.

[cornermouse]

11. And a comparison of the cost of educating the doctors and the nurses?

Does this mean we're going to start educating our kids via government expense; something that I personally don't have any problem with but there are others who would cry communism at the thought of it. And a comparison of all the legal demands made on the "delivery costs" that have nothing to do with the favorite RW whipping post---lawsuits? And a comparison of the cost of supplies they use to treat you?

And then there are the insurance companies/gatekeepers.

[Recursion]

12. That would be a huge help

Does this mean we're going to start educating our kids via government expense; something that I personally don't have any problem with but there are others who would cry communism at the thought of it.

They can cry it all they want; it will be pretty damn hard to address health care costs without addressing the fact that doctors in the US graduate with a half million dollars of debt. (There's an argument for addressing this that right-wingers can live with, too: almost all of that debt is Federally funded or secured. Med schools like many universities have no incentives to lower tuition because the Government is willing to cover whatever students can't afford at the time.)

We could even kill two birds with one stone by requiring as a condition of the med school subsidy that the doctors spend some time post-residency in an Federally-Qualified Health Clinic. Win-win. (actually, win-win-win).

And a comparison of all the legal demands made on the "delivery costs" that have nothing to do with the favorite RW whipping post---lawsuits? And a comparison of the cost of supplies they use to treat you?

Don't I know it? I did part of my thesis work in a biomedical lab. And it didn't even involve pharmaceuticals.

And then there are the insurance companies/gatekeepers.

Appallingly, the $2.5 trillion figure is before you count health insurance premiums (though copays are included). Worse, a lot of copays are set after the price of a drug is already negotiated, and don't reduce the insurance company's cost at all: they're simply an attempt to steer people towards less expensive pharmaceuticals.

[JCMach1]

10. How's that 'free market' medicine working for ya!

That's what I thought...

[nyc 4 Biden]

13. First sentence of article...

"A fast-growing phenomenon--"medical tourism," which will be a $40 billion industry by 2010--is showing how we can "solve" the health care financing crisis."

:puke: