Confused Yankee wants the truth on uks example of a national health care.
Aug 20th 2009, 7:54 pm
#256
Septicity
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 23,762
Re: Confused Yankee wants the truth on uks example of a national health care.
Obviously there are frivolous malpractice suits, but also remember that a lot of them are not. And anyone who ends up needing significant care because of malpractice is likely going to need a lot of $$$ to pay for that care as they are almost certainly going to be uninsurable at that point. It really is a vicious circle.
Watching a native trying to grasp alternative concepts such as an ombudsman is almost comical. When one was appointed for USCIS, at least one of the resident lawyers on this board told us all that we shouldn't contact them -- they were for the professional community only!
Sure we should move to better ways of weeding out lazy and crappy doctors and nurses. But this is not going to be the make or break of the health care system.
Aug 20th 2009, 9:30 pm
#257
I love my brick!
Joined: May 2007
Location: Peachy
Posts: 9,304
Re: Confused Yankee wants the truth on uks example of a national health care.
How much of unnecessary treatment is to protect against malpractice suits and how much is just feeding folks into a machine that keeps on paying? No idea, myself. But I do know that studies have put the cost of malpractice suits at a couple of percent at best. This is a pretty insignificant level in my book, and hence it shouldn't be a major concern in any health bill. We can't explain the fact that we cost over twice as much as everyone else just because of the lawyers.
In fact, the reason we cost twice as much as anyone else is quite simple to identify: it's the health insurance companies, their inefficiencies and their obscene profits.
Placing the blame on the lawyers may sound good. But it's just untrue.
In fact, the reason we cost twice as much as anyone else is quite simple to identify: it's the health insurance companies, their inefficiencies and their obscene profits.
Placing the blame on the lawyers may sound good. But it's just untrue.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/06/pus...a-public-plan/
Certainly it doesn't help and I'm sure there is a larger impact than just the profits themselves, but I don't think it's the whole story.
Aug 20th 2009, 9:40 pm
#258
Septicity
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 23,762
Re: Confused Yankee wants the truth on uks example of a national health care.
I'm not sure you can really cite health insurance profits either though as they make up an either smaller percentage (0.6%) of health care expediture.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/06/pus...a-public-plan/
Certainly it doesn't help and I'm sure there is a larger impact than just the profits themselves, but I don't think it's the whole story.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/06/pus...a-public-plan/
Certainly it doesn't help and I'm sure there is a larger impact than just the profits themselves, but I don't think it's the whole story.
Aug 20th 2009, 9:54 pm
#259
I love my brick!
Joined: May 2007
Location: Peachy
Posts: 9,304
Re: Confused Yankee wants the truth on uks example of a national health care.
I'm not sure. But there's hospitals to be run, Drs. to be paid, new drugs to researched, politicians to be bought, Fox News to be funded. It all adds up...
Aug 20th 2009, 9:58 pm
#260
BE Site Lead
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: MA, USA
Posts: 92,172
Re: Confused Yankee wants the truth on uks example of a national health care.
Every one is paying for this btw via taxes, it's just you also end up paying a lot in medical insurance, either directly yourselves or via your employer with the added bonus of worrying about when you most need it when you get sick that you might be fired because you can't work, thus losing your coverage and then finding it hard or impossible to get further coverage either because they won't cover you or you can't afford it.
Aug 20th 2009, 10:00 pm
#261
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 12,865
Re: Confused Yankee wants the truth on uks example of a national health care.
A big difference between the US and elsewhere is the amount of money spent on administration. That's about 30% of total health spending, or between 4 and 5% of GDP. Not only do we have these costs on the insurance company side, but think of the legions of staff on the doctor's side employed just to deal with insurance companies and bill patients.
Aug 20th 2009, 10:02 pm
#262
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,577
Re: Confused Yankee wants the truth on uks example of a national health care.
I'm not sure you can really cite health insurance profits either though as they make up an either smaller percentage (0.6%) of health care expediture.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/06/pus...a-public-plan/
Certainly it doesn't help and I'm sure there is a larger impact than just the profits themselves, but I don't think it's the whole story.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/06/pus...a-public-plan/
Certainly it doesn't help and I'm sure there is a larger impact than just the profits themselves, but I don't think it's the whole story.
Aug 21st 2009, 4:26 pm
#263
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: Tampa, FL
Posts: 3,338
Re: Confused Yankee wants the truth on uks example of a national health care.
"Legitimate business expenses", no doubt....like corporate jets for "business" travel, multi million dollar therapeutic retreats and entertainment funds....and so on...
