http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/the-medicare-ponzi-scheme.html
Excellent article
I hope that everyone will take this article with serious reasoning. Any Medicare cuts will effect the most vulnerable among us, dialysis patients. I can think of many approaches that will enhance the health care system for everyone. Contrary to popular belief, there is more than enough money in the United States to provide health care for everyone. Under 1 percent of the United States population spends $1,000.00 per year on health care, in contrast to movies like Sicko. The Cuban hospital used in the movie, “Sicko,” was a hospital for foreigners, not for the average Cuban.
In Canada, private and military hospitals are used by the politicans and the elite of Canadian society, while the average individual and the sick are forced to fend for themselves in a public hospital. I would ask the question, “does this policy equal compassion?” Does anyone really believe that the politican or elite would step aside and let a dialysis patient take their place in a private or military hospital? I have heard and heard years and talk of compassion, have the politicans and elite backed up their words with action?
Basically, with Medicare, politicans and the elite are washing their hands of the elderly and dialysis patients with this so-called, “compassion.” The reimbursement rates of Medicare do not cover the cost of providing care in the physician’s office or the hospital. Costs in any sector do not go away, they remain the same or the government uses cost-shifiting to transfer the monetary costs to individuals with private insurance and business. I know that thought makes many people happy. However, when costs are shifted to business, those costs are passed along to the consumer. At the end of the day, the consumer and taxpayer are the individuals left holding the bag.
I believe that individuals should take responsibility for their health care. In other words, people should have health insurance for serious health conditions, such as dialysis, cancer, MS, etc. I think in the vast majority of medical issues, the medical decisions should be between the customer/client and the physician. “The payer calls the tune.” In other words, if individuals were paying their medical bills, they and physicians would be calling the shots, not the insurance company or Medicare.
I know that each one of you knows more about your health than the insurance company or Medicare. I have faith in free people, not a people mired in government control. I want each and every one of you to think about how much you hate dealing with the dialysis clinics and their control issues. Do you want a system where you are in control of the dialysis clinic or they are in control of you? Honestly, patients with private insurance are individuals that are keeping the clinics, afloat, financially. If you pass away and you are a private insurance patient, guess what, that is huge financial loss for the clinic, do the math. Dialysis patients would have great control in eliminating Medicare and obtaining private insurance. How would we accomplish this goal? I am glad you ask.
High deductibles, private insurance and donations would greatly enhance our ability to acquire control over the dialysis clinics. As was previously mentioned, the dialysis clinics can only discharge so many private insurance patients, they can only sustain so much of a loss of revenue. Private insurance rates will also increase the rate of development for the HD+ machine and the Wearable Artificial Kidney belt. Profit pushes the development of newer and more compassionate technology for dialysis patients and other individuals with serious medical challenges. Profit and wealth serve the least among us. In addition, purchasing stock in Fresenius or DaVita(Public companies) would give dialysis patients a voice and power over their care. Do we want to walk in the Dark Ages of medical care or do we want to walk in the light of compassion and love?
High deductibles and low tax rates would leave vast amounts of money to care for truly sick among our nation. How many on this board call the auto insurance company to pay for a flat tire? I am sure that no one calls the auto insurance for a flat tire, why, because cost exceeds benefit. A low flat tax rate of 2 percent would enable 98 percent of the population to purchase health insurance. I want the truly sick and poor in our society to be served by the wealthy.
Eliminating regulation will equal in reducing cost. The people that advocate for regulation are not paying the cost of that regulation. Excessive regulation has resulted in the expolsion of health costs. Voluntary testing of medication will greatly reduce costs. If the medication does not have the label of the voluntary testing agency, physicians will not prescribe it and patients will not buy it, the company will enter bankruptcy. What is more compassionate, a $75 bottle of Epo or a $600 bottle of Epo? Blood tests will prove that the medication works, there is nowhere to hide in a blood test. If you pay your money to an eating establishment and that establishment is lousy, the eating establishment will go out of business, rightly so. If dialysis clinics are providing lousy care, they deserve the same fate.
Mark