Does NOT start with insurance reform. Every time I hear a discussion about the cost of health care the only thing I’m really hearing is people talking about the cost of health insurance and the cap on insurance benefits. These insurance problems are not the cause of exaggerated health care costs, they are the result.
Excessive health care costs start with the hospital corporations and pharmaceutical companies. Numerous Americans are unaware that their local hospital is a corporation first and a institution for medical care second. If they could generate a higher return for shareholders by selling donuts instead of bypasses they would not hesitate for one second to put a deep fryer in the ER. With a child on the way and limited child birth benefits I have examined the cost of child birth in depth. The average cost is over 10.5 thousand dollars. The hospital bed for one night is over $450. These absurd dollar figures are what I’m talking about when I debate about the cost of health care.
But you never hear the media or public at large cast blame on the hospitals, doctors and rarely pharmaceutical companies (except the AARP). Most people are too blinded by the notion that the hospitals and doctors are our friends and saviors there to help in our time of need. And most of us would pay anything for medical attention when we’ve got a nail through our foot or a dislocated shoulder. Can you think of another service or purchase you would sign a contract to pay for in advance of that service being rendered and without a cost estimate provided up front? Every time you go to an ER in one of America’s private hospitals that’s exactly what you are required to do – or else. Or else what? Or else you suffer while you’re transferred to a public hospital, still for profit, to receive a reduced level of care. People have been known to die in ambulances during these transfers. If you make it you’ll receive care, get billed an excessive amount, and when you can’t pay in six months your credit will be destroyed.
As long as the majority of American hospitals are run by for profit, public corporations the cost of medical care must increase. The insurance companies will struggle to negotiate the best rates while those without insurance will face the highest bills and be forced into personal bankruptcy. The hospitals will never see the money from the bills insurance doesn’t cover and this in turn will add fuel to the fire. If a pandemic ever did actually hit this country it’s not the population that would die, it’s the economy.
So what do we do about it? The Neocon’s will love this answer: More government price regulation.
What dare say you!? Damn your words socialist pig! Regulate prices in a free market economy? Yep. Price caps. A single syringe that costs a hospital $2.75 should no longer be invoiced to patients as a line item for $52.00. We don’t want our government wasting money on $200 toilet plungers, why should consumers pay 500 to 1000 percent markup on hospital supplies and pharmaceuticals?
I’m certain no change will happen without a serious change in political leadership. The corporate lobbies in Washington are the only real interest of our legislators. The current Administration and Congress will fill the media with international conflict, self-made wars of convenience, and Congressional porn scandals long enough to distract you from their investments in corporations they pass laws in support of. Two of their favorites? Hospital Corporation of America and Glaxo Smith Kline. Just look and the recent Medicare “Reform” Act. “A big wet kiss for the Pharma Industry”. The rich get richer and the poor get sick and go bankrupt. And by the way you still owe them for the enema.
