My family has numerous health problems, to the point where my aunt and uncle both have to stay home and not work because the care of their daughters takes up all of their time. My uncle cannot leave the house for more than two hours because there has not been a nurse that has been trained in such specialty care that is needed for my cousins and their extremely delicate health needs. The government is changing some of their health care, and as a result, this is affecting my family to the point where my co
usin isn't even able to EAT....they took away the only food that has been working with her body. (She has to eat thro
ugh tubes inserted into her stomach, and her body has rejected all other food types...now she has to switch to a port inserted into her heart. Last time she had that, she got a blood infection, which could be fatal). I understand that some people out there are just trying to get a free ride out of the government, but because of the cuts and what not that our government is making, there are families out there who are going to be in very serious situations. This is what my aunt wrote:
One of the things that I have worried about in health care reform is that the Democrats are tackling the problem at the wrong source by trying to keep the insurance companies from charging as much as they do for health care. My concern has been that the health care industry isn't the one driving up the prices. I believe that the price increases are being driven by other forces, one of which is lawsuits that attack drug companies, medical equipment manufacturers, hospitals and doctors. This drives up the cost of their medical malpractice insurance that they have to buy and the cost is passed on to us in the cost of their services. There are other forces at work, I'm sure, like costs of research and development, paying salaries that are competetive to recruit the best researchers and doctors. I'm not sure what can be done about those things, but I know that the frivolous medical lawsuits can be addressed. There was one recent article that I read that said that America might use the model another country used (Australia?) in their health care reform. Any person who can show that they were damaged through the medical care that they received (not because of medical care they did not receive - if that happened they're out of luck) then they are compensated a predetermined fixed amount for their loss. There are no lawsuits, no court costs and more people actually participate in the program because they don't have to worry about all of the grief involved in litigation. Anyway, I got a little off the track here. The point is, the health insurance companies aren't the force that is driving up health care costs. And when the Democrats pass a health care bill (as it looks like they will) they will only destroy the health insurance companies, not drive down cost. When that starts happening, I only hope that we can make additional health care reform that will address the real problems before the entire health care system falls completely apart. The article I am sending is a link to an article that talks about how much money the health insurance companies actually make. It is an interesting read...
Anyway, I hope that our government figures out the best way to do this!
*editor's note: I guess the government had nothing to do with the food. The company that makes it actually just discontinued making it. My bad.. |
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I think it's great that you are bringing this up and especially sharing the insight of a family (who I know is really awesome) who is heavily involved with health care and insurance. I love it
ReplyDeleteI think your aunt is right, we do need to work on tort reform (cutting back on excessive law suits, malpractice insurance, etc). But I think there are also some other things we need to work on too. From what I've learned in most other countries insurance companies are non-profit? I would totally be for that. Also in Japan (Now I personally think the govt has too much control over their health care system) because they are forced to operate at much lower costs they have figured out how to make things cheaper (much of their medical equipment is far less expensive than the U.S). Also most everywhere else in the world doctors are paid far less and looked at as more as a public servant (kind of like how we look at teachers). Now if we do as your aunt suggested and introduced tort reform they wouldn't have to pay high malpractice insurance and that would eliminate part of the need for such a high income. You should watch this pbs frontline. It's excellent: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/view/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist
But I'm so glad you brought this up! Thank you! And good luck to your family, I hope that are able to get the care they need. We desperately need reform, but your aunt is right, this is not the way to do.
Hey! Yeah so my aunt doesn't have a google account but she wanted me to post this in response:
ReplyDelete"I agree that we need to make some changes to other parts of health care, as well. I think that Svedi Pi is right about insurance companies needing to be changed. One change that I think might be helpful is to force the insurance companies into a kind of modified non-profit organization. First, insist the companies act as non-profit entities. Next, have confidential government survey forms filled out by their end users (the patients) that indicate satisfaction or disatisfaction with their selected insurance company. Finally, have the government give those companies fixed profit amounts directly related to customer safisfaction. In this way, customer satisfaction will be the driving force in the health insurance industry, instead of the forces being tied strictly to profits. The end consumer in health care, the patient, has ceased to be the driving force, because the patient/customer no longer controls who gets his health care dollar. Most people who are insured are insured through their work and the employers decide which insurance to offer their employees - often a decision based more on how much they have to spend per employee than the services provided by the insurance company. Additionally, the insurance companies then often fix amounts that they are willing to pay and the vendors and doctors that patients are allowed to see. They even decide what drugs you can take and if, when or how long you can be hospitalized or have surgery. If insurance companies were changed to non-profit companies rewarded by fixed government amounts that reflected end user satisfaction, they would be more inclined to listen to consumer complaints and to fashion policies that meet the needs of the people who depend on them. This could be another step in health care reform. The insurance companies would kick and scream and cry unfair, but at least in this way they could actually continue to exist and make a profit."