We need change in attitude toward health care access

Comments on Topix forums : Many of the patients I care for in Cherokee County and Clay County cannot afford adequate health care.

[Aville Elder]

Are health care providers going to change their attitude about the amount of reimbursement they personally receive for delivering care? Will they drive an 8 year old Toyota instead of a new Lexus? Be content with one home instead of an additional house at the beach or ski resort? Send their children to public school instead of private schools? Stay with the mother/father of their children instead of leaving them for a trophy one requiring additional expenses?

Of course, the questions I pose do not apply to every health care provider. But reimbursement amounts need to be considered in the realm of health care reform just as they do in executive pay outs in the world of finance!

[OUTSPOKEN]

Brian, you touch on a problem that everyone of us face when we grow old. We can no longer work and support ourselves - we require a lot of attention, both physical and mental, and we use a lot of the resources that everyone is vieing for.
Many prepare for old age but there are several that do not contribute but they receive as much or more at the expense of the tax payer.
What s the solution - many say that the government must provide for the less fortunate at the expense of those that save and prepare.
I say that the government should make rules or guides for a free market and provide parameters and oversight.
Thus far neither Senator McCain or Senator Obama has addressed this problem.

[Frank Rizzo]

Health Care is NOT a right.

Rights can be exercised without requiring the money, effort, or labor of others.

To claim health care as a right is to believe that you have the right to demand the time and labor of others to provide you a service.

What right do you have to a doctors time and labor?

None.

If you want it, pay for it.

[Ghost Dog]

Every American citizen should have the right to basic health care, no one should go without minimum health care. Some people work their entire lives a minimum wage jobs, as laborers, waitresses, cooks, carpenters, etc. at jobs with no retirement, no benefits and they cannot save enough for a decent retirement. They still deserve some form of health care when they become ill and disabled. They don't deserve to be turned into the street because they are old, sick and poor. If our nation can pour 5 Trillion dollars, the new estimate of the long term cost of "W's" war of choice in Iraq, down his rathole or another Trillion to bail out Goldman Sachs because the executives will lose their golden parachutes/multi-million dollar salaries, then WE as a nation should provide basic health care. Oh, we do, it's called Medicare, it's a good thing as long as the Gooberment puts the Defrauders in prison. Over 80 percent of Medicare fraud is committed in South Florida, primarily by Cuban transplants, recently shown on 60 Minutes, where one Jerry Chair was sold over and over to the tune of $5+ Million but never left the storefront office. Why doesn't our gooberment go after these thieves? Partly because of politics in Sourth Florida controlled by Cubans and partly because the Bush administration cut funds and the numbers of Fraud investigators for Medicare, think they only have two for Florida! Jeb Bush's ex-business partner/investor buddy, a family friend from the Bay of Pigs/WAtergate days, is a fleeing felon from Medicare fraud, he took over $172 Million from Medicare and Bush Daddy's IRS gave him a $2 Million tax refund just a few days before he fled to Venezuela. He is still a on the lam. The Bush family has been against Social Security and it's subsequent programs since WWII when grandpa Prescott got charged with "Trading With The Enemy". They have tried to destroy all the work FDR did because grandpa was labeled the criminal he was.

[alekas]

Aville Elder wrote:

Are health care providers going to change their attitude about the amount of reimbursement they personally receive for delivering care? Will they drive an 8 year old Toyota instead of a new Lexus? Be content with one home instead of an additional house at the beach or ski resort? Send their children to public school instead of private schools? Stay with the mother/father of their children instead of leaving them for a trophy one requiring additional expenses?
Of course, the questions I pose do not apply to every health care provider. But reimbursement amounts need to be considered in the realm of health care reform just as they do in executive pay outs in the world of finance!

Let's apply your series of questions to people in all professions - should they lower their price scale because they provide services that are considered crucial, special, important?

Should the grocery store reduce its produce prices because fruits and veggies are healthy? Is your business going to cut its rates so anyone can afford whatever you do? Or do you just despise this particular class of wealthy folks?

[Frank Rizzo]

Ghost,

If someone works there entire lives at a minimum wage job, the only person at fault for that is starring back at them from the mirror.

And by what logic and reasoning would a new government health care plan work any better and not have the problems that medicare and medicaid have?

With 100% of the population on it, it would be even worse.

Maybe we should also look to Hawaii's guaranteed health care for all children from birth to 18 as an example to follow.

Oh wait, we can't do that. They just shut it down after 7 months because it was going to bankrupt the state.

[Aville Elder]

alekas wrote:

<quoted text>
Let's apply your series of questions to people in all professions - should they lower their price scale because they provide services that are considered crucial, special, important?
Should the grocery store reduce its produce prices because fruits and veggies are healthy? Is your business going to cut its rates so anyone can afford whatever you do? Or do you just despise this particular class of wealthy folks?

Oh, my! I do not despise any class of folks. I would love to see grocery stores reduce its produce prices (and, in kind, raise the prices of potato chips). I'm obviously all for the cutting of rates to make services affordable which means I'd take a pay cut as well. Alas, none of this will happen given the innate human greedy desire for power and wealth. Sigh...let's carry on.

[Legal immigrant]

OUTSPOKEN wrote:

Brian, you touch on a problem that everyone of us face when we grow old. We can no longer work and support ourselves - we require a lot of attention, both physical and mental, and we use a lot of the resources that everyone is vieing for.
Many prepare for old age but there are several that do not contribute but they receive as much or more at the expense of the tax payer.
What s the solution - many say that the government must provide for the less fortunate at the expense of those that save and prepare.
I say that the government should make rules or guides for a free market and provide parameters and oversight.
Thus far neither Senator McCain or Senator Obama has addressed this problem.

It's impossible for the middle class retirees to be prepared to pay for a major illness which could cost 10's of 1,000's of dollars. Especially, now, when all the money they've saved on their 401K's is going down the tubes because of the because of the mess the banks have left us in.

[alekas]

Aville Elder wrote:

<quoted text>
Oh, my! I do not despise any class of folks. I would love to see grocery stores reduce its produce prices (and, in kind, raise the prices of potato chips). I'm obviously all for the cutting of rates to make services affordable which means I'd take a pay cut as well. Alas, none of this will happen given the innate human greedy desire for power and wealth. Sigh...let's carry on.

things cost what they cost for a reason. The grocery store has to factor in all of its costs in deciding what to charge customers, enough to cover its costs and make a profit but not so much as to scare you off. And careful with the potato chip pricing; lot of folks work in the snack business.

Doctors are not much different; theirs is a high-skill service that required a large investment on their part. Are they not entitled to make their money back, pay off their loans, and earn according to the importance we place on their abilities?

How do we reasonably define the difference between making a living commensurate with one's skills and greed. Consider, too, the amount of money that has gone into researching and developing new medical technology, new medicines that prolong life and its quality, and so on. A lot of money was invested in those machines and in those drugs before finding one that worked and was able to make it through the bureaucratic maze.

I'll take you at your word that you are indeed an elder and, therefore, have the perspective to understand this: consider how many people today are living happy, productive lives vs. how those folks would have fared when you were, say, 20.

I think we'll agree much has changed since then in medicine, not all for the better. We have regulation and bureaucracy that strangle innovation, lawyers ready to sue anyone anytime anything goes wrong, govt sticking its hand into the mix, and so on. Medicine is a business and like any business, it will have its excesses just like it will have its quality people.