Health Care: Let's Have People Over Profits Once and for All

From:

truth-out.org...

Believe it or not, there was a time in America when in almost every state health insurance companies and hospitals were required to be nonprofits. Back then, Americans could actually get the health care and treatment they needed at affordable prices.
But then Ronald Reagan came to Washington, and you guessed it, everything changed.

For the fifth time in a row, the U.S. has been ranked last in the Commonwealth Fund's annual review of health care in developed nations.

Slowly but surely, corporations and the wealthy elite took over our health care system, and have left us with a health care nightmare.

The profit motive in health care along with it's endless and expensve beaurocacy, and expensive 'stockholder value' has destroyed the US's health system. It was never good. After WWII one of the first things that the allies agreed was necessary for stable post-war coutnries (especially Japan & Germany) was universal health-care for all. It's worked well (not perfectly -you oafs) enough but is falling in other countries as well as Austerity becomes the new business model for the western world.

Look at the decisions against Argentian today - profits over people another time.

WWII - was largely about the horrible auterity the German people were yoked with. Agree to anything as long as reparations kept coming in.

An April Gallup study found that as many as 9.9 million Americans have gotten new health insurance under Obamacare, and more than 4 percent of Americans have gotten health insurance for the first time in their lives.

In fact, every country the Commonwealth Fund looked at has universal health care, except the U.S.

Health Care: Let's Have People Over Profits Once and for All

people over profits....are you insane? That's commie talk.

You sir need to get down on your knees and give homage to the one true God! Capitalism.

corny sarcasm...

Not going to happen. Big business and politicians are hand in hand. A real health care reform would decimate insurance and drug companies.

I remember when good health insurance ran 40 bucks a month. It covered most things. Wages were a little over three bucks an hour here and supplied healthcare free. Meds were not covered nor was dental, but drugs were cheap and it did not cost an arm and a leg to go to the dentist. There were very few people on long term meds because there wasn't that much disease. People got a lot of heart attacks and dropped dead, that was the big thing back then. Cancer was around but not that many people got cancer, maybe because they dropped dead of a heart attack first

Now, everything is expensive. Cancer is abundant in this society now, even though most people quit smoking. A quarter of the population is on antidepressants. It's a mess. Now they want everyone on Statins.

Why don't they come clean and explain to people how to avoid sickness instead of just treating it. The present consensus of what is healthy is wrong, they tell us some foods are bad for us but don't tell us the truth...they interfere with how medicines work so they want us to think they are bad.

I agree that "for profit" hospitals might be viewed as a "problem".

But it seems only 20% of hospitals are actually "for profit".

According to the AHA, 1,068 are "For Profit" out of 5,273, most are Community hospitals, government, private non-profit etc.

And 87% beds are in not-profit hospitals (920,829 beds, 800,566 beds are in not profits).

Admissions: 34,422,071 are in not profits out of 36,156,245 total.

And the fact that "for profit" hospitals pay property taxes and general taxes, perhaps some of that helps fund local Community hospitals?

Hard to figure the impact of "For Profit" hospitals.

Fast Facts on US Hospitals

a reply to: FyreByrd

Instead of creating more laws, more taxes. . . why not take a look at why healthcare is so expensive.

If we could simply lower costs, then everyone could afford healthcare and no-one would be forced into Obamacare, no-one would be forced into paying high rates or premiums.

Don't you agree that we need to look at why healthcare is so expensive in the first place?

Wouldn't you like it if everyone could simply afford care without insurance companies or governments involved?

a reply to: FyreByrd


Yeah I'm thinking we need a system where a doctor makes the same wage as a bus driver to make sure we get the best and the brightest. Where the incentive to do great things and find great cures while producing drugs with a liability worthy of a public debt would be perfect.

Then for sure no one will want to come here for medical care. I won't have to wait at all in the ER for help. In fact if we have free health care like illegals get they won't need to flood emergency rooms either. They can just stay south of the border where they already get free health care and not have to travel. If it's free the Kalifornia hospitals that get 80% of their funds from government medi-caid and state medi-cal we could keep the paperwork to a minimum.

Now if I could get my Obama phone, food, and place to stay. I wouldn't have to work for 3 years and make the music I have always wanted to while I put paint to canvas creating free art to hang on government building walls. Man who wouldn't be up for that. Hey then I should be able to get free pot from Colorado for my headaches, with some girl scout cookies and garlic dip. Ok so I will pay for the cookies and dip. But the rest should be free.

I think one of the main factors is patent & exclusivity law on pharmaceuticals. Only "new" drugs are profitable, as patents are issued for 20 years, and exclusivity for 3-7 years. Old, proven medications, such as penicillin, aren't profitable. The focus is no longer on a cure, as that's a "one and done" type situation, but rather on "treatment" which can be lifelong. Doctors have been reduced to little more than "legal" drug dealers.

Direct-to-consumer advertising is another area of the pharma industry that bothers me. Why should I be the one to "ask my doctor if Placebox® is right for me" after seeing an advertisement (with a list of side effects nastier than a barrel full of plague; may include anal bleeding, or in some rare cases, death) during the 43rd season of Law & Order: Vicitims Unit Special Crime Stoppers? Shouldn't the doctor's near-decade of medical training mean that he/she alone is knowledgeable in the intricacies of what medical therapies are most effective for a specific set of symptoms?

Until we return to more of a preventative-care model, more in line with the philosophies of ACM (Ancient Chinese Medicine) seemingly little can be done. Even those who remember the old ways, of using household items, vitamins & minerals, herbs (of which many modern pharma compounds are derived from) and other natural ways of healing the body are shunned in the media as ignorant fools selling "snake oil."

Source - Algorithmic MDs Will Ruin Healthcare, Nurses Say

In a bid to make healthcare cheaper and faster, hospitals are turning to algorithmic systems for diagnosing patients. But the national nurses' union says that robots-meet-super-WebMD are no replacement for a real doctor. Algorithms that can analyze symptoms and spit out a diagnosis favor efficiency over proper care, according to a recent campaign by National Nurses United (NNU). The union claims that automated diagnosis systems lack the individualized care a nurse can provide and mainly allow private hospitals to boost their bottom line.

What this technology does is generate profits for healthcare corporations because they standardize based on this model of care that’s based on the factory floor. You treat everybody like a Model T Ford,” Deborah Burger, a registered nurse and co-president of NNU, told me over the phone.

Healthcare professionals have worked for years to develop diagnostic algorithms—including early methods like Apache III and SAPS III, as well are more more advanced clinical decision support systems—which are used to help determine how patients are treated.

Some, like Harvard economist David Cutler, have argued that information technologies will eventually make healthcare more like Walmart. Decision-making algorithms would streamline the provision of care, he argues, and ultimately make it as impersonal, efficient, and cost effective as the retail market. This may one day be true, but efficiency often comes at a human cost, as well as a monetary one.

A 2010 study on methods of diagnosing urinary tract infections, published in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, found that algorithmic diagnoses using a clinical dataset alone had an error rate of approximately thirty-three percent. A wrong diagnosis could have serious consequences if, for example, a patient is moved from the ICU when they really needed to be there. Ignoring a patient’s medical history when making important decisions could very well lead to such a situation, Burger argued.

a reply to: FyreByrd

from the article;

Unless we take Wall Street's skin out of the game, health care in America will never work for everyone.

It's time to put people over profits once and for all, and require hospitals and health insurance companies to once again become nonprofits.

In order to change everything, you must analyze all the costs as they apparently are these days.

Then figure out a way to pay for everything.

some figures to ponder.....

National Health Expenditures 2012 Highlights

"Healthcare Spending" alone is over $8,000 per person.

originally posted by: CloudsTasteMetallic
Source - Algorithmic MDs Will Ruin Healthcare, Nurses Say

In a bid to make healthcare cheaper and faster, hospitals are turning to algorithmic systems for diagnosing patients. But the national nurses' union says that robots-meet-super-WebMD are no replacement for a real doctor. Algorithms that can analyze symptoms and spit out a diagnosis favor efficiency over proper care, according to a recent campaign by National Nurses United (NNU). The union claims that automated diagnosis systems lack the individualized care a nurse can provide and mainly allow private hospitals to boost their bottom line.

What this technology does is generate profits for healthcare corporations because they standardize based on this model of care that’s based on the factory floor. You treat everybody like a Model T Ford,” Deborah Burger, a registered nurse and co-president of NNU, told me over the phone.

Healthcare professionals have worked for years to develop diagnostic algorithms—including early methods like Apache III and SAPS III, as well are more more advanced clinical decision support systems—which are used to help determine how patients are treated.

Some, like Harvard economist David Cutler, have argued that information technologies will eventually make healthcare more like Walmart. Decision-making algorithms would streamline the provision of care, he argues, and ultimately make it as impersonal, efficient, and cost effective as the retail market. This may one day be true, but efficiency often comes at a human cost, as well as a monetary one.

A 2010 study on methods of diagnosing urinary tract infections, published in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, found that algorithmic diagnoses using a clinical dataset alone had an error rate of approximately thirty-three percent. A wrong diagnosis could have serious consequences if, for example, a patient is moved from the ICU when they really needed to be there. Ignoring a patient’s medical history when making important decisions could very well lead to such a situation, Burger argued.

Interesting information. And scary.

Anaolous with using drones rather then boots on the ground.

A grand business model - for the 1% and their paid stooges.

And on top of all the Obamacare/Insurance bailout/drug price spiraling....they also have lowered the thresh hold of common conditions.
Cholesterol levels have normal dropping and dropping.
I think the same may be true for blood pressure.
And, I wonder about diabetes....as there are two commercials for two new drugs....that seem to have nothing to do with taking insulin....are they treating mild diabetes with drugs instead of dietary/lifestyle changes.

Like rickymouse, I also remember a kinder gentler time....doctors made housecalls.....and there weren't nearly so many specialists.