Obligatory Health Care Piece

I must say, I'm not pleased with where we are in the healthcare bill. Although I do not know a ton about the logistics, from what I do understand, its not the change we need. First off, I don't even like many of the arguments. The Dems are saying that we need more competition and the Conservatives aren't really saying anything. So the Public Option was invented to limp into the race dominated by health insurers. NOO! Thats part of the problem. After watching the documentary Money Driven Medicine, (you can watch it here)I think things become very tricky when helping someone is all about profit. This creates an entirely inefficient system when the end result is dollars and the only check is expensive lawsuits. Don't get me wrong, dollars isn't a bad thing, but when that becomes the primary purpose than I think it should cause concern.

Regardless, thats not working so hot either. I'm all for helping people out, but even if your not others are to blame for your increasing insurance costs. The way its been told to me, is that well wealthy people can afford expensive health insurance so they buy it. Poor people can't but they will be covered by the government. This leaves the middle class who can't afford health insurance and are too poor for government help. So, many people in the middle class wait till they cannot any longer and go to the hospital. They get their procedures done without insurance and costs thousands of dollars. The number one cause of bankruptcy and foreclosures in America: medical bills. So many middle class people cannot pay off their medical bills and those costs are absorbed by everyone who has insurance.

I know a talking point for politicians is that many foreign dignitaries sometimes will come over to the US to get complicated procedures done. This is very true and yes America has the best specialized surgeons, but we really aren't doing so hot at everything else. Specialized surgeons get paid the most in the medical field. Primary care doctors are the most important in catching problems before they get worse and helping people forgo unnecessary surgery but get paid the least of doctors and are in highest demand. Medical school is expensive, and I don't blame doctors for wanting to pay off their huge debt in less years. We need change, real change.

My personal opinion is that we should go toward a PREVENTATIVE form of healthcare. It will be cheaper and will keep people healthier. Single payer will take a lot of the incentive of money out of medicine, maybe. If we took out the middle men and paid doctors well and came up with a good system to hold them accountable to preventative medicine I think we could be in a good place.