http://www.bluegrassredstate.com/2009/07/05/health-care-or-health-insurance/ Conservative Thought for the Commonwealth Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:19:42 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.bluegrassredstate.com/2009/07/05/health-care-or-health-insurance/comment-page-1/#comment-138 Adrian Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:15:15 +0000 http://www.bluegrassredstate.com/?p=94#comment-138 Hi - I stumbled on this website by mistake. I was searching in Yahoo for Antivirus software that I had already purchased when I came upon your site, I have to say your page is pretty cool I just love the theme, its amazing!. I don't have the time today to fully read your site but I have bookmarked it and also signed up for your RSS feeds. I will be back in a day or two. Thanks again for a cool site. Hi – I stumbled on this website by mistake. I was searching in Yahoo for Antivirus software that I had already purchased when I came upon your site, I have to say your page is pretty cool I just love the theme, its amazing!. I don’t have the time today to fully read your site but I have bookmarked it and also signed up for your RSS feeds. I will be back in a day or two. Thanks again for a cool site.

]]> http://www.bluegrassredstate.com/2009/07/05/health-care-or-health-insurance/comment-page-1/#comment-98 Brian Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:52:04 +0000 http://www.bluegrassredstate.com/?p=94#comment-98 Much of the new technology only does one thing, provide new profit centers for practices, hospitals, clinics, and the cost plus insurers. But does it improve patient outcomes? Usually not. A good clinician can figure out what is wrong with you without nearly as much technology as people think. The US has many more cat and mri scanners than say the UK or Europe but its outcome statistics are not as good. What you need is an affordable doctor or practitioner, a decent basic lab to do some tests, and access to the appropriate medications. And a good preventative health lifestyle early in life helps a lot too. There are always exceptions in some surgical areas, but in general what you need is "access". That is why we need some type of regional coopertive insurance program that brings in everybody, mandates some basic standards and fees that provide "access". If everybody enrolls its much cheaper and if we address health problems early the cost of care over ones lifetime is much cheaper. As it is now over 50% of medicare moneys are spent on the last two years of someone's life. Treat them early, use preventative lifetime habits and you save a great deal of money. Even with that Fidelity projects retirees will spend $200,000 out of pocket for health care anyways. The idea of change involves bringing more people into "access" mode and changing some of the many wasteful practices used currently. You can disagree, but you will certainly be paying more and more for your health care before you make the choice to cut back, perhaps when you need it most. IF you are honest you will agree, health care costs are going up and up and up and wouldn't you want a better deal, some real choice in the matter to contain your costs? Isn't it good to treat the sick in general for our society? The army does it with its troops or it couldn't fight. Perhaps then you can buy a new coat you've had your eye on. Much of the new technology only does one thing, provide new profit centers for practices, hospitals, clinics, and the cost plus insurers. But does it improve patient outcomes? Usually not. A good clinician can figure out what is wrong with you without nearly as much technology as people think. The US has many more cat and mri scanners than say the UK or Europe but its outcome statistics are not as good. What you need is an affordable doctor or practitioner, a decent basic lab to do some tests, and access to the appropriate medications. And a good preventative health lifestyle early in life helps a lot too. There are always exceptions in some surgical areas, but in general what you need is “access”. That is why we need some type of regional coopertive insurance program that brings in everybody, mandates some basic standards and fees that provide “access”. If everybody enrolls its much cheaper and if we address health problems early the cost of care over ones lifetime is much cheaper. As it is now over 50% of medicare moneys are spent on the last two years of someone’s life. Treat them early, use preventative lifetime habits and you save a great deal of money. Even with that Fidelity projects retirees will spend $200,000 out of pocket for health care anyways. The idea of change involves bringing more people into “access” mode and changing some of the many wasteful practices used currently. You can disagree, but you will certainly be paying more and more for your health care before you make the choice to cut back, perhaps when you need it most. IF you are honest you will agree, health care costs are going up and up and up and wouldn’t you want a better deal, some real choice in the matter to contain your costs? Isn’t it good to treat the sick in general for our society? The army does it with its troops or it couldn’t fight. Perhaps then you can buy a new coat you’ve had your eye on.

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