Ask us a Question 12

Okay, since I’m impressed with your other answers (and my wife says I have to make new friends to ask these questions to)  I have one for you.  : )

It is presented as a socialized health care question.  You have a budget that will cover health care just adequately for 8 people. You can’t increase the available budget or cut the level of service equally to every person below the level of adequacy to balance the equation.   You have 10 people in the group, 3 of which already have some sort of illness (or are perceived to be at a higher risk of illness by the 7 healthy members of the group.)  How do you make the system work?

HIstory and Logic would seem to imply that you take 1/8 of your budget and spend it to round up, quarantine and kill or neglect the 3 sick members of the group.  The present “war on obesity” would seem to imply the 3 sick members have been identified.  You then have 7 people in the group and an adequate budget for 7 people.  Though I would love to see everyone get adequate health care, I can’t say that the above solution really appeals to me.  I was hoping you would have a better solution.  Any thoughts?

Hehe…not a fan of ObamaCare I presume.  OK if your premise were 100% correct to begin with I would have to agree that theres no way to solve the problem without killing off a few. But, the way I see it, that may not be necessary. The reason is because there are areas where costs can be cut allowing for a more efficient system. but its gonna take a real overhaul.  Let us start with the government.  I think the first step should be allowing consumers to purchase health care insurance across state lines, Some loosening of FDA regulations regarding prescription drugs is in order as well I think it would be beneficial to give people some responsibility for their own healthcare I’d be perfectly fine with over the counter sales of anti-biotics maybe even give pharmacists some ability to make recommendations without making them liable. Stop requiring people to go to a doctor for every little thing.

Next we have to add tort reform, we have become too litigious, if a doctor makes a reasonable decision and you die or suffer consequences that are unable to be foreseen that is not negligence.  Loser pays would go a long way to curbing this type of abuse.  But this alone isn’t going to help unless insurance companies are reigned in. The problem here is that as soon as you have an unforeseen medical expense, insurance companies WILL run you out. This isn’t how insurance is supposed to work and it is why pre existing conditions are now such a problem.  As long as you are healthy the insurance companies want to insure you, the instant you become ill they want to be rid of you…for good.  I say give Americans, as a group the same insurance policy you give to our elected officials, at the same price.

And it can’t be fixed without bringing the pharmaceutical companies in line as well.  The tort reform is not an open invitation for them to gouge us either. Allow me to illustrate from my own experience.

When I went to Thailand I got vaccines for Hep A and B my doctor asked me if I would be travelling outside the major cities into the rural areas, I said yes absolutely.  He then prescribed a vaccine for Malaria and Typhoid.  These are prescription pills.  When i went to fill the scrip the insurance company turned down paying for them, even though my doctor had prescribed them.  When I asked how much I was told they would be 160.00.  I declined them and geared up to battle my insurance company.

When I called my friend in Thailand he said dude…get them here, when you get here.  You don’t need a prescription here and they will cost you a lot less.

So when I got to Thailand I went to a pharmacy and got the exact same pills, from the exact same company and they cost me less than 20.00.  Now you tell me what’s wrong with this picture.

So the point is that our health care system HAS to be reformed and it has to happen at all levels.

Give me more responsibility for my own health care, give me the option to buy insurance that only covers what I can’t afford and maybe a physical every few years, let me pay for office visits and what not but don’t force me to go if I don’t need to, If I want to test myself for HIV with an orasure test I shouldn’t be required to go to a doctor to give me a test I am perfectly capable of administering to myself.

Once these objectives have been accomplished execute all insurance, pharmaceutical, lawyers and doctor’s lobbyists.