14 Responses to “Ignoring Universal Health Care, What Are Ways To Decrease Medical Costs?”

1. 

   neeno said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 7:30

   Tort reform would be number 1.
   Form health care cooperatives to assist small businesses pool their resources to get more cost effective coverage. By simply helping small business do this you would take more than 50% of the people off of the ‘uninsured’ list.
2. 

   Stacey W said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 11:35

   Well, first and foremost, I think everyone should realize, it’s not in a doctor’s best interest to “cure” anyone – if so they would be out a job. Keep that in mind when thinking about the mandatory healthcare proposals on the table, whoever puts them out there. Second, cigarettes should be banned. And tone down the firing squad – I’m a smoker myself. But I know that if they were banned, I wouldn’t try to get my hands on them. If somebody wants to grow it themselves, have at it, don’t hold it against them. If they wanna put in the hours to grow, harvest and prepare the smokes, woo hoo. I wouldn’t! Also, there should be a complete overhaul on the FDA and the folks that inspect foods and beverages. There are things in what you eat everyday that contribute in some manner to sickness and disease. Aspartame, for example, can cause symptoms leading to false diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. It’s been proven by scientific studies. Then you look at the studies associated with things like dyes, preservatives, anti-caking agents and so forth. And how to help foot the bill for insurance – put a cap on what the actual physicians make… if they are seeing the same patients for the same things, and nothings getting any better, take a percentage of their earnings and fund insurance to their patients. If they’re obviously curing people, then there won’t be as much insurance needed, so the premiums wouldn’t be as much for them.
   I’m just throwing some thoughts around really.
3. 

   Brian said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 12:25

   Tort reform..
4. 

   Wanda said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 12:42

   We need tort reform. We need to keep people from being able to sue doctors for every little thing.
   Right now, if you have a cold and your doctor does everything possible to fix you and you die anyway – your family will probably sue. Even though it isn’t the fault of the doctor – the insurance company will pay your family off – then jack up the rates of the insurance.
   Those costs are then passed on to the next patient.
   We need more strict rules about when people can sue.
5. 

   AskS said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 14:59

   Here’s my suggestion:
   Get EVERYONE who’s able to walk out walking two or three miles per day. This will build stamina, bone density, improve posture, and any number of other health benefits. And, if they reduce reliance on prepared food (and switch to eating only “real” food — lean meat, fruits, vegetables, complex carbs), the benefits will be profound.
   If we have a healthier population, that will greatly reduce costs.
   No politician now dares to propose such an effort because it implies that people dare to make lifestyle changes. However President John K. Kennedy got America walking. I hope another leader comes along with his sense of doing the right thing.
   If there are significantly fewer people with costly diseases related to inactivity and poor diet, health costs will be contained.
6. 

   justagir said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 20:03

   Get rid of health insurance companies.
   Make it harder for people to sue their doctors over ridiculous claims.
   Bring all doctor’s offices and hospitals into the age of technology, doing away with paper filing systems.
   Bring an end to doctors getting kickbacks from big pharma for all the drugs they push.
   Etc.
   All but the first one are part of Obama’s plan……I added the first one.
7. 

   kittysom said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 20:04

   Maybe our government could make a deal with insurance companies to allow them to be tax exempt if they would lower their cost and if they accepted pre-existing conditions.
   America has a lot of over-weight people which increases the amount of health insurance since these people are at higher risk for serious health problems. Maybe our government can reward those who are over-weight by giving them a tax break for losing the weight. For example, for every 2 pounds they lose they can get a dollar off of their taxes. With some sort of incentive like this, they would be more encouraged to get in shape.
   Another thing that would help is to put some kind of cap on what hospitals are allowed to charge. The last time that I went to the ER, they charged me $250 just to see the triage nurse and all she did was take my temperature, blood pressure and weight. I get that hospitals have to make money too and all, but $250 is just ridiculous to charge someone to take their vitals. $75 for such service would be a lot more reasonable. Don’t get me started on what they charge for a Q-Tip.
   Tort Reform is a bad idea. My mother-in-law has had a brain injury for 23 years now do to medical malpratice. That money that she recieved for her settlement has to support her for the rest of her life. Her life is a living **** due to her brain injury. She has to have 24 hour care, she can’t have a normal relationship with her kids or a man. The whole situation that she is in is heart breaking.I am sure that she would trade every penny that she has recieved from that lawsuit if it ment that she was able to live a normal life.
8. 

   LEGGY SURFER BLONDE said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 21:22

   not get sick
9. 

   T-Bone said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 21:41

   To answer your question;
   Tort reform would be the biggest cost cutting measure in health care right now. Democrats are for socialized medical care before they say no to the trial lawyers association.
10. 

    livefree said on Friday, September 4, 2009, 23:47

    This sounds harsh but if you deny benefits to drug addicts that will greatly decrease health care costs.
11. 

    firstam2 said on Saturday, September 5, 2009, 6:36

    The politicians basically have nothing. If you want solutions, don’t look there.
    There ARE good solutions out there:
    QUALITY, ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE health care for all.
    That means preventative care (physical with follow up). Real medication (no Medicare “donut holes” the really ill are ripped off again.) No bogus ridiculously low “caps” on needed medical procedures. No abuse of the ER. No paying for the silly with the sniffles to go to the doc for free. No more bankruptcies over medical bills. I want THIS plan that ends abuse of the taxpayer, takes the burden off employers, provides price transparency, and ends the rip-off of the US taxpayer at the hands of greedy insurance CEOs (which has been repeatedly documented).http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.htm…
    Read the PDF, not the blurb, for the bulk of the plan. Book is searchable on Amazon.com
    Cassandra Nathan’s Save America, Save the World
    The book deals ALSO with how to increase the number of doctors, nurses, and other providers. Reducing prescription costs. Making care in general more accessible. How to correct the PRESENT SYSTEM IMMEDIATELY to make it more palatable including:
    price transparency–no reason to not post all prices NOW (for those who don’t understand the system, the FACT is that Medicare ALREADY has a list of ALL procedures they’ll cover–the bulk–and what they pay, so it IS possible to have a list as it already exists. All that providers need to do is put the list up along with the prices if you’re NOT on Medicare. They won’t because the public would be infuriated to see evidence that the uninsured are billed at least three times what the insured are–we keep hearing the lie of how insurance subsidises health care.http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnfl…
    helps tell the TRUTH about that whopper. Check out what those folks would have been charged with insurance and how they’re being hounded into bankruptcy without it.
    THEN look at the OTHER major thing that needs to be changed–defiance of contract law:
    When 75% of the people who declare bankruptcy over medical bills ARE INSURED, then insurance is CLEARLY not the answer.
    “Aldrich’s situation is “asinine” but increasingly common, said Dr. Deborah Thorne of Ohio University. Thorne, co-author of a widely quoted 2005 study that found medical bills contributed to nearly half of the 1.5 million personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year, said that ratio has likely worsened since the data was gathered.
    …
    Like Aldrich, Thorne said, three-quarters of the individuals in the study who declared bankruptcy because of health problems were insured. “http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201807/
    Linda Peeno, MD testified that SHE had often denied treatment JUST to save the insurance company money http://www.thenationalcoalition.org/DrPe…
    Furthermore:
    “the vast majority of health insurance policies are through for-profit stock companies. They are in the process of “shedding lives” as some term it when “undesirable” customers are lost through various means, including raising premiums and co-pays and decreasing benefits (Britt, “Health insurers getting bigger cut of medical dollars,” 15 October 2004, investors.com). That same Investors Business Daily article from 2004 noted the example of Anthem, another insurance company. They said the top five executives (not just the CEO) received an average of an 817 percent increase in compensation between 2000 and 2003. The CEO, for example, had his compensation go from $2.5 million to $25 million during that time period. About $21 million of that was in stock payouts, the article noted.
    A 2006 article, “U.S. Health Insurance: More Market Domination, More CEO Compensation”
    (hcrenewal.blogspot.com) notes that in 56 percent of 294 metropolitan areas one insurer “controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting.” In addition to having the most enrollees, they also are the biggest purchasers of health care and set the price and coverage terms. “’The results is double-digit premium increases from 2001 and 2004—peaking with a 13.9 percent jump in 2003—soaring well above inflation and wages increases.’” Where is all that money going? The article quotes a Wall Street Journal article looking at the compensation of the CEO of UnitedHealth Group. His salary and bonus is $8 million annually. He has benefits such as the use of a private jet. He has stock-option fortunes worth $1.6 billion.”
    –Save America, Save the World by Cassandra Nathan pp. 127-128
    “Insurance Companies Robbing Patients
    Robbing patients to pay CEOs leads to unprecedented medical insurance corporation greed.
    Thursday, January 3, 2008 8:52 AM
    By: Michael Arnold Glueck & Robert J. Cihak, The Medicine Men”http://www.newsmax.com/medicine_men/medi…
    You can also see besides the routine denial of legit claims (that’s breach of contract) that the antitrust laws are violated with impunity.
    We also take it in the shorts as taxpayers on the bogus games with prescriptions–including but not limited to the fact that Medicare is prohibited from negotiating prices on meds as the VA does so it’s clear there is NO barrier that is REAL for not doing so–it was just another governmental gift to a special interest group.
    Forget the politicians if you want solutions. They exist, but pols don’t WANT to solve the problems which is why the bogus “debate” is over UHC which does NOT work–just another way to force more people to pay insurance that we SEE does not do that much for them IF they’re really ill at least. Doesn’t work in general either:http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_ca…
12. 

    tribeca_ said on Saturday, September 5, 2009, 6:37

    All of the people who are talking about tort reform have little in the way of actual statistics to back them up. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of actual payouts for medical malpractice to be less than 2 percent of health care costs. Some estimate are lower. Mostly, all of this talk about tort reform is insurance-company-driven hysteria so that they can keep more of the money that they receive in high premiums and pay out less to injured individuals. There seems to be little in the way of actual verifiable statistics to support their hysteria. Also consider, if you’re injured by medical negligence, how much are your eyes worth, or your properly functioning brain or your limbs?
    We need to look at why health insurance companies are making so much money and why they have become such powerful political lobbyists.
13. 

    Anonymous said on Saturday, September 5, 2009, 8:46

    #1 is to not get sick.
14. 

    alana said on Saturday, September 5, 2009, 10:41

    Everyone pays a percentage of thier salary to the doctor when well then when you are sick you pay nothing. Bet more would be well.