Re: Senate Healthcare Bill Released
I never said it was the norm,
First, I appreciate your experience in this area. I'd like to think we both want the same thing: healthy citizens who don't have to go broke trying to get needed health care. Where we obviously differ is the path to get there. I appreciate your acknowledgement that the perpetually sick is not the norm. To me, it then follows that we shouldn’t condemn everyone into participating in government plan, which you also know is billions of dollars worth of waste.
but expensive medical bills are not nearly as rare as you seem to be suggesting. The hospital system where I work is about 1,000 beds, and we're near or at capacity every day. Just looking at the list of problems our patients have, the surgeries they've undergone, and the drugs or long-term care they require, I'd (conservatively) wager that at least 700 wouldn't be able to afford medical care on the kind of savings account system you suggest. And that's just our patient load on any given day. Granted, I do work at a tertiary care hospital, but there are hundreds of other centers that could make similar claims. What is your solution for these people? Just let them choose death or bankruptcy? Ignoring questions of morality, even that doesn't sidestep the cost--we'll still be paying for their medical bills when they show up nearly dead at the ED and EMTALA compels treatment. It's just not a realistic option, IMO.
I’m not suggesting the cost is inexpensive in these rare cases. But, part of the reason for high costs are that you pay not just for yourself but for others as well. And you pay for the cost of government. That can be greatly reduced. My preference for minimizing the government role, aside from minimizing the waste, is that it allows people to keep the money they otherwise flush with every paycheck and invest it. With some of that money they could get insurance for catastrophic events or end of life care. So, my plan would reduce costs on the front end (reduce government lunacy) and back end (allow people to have their investments and insurance cover this). ….. More on this subject later.
To analogize with car insurance, I have minimal insurance - coverage for the other guy’s car if I cause a wreck (i.e. the catastrophic event). I divert what I would have flushed in paying full coverage to investments that cover my car expenses (including purchase of the next car). I don’t want insurance (if it really existed) for oil changes and tire rotations. Even though that’s the only sure expense, it’s not necessary to have insurance on that. I can pay the $50-$100 a few times a year. If I had insurance it would be a lot more expensive. If we had Obamacarcare, because many people are subsidized, my car insurance would be ridiculously expensive compared to what I’d get for it. (The analogy is that we shouldn’t have health care insurance for the basic stuff; it’s unnecessary).
The cost of government is glossed over by those who advocate it. Bureaucratic salaries are in the billions before you even get to fraud and the cost of bad government decisions. You offered a hospital example; I’ll revisit a couple I’ve discussed before. When my wife worked in labor and delivery, the hospital delivered around 12,000 babies/year. (It is one of the busiest L/D units in the country.) About 2/3 of the patients are on the dole. (Nationwide I believe the number is 50%.) IIRC, the cost of the delivery is $10k. So, that’s $80,000,000 charged to the taxpayer ….. from one unit of one hospital. Extrapolate nationwide … There were nearly 4M births in 2016. If the cost of half of those deliveries are charged to the taxpayer …… Uggh! It is ridiculous that productive people to pay for people who have no business having children ….. who will then just get on the dole themselves. Dumb government policy. How do you stop this waste? The government won’t; government creates it.
Another related example are unnecessary ambulance trips that these mothers-to-be take and bill to the taxpayer. I saw this myself many, many times when I’d arrive at the hospital early to pick up my wife. I’d see an ambulance leisurely pull up to the hospital with the pregnant women. A caravan of cars (family members) would follow behind the ambulance. This is not an emergency; this is a joy ride. Cost to the taxpayers: $500 (at that time) per trip. At least half the patients on the dole (4000) would do this. That’s $2,000,000 charged to the taxpayer ….. from one unit of one hospital. How do you stop that waste? The government won’t; government creates it.
Now, back to dealing with people who have high costs. My Mom is in her 70s and she’s starting to develop health problems. It’s possible, when she can no longer be active, that she will be sick for a long time. Financially she’s covered. As I think most know, my Mom and I have invested in real estate for years. All the properties have long since been paid off and provide several hundred thousand dollars of income. I don’t touch that investment. That’s for my Mom; it’s her income. That investment covers all her expenses (no home or car mortgage, care for all her rescue animals, vacations, etc.) and will cover her medical care needs (if she needs it). No government waste is necessary.
There’s no reason the above shouldn’t be the standard. I didn’t come from money. Quite the contrary; I’ve discussed how poor my early years were. Yet, I now have buckets (investment accounts/property) of income that cover health care, cars, more investments, vacations, my daughter’s college fund, etc. That should be the goal, not government programs that cause massive problems.
