Private option?

[dogtowner]

But isn't free market, dog-eat-dog competition, supposed to lower consumer prices? Why doesn't it work for healthcare?

Or, are there certain industries that shouldn’t be driven by the profit margin?

medical providers do not compete for our business, that's the problem crated by the government.

 

[top gun]

and why did it become difficult ?

because the costs began to spirial up.

and why ?

becuase the government forced insurance upon us by implementing wage controls and then decided to get into the medical biz itself. when people ceased to have visibility and responsibility then costs began to rise.

but even with that and as late as the 80's charity and the medical biz accomodated indigent care.

then came the illegals (yet another failure of government).

its a complex problem but the root causes of it are all government related.

oh, and lest you delude yourself into think the government will be giving anyone anything, remember that (apart from the fiat money they are just printing now) anything they "give" was first taken from someone else at the point of a gun.

That may well be the craziest most inaccurate post I've seen so far. Well it's up there for sure.

It was legitimate population growth and the fact that Americans for the most part stopped living in large multi generational family units on homesteads & farms but moved to towns and cities.

Things like Medicare were desperately needed and implemented way back in the 30's and you're talking 80's.

And I always get a chuckle out of the ludicrous statement... Taxation with representation is robbery at the point of a gun. No simply and obviously it is not. The word with is the key here. It's the will of the people taking action to help relieve a severe national problem.

 

[flaja]

You really haven't been paying attention to this problem have you...the Insurance Health Care Industry was given special provision back in the 40's so that they didn't have to be competitive to anyone and were allowed to be a huge monopoly unto each other..."PRICE GOUGING/PRICE FIXING" at it's finest

Your proof for this claim is what?

 

[flaja]

medical providers do not compete for our business,

Then why do they advertise for business?

 

[flaja]

Things like Medicare were desperately needed and implemented way back in the 30's and you're talking 80's.

Medicare and Medicaid are from the 1960s, not the 1930s.

Medicare and Medicaid were created by a 1965 law that amended the 1935 Social Security law. The original Social Security law did not address medical care.

 

[dogtowner]

Then why do they advertise for business?

cant tell the players without a scorecard.

they all charge the same. if other businesses do that people go to prison (and I know some who did when Coke and Pepsi were caught price fixing here).

 

[dogtowner]

Medicare and Medicaid are from the 1960s, not the 1930s.

Medicare and Medicaid were created by a 1965 law that amended the 1935 Social Security law. The original Social Security law did not address medical care.

and wage freezes were in the 40's.

in time perhaps we can educate our friend TG

 

[flaja]

and wage freezes were in the 40's.

Your documentation for this is what? If wages were frozen in the 1040s, how were there any labor strikes in key war industries?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_home_front_during_World_War_II#Labor

Many labor unions pledged to not strike during the war in exchange for government arbitration in wage disputes between labor and employers. Arbitration produced modest wage increases early in the war, but by the end of the war wages had fallen in comparison to inflation. But on the whole Unions ended the war stronger than had begun it because the government tended to side with labor and put pressure on employers to improve working conditions.

The United Mine Workers Union never made a no strike pledge and that union engaged in a successful 12 day strike in 1943.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

But isn't free market, dog-eat-dog competition, supposed to lower consumer prices? Why doesn't it work for healthcare?

Any hospital that insists on owning all of the available state-of-the-art-bells-and-whistles, to appear a class-operation, needs to hire better financial-consultation.

Or, are there certain industries that shouldn’t be driven by the profit margin?

My opinion is....health-care is much-too-critical a component (of a civil-society) to be profit-driven.

Any individual who enters the profession-of-medicine (with the intention of eventually becoming a Titan Of Wall Street), should have considered Wall Street as their first-option (rather-than backing-into Wall Street, on others' misery....because they never had any credibility, as a financial-wizard, to actually compete on Wall Street, in the first-place).

I never heard of anyone joining a police-department to get rich. Doctors should be no different.​

 

[Mr. Shaman]

You really haven't been paying attention to this problem have you...the Insurance Health Care Industry was given special provision back in the 40's so that they didn't have to be competitive to anyone and were allowed to be a huge monopoly unto each other..."PRICE GOUGING/PRICE FIXING" at it's finest

And hopefully this will be the next thing that the current elected officials take on and change...Just as KING RONNIE REAGAN took on the unions during his reign and was considered the 'MONOPOLY' buster {see what he did to AT&T & Air Traffic Controllers Union}

Ah, yes....ReRon Reagan....the Master of B.S. (as an art-form).

 

[Mr. Shaman]

its normal for there to be specialization, it would be silly for every facility to focus on all facets, they would be so-so at all. who benefits from that ?

That's a Bingo!!!​

 

[Mr. Shaman]

medical providers do not compete for our business, that's the problem crated by the government.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight......


​

 

[flaja]

Any hospital that insists on owning all of the available state-of-the-art-bells-and-whistles, to appear a class-operation, needs to hire better financial-consultation.​

If the bells and whistles mean better patient care, then I am all for bells and whistles. But a hospital can have these things without having to advertise them. A fundamental fact of economics is that any product or service that is advertised costs more to the consumer because the consumer is paying for the advertisement. If we market hospitals the way we do automobiles, the price of hospitals will automatically go up.

Any individual who enters the profession-of-medicine (with the intention of eventually becoming a Titan Of Wall Street), should have considered Wall Street as their first-option (rather-than backing-into Wall Street, on others' misery....because they never had any credibility, as a financial-wizard, to actually compete on Wall Street, in the first-place).

Amen. It is immoral to make a profit over life and death issues.

I never heard of anyone joining a police-department to get rich. Doctors should be no different.

True, but sadly doctors driven by humanity rather than profit are more the exception that the norm.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

That may well be the craziest most inaccurate post I've seen so far.

....The first-indication of Porky (Limbaugh) spawn.

​

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Then why do they advertise for business?

You've heard of doctors advertising???

​