Medical devices

[fett]

You guys all know that I make friends with the people I deal with as I do my rounds. The frozen food guy is about 32. He has a serious heart condition and he has an implant that regulates whatever. It has a battery. The device is supposed to last for 5 years, and it has. The battery is about gone so it needs to be changed. So, I ask about changing the battery. He said you can't. It's a whole new device. I am a pretty good guesser on the price of things. He said guess how much a new one costs. I said $10,000. He just laughed. The device costs $50,000 So I asked what would happen if you didn't have insurance? He just smiled.

[Jacksonchick]

Yup fett, it sucks hun.

[fett]

That just blew my mind. Then he has Weeeeee. Whatever. There's a big warning about that and his implant. "Negative Waves, Man" I just don't get how our healthcare/insurance system has hung us out to dry.

[jacksoncsplayer]

They sure have fett, i'm still trying to figure out why I spend $3000 bucks a year on coverage then get hit with a $1500 deductable and $20 co-pays, and I go to the Doctor 2 times a year, my wife and kids go about the same. It all adds up to me getting fucked to the tune of about $3000 bucks. I wish my company offered emergency only insurance.

Marc

[Jacksonchick]

You know with the money this country sends out in space we should never have to ever worrie about health care.

[Rsmacker]

Ha ha, you Americans are so funny. We here in the civilised world just go to our free doctors and they say "No problem", put us on a list and a couple of months later we go and have our operation, for free......










Then we get MRSA or C.Diff and die alone and ignored in our shit, blood, spunk and vomit encrusted ward where the doctors and nurses haven't grasped the idea that washing your hands is a pretty good start to combat infections.

Or if we are lucky, we get a home visit from Dr Shipman.

Fuck it, I'm off to the USA.

[jacksoncsplayer]

You know with the money this country sends out in space we should never have to ever worrie about health care.

I couldn't agree more Robin, it's a fuckin monopoly.

[Spivonious]

Normally I'm all for free markets, but healthcare is a special case. Demand is always high and supply is always low.

"You need this operation or you will die."
"How much does it cost?"
"$350,000"
"Well, that's a lot of money, but I really don't want to die right now, so here you go."
"Oh, actually it just went up to $2,100,000."
"Okay here's the rest."

It just doesn't work. I say take all the money that we (or our employers) are paying right now and pay doctors with that. Sure it would be another tax, but we wouldn't be paying out more than we are now since we'd get more income before taxes.

[CharvelRocker]

Not to turn this political, but there is a lot more to the Space Program than people think. A lot of it is about national pride. by that logic, lets cut funding from the Armed Forces. Those aren't needed right?

A governments job is to defend its people. Whenever they stick their nose in stuff other than defending its people , they screw it up. I'll keep my private healthcare, thanks. People want the government to do everything for them. Some things you have to work for and earn.

[JacksonDean]

Not to turn this political, but there is a lot more to the Space Program than people think. A lot of it is about national pride. by that logic, lets cut funding from the Armed Forces. Those aren't needed right?

A governments job is to defend its people. Whenever they stick their nose in stuff other than defending its people , they screw it up. I'll keep my private healthcare, thanks. People want the government to do everything for them. Some things you have to work for and earn.

+1.
Were we to have socialized health care, every free-loading, lazy bag of ass would be down in the ER for every hang nail they got.

[jacksoncsplayer]

Not to turn this political, but there is a lot more to the Space Program than people think. A lot of it is about national pride. by that logic, lets cut funding from the Armed Forces. Those aren't needed right?

A governments job is to defend its people. Whenever they stick their nose in stuff other than defending its people , they screw it up. I'll keep my private healthcare, thanks. People want the government to do everything for them. Some things you have to work for and earn.

I don't want gov healthcare, I want more affordable healthcare and meds.
Pharma companies are fuckin everyone of us and so are the insurance companies. I think it's time to considor an HSA. I just feel like it's becoming unaffordable.

[ABSOLUT CHARVEL]

They sure have fett, i'm still trying to figure out why I spend $3000 bucks a year on coverage then get hit with a $1500 deductable and $20 co-pays, and I go to the Doctor 2 times a year, my wife and kids go about the same. It all adds up to me getting fucked to the tune of about $3000 bucks. I wish my company offered emergency only insurance.

Marc

you are not alone. sounds just like what i have got. every year the coverage gets shittier. talking about this really hits a nerve. so many directions you can look at and wonder WTF! not even sure where to start on why it is such a cluster. look at big companys like WalMart. its like Oh boy! look at the money i saved there! but when you think that you tax dollars are paying for the employees medical costs due to loop holes like keeping employees under X amount of hours the company excludes them from bennies. Billion dollar company and employees have to collect from the state to see the Dr. ...

[jacksoncsplayer]

KIlls me dude, my kid broke his collar bone snow boarding in colorado 2 months ago and had to go to the clinic there, my ins co kicked back the coverage be cause he was out of the provider network. WTF? and it's BC/BS. Go figure. 38 hrs is considered part time here in lovely south carolina, you get no bennies and shitty pay. I don't mind contributing to help those who can't help themselves, but damn when will corporate america be held responsible to do their part?

[dg]

+1.
Were we to have socialized health care, every free-loading, lazy bag of ass would be down in the ER for every hang nail they got.

Dude, they're already there getting treatment for non-emergency stuff or for stuff that turned into an emergency because they didn't go to the doctor. They run up huge tabs & then don't pay. Hospitals pass the cost on to paying customers, and prices skyrocket more. The people getting fucked in the current system are lower middle income folks without benefits, or with shrinking employer contributions to their plan.

I'm self-employed, so I pay 100% of my family's coverage. $670/mo. this year, up from $560 last year, & I'm sure it'll go up more when it renews in March. Luckily, I get to deduct a portion of it at tax time.

[Cygnus X1]

It's such a tangled mess, I've tried to educate myself about what the the problem is...
I'm with CR, let the government stick their nose in it, and you have a mess that's even worse.
Proof is, the government has already stuck their nose in way too far. They regulate what insurers must cover, and limits, and whatnot. So, you won't see "emergency only" coverage unless it's legislated. I believe it used to be available, back in the seventies and prior.
Then, there's the huge cost of fraud. The insurers complain of this all the time.
And huge punitive judgements in highly publicized lawsuits. Pharmaceuticals and insurance companies bear this burden. Why is there no tort reform to prevent frivolous lawsuits? Because most of the legislators that would do this are lawyers. They won't bite the hand that fed them.
Also in the mix is outrageous malpractice insurance premiums that are passed on to patients. One of my coworkers is an obvious genious, with a great sense of compassion. He would make a great doc. Guess what...he comes from a family of doctors. His father is a GP and heart specialist, who paid 40k a year in premiums.
He quit the GP practice to work with a hospital chain, because it became too difficult to keep up with the insane regulatory issues involved in running a private practice.
2 of my personal doctors have gone the same route. Again, those costs have to be passed on to the consumer, the patient, the family, the insurers.
The pharmacueticals have to pay enourmous amounts of money to bring a drug to market, then fence themselves in case 2 percent of their patients die from side effects. Vioxx was not that dangerous. But it cost Merk multi millions of dollars to settle. Who pays that cost?

So, it's a screwed up mess, and about 95% of it is because of the wrong government intervention.