Comments on: Fixing Our Healthcare System

By: Terry Hill

Terry Hill — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 20:39:59 +0000

Clearly, Samantha lives on a different planet than me. I wonder where? Or more likely, I wonder where I am? Potato chips cost more because of food stamps. On my planet, that’s just shockingly _____________ (you fill in the blank.)

By: Mike Goodell

Mike Goodell — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 18:14:36 +0000

Maybe its just me, but this should be a no-brainer. We, the USA, are never going to get respect from the rest of the World, be recognized as a Super Power by continuing with this craziness. Healthcare. Everyone should have a right to it-EVERYONE. Free, or affordable. Rich, poor, young, old…..very sad, and neither party has even come close to fixing this….

By: Richard Baker

Richard Baker — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 23:13:02 +0000

Once again I read another commentary on Health care problems….and It ends as most do….ie, the COST OF MEDICAL CARE…..When are we going to stop sympathizing witn our poor doctors and nurses….We seem to think that we must pay them what they want, not based on the value of their time (which is only slightly more that the time spent with other service providers) and their threat that they will go out of business if their practice depends on Medicare approved payments…..ie, they will not make as much money as they would like to make….not whatever they deserve for the service they have provided and the time it took them to do so….This same applies to all institutions (hospitals, nursing homes, etc) and their staff…..they want to make as much money as any one will pay…..regardless of their often “nonprofit statis”. The whole system is out of whack and goverened by regulations which encourage indiviual greed…..

By: Samantha

Samantha — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:55:11 +0000

Quote:
“To my immense good luck, I have a generous employer with a great insurance plan that makes it all affordable.”

$70,000 annually is not affordable no matter who is paying. Either taxpayers or consumers are the ones, in fact, who are footing your own health-care costs. You seem to exempt yourself from the fact that your costs are not a burden for all of us, in the same way that are ER visits that go unpaid. Even if Medicare was made available to every citizen, it’s still the taxpayers and consumers who are the real payers. In the same way that the $102 million executive is a costly middle man, so is the government with Medicare. It’s meaningless to have any middlemen, at all, between patients and providers. For those with catastrophic illness, let the government come to their aid in the same way that FEMA comes to the aid of natural-disaster victims.

If Medicare and insurance (for sneezes and head colds) had never been introduced, health care would still be affordable enough for each person to pay his own way for everyday healthcare.

Another truth that fails all, is that the billions spent on health care does not go into pockets of consumers, but into the pockets of health-care professionals, instead, professionals who are driven by greed to cheat patients, the government and insurance companies, alike. Doctors, for example, used to live across the street from us; now they’ve all moved into multi-million dollar homes in gated communities, dining in four-star restaurants each evening where servers would rather mug them than smile — all on the backs of taxpayers and consumers.

“…smoothly working market for healthcare, just as we have for food and housing and automobiles”

You’re kidding, right? You could’ve purchased a homee for cash in the 50s for little more than a year’s wages; today, the same home requires all of 5 to 6 year’s of wages, and if you count interest, 10-15 years. A car from China costs $2,000. Here: 10 to 20 times more expensive. Potato chips have risen even faster in price, thanks to food stamps that have increased demand. Since Obama, food-stamp costs have spiraled, yet no one can connect the dots to the spirally cost of food. There has been nothing smooth about food, housing and automobiles.

Talk computers and consumers electronics, instead, and now you’re talking about smooth. A color TV in the 60s cost $1,200. In constant dollars today, it translates to $10,000. I just bought a new flat screen for less than $400. In 60s’ dollars, it translates to less than $40.