Moving toward two "classes" of healthcare?
 

Much of the general public is getting outpriced by current insurance premiums, hospital bills, ect. I doubt the ACA will end up being adopted and so there will be tons more people, especially with pre-existing conditions, unable to afford health care. Now, the option is to let them stay uninsured like they are now, but that will not be supported in the future as the number of people unable to afford healthcare keeps increasing. Thus, either the government will promote medical tourism (doubtful) or allow for a whole new class of healthcare provision by low-wage mid-levels for these poor people. The care will not be as good but it will be better than nothing. The consequences of this is that physicians will be left to only take care of the wealthy elite who can afford their services. This is not good for the profession both ethically and financially but there is not much else possible with astronomical healthcare costs and similarly astronomical medical education costs.

We already have multiple classes of healthcare, it's just going to become more obvious as we move forward and fewer "average" Americans can afford optimal care. I'm interested in whether there will be a tipping point when the average Joe realizes that he gets a significantly lower quality of care overall than those wealthier than him and wants that to change. Until that point, the merest hint of "socialism" will get any healthcare reform proposals shot down.

:thumbup::nod:

Sorry, but if you want the best healthcare in the world it costs money. What planet are you from that you think everyone should just receive the "optimal" care at a low cost? What is "optimal" care? Are you aware of how technologically advanced healthcare has become? I'm sure I don't have to tell you that technology is expensive, particularly with all you hipsters buying every new version of the applepad or whatever the hell it is that gets released.

this guy is trollin hard...

You do realize that there are two (or more) tiers of healthcare everywhere, right?

And regarding the ACA... Health insurance is not equal to health care. Plenty of physicians refuse to take certain insurance plans.

OP, I think you have an issue.

Trolling 101: Limit yourself to starting one troll thread daily

Maybe at that point the "average joe" will pull out his wallet and pay a fair price for a highly trained professional instead of settling for a nurse who took some extra night school classes.

Most people have no idea what it means to have different qualities of health care. They just know that their problem got fixed, and whether people were nice to them along the way. And most importantly, the size of the bill at the end. This is why NP's can and will continue to flourish.

Cheap:Fast:reliable - pick two
~or the tipping point when the average joe realizes he has been demanding fast and reliable for years and shouldnt be grumpy at the fact that the government his given him exactly what he wanted.

i.e. to the average joe - be careful what you wish for.

Exactly. Wal-Mart, McDonald's, cheap chain everything - Americans demand cheap and fast at the expense of quality and reliability over and over. Supply and demand, and when the dust settles we get exactly what we pay for. Cheap crap. The same is happening to health care, and it shouldn't surprise anyone.

I dont necessarily agree there entirely. Americans are demanding fast (ever heard someone bitch in a waiting room?) and reliable (malpractice... 'nuff said). And then getting all butthurt when it turns out to not be cheap..... but I think otherwise we are basically on the same page :laugh:

I think honestly the only reasonable way to go is to loosen our grip on "fast" and go the way of canadia. Sure they have plenty of PCP... but if you wanna see a specialist you better predict your hip replacement 15 years in advance and schedule then ;)

There's a difference between demanding reliability and expecting reliability. The key difference is that Americans will go to whatever physician or NP is easiest to schedule an appointment with and who is covered by their insurance, and they will expect everything to go perfectly. When something goes wrong, then it's time to sue. A minority of the population will seek out quality and reliability on their own, but the majority of Americans will expect it anyway without any effort or extra expense on their part.

:thumbup:
rather than getting bogged down in semantics lets just leave it at the "pick two" scenario.

I think the real issue is that people are still responding to this guy's threads...

It's called Nomenklatura.

I think you're right, but to be fair there really is no way for the general public to compare physicians and hospitals' quality and reliability.

:rolleyes: