Changes coming...what do you think?

[DH78]

As usual, there is a lot of uproar about health care reform. No one actually seems to know what this reform will be, but people on both sides are terrified. Dropping the word "socialism" is always a way to get people riled up.

I want to know what actual docs think should be done, if anything, to "fix" the health care riddle. Should low-cost cut-rate health plans be more available? Should the gov pay for it? Should the gov regulate everything? Should the whole idea of insurance be scrapped, and prices and payment plans negotiated by the patient and doctor? Should all employers offer heath insurance?

The floor is yours.

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[deleted87716]

Plenty of threads on this subject over in "Topics in Healthcare."

 

[Winged Scapula]

Agreed...this forum is for practicing physicians to talk to each other about issues important to them. Moving to TIH...

 

[RGMSU]

I believe there should indeed be some type of insurance pooling whereby costs are brought down. I believe pay for service should remain in place. I believe calls for expansion of Medicaid and Medicare or any other government bureaucracy should be resisted - we already can't pay for them effectively. Insurance company regulation should be increased to stop bad behavior by insurance companies. Community healthcare centers and public hospitals should receive additional funding to take care of the indigent who still fall between the cracks. People should start taking charge of their own healthcare again and have the self-respect to attempt to provide for their own healthcare if they have the means to do it, instead of falling into the something for nothing routine. Those things would probably solve 90% of the problems and not cost 2 trillion dollars. Then, we'd might as well make the budget cuts and tax increases to solve the looming problems with Medicare. No sense putting that off until a crisis develops. I say no to government dictated standards of care. Physicians are the ones who have the training to work with their patient to discern what to do next. Practicing medicine is not like baking a cake, and one size doesn't fit all. Yeah, there are some bad apples who take advantage of the system. Weed those doctors out and expose them for what they are. Simple as that.