Economy sucks

[myotch]

The single factor that keeps health care costs high is the malpractice insurance.

It's not whether or not they take medicare patients. To some degree, it is the cost of education, especially with a specialty study. But malpractice insurance is what drives the costs way up.

Tort reform?

[bean]

On this we can agree! Yep, tort reform is needed big time. Loser pays would be a good start. It would eliminate a lot of BS "let's just try to get the meal ticket punched" type lawsuits.

[dramaturge]

Tort reform can help increase access to care, but there have been at least two well-regarded studies of health care costs (specifically in Texas, iirc) before and after tort reform has passed that show empirically that tort reform does seem to increase access to care, but makes no appreciable difference in overall health care costs. Thus, tort reform is a decent thing to pursue, but it is not the single most important, or even an important, factor in keeping health care costs high.

[C_Fresh]

(08-04-2012 01:40 PM)Papa Bear Wrote:  I understand your frustration that things aren't as easy as they once were, or could be. I just get tired of American factory workers complaining that they can no longer get $20 and hour or more because Chinese factory workers now get a small fraction of that, instead of staying dirt-poor farmers like they were in "the good old days." It seems that some peoples' compassion for the poor only extends so far.

Lest you think I am among the "idle" rich, living on my portfolio (which I likely inherited), my family lives on so little, you wouldn't believe the number if I told you. Let's just say our household income is low enough that we would qualify for Medicaid, but my wife's employer offers insurance, which disqualifies us. Her insurance actually provides less coverage than Medicaid, but her portion is a least 20% of her gross pay, sometimes more. So we live on 20% less than that. On Medicaid, with her income, we would have zero copays on doctor visits. With her insurance, we often put off going to the doctor, or avoid it entirely, because we can't afford the copay.

Not that Medicaid was a bed of roses. Many doctors won't take it because it's such a bad deal on their end. When we got a prescription, we'd often have to go back and ask for a different drug because Medicaid didn't cover that one, even though it was the standard treatment. My family has been on Medicaid, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. That's why I'm against national healthcare.

There is a word for deciding that just because someone else has something you want, they should give it to you. It's not charity. It's envy.

Back from my weekend...

I come from a pretty good sized family. I'm the oldest of six kids. My mom was a stay-at-home and my dad brought in the only income. When we moved to be closer to church, my dad went to work for a guy in the church. I found out he was making $14/hr. This would have been in 1999. That was what we lived on. Not really sure how they made it happen all those years. I'm single and make a good bit more than that and it is tight for me (living in NJ doesn't help). No idea how $14/hr handles eight people. And they did it all without ever taking any public assistance. Not saying PA is bad, but surviving on your own can definitely be done.

[Mominator]

(08-05-2012 11:45 AM)myotch Wrote:  The single factor that keeps health care costs high is the malpractice insurance.

It's not whether or not they take medicare patients. To some degree, it is the cost of education, especially with a specialty study. But malpractice insurance is what drives the costs way up.

Tort reform?

Yes. Tort reform would go a long way to helping insurance rates go way down.