I know this won't be liked by many people, but I think that profiting off of the sick and dying is morbid and the health care industry needs to look at this as a moral issue and treat it with more respect and less brutal bottom dollar profit mongering.
You're correct on the "not liked" part, but probably for different reasons than some folks would imagine.
Interesting comparison when looking at the information provided by Yahoo: Industry/Net Profit Margin (mrq) Accident & Health Insurance/3.9 Health Care Plans/3.3 Healthcare Information Services/9 Home Health Care/8.9 Medical Appliances & Equipment/0.8 Medical Equipment Wholesale/3.2 Medical Instruments & Supplies/8.3 Medical Laboratories & Research/8.3 Medical Practitioners/0.2 Specialized Health Services/-1 Drug Delivery/12.9 Drug Manufacturers - Major/16.5 Drug Manufacturers - Other/-0.3 Drug Related Products/2.6 Drug Stores/1.8 Drugs - Generic/6.5 Drugs Wholesale/1
I also wouldn't expect any person in any other line of work to perform R&D on new products with no motive of a profit.
The various "parties" of our current healthcare industry are providing services & products. As such, they deserve to make a profit on those services & products they provide. If they don't make a profit, they don't provide those services & products. Very simple.
The profit margins don’t look to be anywhere near close to “profit mongering” in my opinion.
The real issue is how do we make it more efficient & less costly for the normal consumers without killing/crippling/destroying the parts that make it a good system?
Finally, that line of reasoning only makes sense if you believe healthcare is a “RIGHT.” It isn’t. Just as it’s not a “right” to own a car or to have a job or to own a house.
In the 1980’s the club scene in NYC was very competitive. It was always about the promotion of the club and a young gay man, Michael Alig, managed to attract a coterie of friends who became known as ’club kids’ who became the draw at some of the more fashionable clubs. The club kids, who dressed in wild costumes, were always developing the latest dances and jargon and a song that caught their attention became a hit. A large number of the kids were gay and for straight kids it was a great way to rebel. Of course they also were into the latest drugs. The finger snap as a sign of disrespect or dismissal was already being used in the transvestite community and quickly moved into the club scene with the club kids.
It went from a single dismissive finger snap to a whole vocabulary. A snap that was a put down became the 4 snap Z snap and the ultimate was the around the world snap. Madonna’s music video about voguing has some examples of ’snapology’, but of course by that time the club kids had fallen apart. (Their leader Michael Alig had committed a murder and the drugs had done the rest) The physical snap devolved into "Oh, snap" which can mean a number of things but most commonly ’dammit’
I think your playing the "gay card" instead of the race card
In order for healthcare to be a "right", the government must own the entire mode of product distribution.
The government must dictate the payment for services, for equipment, for medication. As a result, the government dictates what those who provide services, equipment, and medication are paid.
The gap between what the government is willing to pay and what these providers are willing to make for their time, education, and sacrifices will result in more demand than supply.
In short, nationalized medicine is/will be a giant goat screw.
About the same time jow schmoe in the unemplyment line got the right to own a 4,500 swuare foot house, a BMW and a private jet because some rich guy does, and, you know, we're all equal... or something.
On a note of personal experience with Medicare/Medicaid I just spoke with my wife tonight. She is out of town helping out her parents. Her mom is having problems with an irregular heart beat. They have tried a couple of medications and the doctor now says pacemaker. They were confused because earlier talks discussed numerous drugs that might help. Turns out that under the Medicare/Medicaid programs the doctor gets to try 2 medications then the only option allowed is the pacemaker. They have been forced to start over with a different doctor who will be allowed to try another drug option.
Anyone else think these kind of arbitrary rules have no place in our health care? Let the doctor and patient decide what treatments are worth trying. We aren't talking about experimental medicines here. It's just that different people respond differently to various treatments. I can't wait until all of our health care is run with these arbitrary rules!
The youtube clip kinda splained it for me. Still not sure about your card though. Was that your last one that you were saving and now you've squandered it on a pop culture ignoramus like me? You fancy NY fellas are funny.
The youtube clip kinda splained it for me. Still not sure about your card though. Was that your last one that you were saving and now you've squandered it on a pop culture ignoramus like me? You fancy NY fellas are funny.
It was just one of those" BadWeb political inside joke" things! my delivery could have been better! What a waste of a perfectly good Race Card! Oh Snap!
