Health care reform or death

Ok, I’ll dissent. Please be gentle with your replies.

I am neither Rep or Dem (different sides of same coin if you watch the whole picture) so I have no political ax to grind here. I have no one person or party that I’m trying to blame for screwing things up.

I work in healthcare. I see how broken the system is. Every day. I see my patients not able to afford their medicine. Even the ones we sell for $4.

The problem, however, is not that we have insufficient government regulation or not enough government money. Competition (real capitalism, not this phony shit we have in the US) is what we lack. That, when it is real, lowers costs to the consumer. Health care is not the only system that is broken. What about affordable quality food, too?

I have patients who remember health care costs before Medicare. To a person, they all say that medical costs started moving upward faster AFTER Medicare was implemented. Coincidence? Government money and interference in the marketplace always drives up costs and drives down productivity and efficiency. (Just look at the cost of reefer.)

Government programs are generally created to benefit specific entities at the expense of the people. (You do know how to tell when a politician is lying, don’t you?) Take, for example, the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program. That programs has mainly benefited two groups.

Of course, lawyers benefit from most everything government does. But that is not the group to whom I am referring.

Insurance companies gained lots of new customers, lots of new customers that they can “encourage” to patronize their company-owned mail-order pharmacies. So the patients can call me when they run out of their meds. Then I get to call their insurance company and get permission for them to not have to wait for the postman to get their meds. Or they go without. Also the list on non-approved drugs increases each year. Along with the laundry list of questions to receive an exemption for a drug for a patient. Less claims equals more profit.

A pet peeve: Why would you insure against a known expense like routine medications? Seems to me like that is as smart as insuring against being hungry three times a day. Many of my patients would like to drop drug coverage, but it is included in many employer-provided policies. Why? It is apparently a profit center for the insurance company.

The other main beneficiary is, of course, the actual authors and sponsors of the bill itself, the drug manufacturers. Who wouldn’t like a blank check from the government for their industry? I know from experience that people will not pay to take a $10 pill themselves. These guys would not sell nearly as many $10 pills without some kind of subsidy to their customers. There are very few ultra-expensive drugs that do not have a less expensive alternative drug.

But what about all the elderly and disabled who got help with their drug expenses? Well, a couple thousand dollars subsidy helps. At least it helps some. How many expensive drugs does it take to put someone in the doughnut hole? My experience: two. That’s right. Just two. Also my experience: When they hit the coverage gap, they want to change to a less expensive drug. Their doctor will usually agree to a change in medication. What stopped them from asking for a less expensive drug to start with? If you said “their drug subsidy” you are starting to get it. Another correct answer would be “human nature.”

The new plan will work exactly like this plan does. It will work to the benefit of a few while increasing costs overall. I agree that the system is broken and needs to be fixed. But, as you can see, I respectfully disagree with the means proposed by those who seem to want to TRY to control the market. Consumers spending their own earnings, with a motive to control costs, will be infinitely more efficient IMHO. If the government must be involved in some way, give them a tax credit, dollar for dollar.

The bottom line question you should ask: Would you really want your health care managed by the likes of the USPS and the IRS? If anybody with reasoning faculties really believed they could do what they say they will do, would there ever be any debate on any of these programs?

Final thought provoking question: (I promise) When the people responsible for understanding the bill do not understand it, how can anyone possible fault someone in the public for also not understanding it?
.-= Keith@Canadian Prescriptions´s last blog ..Aug 12, Canadian Online Prescription -Boniva Price Comparison From Canadian Pharmacies =-.

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