Short of enslaving the entire medical profession (immoral, even though some of them are kinda cute, and even then some bills must be paid), the bills (liability, wages, THEIR health care/benefits, student loan payments, rent, lights, power, equipment costs, etc, lawyers fees, etc) have got to be paid - whether by insurance companies, taxes, or out of pocket.
As it is, I've already had one good doctor shift to refusing to accept ANY insurance/medicatd/medicare/etc - and cut his staff to one employee, his wife who splits her time between reception/admin and her legal practice.
He's happy about it because he is able to spend appropriate amounts of time with patients rather than running a "patient mill" scrambling to crank through enough patients to get high-cost low-margin payments from insurance/medicare/medicaid. I liked it because he took the time to diagnose rather than use a checklist.
There is a huge difference between what we believe is right/desireable/deserved and achievable/affordable. The current collection of backroom deals, bought votes, and bad medicine should (but most likely won't be, requiring decades of repairs to even get back to "as good as we've got now", a deeply imperfect condition) be derailed, and a series of more careful and measured approaches implemented on a far more incremental basis, and that will be less likely to be tied up in the courts for the next three decades.
We best celebrate while we can...this is going to be a long ugly haul to 2012 and take us years to undo, so we can start over and try and get it right. One size fits all really sucks for jockey shorts - for something as diverse as the human medical condition, the mind boggles...
This is going to be the exception rather than the rule I believe... My doc and dentist both have done the same thing, luckily they are willing to take me as a TRICARE patient.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!