Healthcare is not solely for the people that are broke. It is also for the people that are going broke because of healthcare. We have a healthcare system that doesn't help you manage your colitis - We have a healthcare system that gives you colitis. No, I'm not moving to Canada. It's too cold. So, shut up.
There are some non-Obamacare moves that make perfect sense to me. Stuff to do right away. No reason for a committee to study. Just some simple fixes. Not a panacea. "Go wait in those long Canadian lines!" I said, shut up. For your information buster, it takes me three weeks to get an appointment with my dermatologist. That's kinda like waiting in line. Am I right? Oh, and by the way, the people in Canada that wait in line can return to their homes without fear of foreclosure after seeing their doctor. In Los Angeles, I need to refinance my home to pay for a gallbladder operation. So, shut up.
Where to begin? How about - why the f..k does everything need an MRI? I remember when a doctor took an x-ray, set a bone, and sent you on your way. Not inexpensive, but not the same as when you get a bill for an MRI and then have to immediately pull your kids out of that pricey private school Campbell Hall.
You have slight congestion. You need an MRI. No, I need Vicks. You are walking with a limp. You need an MRI. No, I need Dr. Scholl not you. Your neck hurts because of stress. You need an MRI. No, I need my financial planner to pay a little more attention. Less MRI's. More diagnoses.
Newt Gingrich wants the government out of the healthcare business. He wants to go back to the patient/doctor relationships of the past. Well Newt, for a variety of reasons, Marcus Welby is not walking through that door any time soon.
How about we start with out of network doctors. No, I don't mean doctors that have a show on cable that airs between Hung and Boardwalk Empire. I'm talking about those doctors that are not taking on any patient that has insurance. That's right, any patient that "has insurance". It is very hard to have a "relationship" with a doctor that penalizes you for being insured.
Well, perhaps they will add you to their practice if they are a "concierge doctor". Have you heard about this one? Talk about spin doctors. For a fee you will have the privilege of joining his or her practice. He/she will offer you "special services" that you should have been getting anyway. Your family doctor has now become a country club without a driving range. Newt, it is not 1960. Take those baseball cards out of your bicycle spokes and wake up.
If you have insurance you should be able to see any doctor you want. I know "Doc" that it is hard dealing with insurance companies. That is what we patients do all the time. You doctors should have that pleasure too. So; take one less trip to your villa in St. Barts and hire someone else in your office to deal with Blue Shield. If there is a mandate that everybody should have to buy insurance there certainly should be a mandate that every doctor must take patients that have insurance. No more out of network doctors allowed.
As for concierge doctors - to paraphrase Groucho Marx, "any doctor that wants me to pay for service before I receive service is not a doctor I want to be with!"
I have decided it is impossible for me to reach my insurance deductible. I have tried and tried. I'm willing to have a liver transplant to prove my point. I have threatened my insurance. company. "If I ever reach my deductible, I am going to really get sick and stick it to you!" The insurance company just laughs and says, "Bring it on". What am I supposed to do, get Hodgkin's disease. Then call them up and say, "I showed you".
You have a procedure. Perhaps a mole removed from your inner thigh. You receive a hospital bill for $4800. Then the fun starts. The insurance company will then give you some psycho babble as to why only $200 will go towards your $5000 deductible. "You got a better surgeon than you were supposed to get." "During the procedure they had to cut deeper than what was approved." "The devaluation of the peso."
Let's put an end to the screwy math. Yep, it's time for a little socialism. The horror! The horror! Reasonable, regulated insurance rates. No more deductibles.
These three things that I have just written about are the types of issues most of us really care about. I could go on. Fighting to get itemized hospital bills. That pillow cost $450. Really? Insurance company contracts with doctors and hospitals. Try getting that top secret classified information. Really? Co-pays? I thought my insurance covered this. Really?
You don't need an 11,000 page bill or a Michael Moore film to do some applicable practical things. Let's stop debating mandates, vouchers, and funding for planned parenthood. Stick with reality.
1. Less MRI's. 2. Doctors have to take patients with insurance. How backwards is it that you have to put a regulation in place to force a doctor to take a patient with insurance. Ain't we civilized. 3. No more deductibles. These three simple proposals put a little sense into the nonsense we call Healthcare.
Finally; as I find myself wishing I could Usain-Bolt my way to Medicare, I'm not moving to Canada. So; shut up.
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