If we all took personal responsibility along with implementing other steps, we wouldn’t have a healthcare crisis. Such as:
1. Common chronic conditions account for 75?f our healthcare spending. These are coronary artery disease, diabetes, asthma, depression, and congestive heart failure. If 1?f these people changed their lifestyles and took control of their health, we would save $77 BILLION.
2. Reduce medical mistakes. Healthcare reform plans that work like airlines do after a crash would save us $17 BILLION a year.
3. $312 Billion is wasted on misdiagnoses. Programs such as Best Doctors would save us tens of billions of dollars.
4. Electronic prescriptions would save $4 BILLION a year. No mistakes, no forgeries, instant checks on interactions and against the patient’s history.
5. Use retail clinics for minor illnesses and injuries. Some of these are in drugstores, some in stand alone buildings. Uninsured can save 30-80?ff what a doctor’s visit would cost and it’s tons less than the ER. Visits to the ER for colds and flus cost us billions each year.
6. Get all agencies together to share info. For cancer that would be the drug companies, bio tech, and diagnostic companies. Share their results, get the treatments out to the patients faster and more inexpensive. This would reduce the number of failed drugs, the ones you see taken off the market shortly after releasing them. Again billions would be saved.
7. Stop unnecessary treatments. Ordering a CT scan of the sinuses for a cold is absurd. If just half of this was cut, it would be enough to insure every person without insurance.
8. Don’t hire smokers or have programs for employees to quit. Smokers use up 42?f a companies healthcare costs.
9. Award prizes for affordable drugs. Scrap the patenting of drugs and instead award companies monetary prizes for breakthrough meds. The savings would be $480-600 BILLION.
10. Make all insurance companies offer to let employees choose the best plan for them like federal employees can. There’s no fee for service. Doctor visits, hospitals, surgery, are all bundled. The payoff would be $1.5 TRILLION over 10 years.
Everybody pays a hidden tax to pay for the uninsured. The average family pays about $700 a year in taxes and premiums. Implementing three of these ideas would save enough to insure every low-income uninsured child in the US.
The average American eats about 42 servings of broccoli, 54 apples, and 96 cups of ice cream a year. And we are concerned about healthcare? Why don’t we start with ourselves.
Source(s):
fightchronicdisease.org
Npsf.org
bestdoctors.com
Ccaclinics.org
c-path.org
employersolutions.org
Keionline.org
lewin.com
Answered By: Killer Queen - 2/3/2009 |
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If we want to be a little bit different from cave men..
civility of any society is measured by how they treat sick, old, children, women and poor
Answered By: nirv - 2/3/2009 |
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No. Limited government is the way to go. We need Ron Paul. a true Conservative. f**k the government.
Answered By: Luvthec0ck - 2/3/2009 |
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With all of the illegal alien leaches in this country, hell no! The healthcare system will be bankrupt in 2 years guaranteed.
Sam T. wanna know why you got thumbs down? Because you said americans dont have a high standard of living. HELLO, WHY THE HELL IS EVERYONE TRYING TO COME HERE THEN?
You also failed to mention that other western countries dont have mexico as a border country. Those people will suck the life out of any country.
Lets move them up closer to Canada and see how long your health care system last!
Source(s):
Living next door to mexico sucks!
Answered By: Rick Ramrod - 2/3/2009 |
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If you want no health care, it is the way to go. Wait 5 months to see a doctor and 9 months for an operation---hope you can care for yourself in the mean time.
Answered By: vwvw25 - 2/3/2009 |
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It's "the way to go" if you want to go broke. Who do you think is going to pay for it? You and me unless you don't pay your taxes.
Answered By: cnfdr8 - 2/3/2009 |
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Show me an uninsured person in the U.S. currently that will be denied health care if they go to ANY hospital in the United States.
Nationalizing health care is a foolish prospect. Name anything that gets better with a government run bureaucracy. The current system just needs a little regulation, but keep it in control of the private sector or we're all screwed.
Answered By: Kenny - 2/3/2009 |
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How do you think we will pay for this National Health Care program? One way of doing this straight from Obama's mouth is Preventive measures. This means that we will be governed on what we eat how we exercise, drink, and smoke. Now if you break the rules in any game you are thrown out. Just as this will work to. So I don't support this
Answered By: its good to be right - 2/3/2009 |
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No, I do not agree. The government should not be in control of our healthcare. There are private plans out there that are low cost...or at least reasonable cost, mine is 120. per month and that's private, Not from an employer. It is worth every penny to have quality healthcare and not some government official in charge of my health or telling me how my health should be handled.
Answered By: Kim in Florida - 2/3/2009 |
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Of course. we already have too many people on welfare (medicaid) and more people need it. I am a college student who can't afford healthcare because for one im poor, for 2 my parents don't make a lot of money and my mom is the only one with health insurance and that's because she has 2 incurable diseases. I mean.. right now my dr's think I have lupus but because I don't have insurance it's next to possible to get the tests and meds I need. Not to mention once I get them pay for them.
Answered By: complicatedtallblonde - 2/3/2009 |
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Have you seen what a mess the VA hospitals and medicare are? Do you seriously think the government would be able to do a better job? Sorry don't want the government in my health care.
Answered By: Low Gear - 2/3/2009 |
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No we already have programs that are similar and they are bankrupt. Expand that and you'll bankrupt the entire country.
Answered By: bmoc2525 - 2/3/2009 |
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"As a doctor I guess I'll retire...have a great time finding someone working for the government bureauracracy that can help you with that healthcare for free stuff!"
Answered By: Wrenched - 2/3/2009 |
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Once again, no. I do find your entitlement attitude interesting. Health expensive, no jobs, so lets have the government pay our way. Don't worry about the fact that the government is broke and does not have the money, just print more and borrow the rest, who cares as long as you get something for free. While we are at it, lets punish those nasty terrible doctors, because they have too much money. Who care how many years of schooling they had or how much it cost them to earn their MD, let just slam them to the ground because they have more money than you. Oh yeah, make sure the government does not allow them to quit and find other employment, we might need them to save our life after we get down kicking them around.
Answered By: HIllbilly Yacht Club Member - 2/3/2009 |
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No country with the population of the United States has a national heathcare system. I want to say yes, but I don't see how we could make it happen.
Answered By: Voltron Lance: The Red Lion - 2/3/2009 |
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Go to a VA hospital if you want a good taste of government health-care. If that was the only form of health-care in this country I would be a supporter of assisted suicide. Also for anyone who is thinking of being admitted to one I would suggest your family hire an attorney, an accountant and a personal secretary to help you fill out the forms for admittance.
Answered By: uglyhosc - 2/3/2009 |
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Answered By: A Republicrat - 2/3/2009 |
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I'm a Canadian, I think I'd know something about universal healthcare. It's not called socialized medicine, because it isn't even socialist in nature. China is a communist country and it doesn't have universal healthcare.
The US is currently the only western nation that doesn't have universal healthcare. This is why the US doesn't have a high standard of living compared to other western nations. Low life expectancy rate.
Universal healthcare is where, instead of paying for health insurance, you simply pay higher taxes. You end up saving money because the government isn't out to make a profit like the health insurance companies are. There is also no wait. I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes, ever, for treatment. Whether its at a general hospital or family doctor. Everyone receives the same high standard of medical treatment, regardless of their pay-grade.
Canada has a much higher life expectancy then the US. It has also been voted many times in a row has having the worlds best standard of living. In a country with universal healthcare, you're never refused treatment. In the US, you can often be denied coverage. Insurance companies also rarely cover all the expenses and you end up paying for half of them.
The only reason Americans are so against the idea of universal healthcare, is because of the insurance companies lobbying to have propaganda spewed on how evil it is so they don't go out of business. Greedy insurance companies are what have been holding the US back from joining the rest of the western world.
Tommy Douglas, the man that introduced Universal Healthcare to Canada, is recognized as the greatest Canadian because of his major contribution. Universal Healthcare is extremely important to any civilized nation.
It's so sad to see some Americans against universal healthcare. A few years ago, The Health Insurance companies were deregulated and because of deregulation, they can charge whatever they like for health insurance and deny whoever they like for treatment. It really is a disappointment to see so many Americans ignorant on the entire issue. The system the US has doesn't even benefit the economy. There are no plus sides to it.
(What's with the thumbs down?)
Answered By: Sam T. - 2/3/2009 |
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There should be some form of national healthcare along side private health insurance. We shouldn't have an either or system like in Canada. The two can exist at the same time even though it'll piss off the insurance companies and people who want to completely nationalise it. People say it'll bankrupt the country, but it won't I mean. Nearly all of the healthcare costs in any country are from people who are dying and in the last year of their life. All adding national health care will do is transfer the access to some money from private insurance to government. It's going to get spent either way.
Answered By: Tekka - 2/3/2009 |
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Killer Queen- I don't see how anyone could take personal responsibilty for most of the items on your list
Answered By: AK Chef - 2/3/2009 |
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NO.... That would eliminate competition entirely, drive prices up for less services... One look at the public education system demonstrates that. Government schools are paying significantly more per student than any modern country yet getting worse results...
With the advent of HMO's those with insurance are seeing the doctor far more often for mostly mundane things that really don't require a doctors visit. (what the heck it is only a $10.00 copay, go ahead and get an x-ray of that stubbed toe!)
The result is health care costs have skyrocketed. In addition to needless office visits, there is no real competition and as result costs climb and ultimately get out of the reach of the average consumer.
Eliminate HMO's PPO's and stick with either a 80/20 standard Health Insurance (aged 40 and over) or Catastrophic Coverage (primarily for younger people) and the consumer will be a bit more choosy since they are footing at least part of the bill. That will create competition, reduce the amount of unnecessary tests (if the consumer has to foot 20?r 100?f the bill there will not be so many unnecessary MRI's)and drive prices down.
Answered By: archendma - 2/3/2009 |
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If you want to see what national healthcare would look like, just look at the portion of healthcare that's already nationalized: Medicare and Medicaid.
40?f the claims are fraudulent.
Nationalized healthcare just means inefficient waste of the healthcare resources we already have, that for whatever waste are better managed privately.
The key is eliminating cheap foreign labor inside the U.S., and eliminating offshoring of jobs and factories to Mexico and the far east. Companies that are forced to compete with the wages paid to third-world labor have to cut their costs similarly just to stay in business, and that translates to similarly eliminating heath care and other benefits to U.S. employees.
If we put tariffs on each nation's goods equal to the tariffs they put on U.S. goods exported to their countries, they would move factories and jobs (and healthcare benefits, and retirement benefits) back to the U.S.
Source(s):
STATE OF EMERGENCY and DAY OF RECKONING, by Pat Buchanan
Answered By: Stiffler - 2/3/2009 |
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I think the health insurance should NOT be a money making venture. Greed and corruption is what we have now. The Doctors are not making the money. It is the Drug companies...and health insurance providers.
My only fear with making it part of the government is what do you think we would have had the last eight years? Clearly the last administration did not give a darn about the people in this country...I hope people like that never gain power again in the US. But that is wishful thinking!
Answered By: Deb M - 2/3/2009 |
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