If I ever write an editorial like this one, saying that a problem is so complex that we don't have a clue, but somebody should just do something, take me out and shoot me:
Something must be done to make health care accessible to more Hoosiers.
The above sentence is the only thing everyone can agree upon. How to make health care -- and health insurance -- accessible is a matter of debate, and one that should receive high priority when the General Assembly meets again.
We'll never find a solution if we keep misidentifying the problem. The problem is not a lack of health care, but a lack of health insurance. Even people without insurance can get health care, which leads to convolutions like this:
Nine hospitals serving needy Indiana residents will receive $217.6 million in accelerated government payments next month, providing critical help to Gary's financially troubled hospital and other institutions, the state announced Thursday.
Hospitals in Connersville, Crown Point, East Chicago, Hammond and Indianapolis also will receive the money for serving high percentages of low-income patients, the Family and Social Services Administration said.
The health care crisis was created by separating the care people get from the actual costs they have to pay, first by insurance, then by heavy government involvement. Increasing the separation with even more government involvement is adding to the problem, not creating a solution.
Comments
I keep telling people that an insurance-based health care system is inadequate as long as the system permits "what the market will bear" for rich insurance corporations to determine the prices for medical services and prescriptions.
As it stands, medical care in America has been allowed to evolve into an industry that prices its services for rich insurance companies rather than pricing for its own clients' pocketbooks in the free market.
It's nearly true now that the medical industry's only actual buyers are insurance companies.
Not only that, it's now obvious that insurance companies have been making every effort to take the risk out of their risk-based industry.
Try to act as a consumer of medical services sometime -- ask a doctor what a certain procedure costs (assuming no complications) in advance, so you can pay cash. Ask at the front desk also. I think you'll find the reaction fascinating.
Request an estimate for a procedure, any straightforward procedure, and they'll look at you like you just spoke in an alien tongue. Once they do understand the question, sort of, they most often won't know the cost though they do the procedure themselves, won't know how to find out, and can't (not won't but can't) even offer a ballpark estimate.
It might be easier to address solutions if we examined the current state of affairs as if for the first time and take stock of the factors habit and routine have blinded us to.
I think Lake County Indiana is overdue for a county ran hospital like Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis.
The Gary Methodist Hospital would be perfect for a county hospital if they plan on closing their doors.
Go back in time to 1960. How many had health insurance, few? There was no Medicaid or Medicare, yet people received healthcare. The doctor charged pretty much everyone the same price. The price charged was based on the ability to fill the daily schedule and pay bills.
Leo worded it the best I have seen
I can remember a time when insurance was only used in true emergencies. We didn't run to the insurance company every time we got a dent in our car. Perhaps if we could strike a deal with our family doctors (as a start) to just pay (a reasonable amount) for office visits ourselves, we could renew an old trend.
Issue & question
What is treatment as a below case ?
WASHINGTON - Curbing tobacco use and taking other steps to eliminate some of the most common risk factors for cancer could save millions of lives over the next few decades, health officials said Monday.
Tobacco alone is predicted to kill a billion people this century, 10 times the toll it took in the 20th century, if current trends hold.
Tue.July 2006
By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
Answer;
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To persons who devote in medical treatment field until present Human health care.
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