Hobo1
Well-Known Member
I have been thinking this for a long time now, but finally a rather unexpected source came out and confirmed my thinking.
The whole problem with Medicare and our broken health care system is not money, it is HOW DOCTORS PRACTICE MEDICINE. I have had the occasion to need some medical care in Asia, where I am traveling. I am amazed how cheap it is.
At first I thought maybe the staff and doctors don't need the high salary, so the costs are held down. Then, I began to realize that the whole system is different. For example, I have had high blood pressure for a long time and need medicine. In the US, I must go to the doctor twice a year, get an expensive blood test, sit for an hour in the waiting room, have a nurse take my height, weight, and blood pressure, plus ask me a hundred questions. Then I get to see the doctor, who takes my blood pressure again. Plus he gives me a general physical exam, asks me more questions.."are you feeling okay?" Finally he writes out a prescription for an expensive new blood pressure medicine. I go to the drug store, and max out my credit card paying for the medicine!
Yesterday, in Malaysia, I went to a "health klinik". Nurse photocopies my passport, I wait 5 minutes to see the doctor and tell him I need blood pressure medicine. This all happens in a small office with just a desk, a few books, and some diplomas on the wall. He asks me what medicine I have been taking - and tell him. He writes down some information on a pad of paper and says, "this is the generic stuff. The medicine I am giving you has proven to be just as effective as the drugs you are taking now. I never use any of that new medicine until it has a few years to prove itself."
I walk to a small store next to the clinic. It is a pharmacy. I tell the lady the name of the medicine on the paper that the doctor gave me. She gives me a month supply of 2 types of drugs for a total cost of $40. I ask where I pay for the doctor... oh, that is included in the cost of the drugs! She says, "next month you go to a pharmacy and this medicine will cost you about $10!" So I paid $30 for the doctor, and $10 for the meds.
I came back to the hotel and looked up the medicine on the internet. Everything the doctor had told me was true. The designer drugs I had been prescribed in the US were no better than the cheap stuff that had been around for a long time. Plus, I could buy it over the counter in Malaysia (and Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, etc). Why in America do you need a prescription?
Moral of the story appeared in print yesterday in the New York Times - that liberal rag... Squandering Medicare’s Money. Here's part of the article:
It goes on, but I am convinced we need to stop the doctors from being our personal nursemaids, just looking for trouble. Let's reform the Cadillac health care that comes without option in the US. It will save a lot of money - and probably just as many lives.
The whole problem with Medicare and our broken health care system is not money, it is HOW DOCTORS PRACTICE MEDICINE. I have had the occasion to need some medical care in Asia, where I am traveling. I am amazed how cheap it is.
At first I thought maybe the staff and doctors don't need the high salary, so the costs are held down. Then, I began to realize that the whole system is different. For example, I have had high blood pressure for a long time and need medicine. In the US, I must go to the doctor twice a year, get an expensive blood test, sit for an hour in the waiting room, have a nurse take my height, weight, and blood pressure, plus ask me a hundred questions. Then I get to see the doctor, who takes my blood pressure again. Plus he gives me a general physical exam, asks me more questions.."are you feeling okay?" Finally he writes out a prescription for an expensive new blood pressure medicine. I go to the drug store, and max out my credit card paying for the medicine!
Yesterday, in Malaysia, I went to a "health klinik". Nurse photocopies my passport, I wait 5 minutes to see the doctor and tell him I need blood pressure medicine. This all happens in a small office with just a desk, a few books, and some diplomas on the wall. He asks me what medicine I have been taking - and tell him. He writes down some information on a pad of paper and says, "this is the generic stuff. The medicine I am giving you has proven to be just as effective as the drugs you are taking now. I never use any of that new medicine until it has a few years to prove itself."
I walk to a small store next to the clinic. It is a pharmacy. I tell the lady the name of the medicine on the paper that the doctor gave me. She gives me a month supply of 2 types of drugs for a total cost of $40. I ask where I pay for the doctor... oh, that is included in the cost of the drugs! She says, "next month you go to a pharmacy and this medicine will cost you about $10!" So I paid $30 for the doctor, and $10 for the meds.
I came back to the hotel and looked up the medicine on the internet. Everything the doctor had told me was true. The designer drugs I had been prescribed in the US were no better than the cheap stuff that had been around for a long time. Plus, I could buy it over the counter in Malaysia (and Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, etc). Why in America do you need a prescription?
Moral of the story appeared in print yesterday in the New York Times - that liberal rag... Squandering Medicare’s Money. Here's part of the article:
"MEDICARE has suddenly taken center stage in American politics, with Democrats now trying to score an advantage from the unpopularity of the Republican plan to overhaul the government health insurance program."
"Much has been said about the growing gap between the program’s spending and revenues — a gap that will widen as baby boomers retire — but little attention has been focused on a problem staring us in the face: Medicare spends a fortune each year on procedures that have no proven benefit and should not be covered. Examples abound:"
"Much has been said about the growing gap between the program’s spending and revenues — a gap that will widen as baby boomers retire — but little attention has been focused on a problem staring us in the face: Medicare spends a fortune each year on procedures that have no proven benefit and should not be covered. Examples abound:"
"• Medicare pays for routine screening colonoscopies in patients over 75 even though the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts financed by the Department of Health and Human Services, advises against them (and against any colonoscopies for patients over 85), because it takes at least eight years to realize any benefits from the procedure. Moreover, colonoscopies carry risks of serious complications (like perforations) and often lead to further unnecessary procedures (like biopsies). In 2009, Medicare paid doctors more than $100 million for nearly 550,000 screening colonoscopies; around 40 percent were for patients over 75."
It goes on, but I am convinced we need to stop the doctors from being our personal nursemaids, just looking for trouble. Let's reform the Cadillac health care that comes without option in the US. It will save a lot of money - and probably just as many lives.
