Reference the chapter on health care in the book "Thoughtful Living" and view the same topic on http://proposedsolutions.blogspot.com/
How did Obama make health care more affordable? He did nothing to effect this. He altered the burden of financial responsibility. Now, obviously shifting the burden to those whom have a greater ability to afford (though there will be many exceptions in how our brilliant legislators make this determination), it is a progressive policy yet it misses the point of why health care is so expensive.
Let’s say for a simplistic example that a $20 pizza really is too costly in that the ingredients used to make it don’t amount to even $4, that government gets involved and instead of somehow pushing the price down to $12 for all (maintaining at least a 3-fold multiple over the ingredient cost - a number that I find a bit gratuitous), they mandate differential pricing so that those making over $40K per year have to pay $30 per pizza and those making under $40K per year only have to pay $10 per pizza. Assuming with these parameters in place that the average price is still maintained at $20 per pizza, were pizzas made more affordable? Absolutely not. Obviously there would be greater affordability for some at the detriment of others. While this is in essence something that could help balance the wealth inequality, it’s not a palatable way to effect this end. Who would want to pay $30 and then seeing the next person getting the exact same thing for a third the price? It’s highly objectionable.
Now, there will be some programs enacted out of necessity from not dealing with the UNDERLYING PROBLEMS that goes well beyond a specific item of discussion. The underlying problems generally have to deal with, financially anyway, that some people have so much more than others. Some will contend that there should be no bound for what one may “earn” relative to others while also overlooking the harm being done to society. I am not one to say we should all have the same – by far, but there has to be some limit in the wealth divide that can hold society together. The ardent capitalists may have already begun seeing that for example how home prices have become quite unaffordable which may go against their prior stance that a person should be able to own a million properties of they so choose. With no bounds in any type of economic system, oppression is sure to present itself. This is going off-topic that I have much more to say about in a separate prose. Note should still be taken that the situation of health care costs certainly may be dealt with by distributing the burden of cost but this is entirely SEPARATE from making health care affordable.
The $80-$150K per year nurses, $300K per year anesthesiologists, $200-600K/year doctors, $200K to $20M per year hospital administrators, $80K per year dental hygienists, overpaid staff including janitors, drug companies charging exorbitant amounts for medicine, and seemingly unlimited malpractice awards and legal fees, all contribute into making health care unaffordable.
I do say if we had programs to recruit the most qualified and pay for their learning, we could have diligent health care professionals as opposed to whomever meets the minimum lame requirements putting in the requisite time and money in order to get their big reward in the end.
To obtain the brightest, we’d need to have programs that are efficient, not unnecessarily long as they are presently. Keeping the programs the way they are in both cost and time will invariably draw in lots who do not think deep about the ridiculousness of the system and this points to an intellectually lower caliber of a person on average. The brightest simply do not need as much time to be proficient as others and so the PROGRAM SHOULD CHANGE for eliciting them, not pushing the brightest to alter their thinking and just succumb to a ridiculous program.
The overseers in health care as in many other fields know that to command prestige and high salaries, the obstacles must be great in terms of time and money for granting a certificate of proficiency in order to give the impression to all others whom will be paying for services that the so-called professional has immense worth.
Imagine a much more efficient system where the cost and time to be proficient were cut dramatically. Not only health care costs would go down, but the rich and powerful overseers would lose their prestige and eventually even their compensation would have to go down if there is any financial justice involved.
Think also of the better qualified becoming doctors in decreasing the amount of malpractice suits, not to mention patients not having to die or be maimed unnecessarily.
Moreover, consider as well if programs were made to be of sufficient time for the best to be fully proficient and them not having to fork over their own money for an intentionally far too costly program, the money aspect would diminish whereby the medical professional would not be of the mindset “I spent such and such money for all I got so I deserve to get back such and such”. Instead it would be more like “I am doing what I can for society and I get a fair amount of compensation for it”. The culture in USA and most everywhere else in the world need to come to grips with greed.
As one who studied on my own at Stanford's chemistry and medical libraries from the age of 16, studied intensely in plenty of other materials not to mention having an unparalleled knowledge of chemicals and was an inventing research scientist in the pharmaceutical industry, had plenty of exposure to the medical and dental professions via a patient and from friends that if one who really goes into the field of health care with the intent of doing the work for the love of it versus for the money, one would be doing much self-study to not depend solely on formal education. Accordingly, it should not take more than 3 months to be a fully qualified pharmacist whose job is essentially counting pills and having mere average intelligence to not mix up similar spelled medication, 3 months to pick teeth, 6 months to a year to be a dentist, perhaps another 6 months for orthodontics, 6 to 12 months to be a nurse, 9 to 12 months to be a doctor, perhaps an additional 6 or more months to be a surgeon depending on the specialty. But as anyone who graduated form the government dictated formal education as pushed by the private governing authority would tell you, if they are truly honest, much of what is learned is a waste of time. Why must we as humans be stuck in an efficient process when it could be made much more efficient? Just follow the money as always. Understand why things are the way they are and understand how difficult it is to make rightful changes. It should still not prevent any of us to champion a cause for the betterment of society and quality of life. Also when the medical authority dictates policy to government (legislators and the farce FDA) in their corrupt practice to push unnecessary medical procedures and drugs and to say alternative practices which are non-intrusive and costing less, bypassing the money-grubbing conglomeration warrants punishment, we will continue down the path of making health care affordable only to the wealthiest and any lucky individuals who get coverage through their jobs (with even the unfortunate, responsible poor or under-employed low to middle class subsidizing their healthcare by virtue of being consumers) and to the most irresponsible (earned lots but spent recklessly), unlawful entrants (big joke), and the obvious severely handicapped, with of course in time cutting back in most all areas as time goes on.
There is the cost of medicine which deserves much mention. I as well as others make the assertion that 90-95% of all medications are not needed. We have a society made weak in part by constant TV ads presenting an ailment and some prescription drug that will cure it, along with 2 minutes of the commercial stating the side effects which often includes death. Cutting out the unnecessary prescription drugs and tens of billions of dollars yearly would be shed in health care costs.
So how is shifting the burden of financial responsibility making health care more affordable? It's simply a gaming technique with no real basis to support the claim of affordability.
How about doctors at $50K, nurses at $40K, pharmacists at $25K, and changing our culture to being strong and not desiring a pill for every little ailment? It's not impossible but the stale minds would not be able to comprehend how this is practicable. The brainwashing has been done and will require much to undo.
Now look what we have here as real-life examples:
1. Make $200K over 20 years, averaging at poverty level earnings yet from making extreme sacrifices in life, saved $100K. I am one such person who managed to do this, though my savings fell dramatically due to the unlawful upward manipulation of the stock market in addition to bank interest being hijacked all to coddle the wealthy, taking 80% of all I own to leave me with so little but apparently too much to qualify for benefits. Our legislators are too obtuse to understand this is possible to then make an appropriate policies and laws. GETS FREE HEALTH CARE? NO!
2. Make $200K over 5 years but lives a grand life, pays for cable television, goes to restaurants, buys stereo equipment, buys expensive clothes, buys drugs, gets tattoos, buys a sports car to impress, buys drinks at bars and gets plenty of sexual activity as a result of the show-off lifestyle, gets terminated for failing a drug test then having less than $7K cash. GETS FREE HEALTH CARE? YES!
3. Make $4 million over 20 years, has $1 million home, rents out a room for $700 per month to easily live off of and has only $7K in cash. GETS FREE HEALTH CARE? YES!
Lessons learned:
1. Do not be responsible.
2. Do not make sacrifices to help yourself as then you will be held responsible to pay for health care compared to others who earned more than you and will not be held accountable.
3. Play along the game in life, buy things you cannot truly afford in taking away your savings, buy a home no matter if overpriced as then your "liquid money" will be hidden in terms of assets that our legislators of infinite wisdom choose to be the law (they work for the irresponsible poor, not responsible poor and of course the wealthy). Just live it up and count on government to backstop you. Unless you know you can truly move over the hurdle in going from poor to rich, DO NOT SAVE a dime and you will be catered to!
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Among many ailments, one pressing issue is having my ankle reset and placed into a cast. I am willing to pay an AFFORDABLE price of $200. How much could some plaster of Paris cost and a few inexpensive X-rays? Generously add in services rendered and $200 sounds fair. But how much would it cost in this country where there is a monopoly of the medical profession? I imagine $3,000. I might even be under-estimating! Where's the humanity?
