Friday, February 27, 2009

Taking it up the....



El Presidente seems like he is committed to changing health-care as we know it and it got me to thinking of This has become a huge self-generating problem that builds upon itself.


Been having a round-table discussion with a bunch of people to try to hammer through the issues and the reasons the pricing is so out of control.

Some (not all) of the reason’s you always hear are

  • Cost of Pharmaceuticals
  • Cost of medical liability insurance
  • Cost of schooling for Doctors
  • Cost of hospitals
  • Cost of the uninsured
  • Greed ofthe insurance companies
Well this doesn’t answer anything but still sticks in my craw.

I know this isn’t the main or the only cause but I see one of the main issues being that every time you go to the doctor they try to refer you to somebody else which only perpetuates the concept of a huge healthcare system which feeds upon itself.

The entire thought of having to go and see your primary care when you break your pinky toe to only get a referral to see a foot doctor is idiotic.

In this case this cost too much money for the patient and the insurance companies the only one that makes money are the primary care physician who just pushes paper around. It’s like the first guy you talk to when you call customer service, just somebody to give you enough fluff that hopes you go away.

This happened to me recently when I had the blood in the urine/kidney stone thing. See when I pissed something that was merlot color I knew immediately that I should go and see a urologist. But I first had to see my primary care physician (this is guy who likes to fondle my balls) and pay him a $25 deductible for a visit which could not have lasted more than 2 minutes. On top of the pleasure of stroking my little winky and the $25 I gave him, the visit probably allowed him to bang my insurance company for an additional $50..
Some easy math and we get to $75 total dollars and I get nothing but a referral and a gigantic waste of my own time. To put this into perspective this is the equivalent of 3 lap dances at FlashDancers a beer and still leaves me $5 in singles to give out on the stage. So obviously I can clean my urethra in much better ways.

Well back to me pissing blood..I then went to the urologist and paid another $50 deductible (since he is specialist) and I'm sure he charged my insurance company $100. So in other words the whole thing cost the system $225 for a total of 10 minutes in front of a real doctor, before we ran a single test.
The specialist was fine but the problem is that this keeps the primary care physician busy while not offering any real care and for $225 I am half-way to the Champagne room.

But it doesn't end with this referral nonsense, every time I see Dr. Pervert he prescribes some kind of antibiotic, regardless of the issue. I could have a cold, the flu, a hernia, a hemorrhoid, a broken toe and he will always give you antibiotics or some other drug. Our society is not happy unless they get drugged up and this dependence on medicine just perpetuates the endless cycle. Again the primary care physician is in the tank for the pharmaceuticals, whose sales-guys are probably treated this guy to big steaks at Morton's and big breasts at FD's.

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