March 18, 2008
There was a great story on 60 Minutes this weekend about the near tragedy of the Quaid twins due to a medication error. When they had a representative from Baxter, the company who made the product, on, I wish they had asked them the killer question. They asked her why they didn’t recall the product, which everyone in health care knew was an error prone product and whose label fed right into the confusion, and she said that the product was being used safely all over the world every day. I would have followed that up with, “It would have cost you money, wouldn’t it?”
They probably would have replied, “Oh, no, when we determine a product should be recalled, we just recall it. Cost never enters into it.” That would have been a lie, but it would have been nice to hear.
The dirty little secret about health care is that it is all about profits. Health care is no longer a profession, it is a business. Period. The sooner we all appreciate that, the better off we will all be.
There was an article in Conde Nast Portfolio about another medication error in Nevada that resulted in the death of a baby. And once again, a for profit corporation chose profit over safety.
Very good “Justice Talking” about health care reform. Of course, they got a right winger on there whining about how health care is a “choice” and how mandating health care would devastate small business.
First of all, HEALTH CARE IS NOT A CHOICE. Never was. Isn’t. Never will be. Just ask anyone who’s sick.
And second of all, the business lobby ALWAYS says this. Seat belts, clean air laws, family leave…ANYTHING that may cost businesses anything are decried from pillar to post as the sheer ruin of the American economy. And you know what? They’re always, always, always wrong.
So if health care costs too much? Go the hell out of business, then. Stop whining to Congress everytime you might not get your way. I thought entrepreneurs were supposed to be self reliant?
It depends on who makes the choices? If you mandate that small businesses have a health-care program, you end up forcing them to take away from other workers compensation in order to pay for this. So, the employees get less cash and more health care. Whether they like it or not. Why not instead let the employees choose what percent of their earings to devote to whatever necessity?
ReplyDeleteI guess the point is that health care isn't a choice. We all use it, whether we want to or not. When the employees get sick or get hit by a bus, they wind up with a lot less cash in any case.
ReplyDeleteIt would be excellent if we could arrange it so that people could choose between a gold star health plan, for perhaps an older worker with children, and a bare bones health plan with large deductibles for a twentysomething in good health. Just like we do in car insurance.
You're setting up a false equivalence, though-who is making the choice now? No one is. No one chooses to not get health care when they get hit by a bus. You're either among the blessed with coverage, or you go broke and the debt collectors take your house. That's the "choice".
The only system that makes any sense is group coverage. Everyone-all employed Americans-forms one giant risk pool. Everyone gets basic coverage.
Employers then, if they wish, can compete to give their employees coverage for infertility, contraception, cosmetic surgery, etc-as an added benefit.
Your idea is worth considering. At least it is not like Hillary's jail-care plan which involved imprisoning people for wanting to see a doctor of their choice.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's a fair criticism. Every plan of Hillary's has always been market based, and if we ever get any kind of single payer, there will be market components to it.
ReplyDeleteAnd once again, you don't have the choice of doctors NOW. Most people's insurance have at the very least preferred lists, if not outright bans on seeing doctors outside the network.
I am confident that, under single payer, doctors would opt out-that's fine. But the mass of doctors wouldn't be able to afford to.