The best way to assure quality medical care is to return to the system that required people to pay for their own health care.
After decades of demanding that someone else pay the bills, the entire field of medicine has become jaded and inefficient. Of course, there are some wonderful professionals, but they are becoming more scarce every day. Clerks in insurance companies are making health decisions that should be handled only by a trained professional.
I’m old enough to remember when an insurance company – and the IRS – actually believed any report I signed regarding a person’s expenses at our pharmacy. They did the same thing for doctors’ fees. It’s different today – nobody trusts anyone.
The whole story about health care reform is about who pays and how much they pay – little if anything to do with actually improving the health of the citizens.
Many people approaching Medicare age will keep working because the system is so flawed doctors are increasingly opting out of the Medicare morass. Why would a person want to pay for a Medicare part B and a supplement if the doctors around here won’t even take a patient who is “on Medicare”? God willing, people in that situation hope to die on the job.
Its about time the doctors re-grow their spines and tell the third parties some hard facts of life in a free economy. Telling an insurance company what’s what is extremely difficult and I don’t think most doctors have the strength to do it. Status quo seems to win hands down; do the test, write the prescriptions, do some surgery, order more tests, prescribe more drugs, collect a pittance and HOPE your patients like you enough that your compensation is above minimum wage.
Obviously, I’m dreaming and waxing nostalgic about life “back in the day”. Everything is different today – not necessarily better, just different. However, I predict that good doctors will continue to back away from Medicare. The really good ones will stop accepting insurance payments. They will work for cash – and even help their patients by allowing payment plans. There won’t be many, but they’ll be busy and well compensated.