March is here; I can almost smell the spring! Trout Season just opened and the fish are all hiding, I know. I spent half the day looking for them.
I just had to get out of the house for a little while, this past month has been terrible. One day the temperature nearly touches 70, then the next there is frost on the ground. Everyone at my house has gotten sick, got over it, passed it around and sick again. Last weekend my 2-½ year old had a high fever, so we took him to the hospital. He has asthma as well, so anytime he gets sick the asthma kicks in and makes things worse.
His fever had dropped to a fairly safe level by the time we got in to see a quack. Actually, his name was Dr. Waack or something like that according to the prescription labels.
Let me tell you something, I have discovered something else wrong with our country, and this time it has nothing to do with the government. “Health Care” This is a problem I have been observing for some time now, but it’s finally gotten my dander up enough to write about it. Here’s the problem as I see it.
Medical Insurance – I have pretty decent insurance, if you can ever figure out what they will pay, and what they won’t. I also have a prescription card, which has saved me hundreds already this year. The problem with insurance is that they allow hospitals to bill as high as they do. The rule of economics is to charge as much as you can get people to pay. Hospitals have no problem with this concept, especially since an insurance company will pay 70-90 percent, sometimes even more if the patient is lucky. Patients are so grateful for the “cure”, they usually don’t mind paying the rest, although often times I think what is left up to the patient is a fair bill for the whole thing.
Pharmaceutical Companies – God bless those wonderful people who make all those wonderful drugs that we so love! Same as hospitals, pharmaceuticals will charge as much as they can, knowing that you or your insurance will pay for the wonderful results they provide. Now as if they didn’t make enough money, they sell you drugs to fix one symptom and introduce 5 more, so you have to take another drug to fix those, and so on, and so on… But they STILL aren’t finished! Last year I walked through the “over-the-counter” area of a local pharmacy and discovered several big name drugs who have expanded their expertise and now offer drugs to cure other things. For example, there is one that is famous for a drug that provides headache relief. They took the same drug, increased its dose, changed it form from pill to liquid, flavored it with honey, and Voila’! A “brand-new” drug to cure a sore throat. They don’t tell you that you can get the same effect if you take twice the normal dosage of their pill. Maybe it’s more effective in liquid form? I doubt it unless you gargle with it.
Doctors – These are the biggest fakirs I have ever seen. The nurses do all the work, and they get all the money. Plus, after my visit last weekend, I think they get kick backs for prescriptions. Dr. Quack that we saw last weekend prescribed 4 drugs for my 2-½ year old. One of which we already had on hand. We took the baby (Ok, he’s not really a baby, but he’s our last, so he’s a baby until he’s 16.) Anyway, we took him in for a fever, figuring he’s got the flu or bronchitis like the rest of us. Doc Quack gives him 3 different drugs for his asthma (which was not severe at this point), and 1 antibiotic for his double ear infection. Now I have no trouble with the antibiotics, I know he needed that, and it worked. One of the asthma drugs we already had, a refill is helpful, but wasn’t needed. Another was a steroid, also for the asthma, which we have used before, and it probably wasn’t necessary at this point, the third was another inhalant, which we have never used, even when our daughter was hospitalized last year with asthma. My wife was concerned, as she should be, about so many drugs for such a young child, so I researched them a bit. I find that the new inhalant should not be given to anyone with any kind of infection, as it will lower the immune systems ability to fight the infection. Way to go Doc! Needless to say we have yet to use this stuff, and baby is just fine. Had we followed Dr. Quack’s advice, we might have had another hospitalization. Not only that, but between his prescriptions, and prescriptions for my wife’s bronchitis it cost me $95.00 in drugs, and that is WITH the prescription insurance card!
Now I know what some of you are thinking right now, that it wasn’t that expensive, most of you pay more than that for a single prescription. You’re right. As I waited for the scripts to be filled I watched an old woman come to pick hers up. She was in on of those electric shopping carts, as she couldn’t walk well. In fact, she shook so badly that she could barely steer the card. The pharmacy tech asked her if she had insurance, to which she replied that she didn’t. The tiny packet she was handed cost her $125.00. I swear I thought she was going to have a heart attack right there when they told her.
I don’t normally like to complain when I don’t have a solution to offer, but in this case, there is a serious problem that seems to be overlooked and I have no idea what the solution could be. Well, I do, but the last time I mentioned socialized medicine I was called a communist. It was also explained to me that a person with more money deserved better health care than someone with less, or none. I guess they were of the mind that “communist health care” was of a lower standard that what the wealthy can afford or should be given. It doesn’t have to be that way, I know from first hand experience. My first son was born under socialized health care. He and my wife were both given excellent care, better than what we have ever had here in the US, and all it cost us was what my wife had paid in taxes and about $5.00 a day for the phone at her bedside.
Now it’s time for me to get off my soapbox and listen to what you have to say. Give me your ideas, complaints, horror stories, etc. Maybe we can start a revolution!
Reader Comments
Name: Cassandra
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Comment: Mike - thank you for your wonderful comments. My goodness!!! I felt both humble and gloriously happy. And I saw your pictures too. That eagle thrills me to the deepest part of my soul. Also your comments on the terrible prices of medicine and the doctors giving us all those medicines - that sometimes really tear up our systems - is absolutely dittoed by me!!! Maybe you could publish it in your local paper or start a group online to send in protests.
I hope your family are all doing fine now.
Comment: Oh, Mike. Now, this is a subject I can speak on freely.
As an Insurance Contract Administrator for a local hospital, I can dispell some of these myths surrounding hospitals and what they (we) charge. We rarely, if ever, receive 90% of what we bill. The way an insurance company works is this: They bring the hospital their clients, the hospital will take an adjustment off of their bill. Sort of like the bulk food aisle. You say that the insurance company pays 70-90% of the bill. No, sir. Before they pay their portion, they take a discount, and it can be a heavy portion. I know of one insurance company who, no matter what services are rendered, will pay our hospital $240.00 for an ER visit. And that INCLUDES the patients copay of $50.00! Wow, $190.00 sounds like a lot of compensation for saving a man's life. And I've seen it.
The hospital, obviously, marks up their goods and services, just the same way a supermarket marks up theirs. You don't question the price you pay for the pork chops you just bought, although they are probably marked up more than the average hospital bill. You want someone to point a finger at, take a look at medical suppliers who charge the hospital $5.00 for a bedpan.
As for the money a hospital receives, I will be the first to tell you that if I had 5 million dollars to invest, the LAST thing I would do is buy a hospital. Hospitals routinely loose millions each year, not because we have inflated prices, but because we don't see the money coming in the door for the services we provide. My hospital's demographic is largely based on non-english speaking immigrants with low incomes/no income and large child populations. Our hospital has a GREAT month if we get $.50 for every dollar we bill, and that INCLUDES insurance companies and government programs. If you only received half of your paycheck, wouldn't you feel a little cheated?
For example, a patient was brought into our hospital, stayed in ICU for 19 days, had surgery, recouperated and went home. The bill? $117,000.00. What did we get paid? $25,000.00 We received LESS than 1/4 of our charges, and that includes all the staff, surgery supplies, implants...everything! I can't even buy paperclips for our Business Office because, literally, we can't afford them.
Before anyone points a finger at the hospitals, remember; we are the first line in healthcare for those who don't have the ability to pay. You can walk into our ER's across the nation and receive life-saving treatments without batting an eye. We will save your life before we check your wallet, and that is a fact, regardless of these blown-up horror stories everyone hears. You don't ask the pharmacutical companies to give out free drugs to the homeless to treat their ailments, yet you expect a hospital full of highly educated professionals to donate their services for free? Most of them do, as a matter of fact, because they don't get paid what their worth anyway. And most of the time, when someone needs help, our office is writing off hundreds of thousands of dollars in charity care a year, and thanking them for using our hospital for their medical needs.
Most of our mothers' wanted us to grow up and do something respectible in our careers. Some of the most caring, unselfish people I have EVER met have been those doctors you are crucifying. I have seen doctor's perform surgery and not bill patients so they can rest a little easier, donate time to local shelters and pay for, out of their own pockets, hundreds of pregancy tests and vaccines to the underpriviledged and "working poor". Be careful in your estimation of doctors, Mike, because they are not all monsters. They are human, and as humans, make mistakes. I have had horrid doctors, 'tis true, but I have seen the gentle hand of God at work in quite a few of them.
Socialized healthcare is a great concept and should be examined and profiled as soon as possible. Your solution is a viable answer for patients and the healthcare entities that serve them.
But until then, be kind to those who work in the hospitals. They are not corporations, they are people, who buy coffee and a sweet-roll for the elderly lady waiting for her husband to come out of heart surgery. They don't make the money you think they do. Some of them just care a lot more than anyone gives them credit for.
