… CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Former Air Force Reservist Gale Reid received a letter from the Veterans Affairs Department that told her she had Lou Gehrig’s disease, and she immediately put herself through a battery of painful, expensive tests. Five days later, the VA said its “diagnosis” was a mistake. [...]The National Gulf War Resource Center said at least 2,500 letters informing veterans of disability benefits for ALS sufferers were sent, with almost half — some 1,200 — a mistake. Those who received the letters have undiagnosed neurological disorders, according to the Gulf War veterans group, which provides information, support and referrals about illnesses to people who served in the military.
No one knows for sure exactly how many letters were mailed to veterans treated at VA hospitals and how many were a mistake. [...]
The VA has taken some heavy criticism already this year. In June, Congress questioned the agency over botched colonoscopies at medical centers in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee that may have exposed 10,000 veterans to HIV and other infections. Last month, the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia disclosed that the number of cancer patients receiving incorrect radiation doses had risen to 98 veterans over a six-year period.
Uh-huh, yeah …. let’s have the government run everyone’s healthcare, m’kay?
Comment by Obstreperous Infidel on 8/24 @ 8:04 pm #
Somewhat OT but relevant comment, but I have thought on and off for the last 20 some years that I had ALS. I have similar symptoms, but symptoms that would have not been persisting for 20 some years had I had that horrible illness. It may just be stress, which, although would be welcomed (fucked up ain’t it!) is kind of messed up in and of itself. Anyhow, back on topic, what an awful excuse of a government enterprise. We constantly hear horror stories about the VA and medicare/medicaid and these spineless/brainless sheep out here want the gubmint to be in charge of health care? It don’t make no sense.
Comment by J.S.Bridges on 8/24 @ 8:27 pm #
Not only should we have the Gubmint running the whole thing…let’s make sure all the medical staff get the same level of training and qualification as appears to be the norm within the VA.
Most of those guys make the TSA clowns out at the airport look like geniuses, by contrast…
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 8/24 @ 10:13 pm #
Good Lord.
Ace touted a commenter quote from a post a week or two back that was, quite frankly, fabulous (Oh fuck off. I rarely get to use the word “fabulous” and not come off as completely gay so I’m gettin’ while the gettin’s good).
It was something along the lines of; “There are exactly four points of access to health care in the US. Medicaid, Medicare, the VA and private insurers. The first three of these are exclusively owned and operated by the federal government. The last functions in a highly competitive, for profit, free market, capitalist environment. Those first three are all but insolvent (despite hundreds of $billions of tax payer dollars over the years) and plagued with all manner of inefficiency, red tape stupidity, and atrocities. The last is wholly solvent and profitable and will remain so indefinitely. While private health insurance has its own serious problems, it has mastered and preforms a very difficult and vitally important function incredibly well compared to any other model on the planet Earth.”
The comment @ Ace’s was shorter but that was the gist.
My only addendum would be; Tell ya what Obama…you go on and hope/ change/ fix them first three gub’mint “healthcare” turds we’ve all been
taxedbutt-raped on since we first drew a paycheck at the age of 16, and then we’ll all sit down and talk calmly about you and Pelosi getting between all of us and our tonsil stealing, foot chopper-offer, evil profit doctors.** How bout that slick?** and start with the VA asshole. You can fucking have our tax dollars to fix that one. They’ve more than earned it.
Comment by Darleen on 8/24 @ 10:19 pm #
meya
it’s tort reform… and for what you appear to know about it you may as well be saying “tart” reform
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 8/24 @ 10:25 pm #
Maybe they should sue? Oh shit! tort reform!
You are a child who knows fuck all about anything and everything about fuck all.
Explain physician shortages in Obstetrics, Radiology, Anesthesia, and Cardiology.
Explain their malpractice premiums vs. horse shit frivolous law suits (a la baby daddy John Edwards).
Hell. Explain anything.
We’ll wait…
Comment by meya on 8/24 @ 10:39 pm #
“The last is wholly solvent and profitable and will remain so indefinitely.”
Of course. They can just let go of the people that take out more than they pay in.
Comment by geoffb on 8/24 @ 10:44 pm #
Lamontyoubigdummy.
Could this be the post you were writing about.
The guy there says, like you that he saw it somewhere else, but I haven’t been able to find any other reference.
Comment by cranky-d on 8/24 @ 10:45 pm #
I could have sued and won, easily, because I had a situation of genuine malpractice that required another surgery, and the attendant risks of same, to correct it. I didn’t because the eventual outcome was good enough. In any case, suffering sucks, but life also tends to hand some people a bad deal sometimes.
I wonder how many malpractice cases are true malpractice, and how many just involve unhappy outcomes. I have the feeling that the cases are biased towards the unhappy outcomes, with people looking for someone to blame.
Comment by JD on 8/24 @ 10:48 pm #
STFU you lying lying fascist twat.
This idea that people just get dumped willy nilly when they get sick, as a matter of practice, is one of the biggest whoppers the Leftists use to sell this turd. There should be an absolute epidemic of state Insurance Commissions dealing with illegal recissions. And to save you the effort, you lying fuck, I have no doubt that some act poorly. But in relation to the numbers of policyholders, the bad actors and bad actions are such a teeny tiny percentage so as to be statistically insignificant. Now, fuck off, meya/RD.
Comment by JD on 8/24 @ 10:52 pm #
Cranky-d – You are correct that the vast majority are maloutcome as opposed to malpractice.
Comment by Darleen on 8/24 @ 10:58 pm #
meya
what you seem to miss is that health insurance stopped being the definition of “insurance” long ago and due to government meddling.
How much do you think your car insurance premiums would be if your state mandated that car insurance cover oil changes and tire rotations?
Comment by Darleen on 8/24 @ 11:00 pm #
I wonder how many malpractice cases are true malpractice
some definitely are and suing them for compensatory damages should remain.
but lawsuit lottery should stop
Comment by geoffb on 8/24 @ 11:07 pm #
Can a health insurance company or health service plan cancel my policy for membership for any reason?
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 8/24 @ 11:13 pm #
They can just let go of the people that take out more than they pay in.
Ah yes, flea market jesus’s big talking point…now from Martha’s fucking Vineyard I guess. “Evil Insurance Companies.”
Boogie Boogie Boogie!
Scary!
You’re an idiot.
Based on class and current health condition an insurer can raise premiums on an insured upon renewal date. That’s it. And that’s for fucking stand alone individual health. Employer paid group health premiums stay pretty much flat regardless of class, pre-existing and/or condition because the risk is spread wide. If the stand alone insured can’t afford the new premiums, guess what? There’s Medicaid. Not to mention CHIP and a slew of other gap rafts to make up the difference.
If your boy hadn’t fubar’d the economy with $$trillions of dollars in suicidal, pork barrel spending, skyrocketed unemployment, pink slipping damn near a quarter of the American workforce (non-union of course) & freaked Wall Street and small businesses right the fuck out, a shitload more folks and their families would have that nice employment group health package right now.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 8/24 @ 11:26 pm #
geoffb:
Yeah, that may be it. Ace said the same. It was a quote from a quote (the commenter didn’t take credit for it) and Ace didn’t know who to credit. I never looked at the comment itself. Ace just updated the original post, included the quote and put his own two cents in. I’d find it…but, you know, I’m lazy and stuff.
Just thought for all the loud noise (Town Halls, Nazis, political terrorists, SEIU etc.) it was a succinct and excellent thought that cuts through the bullshit and that our side should (in it’s indoor voice) put forward repeatedly during any discussion of Obamacare.
Comment by OCBill on 8/24 @ 11:26 pm #
I’m sorry , but we’re afraid you have ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease. This is an awful way to die. Treatment is expensive and ultimately futile. By the way, have you seen our new pamphlet, “Your Life, Your Choices”?
Comment by Log Cabin on 8/24 @ 11:28 pm #
Without a trace of self-consciousness, Meya spews a gem: Of course. They can just let go of the people that take out more than they pay in.
You mean the way they are currently doing in The Netherlands, Great Britain and France? As in, letting them die so that they no longer burden the system? Are you really so obtuse that you don’t even realize you are making points against your own side of the health care debate?
Being a liberal means never having to look at yourself.
Comment by meya on 8/24 @ 11:34 pm #
“Based on class and current health condition an insurer can raise premiums on an insured upon renewal date.”
They can also have another out when you’re too sick to work and lose your employer provided health insurance.
“Health care insurance policies or plans can be canceled (rescinded) if there is a material omissions or misrepresentations made by the insured or member in the application for coverage…”
This is why i think they *like* application fraud. Oh you didn’t check off all your pre-existing conditions? Or that you’re a smoker? No problem. We’ll take your money. Till we get a big claim.
The private health system has all sorts of ways to engage in selection and in price discrimination so that they can end up taking in more money than they spend. No surprise it turns a profit: that’s what they’re tying to do. Nothing evil. This is by design. Now the public system, they’re trying to do something else. And it’s not quite to get more money out of or get rid of the people costing more. This is also by design.
“You mean the way they are currently doing in The Netherlands, Great Britain and France? As in, letting them die so that they no longer burden the system? Are you really so obtuse that you don’t even realize you are making points against your own side of the health care debate?”
Sort of. Want to cut public costs? Throw grandma off medicare. End all these social programs like medicare and medicaid and social security. Follow these simple conservative policies and we’re much closer to Darleens favorite: The dreaded complete lives system where old people die as soon as they no longer enjoy life. I think this won’t happen, and instead we’ll tax people to save our grannies.
Comment by cranky-d on 8/24 @ 11:38 pm #
Some people apparently don’t understand how insurance actually works. That doesn’t stop them from holding forth on it, though. I guess it keeps the stupid off the streets.
Comment by Log Cabin on 8/24 @ 11:41 pm #
Throw grandma off medicare. End all these social programs like medicare and medicaid and social security. Follow these simple conservative policies…
You know, people would laugh at you a whole lot less if you could actually cite ANY important conservatives that are proposing these things.
But I’d hate to take away your strawman, seeing how he’s probably your only friend and all.
Comment by dicentra on 8/24 @ 11:56 pm #
I’ve heard the suggestion that instead of jury trials for malpractice, a board of physicians should rule whether there was malpractice or not. The plaintiff would get a tidy settlement, and the malpracticing doctor would lose his license or summat.
I’d much rather be judged by people who know what’s what instead of bleeding-heart juries who see only the pain and not the uncertainty and bad luck in medical outcomes.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 8/25 @ 12:02 am #
#19 Comment by meya on 8/24 @ 11:34 pm #
To quote from My Cousin Vinny: “Everything that guy just said is bullshit.”
“Health care insurance policies or plans can be canceled (rescinded) if there is a material omissions or misrepresentations made by the insured or member in the application for coverage…”
HORSE. SHIT.
By law an insurance company cannot cancel a policy if the insured provided the said information to the best of their knowledge (didn’t outright lie). Even if so, the insurer has no more than two years to determine if information on an application was false AND then must prove that that information given was intentionally falsified (incredibly hard to do if someone wasn’t intentionally lying). Even then an insurer may not cancel the policy, but must adjust premiums according to the new information and allow the policy holder to make up the difference from date of issue if desired. If the discovery is found after the 24th month, tough shit for the insurer. The policy must remain in force until renewal date and premiums cannot be adjusted.
It’s called due diligence nimrod.
And again, employer contributing group health has virtually none of that language. You could be 45 and have had two heart attacks in the last year and you’re still going to have close to the same monthly co-pay premium (depending on spouse/ children covered) as the obnoxious 25 year old vegan sitting in the cubicle next to you.
Throw grandma off medicare.
That was your boy’s plan for his own Grannie if I recall. Sans hip replacement to save a buck to boot.
Comment by geoffb on 8/25 @ 1:15 am #
I provided that quote
in #14 from a quickly Googled site.. It was only a part of the answer there. I provided a link for the rest of the answer. It was a general answer and not as specific as you are in #23. Most likely due to the differences in law from State to State. Meya skipped right past the word “material” and what else was at the link. Your answer is much more complete than mine which was simply a quick search to see about what Meya alleged in #7
Comment by Carin on 8/25 @ 4:32 am #
The private health system has all sorts of ways to engage in selection and in price discrimination so that they can end up taking in more money than they spend. No surprise it turns a profit: that’s what they’re tying to do. Nothing evil. This is by design. Now the public system, they’re trying to do something else. And it’s not quite to get more money out of or get rid of the people costing more. This is also by design.
The problem is, Meya, they AREN’T GOING TO BE ABLE TO DO IT. The government has never been able to spend money more efficiently. That “evil profit” motive you see in the free market … something else happens to the extra money in government. No, it doesn’t get recorded as gross or net. It just … disappears. Into someone’s new office, or a new jet, or a bloated staff, or on a myriad of other spending.
A week on the most expensive real estate in Martha’s Vineyard doesn’t pay for itself, you know.
Comment by Carin on 8/25 @ 4:35 am #
Oh, this just in from the NYT (via best of the web):
Oops, my mistake. I can’t believe Bush was enjoying the high life when we were suffering through a crippling 4.5 percent unemployment!
Oh, here is what I was looking for:
I wonder what they’re doing NOW!?! NYT, carrying the water for Democrats since … shit, forever?
Comment by Salt Lick on 8/25 @ 4:39 am #
Now the public system, they’re trying to do something else. And it’s not quite to get more money out of or get rid of the people costing more. This is also by design.
And after the design FAILS — see Medicare Solvency, Social “Security,” Urban Renewal, Welfare, School Busing — liberals won’t say they’re sorry. Because their design had good intentions. Even if the outcome destroyed lives and wasted money.
Using other people’s money to do good is so f*cking noxious.
Comment by Eben on 8/25 @ 5:20 am #
Shorter Meya “Please take all the profits away from the insurance companies and give it to the D.C. lobbyists/bureaucrats/insiders that way things will be all better.”
Religious fundamentalists like Meya are nauseating.
Comment by JD on 8/25 @ 6:07 am #
Theists that worship at the altar of government scare me.
Comment by Salt Lick on 8/25 @ 6:20 am #
Theists that worship at the altar of government scare me.
The smell of burning money pleases their god.
Comment by SDN on 8/25 @ 6:54 am #
meya, the reason you can’t sue the government is because the government can and does decline to let themselves be sued. Look up sovereign immunity.
Comment by SBP on 8/25 @ 6:57 am #
They can just let go of the people that take out more than they pay in.
Funny, I could’ve sworn that the insurance deal my employer has doesn’t allow them to do that.
Here’s a novel idea, SFAG: why don’t you get a real job?
Of course, that might require that you go back to college again and major in something useful this time.
Comment by BJTexs on 8/25 @ 7:01 am #
Again and again I return to question A1) that I started aking well over six months ago.
Why should we turn over the bulk of our health care system to the very same people who run Medicare, Medicaid and The VA? Why should I have any confidence, based upon historical evidence, that these lackeys will do anything but f#$k it up even worse than it is now?
I hold in my hand the CBO report on the “real” costs of this porcine lump and am still awaiting an answer that makes any sense. You know, one that deals with the actual mechanics and details for making it work cost efficiency.
Oh and any troll who wishes to play is automatically disqualified if their answers include any of the following
1) What we have now doesn’t work
2) We have to do something/47 million uninsured
3) It’s a moral imperative
4) Any quotes from the stupid WHO report.
5) Insurance companies make profits, OMG! (or any derivation of the “legalized profiteering” meme.)
How will it be administered and how will we pay for it? Bring it on!
Comment by BJTexs on 8/25 @ 7:03 am #
Ugh! I aking qestions! Ugh.
My typing skills are on par with The Va’s doctors diagnoses talents.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 8/25 @ 7:07 am #
Throw grandma off medicare…
ObamaCare sees grandma and veterans as shovel ready projects.
Your mendacity knows no bounds, meya.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 8/25 @ 8:54 am #
“I provided that quote…in #14 from a quickly Googled site..”
Sorry geoffb.
Saw it in meya’s comment and jumped it. I’ve held a life/health license in 30 + states for about 7 years. Insurers can and do put all kinds of language in applications (mostly to prevent people from flat out lying and, yeah, to cover their own butts), but once they accept the application and issue the policy the law swings heavily toward the insured in most states (you’re absolutely right that insurance law & regs are governed state to state). If the policy is issued and the insured keeps up with the premiums (good faith), it’s very rare an insurer would be able to just arbitrarily lapse/ rescind/ cancel a policy based on false or misleading info. Law won’t let them do it without first proving the misleading or false info was given intentionally, and then providing options for the insured to remain covered under the policy. I mean no one is going to lie about having 2nd stage colon cancer and wait through 30 days grace period / 90 days elimination period for continued treatment. Even if they did, the insurer has to then go to their underwriters and find out if they have issued policies to pre-existing cancer patients (and most have/ do, so kiss my ass meya). If they’ve issued a policy to even one of those, the actuaries have to come up with a like premium based on class rate (and yeah it may be $2-4k / month), and offer it to the insured who lied on the application before they can take any other course of action. Again, if the insurer isn’t paying attention (which happens) and the false info goes unidentified/ challenged/ confirmed for more than 24 months, it’s the insurer on the hook, not the insured. If a policy is ever rescinded/ canceled in this manner, all premiums paid in must be refunded to the insured (sometimes with interest).
Most folks will only fudge about tobacco use. If the life policy is large or the health policy has a low deductible and a high lifetime guarantee (in the millions), the underwriters will typically ask for anything from a mouth swab kit to a full paramedic exam before issuing the policy. If not, and they find out during that two year window that you dip Skoal (I’m looking at you meya), they just go back and adjust the premium based on what it would have been had you answered “yes” to tobacco use. They can’t cancel or rescind. Again, its just due diligence. They know (as far as the law goes) the responsibility rests on them and not John/ Jane Q. Public.**
**and again all of that is individual health policy stuff not employer co-pay group health. The latter is much more lax. HR sends you an email telling you it’s enrollment period time and “go here” to sign up you and your dependents for whatever you want and it will tell you how much gets yanked from your check. There are very few invasive questions aside from the tobacco thing. Individual health is a different ball of wax.
Comment by Ella on 8/25 @ 9:21 am #
I’ll support meya. I’m all for ending Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. Want to know what would happen to my grandmother? The same %#@#$%^^ thing that’s happening now – my parents, aunt, and I would supply all of her monthly living expenses and we’d cover 80% of her health care expenses. We’d drop the rest but, quite frankly, she’s a hypochonriac and doesn’t need it anyway. She would enjoy significantly better health if Medicare hadn’t let her get away with three unnecessary procedures that spawned four or five necessary procedures (not malpractice, just bad rolls of the dice).
Of course, I’d be supplying her with money and medical care with 20% more of my current salary. So there’s that.
Comment by Ella on 8/25 @ 9:23 am #
meya, you are ignorant and evil. People didn’t have the “complete lives system” before Medicare. (And there was a time before Medicare!) People … wait for it … paid for doctors themselves and then cared for elderly relatives themselves.
Don’t you dare accuse me of not taking care of my family.
Comment by geoffb on 8/25 @ 9:31 am #
Lamont, who’s no dummy.
I always figure on a thread if a trolls assertion isn’t immediately countered in some way it ends up being taken as truth by a casual reader. That was why I did #14 as a quick comeback with a link. I didn’t know if there was anyone who had actual experience/knowledge in that field who was on the thread. I am glad you were here to smack down that meme of the left.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 8/25 @ 9:54 am #
Thanks geoffb, but don’t sell me short.
Most of the time I’m a huge dummy.
We need better trolls. meya just tinkles on the rug and runs away.
I already have a beagle pup that does that.
But, you know, I like him so it’s ok.
Comment by Richard Aubrey on 8/25 @ 10:04 am #
High claims are not a legal reason to raise premiums on an individual contract. The company can only raise premiums on all the policy holders of that particular policy form in the entire state.
Doing this unnecessarily runs off the healthy people, leaving the company with only the sick people.
They can continue to raise rates–death spiral–but while they’re doing that, the remaining insured are a cohort with serious, expensive problems.
And federal law requires each state to have an insurer of last resort which will accept all comers.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 8/25 @ 10:29 am #
# Comment by Richard Aubrey on 8/25 @ 10:04 am #
All true. I sure as hell won’t speak for all carriers, but claims for any insured various class of applicant can be made public in court, which is why most reputable carriers do not base premium increases on claims made but rather attained age and condition/ class rates in any given state. And, again that’s on individual stand alone health policies not group health.
Private insurance is far from perfect and is in need of some reform. And, to be fair, there are plenty of shitbag, fly by night companies whose sole business model is premiums in vs. denied claims/ legal fees/ judgment/ settlement costs. But most of those companies don’t last long, and most folks know if you’ve never heard of them, walk away.
And federal law requires each state to have an insurer of last resort which will accept all comers.
Bingo. And our taxes already pay for that (US citizens, illegal aliens, Martians, or who or whatever can’t be sent to a fucking Veterinarian).
Comment by cranky-d on 8/25 @ 11:17 am #
I did not know that federal law required an insurer of last resort. That is both good to know, and a “hmmm” moment because the obvious thing to do if you want to cover “the uninsured” is to work from that angle.
Comment by Danger on 8/25 @ 12:04 pm #
“Maybe they should sue? Oh shit! tort reform!”
Meya,
Maybe you should pull your head out of your ass and look up something called the Feres Doctrine.
Better yet just click the link:
The money quote: Read’s wife, Jessica, reports that the doctor admitted it was human error. The hospital and surgeon are protected from lawsuit by an old federal law called the Feres Doctrine. Reed is likely to be placed on medical retirement which will mean receiving less than half his $1600 monthly salary. For now he remains in the hospital at UC Davis.
Perhaps you would like that feature to go with your “free” healthcare.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 8/25 @ 12:21 pm #
43. Comment by cranky-d on 8/25 @ 11:17 am #
Exactly, but there’s no angle we need to work from. Their whole premise is shit. That’s why the 47 million (or whatever the White House’s snipe hunt number is today) uninsured meme is total crap. If you reside legally or illegally in the US you have immediate unfettered access to health care. Period. Everybody is “insured” somehow. Through the government or otherwise. I can have no coverage whatsoever and walk into an ER tomorrow with a chest cold and I will be treated. The hospital will send me a bill that I don’t have to pay. It will jack up my credit but that’s it. The hospital will go to the federal government for recompense and they will get it. That happens everyday and we pay taxes for it. Obama wants to do “Medicaid” on a grand scale for all and ration the shit out of services provided for anybody outside the bell curve. If you’re under 10 years of age? Fuck you. If you’re over 55? Fuck you. Everybody in between can have one or two MRIs or whatever. Your doc don’t get a say. A bureaucratic bean counter does.
Comment by DarthRove on 8/25 @ 12:27 pm #
Especially when the good doctors leave their practices to avoid becoming government-owned health slaves. You’d be surprised how many docs are looking for exit strategies from medicine these days…
Bureaucracy-mandated health decisions carried out by the bottom half of the medical practitioners, yep that sure sounds like a good alternative to me. But hey, it’s free!!!!
Comment by BJTexs on 8/25 @ 12:49 pm #
Ric Locke raised the issue yesterday that, of course, the cost savings will have to come from seniors because that’s where the bulk of the costs reside.
The other thing is the whole quality of care issue. Good health care is simply not “cost effective” and is not well suited to the economic principles of economies of scale or ramped up productivity. Innovations tend to be expensive and tend to stay expensive for many years. Larger, better, more detailed diagnostic equipment costs big dollars in research, development and manufacturing. That’s why the US has more MRI’s and Echo-Cardiograms per capita than any other country in the world and why, on measure, people don’t have to wait for these services more than a few weeks.
I’ve had one MRI and, per my request, a combination nuclear Echo with a stress test. My insurance paid for the whole kit and caboodle and I had an appointment in less than three weeks. How does one “control costs” on equipment and diagnostic techniques that are almost always more expensive in addition to being more efficacious? I’ve not seen any studies on this issue but I also wonder what the domino effect would be on the rest of the world if extensive Health Care Reform squeezes the market on these sorts of innovations. Most of them come from the US, after all.
That’s without even touching on the whole drug issue. Paraphrasing a couple of lines from “The West Wing” while it may cost drug companies five cents a pill to manufacture, the first pill might cost $400 million.
These are important, nuts and bolts questions, along with costs and access. Teh One and the troll minions are more interested in the “moral initiative” than they are in the mechanics of administration and costs, especially as they relate to the ever rising budget deficit and our unfunded health program liabilities.
Comment by jcw46 on 8/25 @ 1:03 pm #
On a lighter note: good photoshop combine of teh won and emily.
Comment by Pablo on 8/25 @ 1:10 pm #
Quadruple that number, and you’ll be close.
Those evil, greedy drug companies!! Oh, and why does it cost over a billion and a half? Government.
Comment by Pablo on 8/25 @ 1:14 pm #
And that’s for elective procedures. My daughter had more MRI’s than I can count and usually was in the machine within 24 hrs of the scan being ordered. The one time I recall being longer was because the machine she was scheduled on went down.
Comment by The Monster on 8/25 @ 2:55 pm #
There are exactly four points of access to health care in the US. Medicaid, Medicare, the VA and private insurers.
That leaves out the Indian Health Service, which is about as good as you might expect it to be. The saying on the reservations is “Don’t get sick after June”, because the money runs out every year about then.
So make that five. Five points of access. Not counting the Comfy Chair, of course.
Comment by The Monster on 8/25 @ 2:56 pm #
And those who don’t have any insurance at all.
Six. Six points of access.
Comment by The Monster on 8/25 @ 2:56 pm #
Oh, bugger.
“Among our points of access are…”
Comment by JD on 8/25 @ 3:06 pm #
Pablo – In many cases, even the figure you suggested would not come close to covering it. Head over to Biotech, and a billion just gets you started.
Comment by geoffb on 8/25 @ 4:57 pm #
MRI’s. My wife having MS gets them on a regular basis. Generally the doctor orders it and I wheel her down to the MRI place and she’s in and back out in an hour or two. And CAT scans are so fast I can’t go get a cup of coffee in the time it takes.