Health care
Dr. Mark Earnest,
It is true that in any given year, the 10% of the population that gets sick generates 70% of the health care costs. Senator Hillman seems to think that all of these costs are a direct result of bad health behavior on the part of sick and that by charging higher fees to the sick, insurers can somehow encourage us to stay healthy. As physician, I can tell you that this is absurd. If Senator Hillman wants to legislate ways to punish smoking, drinking, and poor exercise habits, I’d love to hear his ideas, but punishing people for getting sick by charging higher premiums, won’t change behavior and will only leave the sick without insurance and jobs.
Under current Colorado law, if you, your co-worker or any of your family members is stricken with any significant illness, your premiums will go up and will continue to rise as you all age and acquire other diagnoses. The only way to keep the costs down for your employer group is to fire those audacious enough to get sick and replace older workers with younger ones.
Senator Hillman’s world, where we all choose our health status and where the market fairly rewards our choices, is not the world in which I practice medicine. Until that world comes to pass, we need to prevent insurers from abandoning those who need coverage the most. Community rating is the only reasonable way of preserving meaningful health coverage through private insurance.
This letter has not been edited.
A Senator sermonizing over something he doesn't know anything about?
No! Surely not!
Something happens inside that building to depress intellect.
Look at Bill Frist, a qualified doctor who suddenly and ineplicably tries to diagnose from afar and in contravention of all medical standards and ethics.
Must be radon gas or something in the brickwork ;)
Posted by Bango Skank on April 3, 2007 01:43 PMDr. Eanest,
"Senator Mark Hillman clearly doesn’t understand health, illness, or health insurance.
Isn't this to be expected though? I just checked his bio. There is nothing in there about being involved in the health insurance industry.
There was a time in America when a politician needed to understand diplomacy, economics and war to be an effective statesman. But, as government becomes more and more involved in the lives of her citizens, we now expect our politicians to be an expert in science, economics, health care, pregnancy, food, smoking, drinking, sociology, ecology, war, global cooling, global warming, terrorism, Islam, technology, diplomacy, and also have a grasp on the meaning of life. Oh, and in addition to all that, the politician must be well-spoken and look good on television.
Some may say that life is more complex these days and I may agree with that. But, I wonder how many of life's issues would be better dealt with by the experts in private industry rather than by government officials.
Posted by John II on April 3, 2007 06:58 PMDr. Mark Earnest, telling folks that you do not live in a world where we choose our health status and where the market fairly rewards our choices and it is not the world in which you practice medicine makes a lot of sense to those who understand what modern western medicine is all about. Doctors need a steady supply of sick people in order to stay in business and that is why we do not hear yuo preaching about illness prevention. It is a fact doctors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S, causing 225,000 deaths every year, but this is likely a low figure. According to Dr. Barbara Starfield, of Johns Hopkins School of Hygene and Health, these deaths are the result of:
12,000- Unnecessary surgery
7,000- medication errors in hospitals
20,000- other errors in hospitals
80,000- infections in hospitals
106,000- non-error, negative effects of drugs
In the hospital I work in, I hear nothing about disease prevention. It is all about treating sickness with surgery, drugs and radiation or what is referred to as "slash, poison and burn", because that is where the money is. We have a cancer center where folks are poisoned with chemo and burned with radiation but the reason we do not have a cancer "prevention" center is becaue there is not money for doctors in prevention. A well person is a lost customer. Americans are 5% of the world population, but they eat 45% of all the prescription drugs. Go ask a healthy person how many prescriptions they take and the number is likely to be zero. Why not stop whining about healt insurance and do something about spreading the word about sickness pervention through lifestyle choices. Be a good doctor.
Posted by M.D. on April 4, 2007 10:55 AMJohnII
So it's government "officials" but private sector "experts" is it? ;)
Well, the politicians actually have access to the best brains in the country through NAS, and a lot of those NAS scietists are in fact industry "experts".
Posted by Bango Skank on April 4, 2007 01:28 PM