Paying govt money to greedy doctors will not produce affordable health care.

Originally posted by FredT

Originally posted by groingrinder
reply to post by FredT

 

I still say seven thousand dollars an hour is too much. Even for a heart surgeon.

DO you really think he makes that per hour? If you factor in how many hours the man is at work which is about 80+ on a slow week. its more like 240 an hour.

AFAIK and I might add his patients are, even 10K an hour would be worth every cent for someone that good.

If you want your kid seen by the lowest bidder by all means, but hey we see those kids that were botched and he fixes them too.

You obviously did not read my post. The doctor did indeed make $7,000.00 per hour. He operated for two and a half hours and billed my father the seven grand plus change per hour for it. You obviously are defending your colleagues who are holding the rest of us hostage with excessively high fees. To say the doctor did not make that money is an outright lie. I have the medical bills.

Nobody said anything about the lowest bidder. I said that fees need to be lowered so that people can pay without going into debt their entire lives. Nobody said anything about bidding.

reply to post by Janky Red


Yes, it is all a scam. And it needs to be eliminated. People should not have to fork over a major portion of their incomes to doctors and insurance companies. Medical care needs to be made affordable. Rich people come from all over the world to get American medical care. Poor Americans have to go to Mexico for affordable care.

Originally posted by groingrinder
reply to post by ecoparity

 

Where I come from hospitals bill separately from the Dr. The bill from the Dr. is always much higher than that of the hospital. The hospital gives you a break if you are poor and you only pay a percentage of the fee. The Dr's billing service however ALWAYS MAKES YOU PAY THE ENTIRE FEE. I have not confused the GREEDY DOCTORS WITH THE HOSPITAL. I understand they have student loans, however they do not have to pay them back with just one patient, or in one week.

Hospital and doctor bills are billed separately where I come from too. My doctor's bill for my stent was $2700.00. That was the total bill, the surgery and post op visits while I was in the hospital. The hospital bill for 5 days $48,000 I got charged for tests and drugs I was not given. Hmmmm, who's greedy here?

Is this thread really a discussion about how to make healthcare more affordable or is this disguised a vent to gripe about how much doctors make?

No one denies healthcare costs are insane. I know, for insurance and what they don't cover, I shell out 15,000 a year.

but if you want to rant, then go to bts to the rant board.

Originally posted by FredT

I was refering to the SF Bay Area which does have the highest salaries in the world for nurses. And yes my base rate is over $70 an hour. Working nights you add 18% to that and Im NOT top of scale. BSN (Which I have BTW) makes no difference here on the West Coast by and large.

In the Midwest, the base rate for a nurse specialist in pediatrics. Is usually $35 an hour. But the amount of training, and dedication needed for that specialty is something, I can't even fathom.

I have always respected a fellow male nurse that could work with pediatrics. It something, I could never do. My hats off to you.

Btw- I make about a 4th of what you make. Doctors in the midwest usually don't make more then $200,000, Unless they specialize.

It is all quite simple really.

Nationalise healthcare, so it is under Government control. The taxpayer pays for the cost through their taxes. Doctors et al work for the Nationalised healthcare system, therefore are paid a salary by the Government. Drugs and health equipment are then put out to tender to the Pharmaceutical and equipment manufactuers.

The above would then reduce healthcare costs.

reply to post by groingrinder




So some doctor over charges your family, and now they are the cause of all the "evil" in health care.

Maybe I'm biased, being a nurse in all. But I know Doctors who barely make more then I do. Who are giving up the profession, and becoming plumbers, IT guys, etc. By the time, overhead costs take effect. The Doctors 7,000$ dollars an hour, might only make him 20 Dollars an hour. (The Hospital cut, insurance cut, government fees like OSHA, Malpractice insurance, loan payments, etc.)

Why be a doctor, when you can make the same amount of money from Plumbing? Know a Doctor that became a plumber, I do. And yes, he was a good doctor, who became a good plumber. And no, he did nothing to lose his license nor does he have any citations.

You want to blame somebody for health care costs. Blame the suits. (Lawyers, Hospital shareholders, Insurance lobbyists, etc.) When they figured out there was a profit to be made off the sick, and the dying. They institutionalized the health care world, and the "Town doctor" became ancient history. And the "one size, fits all" mentality took over. It became assembly line of human beings. The Doctor must see so many people an hour, must limit the labs\tests\medicines to approved "lists" of tx, must insist on certain medications over others, must use commercialized emr's that track every Doctors performance and base them with his peers, etc.

So now, the corporate world has almost destroyed health care, now its the Governments turn. The Government now will "profit" off of healthcare industry, and give the same crappy service as the Corporate world plus more "Red tape."

And yes, I work under a state health care plan. So I deal with everyday, I have seen cancer patients die while the state decides to treat them or not. (Note: I was going to provide exp's then realized that I need to shutup, Good day.)

reply to post by groingrinder


Im obviously NOT defending anybody simply trying to correct your ignorance on such matters.


What several of us has shown is that your plan to "FIX" the healthcare system is fundementaly flawed based on poor data or a small sample etc.

You feel all MD's are sitting in thier office smoking a cuban, wearing a top hat like Daddy Warbucks and sleeping on big piles of money and thats simply not the case for the majority of them

reply to post by nixie_nox


If I had fifteen grand to pay health insurance with, I still would not do it. Nobody is going to hold me over a barrel and tell me if I want to live, then I have to pay them their ransom. And yes it is about making health care affordable.

Pay fifteen grand a year to insurance or pay fifteen grand to the doctor. There really is no difference there.

I did not say every doctor was greedy, but I did say the greed doctors were bad.

If the revue boards would weed out the bad doctors instead of defending them, then maybe the insurance costs the doctors pay would go down.

Doctors kill more people than guns and car accidents combined.

15k a year! Are you insane?

I pay nowhere near that for Nationalised healthcare. I probably pay nearer 2k a year and I can still get to see a doctor whenever I want.

reply to post by Wotan


Two grand a year is every penny that I make right now. I am not giving it all to the govt for nationalized health care.

Originally posted by groingrinder
reply to post by Wotan

 

Two grand a year is every penny that I make right now. I am not giving it all to the govt for nationalized health care.

Then under the UK's NHS, you would not pay anything as you are under the earnings threshold, so in essence would get your healthcare for free.