It's unfortunate,
but in regards to the Affordable Healthcare Act, the only thing I see getting
healthier is the bottom line of the Health Insurance brokers, the hospitals and
the medical equipment and supply people. Take away the mandate; it might be
easier to swallow. We constantly hear many say they want universal healthcare
like what is enjoyed in the U.K., but all one has to do is look at the
population of the U.K., and compare it to that of the U.S., to see why it won't
work; unless we change the system we currently have in place. Not to mention,
the healthcare system in the U.K. of late is getting worse.
Until some things
change in the USA, the healthcare will not improve. People really need to
stop visiting the emergency rooms and their physicians with every trivial
little ailment. Preventative medicine is important, but headaches, runny noses,
common colds, splinters in your fingers, etc.; really? My physician informs me
these are a heavy burden on the system as a whole, waste time and money,
and drive insurance rates up. I'm not saying everyone should attempt their own
sutures and the like, I mean I do, but I'm not all there, O.K., although I've
done it enough to know what I'm doing.
The rent
that our physicians are being charged by the for-profit /non-profit hospitals
needs to come way down. The attitude, the for-profit and supposedly non-profit medical
centers carry, is, to me, the worst problem; they seem to think that only the
wealthiest should have access to decent healthcare. Next in line are the
medical equipment middle men.
Due to an
amputation I spend a great deal of time in a wheelchair. I have a custom-built
Quickie wheelchair that could use a few repairs. The cost for these repairs
might be a hair less or more of $500. Here is the problem. When I took my chair
to have it repaired, I was told (they) would not repair it; they would replace
it. (They) are the medical equipment brokers. I was all for it until I saw what
they would replace it with. Basically, a $249.00 Walgreen’s special which is as
basic as you can get; plastic wheels, all heavy metal construction and the weight
of the chairs are about 100 pounds. Comparatively, my chair weighs 19 pounds. They
would in turn, charge Medicare and Medicaid around $2000.00. That way, the
medical equipment people get their cut; the wheelchair manufacturer gets their
cut, and all those in between get a cut. And people wonder why this country is
running in the red. Well, I would not accept their Walgreen’s special, and I am
left with repairing it myself.
There is so much waste, fraud and abuse in the
medical field, just so everyone can get a cut of the profits; until all of it
is brought to the attention of society and regulated, those costs will never come down.
