Re: Socialized medicine at its best ...

On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:17:33 -0800, Miss Elaine Eos wrote:

On 2010-02-26 04:00:07 -0800, "Alex W." <ingilt@xxxxxxxxxxx> said:
On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:43:45 -0500, Tony wrote:
On 2/25/2010 8:46 PM, Alex W. wrote:
On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:34:43 -0500, Tony wrote:
On 2/24/2010 10:18 PM, Methuselah wrote:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article7039285.ece

The money quote:

"An independent inquiry found that managers at Mid Staffordshire NHS
Foundation Trust stopped providing safe care because they were
preoccupied with government targets and cutting costs."

That's pretty much what I wrote.
It's them trying to introduce healthcare down to a cost rather
than up to a standard.

That's what government does, Alex. I'm surprised after all these years
you haven't figured that out.

YOu don't get it.
It's what happened when our government decided it would be a good
idea to introduce capitalism into healthcare.

?!?!

It's bad business to take a short-term profit view toward people's
health. When your patients die (or at least fail to get better), word
gets around. This, btw, is why Kaiser thrives. As I've mentioned
before, they do an incredible job of "herding the cattle", but they do
it in a way that makes the customer feel good.

Once the captialist incentive is removed, and one has a monopoly at the
point of a gun, then the ONLY motive is profit, as there is no one to
enforce a standard of care other than the care provider.

Or government.

As for the capitalist incentive of competition, that's a fairly
limited point. When you're in a car crash, you do not stop to
get the best quote or compare hospital mortality rates -- you
want to go to the nearest ER, and screw the cost.

As for the short-term view, how many here would know exactly how
his insurer's mortality figures stack up (starting with the way
you measure them)? And if you knew, how many could do anything
about it? If your employer has a group plan with insurer A,
that's who you are stuck with. If your employer changes plans to
cut costs, that's what you are stuck with -- and if you don't
like it, feel free to try and get another job in this economy.
If your insurer wishes to raise profits, they can simply tweak
the small print to limit or exclude certain drugs or treatments
-- what are you going to do about that?

The basic capitalist mechanism to regulate profit is a highly
imperfect way to manage the market. The scope for squeezing
profit out of a customer rises in line with his price
insensitivity, and nothing is as insensitive to price as the
fight for health and life.
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: What Is The Goal?
    ... They have a problem with medical care if they need the ... STATES going without healthcare unless they just refuse it, ... THE GOVERNMENT TO SIGN UP 43 MILLION MORE CUSTOMERS FOR THEM. ...
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