Re: The world is full of morons... "Constitutionalists."
- From: Sue <sebrady@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:56:15 GMT
On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:01:49 GMT, Sue <sebrady@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 03:08:26 -0400, strabo <strabo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Sue wrote:
On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:48:58 -0400, strabo <strabo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Robert Sturgeon wrote:
On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 02:33:53 -0400, straboI find the highly successful control of American medicine
<strabo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
(snips)
For a 55 yo male *full* coverage in California would run atEveryone with two neurons knows that health insurance is one
least $5000 a year. Now if you knew when you'd need it...
of the first things you buy, BEFORE new(er) cars, vacations,
toys of any kind, etc.
I've never (voluntarily) been without health insurance.
Getting an insurance company to cover me has sometimes been
quite a trick. They prefer covering people who won't be
needing much of any doctoring, which is understandable. Of
course, if we really wouldn't be needing any doctoring, we
wouldn't have need of health insurance anyway. An
interesting situation, ain't it?
most interesting.
Medical insurance is a travesty. 1) It does not accurately
reflect risk/loss and 2) insurance is used as means of increasing
cost to the insured by hiding or disguising services and
3) removing the insured from the accounting/billing process
creates ignorance and apathy.
The two main factors said to determine risk versus loss, are
age and sex. What group has the highest medical costs? Females.
What group has the lowest medical costs? Males. With advancing age
more resources are used but even here females use far more.
I'm not doubting you (I know better), but could you please post your
source for this? I'm curious as to why this might be. There is, of
course, child birth, contraception and various female maladies. Also,
perhaps women get wellness check ups more than men (not being as
stubborn :o) ).
I suppose males tend to be stubborn, disinterested or don't care.
I've never been hospitalized. I have been to the ER twice. I haven't
had an official exam in 35-40 years.
My feeling is if it ain't broke don't fix it and if it is
broke fix it yourself or ignore it. Maybe it'll go away.
You're using extremely limited anecdotal evidence. ;o) I know of a
fellow (not a client) who had gastric by-pass a year ago April. He's
still in the hospital.
Is that the way I treat my cars? No. But then they don't have
built in repair capability.
Sound familiar?
Personally, I hate going to the doctor. I haven't had a physical (tit
squish, "dig" or any of the other stuff) in about three years. I have
individual doctors - cardiologist [rapid heart rate], urologist
[tendency to kidney stones], dermatologist [had skin cancer].
Personally, I think the latter two just have me come back ever 6
months for the insurance money. I haven't had a kidney stone in three
years and had solved the problem with having a parathyroid gland
removed. You're inspiring me to fire the urologist. :o)
But I can think of things that are probably more
male types of medical costs (broken bones for example) and aren't
males more prone to cardio-vascular trouble and so forth? Who has the
higher percentage of smokers now? Would another factor in women's
higher costs be that they live longer? I dunno so I'm asking.
Sue
Let's be sure we're talking about the same thing. I am saying that
the male typically pays as much or more for insurance when it is
the female that actually costs the insurance company more.
That's your contention. I just want proof of that statement - that
females cost the insurance companies more.
Insurance
companies like to make a big deal of actuarial tables but their
publicized rates come from blending costs. This results in more or
less similar premiums for both sexes. This is my conclusion based on
comparing premiums between sexes by age and various medical charges
made by hospitals. You can check them. Most underwriters have on-line
application forms which will give you premium costs.
I'm not disputing the premium costs. I'm asking for proof that women
cost more.
What is publicized is the demand for medical services by women
compared to men.
Publicized by whom? You're publicizing it with no proof.
Women are drawn to health care like vultures
to a carcass. Now there's an image.
You know that males typically ignore potential problems and
are reticent about pursuing anything medical.
I do? I'll grant you that it does *seem* to be a common trait, but
maybe I've just bought into the "women are worse drivers than men"
sort of thing. You hear it often enough and you believe it.
Males do tend
to broken limbs and and cuts but while unnecessarily expensive,
are cheap compared to OB-Gyn, internal medical services and drugs.
Males tend to have many more accidents (this is an assumption on my
part but seems to be agreed to by you) - from sports, auto accidents
(can be *very* expensive) and doing home repairs and other risky
behaviour. And, speaking of risky behaviour - I don't know how many
HIV positive and AIDS patients have health insurance but the
overwhelming number are males and those meds are (or, at least used to
be, *very* expensive) and can go on for years.
And what of drugs? Pharmaceuticals are a girls' best friend these
days.
Se above vis a vis HIV and AIDS.
What percentage of women are taking something for depression
or anxiety?
Probably lots more than men. After all, we have to put up with you
men. Who wouldn't be depressed. :o)
Or birth control?
Well, if you guys would stay away from us..... ;o)
What percentage of women are on a
medical diet?
I have no idea since I'm not really sure what you mean. Do you mean
like low salt or low cholesterol? If so, I assume the cost is just
from being monitored by a physician. If that's the case I'd say the
male/female ratio wouldn't be very different.
But the biggest difference in outlay is in older age. As males
tend to collapse early and linger less, females live long and linger
and linger. Hospitals and homes take advantage of this. It is very
expensive.
That's a good point which I'd already brought up.
I had an additional idea on this. From one of the links you posted it
appears that the majority of the illnesses of the elderly are paid for
by Medicare (67.9% for the oldest group) and Medicaid (6.5%) and only
25.6% for "commercial" insurance. This is the group that is 59.6%
female. Now, the whole math thing makes my head spin, but although
the 25.6% is not divided among the genders, it would, of course be
more women since they *do* live longer. However, what about those who
are below Medicare age? Most of those old ladies *aren't* using
private health insurance which is what is under discussion here.
I've probably just dug myself into a hole and don't see it. :o)
Sue
.
The US medical industry - its a girl thing.
It seems that to you, anything that's a "girl thing" is a "bad thing".
You can dig through these if you want. I find it depressing.
http://www.paho.org/English/DD/AIS/HSA2006.htm
This was too big for my computer I guess because it froze on the first
page.
http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/51/2/179
I couldn't see that there was any gender study in this.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1852918
Although this did separate male from female and it separated Medicare
from Medicaid from "commercial" insurance it didn't say which gender
was using which form of payment. Since we are only discussing private
(commercial) insurance I don't see that this is a valid link to
support your position.
http://www.google.com/search?q=hospital+costs+by+gender&hl=en&start=10&sa=N
Didn't try this one. Sorry. Out of time.
Now, I'm not saying that you're wrong. I asked for where you got your
info. I didn't get that except for what you *think*.
I get my health insurance through my job so I don't know if there are
any differences in costs due to life style if one is getting there
health coverage themselves. I mean, do smokers pay more? Do fat
people pay more? If women should pay more (and I'm not saying they
shouldn't) then so should people who partake of risky life styles.
Time to mow the lawn. I'll do my best to not cut off my foot.
Sue
If medical insurance was accurately and honestly applied, males would
pay a tenth the amount compared to females. Do you? Nope. You pay
more than what you otherwise would.
Aside from this disparity, a dominant middle class such as that in
the US would ordinarily enjoy *most* benefits of medicine paid
out-of-pocket.
For example, I've cited comparisons of common maladies like broken
bones, appendectomies and so on, and shown that today's costs are
absurd. But, with controls over medical schools, practices, and
prohibitions of drugs and even the plants that comprise 50% of
pharmaceuticals, Americans are forced to rely on a crippled medical
system and pay out the ass for it.
Yes, the public has bought the government/corporate line and
pay often unnecessary and excessive costs.
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