Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
Not where the competition is eliminated. This is EXACTLY the issue. The costs are out of control because of coercion, regulation and NO competition for the existing private corporations. A Public Option will correct that.
(sorry I know I said I wasn't going to post on this topic again, but when a moderator HORSEPUCKY's me....  ) |
Do you mind if I (tongue planted firmly in cheek) horsepucky you too?
In my opinion the health reform discussion has focused way too much on who is doing the paying and not on the root of the problem. The reality is that there are only so many doctors to go around. When my wife and I moved into the Portland, Oregon area we looked around for a family doctor and had a pretty hard time finding one. Most of the clinics we called were not accepting new patients - their case load was too heavy already. So there we are, in a suburb of a major city, with a good income and good insurance, unable to find a doctor.
When we were in the birthing class getting ready for our youngest's arrival, the nurse teaching the class told us that in southwest oregon (a very rural area) women were scheduling medically unneccessary C-sections. Why? There were no available obstetricians on-call. The only way they could make sure an obstetrician was present at their delivery was to schedule an unneeded surgical procedure. A single-payer system won't fix that.
We simply need more doctors, or we need to alter other aspects of our system to use doctors' time more effectively. The best single payer system in the world won't help if there's no one to provide the services.