Whose responsiblity is it?

Politics

David Brooks had a good column in the New York Times with suggestions for what Obama should do on health care reform. Brooks previously said he is against the public option (where I disagree with him) but this article has some good ideas for good changes without it.

Let's Get Fundamental

A lot of people have been duped and yes duped is the right word into supporting the medical system's growing part of the GDP out of a planted fear of socialism. They rally against any controls on private corporations managing their own health care. Legislators get quite a bit of money for their campaigns from these interests. Real reform has been derailed consistently in the past.

Read Brooks for what the stakes are now. If though we do not get real reform, it would be best for the health care bill to fail. In this case a partial bill could end up costing the government, making huge profits for the insurance companies, and eventually be so expensive that it cannot be maintained.

Farm Boss is scheduled for a routine medical test in a month that requires some prep work and a few supplies. When I had it under regular insurance, I was given a list to purchase and went to the drugstore. When he told the staff that he had supplemental insurance, they told him good, it's all fully covered.

Now we don't yet know what they will be billing our insurance company for those supplies, but it's very irritating that they will be sending it out instead of a list of what to buy. Who do you think profits from that? The actual cost was small when purchasing it yourself but how much you want to bet it's multiplied with this tidy package?

These are the horror stories I have heard over and over about Medicare itself where people find Medicare has a standard fee they allow and the charge is fixed to that fee rather than the actual cost of the equipment which might be a small percentage of the billing fee.

This is to some degree the responsibility of the patient. We don't have to just accept this kind of profit gouging but many don't look or know there are alternatives. When Farm Boss's mother was going to need an electric scooter, Medicare would rent it to her for a set fee per month. He could and did buy one for less than that first months' rent would have been. This is happening all across the United States.

Is anybody checking on these things? Does anybody care? Even Medicare patients should care because if they don't, the end result will be the system going bust. And if we end up with a public option, the need to be alert and pay attention won't go away.