"Suck it up, America"

[funky49]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09284/1004304-109.stm

I thought this had some good nuggets.

In a single night I had patients come in to our emergency department, most brought by ambulance, for the following complaints: I smoked marijuana and got dizzy; I got stung by a bee and it hurts; I got drunk and have a hangover; I sat out in the sun and got sunburn; I ate Mexican food and threw up; I picked my nose and it bled, but now it stopped; I just had sex and want to know if I'm pregnant.

Our society has warped our perception of true risk. We are taught to fear vaccinations, mold, shark attacks, airplanes and breast implants when we really should worry about smoking, drug abuse, obesity, cars and basic hygiene. If you go by pharmaceutical advertisement budgets, our most critical health needs are to have sex and fall asleep.

[Baiter]

Sounds like fodder for the political forum. 

On one hand it illustrates the risk of nationalizing health care and having everyone stop by an ER every week for a bandaid, but on the other hand it illustrates that doctors are afraid to do their jobs correctly for fear of losing income by offending patients or pharmaceutical salesman, so a doctor always sends a patient away with drugs or referrals.  Is practicing medicine at this point more about making money than curing?  Is there not enough fear of drugs and vaccines to use them only when necessary or are we being pushed to use them too much (see: countless ads by pharmaceuticals)?  We all know that simple prevention would save $billions in health care annually, but we can't force people to practice good health in a free market.

But hey we're only talking 16% of the GDP.  This chart will tell you everthing you need to know about why health care keeps rising to the top of our national issue list.... healthcare was 2% of GDP during WWII and that percentage been doubling every 20 years since to it's current level of 16%.  WTF is going on?  Politics, big business, personal behavior, what??

[ibis]

I am not a political person but I worked in the medical industry for a few years and my wife for about 20. 

If you want to know why the asprin you took cost 8 bucks, you do not need to look any further than the few dozen people who came to the hospital a few hours before you who needed medical attention who could not afford it.  In order to cover the cost of all the lost expensives, the ones who HAVE the money or insurance pick up the tab.  And for what it was worth, plenty of poor people knew how to work the system too.  Many a time I escorted a mother who knew if her contractions were under a certain time, the private hospital I worked at(with top notch L&D department) could not refuse her by law.

[Baiter]

If you want to know why the asprin you took cost 8 bucks, you do not need to look any further than the few dozen people who came to the hospital a few hours before you who needed medical attention who could not afford it.

People without insurance are most likely a symptom rather than the cause, because medical expenses are not anywhere near as affordable as they used to be.  It's a vicious circle.