Health Care--Whip Inflation Now

I had a scary experience recently. In my April 15th, 2009 blog post I detailed that I had been in the hospital for an extended stay (3 weeks,), I underwent major (successful) surgery and I extolled the virtues that attend the American health care system as well as the particular institution and their staff that provided my care.

Last week, I received a bill from the hospital for $102,000 (plus change) netted from a $182,000 bill. The (excellent) insurance company had already paid $80,000. Now let me tell you that every penny, in my opinion, from the doctor's and hospital's end was well spent...I am alive, they took superb care of me, I will inevitably be worth well more than $182,000 to the American economy during my productive life, and my employers and I have paid far more than that during my prior working tenure.

Nevertheless, I was in shock. When I called the insurance company, they immediately said "there must me a mistake somewhere here and we will investigate." Less than one week later, they approved all my claims, except for a $250 co-pay which I will gladly remit.

Let's face it...the system is expensive and what drives the costs up are the waste, fraud and abuse that are endemic to health care. Not to mention that if I had been an indigent person, with no insurance, I have no doubt that the medical facilities would have administered identical treatment and would have "eaten" the invoice.

So all the assholes in Washington, including our oratorical President are running around trying to fix this thing, and sure, it isn't perfect. But I have never heard about someone who was refused care, or who didn't get what they could reasonably expect.

Yes, health care is a big problem in this country but I have never seen an enigma where government was the best "solver" and the vast issue here is that that Washington has been the greatest "waste sponsor" on Earth. Let's not put this one one the providers, the doctors and the FAT American public. We should just assume that Medicare and its counterparts are so fricking bloated that they can't deliver any efficiency at all.

Obama speaks well, but he also has the "forked tongue." If we follow all these political prescriptions, we are headed for socialistic medicine.

Here's a link to ponder:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/opinion/10brooks.html?emc=eta1

Thanks

John A.