Report: US on short end of health care 'value gap'

[DeclinetoState]

WASHINGTON — If the global economy were a 100-yard dash, the U.S. would start 23 yards behind its closest competitors because of health care that costs too much and delivers too little, a business group says in a report to be released Thursday.

The report from the Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs of major companies, says America's health care system has become a liability in a global economy.

Concern about high U.S. costs has existed for years, and business executives — whose companies provide health coverage for workers — have long called for getting costs under control. Now President Barack Obama says the costs have become unsustainable and the system must be overhauled.

Americans spend $2.4 trillion a year on health care. The Business Roundtable report says Americans in 2006 spent $1,928 per capita on health care, at least two-and-a-half times more per person than any other advanced country.


More (http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-health/20090312/Health.Value.Gap/)

Will this be used to argue for socialized medicine or "single-payer" health care?

[Kathy30]

If they were really serious about reducing costs, we would have had tort reform years ago.

[PaulRevere]

They would be all about controlling tort lawyers' jackpot justice awards, especially against doctors and hospitals
They would also be all about controlling the cost of higher education instead of rewarding it with more money.

[Naturalized-Texan]

We have the best health care system in the world. That's why so many people from all over the world come here for treatment. And Obama plans to destroy it.

[Tazeeyore]

First, we kill all the lawyers. The prices would be cut by two thirds immediately.

[Timberwolf]

Then, we get the government OUT of health care, introduce competition and watch that last third be reduced by 25%...

[DoctorDoom]

Problems:

• Utter imbeciles who go to the ER for the sniffles or a farking hangnail
• Illegals getting free medical care
• Lawyers living off of lawsuits against doctors and hospitals
• Legislators that know nothing about health care acting like they know everything about it
• Pencil-necked bureaucrats creating regulations to make it all but impossible for health care professionals to do what's right
• Assholes like Michael "Shamu" Mooron propagandizing against our health care system for profit

I'm amazed that it's as good as it is.

[Wyatt_Junker]

To be fair, its also because there's so much neato shit out there now that there never used to be. We have designer medicine. Problem is, everyone thinks they deserve it. Well, they don't. Just like they don't deserve a Ferrari or a yacht.

However, when it comes to our own bodies, for some reason we think we have some kind of limitless right to treatments, procedures and upgrades. And unfortunately it inflates all our premiums. The geezer working behind the butcher counter this afternoon reached behind the glass to fetch my oysters, winced when he told me he was still getting used to his new titanium hips. My grandpa before he died got two new metal knees and a cool fake eyeball. We're starting to make bionic cyborgs.

And that doesn't even touch on the pharmas which have exploded in their growth, marketing and reach. Consumers have responded. Providers have had to keep up with that demand, panting and out of breath the entire way.

Sure, the problem is illegals. Its also no tort caps on pain'n sufferin. Its also how medicare and medicaid have diluted the system's efficiency. Its all of those things, but its also more. Its demographics and its marketing and its new technology all meeting head-on. Its a trainload of geezers hitting a busload full of new medical wonders on their way to the casinos. And the pedestrians are the ones who get in the way, people like me who just wants insurance in case my heart falls out on the sidewalk and I want someone to stuff it back in my chest. So I HAVE to PAY for high rates just so that all the old farts can pretend to play tennis at 105 thinking they're going to live forever. So, in a way, its vainity and cheating the natural order of life, and in some cases death, as the actuarial tables have to notch in whole new extra columns into their data entry points.

[DoctorDoom]

:thumbup:

[DeclinetoState]

To be fair, its also because there's so much neato shit out there now that there never used to be. We have designer medicine. Problem is, everyone thinks they deserve it. Well, they don't. Just like they don't deserve a Ferrari or a yacht.
Watch it there, Wyatt. I deserve both a Ferrari and a yacht.

I do! I do! I do! :hissyfit: