THE HEALTH CARE MONSTER MUST BE CONTAINED
Health care now costs 5% of every dollar and will be 20% by 2050. Why should there be such a jump in the costs of health care?
To control some of the costs we must evaluate how effective are our medical treatments, which one works best for which patient, and does the cost warrant the use of these expensive therapies.
The treatment choices now depend on the doctor’s judgment and the medical evidence. Only ½ of the medical care is based on supportive evidence.
Providers like hospitals, encourage more expensive treatments even without proof of their effectiveness. Doctors work on fee for service and do these procedures as long as their payment is greater than their costs. You see today every doctor offering botox, laser vein surgery, eyelid surgery for droopy eyes, and the list goes on and on. The patient goes along since his insurance pays for most of the treatment and there is no financial incentive for the patient to question the costs.
Private insurance companies don’t know what treatments are effective and necessary and Medicare can’t tell which services should be covered and for what number of dollars.
Keeping pace with new treatments and procedures is difficult. One has to change the incentives. If insurance payments do not cover less cost effective procedures and the patients had to pay a part of additional costs for more expensive treatments, the incentives would change. Incentives to provide additional services must be in place.
Yet higher deductibles put more burden on people with major health problems. High costs may limit the use of those needing the services. Is it fair to have more incentives to provide for too little care?
The answer I guess is to target which patients would benefit the most. This of course eliminates the elderly as myself.
What do you think
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