Here We Go Again

I have a problem with today's health care in general. I'm not saying all people in health care are bad, or all doctors, nurses, etc. are all bad. That is not what I'm saying. There are several things that have subtly sabotaged are entire health care system. From the training of doctors to the practice of medicine. The common, normal health insurance has done a disservice to our nation, but that isn't the only problem, and the problem didn't start yesterday.

Ecclesiastes 10:19 "A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh glad the life; and money answereth all things."

Now, I love when our family gets together and we laugh and have a great time. We don't drink alcoholic wine, and don't drink grape juice much either, but I'm focusing on the last part of that verse: "and money answereth all things."

I don't have a problem with wealth. Some people have a hard time when OTHER people have wealth, but not me.

I told a local bank teller several years back I was working on my second million (dollars). At his surprised look, I told him, yes, I gave up on the first million. He told me that was real generous of me to leave the first million for some one else.

However, I digress, back at the early 1900s a number of 'rich' progressives (I'm thinking like Andrew Carnegie and his cronies) started donating money to medical colleges with the caveat that 'since we're donating this large amount of money we'd like one of our people on your board'.

Through the years things progressed until these people ran the medical colleges, controlling how many students enrolled and graduated. That kept the number of doctors in their pocket. Pharmaceuticals make millions and have their finger in the pie. In this state it is illegal to have an alternative medical practice. That of course keeps any new or possibly different ideas out of the market.

Two years ago Old Fuzzy and I were driving in our lovely capitol city. On the radio an advertisement for our local hospitals lied to the public. Well, they stretched the truth at least. They called themselves 'non-profit'.

These people never cease to amaze me. I know how they can claim the non-profit status, but it isn't bonafide. Back in my younger years I never put facts together. I had acquaintances that worked in health care and it was the running joke that the hospital they worked in always had a project in the works. The janitor department would put in a wall, or some type of improvement, but in only a few weeks they would remove it and put it somewhere else in the building. This happened all the time.

I had an emergency appendectomy twelve years ago. We were in between insurance coverage at the time. The bill was for double what it should have been, and there was no recourse. They wanted their money and were very snotty about it. There was no way we could pay $10,000 in a year. If it had been half of that we would have been hard pressed to have paid it, but we would have come a whole lot closer.

Insurance negotiates a low price, and government tells hospitals/doctors what government will pay, if you are self-pay, you pay double. There are no set prices, at least not written for the consumer.

At one time we had doctors and clinics scattered throughout the country in small towns. These small clinics for the most part have been run out of business. There is no way to run statistics as to fair market value costs of running a hospital and what is being charged. Hospitals have a monopoly on the market.

For instance, my old-timey doctor only charged me what it cost him from the hospital for my thyroid blood test. It was a rudimentary test, nothing detailed. If I'd gotten it from the hospital myself it would have cost me close to $600., but since my doctor sent it in, they charged him less than $100.

I went to a Functional Medicine provider for several years. She was a member of a co-op, and my detailed blood work from her, was between $300 and less than $400.

My Grandma used to say, 'I'm a poor little old woman, just trying to get along.' That's me as well, but with all these Amos moments it is getting much harder to get along, but being a poor old woman, now that's not so hard...

Ecclesiastes 10:5 "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as it were an error which proceedeth from the ruler: 6) folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place. 7) I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking like servants upon the earth."