On Wed, 29 Oct 2008, Bruce Bostwick wrote:
> On Oct 29, 2008, at 9:21 AM, Nick Arnett wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 8:48 PM, Ronn! Blankenship <
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> No, we have examples here of things where there is no competition or
>>> they have to take everyone regardless of ability to pay the bill,
>>> like the ones I listed. (Nothing to do with R&D but with simply
>>> getting seen and getting adequate care.) If we get one-size-fits-all
>>> health care, how do we insure that it does not degrade like many
>>> other things already have?
>>
>>
>> Let them eat cake?
>>
>> TINSTAAFL.
>>
>> Some people lose when an unfair system is made more fair.
>>
>> Nick
>
> Let the patients have a say in how the system is designed? Or --
> OMGZ! -- maybe let them design it?
>
> At the very least, put actual practicing MD's in charge of the medical
> decisions to cover or not cover treatment, and hold them accountable for
> permanent health consequences if they dodge covering a treatment that
> turns out to have been medically necessary? That, at least, would be
> better than anonymous, unaccountable spreadsheet jockeys making those
> same decisions with the only criteria being the insurer's bottom line ..
My wonderful OB (who has since retired from delivering babies) told me
about the way she dealt with insurance company people insisting that she
had to discharge the patient because it had been 48 hours since delivery
was to explain *why* the patient needed to stay in the hospital another 24
hours, and if that didn't do the trick, her final ploy was to inform the
person on the other end of the phone that if *they* wanted the patient
discharged, they could damn well come and fill out the discharge forms
themselves.
*That* tended to close down the argument.
Julia
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