16 Responses to “Has The Health Care Industry Priced Itself Off The Market? Should They Police Themselves Or Have They Got Us?”

1. smellyfoot ™ Says:
   November 8th, 2009 at 9:32 pm

   Why does the health care industry get all the blame for the increasing cost of healthcare? Why doesn’t anyone blame the government? They are largely at fault due to Medicare reimbursements. When the government jacks the rates, everyone else’s bill goes up too.

2. PJ Says:
   November 9th, 2009 at 4:03 am

   The pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry are two separate groups.
   It is too late for them to police themselves. They passed up that opportunity. Health insurance reform was on the table back in 1993, and was defeated because 1) people resented Hillary Clinton; and 2) the insurance industry had no intention of change. Some time in the last 16 years, the industry could have policed themselves and made changes. They chose not to.
   The health insurance industry is the 9th most profitable industry in the US. They won’t change unless they are forced to.

3. RitchWil Says:
   November 9th, 2009 at 4:58 am

   Well, because 10 other people have gotten that injection and didn’t want to be bothered to buy insurance for themselves. Yep, bothered. The poor, who cannot afford it and the elderly, who are covered by their contributions into the system through out their lives, are covered. The rest of us need to buy insurance and PAY for what we consume. Those 47 million Americans without health insurance are either illegals or middle income Americans who can afford, but CHOOSE not to buy insurance for themselves and their families. When they get sick or need medical care, they don’t pay for it. WE do.
   So are we going to bankrupt our nation for the irresponsibility of a few or we simply address the irresponsibility of those few? I say, you can’t pay? You don’t get. You’d be amazed how quickly they’d run to their insurance agent! And medical care would be markedly cheaper for all of us!
   Then, too, there’s the litigation to consider. Under threat of huge and frivolous law suits, more than half what a doctor charges, half what a hospital charges, goes to pay for malpractice insurance. That also goes into the price of your little $4,000 injection.

4. Saecula Saeculorum Says:
   November 9th, 2009 at 7:05 am

   It cost $4k for to stop a stroke because of lawsuits. Lawyers are the ones that hiked the prices by lawsuits left and right. So the medical expenses are hiked to pay for insurances that would be able to pay for all the frivolous lawsuits. If the lawsuits stop, they may be a light at the end of the tunnel for medical expenses to go down again. The Medical Reform has to start at the Judicial System.

5. frank c Says:
   November 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am

   I’ll tell you what’s in that vial, something that can save your life. Something powerful enough to prevent brain damage and prolong your life should cost a lot.
   The reason it costs so much is because of the hundreds of researchers who spent years to create that medicine. Who’s going to pay for them? Keep in mind most pharmaceutical researchers have a PhD or a Medical Degree. These degrees are expensive and time consuming, which is why graduates command high salaries. And they earn their high salaries by saving lives.
   If there wasn’t a lot of money in medical research, no one would want to go through all of that schooling and work so hard to make the medicines you take for granted.
   If you don’t think $4000 is a fair price to pay to stop a stroke, then don’t pay it. But there will always be plenty of people who will pay it. I would sell everything I own and go in debt to prevent a stroke, wouldn’t you?

6. Nic F Says:
   November 9th, 2009 at 12:51 pm

   The $4000 price tag has VERY LITTLE to do with health care. That vile costs that much simply because of all the work it is for the doctors. Not the actual act of injecting you with it, but for the possibilities of a lawsuit and everything that could follow it.
   Imagine if something didn’t work out correctly and it ended in a lawsuit, the doctor has to pay up to a quarter million dollars per year just for malpractice insurance. Is that fair?
   The only way for them to pay that kind of money is to charge your customers more, the same what that everything else works!

7. u_wish_i Says:
   November 9th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

   If $4000 was all I had to pay not to have a stroke, believe me, it would have been worth it. It costs to provide health care, there’s no way around that. You shouldn’t be concerned of such things, you obviously don’t understand. The drug companies are more responsible for the drug costs. All the medical suppliers have their hand in the pot too. It all adds up and the Insurance companies absorbs the costs, providing you with a reasonable price.

8. glenn b Says:
   November 9th, 2009 at 7:39 pm

   No such animal as self policing .If the vile saves your life then i don’t know how to put a price on it but it does sound like price gouging to me.DOES anyone out there agree that a business passes the cost to the consumers.So if only 1 out of three people pay their hospital/doctor bills do u think that cost gets passed on as well .It does, so we could lower health care cost by 2/3 if people would paid their bills. It would be a step in the right direction.

9. ruth Says:
   November 10th, 2009 at 1:26 am

   I would be much more likely to support a measure which limited their profits than this plan the government has before us now. In my view, if the government is going to get in it, it should be the least restrictive way possible to ensure freedoms for the greatest number of Americans.
   If the insurance industry is responsible for the high costs of healthcare, the many uninsureds and uninsurables (and I think this is possible), restrict them, not everyone.

10. Socialism Sucks Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 5:50 am

    The problem is insurance paying for insurance.
    It is really odd that a CT heart scan without contrast in my area costs only $125.00 but a CT heart scan with contrast is over $2500.00. Same machine, same technician, the only difference is someone giving you a shot of iodine. That difference alone raises the hospital’s liability and thus insurance. That person must be insured again liability personally and by the hospital. If stupid stuff like that could be eliminated, a huge amount of the cost would be cut.

11. PrivacyN Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 11:47 am

    They have been gouging the public for years and cannot be trusted to police themselves.
    The city attorney stood on the roof of a homeless shelter high above the human misery of Skid Row in April and announced a $1.6 million settlement from a hospital accused of dumping about 150 mentally ill patients on the streets below.http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/na…

12. wyldfyr Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 6:44 pm

    It really bothers me that some of my outrageously expensive premiums are going to bus people around the country to disrupt town hall meetings and pay for commercials against health care reform. Insurance companies pay lobbyists who threaten Congress not to act on anything that remotely threatens their outrageous profits.

13. Jenean M Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 1:26 am

    If you knew what a stroke means and what it does, kills you most times, you would now that 4K is a pittance compared to the alternative.

14. zaphod73 Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 8:12 am

    Police themselves? Isn’t that like a thief watching over a bank? Self-Policing doesn’t work…take a good look at what happened to Wall Street…that’ll show ya!

15. grob Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 8:23 am

    No. But they aren’t necessarily going to get all the $4000 either. That’s why bankruptcy because of medical bills from people who have insurance is so high.

16. Will Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 10:19 am

    Police themselves?.Surely you jest.

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