High cost of Medical care

naturaleigh · 08-30-2008, 11:05 AM

Reading Dede10's post of "why does it all come down to $" really hits home to me. As mentioned, there are so many fund raising events for the cure of cancer, and the cost of the treatments continues to sky rocket. Why is that? I know that most of the money is going to research and that is great, but less still needs to come out of the patients pocket. The price of health care is unaffordable for way too many people.

I have lymphedemia and when my arm started swelling again I made an appointment for treatment. I went in, they measured my arm, spent 15 minutes with me, told me my arm had gone up in volume, (which was why I went in the first place), scheduled a week more of treatments, that did not start until 2 weeks later. Within that two weeks I found out the swelling was caused by an infection with my implant, so had to have that replaced. I never went back to the treatment, because I had to recover from my surgery.

I got a bill from that measurement of my arm, they charged $741.00 just to measure my arm!!! Another thing that blows me away is the $7000.00+ Neulasta (sp)shot taken after chemo treatments.

Why is the cost so high and why do so many people have to go broke to pay for treatments? I would love to know the true cost of medical care. I understand the cost still includes rent for the facility, staff and utility cost, etc. I also know one of the major cost is the malpractice insurance that dr. have to pay. I would love to get to the core of the high cost. One thing we have here in SC is more and more Medical Offices being built and personally, I do not think we need any more, we have enough.

How do you think this would work? A new fund raiser is developed to off set the high cost of medical treatment. Since there are many more patients than doctors, funds are raised to help pay things like the malpractice insurance, updated equipment, etc for the medical practice. My thinking is, if you lessen the cost for the doctors, that would lessen the cost to their patients and that would benefit all people because truly everyone one including doctors are patients.

Does that make any sense or am I just living in a dream world?

ElaineM · 08-30-2008, 06:39 PM

I agree. There ought to be a fundraiser for PATIENTS!!
Even with all the fundraisers for research, development and malpractice insurance we are still in debt.

sarah · 08-31-2008, 07:59 AM

Until there is a universal healthcare system, it's dog eat dog. If you can't afford the ticket, you can't get it.
the ironic thing is that because so many Americans are uninsured, it costs the US government twice as much as governments with universal health care systems. In France, I choose my doctor (not limited to one on a list), get all the tests I need and because I have cancer, everything to do with my cancer is paid for 100%, no co-payment. For other things, I pay a slight %. a GP doctor visit costs 22 euro - I pay about 4 euro, the rest is paid by the system which I pay into every year. That cost for me is low. The health care I get is top quality. I couldn't afford to live in the US ever again.
If you're smart, you'll insist on a universal health care plan. It's fair and it works.
Give the money to the health care system not the insurance companies - they make 3 trillion dollars a year!!!! Now that could cover a lot of people!
stay well, insist of affordable healthcare.
sarah