OK, this will be a complete departure from the norm for this blog. It will be a bit controversial. But hey, isn’t the point of having a blog being able to say what you think?
I came accross this article today in the Boston Globe about the health care debate: Official Says Mass-type Care Could ‘Wipe Out’ Economy
Basically, it’s going to cost a mint to cover everyone. Taxes will have to go up. Massachusetts has only been able to make it work because they’ve gotten lots of federal subsidies. Who is going to subsidize the federal government?
Me and you, that’s who. And I can’t afford it.
But of course this is a gastric bypass blog, and so this post must have something to do with weight loss surgery. And it does. Check out this paragraph from the story:
At the hearing, Attorney General Martha Coakley released a study that found prices paid by health insurers to hospitals vary widely within the same geographic area and cannot be explained by the quality of care.
In 2008, the price paid for a normal delivery ranged from just over $3,000 to nearly $9,000, according to the state Division of Health Care Finance and Policy. The highest price for a gastric-bypass procedure was more than seven times the lowest. (Emphasis added by me).
Unfortunately, in health care, you don’t always get what you pay for.
Case in point: The very same hospital where I had my gastric bypass – a Center of Excellence, mind you – has had 2 fatalities in recent months related to surgery: Recent Deaths Of 2 Public Officials Raise Questions On Weight Loss Surgery:
In the past six months, two public figures in the Cape Fear region are thought to have died from complications of weight-loss surgery.
Bladen County Commissioner Margaret Lewis-Moore died Feb. 6, less than a week after having a gastric bypass procedure.
Grainger Barrett, the former Cumberland County attorney, died three weeks after weight-loss surgery last summer.
What’s that got to do with nationalized health care? Maybe nothing. But tell me this: when was the last time you noticed the quality of anything going UP as a result of government involvement? Or the cost going DOWN?
Its bad enough that an insurance company can tell me the cost of my follow up care isnt going to be covered after I’ve already had gastric bypass (United Health Care, the insurance with my current job) OR that someone who is 150 pounds overweight and suffering from Diabetes and high blood pressure can’t have it.. (Again, UHC who doesn’t cover anything bariatric)…
But to have some government beurocrat involved in the decision is just outrageous.
Well, before I get too ticked off I’m going to stop. Feel free to argue in the comments.
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