A very large and very depressing study was just published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) that failed to show cost control with aggressive treatment of the sick and elderly. Basically, Medicare tried to show that costs would be lower and hospitalizations less if they were more aggressive and the results were.....well, horrible. Costs were higher and people were still just as sick. This is truly frustrating to hear and yet it comes as no surprise at all. When you take a bureaucratic and bloated system that is outrageously expensive on all levels and try to prove more of that same system can do better you might just find out that mom was right when she said "the definition of ignorance is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different outcome". Okay maybe that wasn't the exact quote and maybe it wasn't your mom that said it but you get the point. We have been going down this same path in the US for over 50 years now trying to modify and tweak and change the system for the better and nothing has worked. An abridged list would include medicare, medicaid, HMO's, PPO's, HSA's, TPA's, QA, IPA's, MSA's, and many more which I will spare you the effort of reading. All of these efforts have had one uniting factor and that is that in retrospect none of them did anything to control costs. I am almost tired of hearing myself say (and just be glad you don't have to live in my head too) that until you control costs, you won't solve any part of our current health care crisis. All of the pointy headed intellectuals who attempt to change health care always talk about patient responsibility and consumer oriented health care and fancy terms like that. That's great and I am sure it gets them hired to stand at a lectern and tell everyone their thoughts for curing the health care system but there is a slight problem. We are going bankrupt and spending nearly $2.5 trillion dollars a year on health care! Even people with health insurance are going bankrupt when they get a serious health issue like cancer!! I am putting more exclamation points with each sentence and people still aren't getting it!!! I don't know when we will learn the lesson of cost control but until we do all of these other efforts will fail. Let's quit dancing around that subject and then we will start to see some real benefit from our efforts.
Other than that, I don't really have an opinion!!
Other than that, I don't really have an opinion!!
