FWIW, my view on Ebola

[Half-Century Man]

Last edited Fri Oct 17, 2014, 07:18 AM - Edit history (1)

If anything has been brought into clear focus by the introduction of Ebola into our country; it is our current health care network is woefully unprepared to deal with this situation. That unpreparedness is the result of one thing, for-profit health care.

Globally, we pay the most for health care and cannot rise above 30th place in comparative studies. We hemorrhage money we thought was paying for health care in a hundred ways. We waste it on executive salaries, administrative costs, lobbing, overpriced drugs, overpriced equipment, and advertising.

Too much from every dollar is spent on non medical costs. In just administrative cost alone, the ACA allows up to 20%. Medicare administrative costs usually run on 1% of budget, privatized Medicare at 6% (Medicare Advantage).
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Medicare/2013/20130220-Traditional_Medicares.htm

This is nothing more than the wake up moment. We the people need to unite to collectively pay for, collectively negotiate costs, get our elected officials to ask medical experts to set national standards, and collectively do medical research. We need a governmentally run, non-profit, socialized, health care system.

[hollysmom]

1. well that is for sure

when you think of the conditions that they have to work with in Africa, low supplies, reduced overworked staff, that fact that not everyone in the hospital gets ebola is amazing. Every time I hear more about that hospital in Texas, it is how to spread the disease wider.

when you think how this man self isolated himself in the apartment when the hospital refused to let him in and then the family was contained in that apartment and still they have not gotten the disease, shows how basic normal precautions were better than the conditions in that hospital.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

2. I agree with you.

I heard someone on TV in the last twenty-four hours or so refer to the current situation as a "dry run." Most likely, we will bring Ebola under control and not have a major outbreak, but eventually there will be another pandemic with the destructive potential of the 1918 flu or worse. The current situation is giving us a chance to be honest about our utter unpreparedness to deal with an event of that magnitude. We're not even prepared for a small outbreak of a new (new to us) infectious disease. How successfully we deal with the next pandemic depends to a great extent on the decisions we make right now about how to correct the weaknesses in our health care delivery system.

I expect to hear Republicans trivializing these weaknesses any day now. They're having a good time blaming Ebola on the president for the moment, but just as soon as we ask them to actually help solve the problems that got two American workers infected, they're going to start assuring us that Ebola is no big deal, our health care system works just fine, and there's no need to spend any money or pass any new laws or regulations.

[procon]

3. Medicare for All is the only logical solution

Medicare is well established as a successful, proven delivery system, so the let the Republicans try screaming about the evils of socialized medicine, especially in light of the recent failures of the profit driven healthcare.

If everything is single payer then administrative costs go down just like today's Medicare. The same standardized levels of care and proven treatment regimens would certainly improve patient care. The enormous purchasing power of a national health system would reduce the costs on consumables and pharmaceutical goods, just like under VA programs.

Let the insurance companies and private hospitals offer special riders to cover extras, and the pricier concierge services for the folks who are willing to pay premium rates for private healthcare.

[kestrel91316]

4. I don't need government-run healthcare and I think you

will find few Democrats support making all physicians government employees.

That said, there is absolutely no place for "the profit motive" in healthcare. If people want to make money in healthcare they can damned well provide actual healthcare services ie be a physician, nurse, pharmacist, home health aide, or hospital janitor etc.

Get the scumsucking leeches aka insurance companies and criminally overpaid corporate "non-profit" CEOs out of the picture, let the medical types run the show, and just watch how much farther the money goes and how much better the care is.

Single payer is the way to go. Physicians in groups or self-employed. Paid by billing Uncle Sam, and Uncle Sam decides what is a fair price.

[Half-Century Man]

6. Whether the government acts as the national administrator of all medical services or

as the insurance company paying for medical services matters little to me.
We need to remove all traces of a business mentality from health care in the United States.

We do however need a national medical research network exclusively funded by the government.
We do need national standards set by medical professionals.
We do need high level specialized hospitals serving geographical areas (state or regional) to deal with medical situations like the Ebola infestation we are currently not doing so well with.

[kestrel91316]

8. Yep, yep, and yep.

[littlemissmartypants]

10. Infestation by greed, nefarious doings and the results of such exacerbated

By the Ebola crisis.

~ Lmsp 🙌

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. It's the mindset that anything that's needed should be for SALE.

[Midnight Writer]

7. Amen

[littlemissmartypants]

9. I advocate for this without reservation.

Excellent post, thank you Half-Century Man.

Love, Peace and the Righteous Fight!

~ littlemissmartypants 🙅