When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested

Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by Broken_Hippo on Sunday October 20, 2019 @05:16AM (#21303050)

I've not had Medicare, but know it is fraught with issues. So is the VA. I've also been under American health care through a job, been uninsured, and now am covered under Norway's health care system.

And I wouldn't trade my current system. I'd rather have medicare than nothing, and know that the issues it has can be fixed. Just because something has problems doesn't mean that it isn't better than nothing and doesn't mean that it isn't a good starting point.

It might not be so bad being a doctor if we fixed some supply issues: For example, making sure doctors (and everyone else) doesn't have tons of student debt. We can do things about how expensive malpractice insurance is: My dentist here in Norway would like to live in the US, but won't because of the malpractice suits. We can do things to simplify the office work, such as standardising payment scales and coding. We can make good use of nurse practitioners, especially for children who generally have run-of-the-mill infections THese things make it cheaper to be a doctor and cheaper to run an office.

You'd think we might need to fire a lot of people... but not really. Single payer health care means we can do things differently because our resources are pooled. Norway, at least where I live, will send a home nurse to your house for free up to 6 times a day. Even if you are in a cabin in the mountains or living on a little island. This is all because overall, this is cheaper than a nursing home... which costs 80% of your retirement, no matter how much you make.

There is also a private system, which mostly gives bells and whistles. You might get into a non-urgent MRI sooner and so on.

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Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by cloverich on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:57PM (#21340969)

Medical school debt isn't a major factor (speaking as an MD with medical school debt who doesn't even practice). Great to get rid of it, but I don't think it will impact care either way. A better target would be letting student's start medical school earlier instead of after undergrad, and letting them pre-specialize into surgery and primary care. As is even family physician's have to go to medical school for four years and _then_ specialize in primary care. I think that's absurd. They should merge primary care into medical school and churn out primary care physicians by default, who could then optionally specialize.

Also my wife is a Dentist. She works 4 days a week and does extremely well. If malpractice and costs were an issue for Dentist's in the US, they would work more. I know a lot of dentists but not a single one that works 5 days a week. And of course no residency required. Its got to be the best career choice in the US today.

As for firing people... I agree probably not. But most Hospitals _do_ run on a tight margin (like 5% or less), and the majority of their costs are staff.

But overall, if you've experienced the system at all, you know how utterly wasteful and unorganized it is. Its difficult to fathom a system with more waste, which is especially ironic since there's so many smart people running around. I think single payer, whatever the flaws, would absolutely be a major change in the right direction.

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