Comments for 0 at http://rosebowen.com , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://rosebowen.com Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:52:05 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://rosebowen.com/Rambling/Health-care-is-a-total-misnomer.html#comment-39 The term healthcare is so widely misused in this country that we rarely stop to think about what it really means. Most people use it when referring to health insurance, which by your reasoning should be called medical insurance. Sadly, that term isn't right either since most policies don't meet the basic definition of insurance at all. I've written a couple of posts on the subject that I hope you will check out on my site. - Chris Berry Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:45:51 +0100 http://rosebowen.com/Rambling/Health-care-is-a-total-misnomer.html#comment-38 Hi Rose, Government involvement in the "health care" system have skewed the incentives. Doctors no longer work for the patient. Because of laws that employers must offer their employees health insurance, most people have their medical care paid for by insurance companies. The insurance company is now the doctor's customer, with a schedule of allowed services and products that the insurance company will purchase depending on the symptoms a patient presents. The patient is just an opportunity for doctors to bill the real customer. Doctors who serve their patients in this system will gradually lose out to those doctors or clinics who serve the insurance companies. We swapped over to a high-deductible health plan when I started working for myself last year. As a result, we pay cash when we go to doctors. We find we are having to educate doctors on how NOT to do business as usual, but rather how to provide advice and services that serve our (that is, patients') needs directly. It hasn't happened yet, but I imagine that sooner or later, a doctor will refuse to treat us on this basis--for example, if we decide to use a conservative treatment instead of a higher cost treatment, the doctor may worry that he will risk the liability of not following the standard practice that suits insurance companies. You will probably have picked up on the constant theme that runs through my comments--things don't work because of government involvement. That's because government is force. It is the only institution that has the legitimate power to use guns and jails to "solve problems". When members of society are forced to follow government rules, it means they cannot do what they would have normally done to solve their own problems. People have to follow the one-size-fits-all rule that 'experts' in Washington, DC have decided fits their political goals. As a general rule, if something is broken, you can find the government behind it. - Mark Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:57:41 +0100