Thanks Obamacare!

[ozarkgunner]

I don't believe lawsuits drive up the cost of health care. If anything lawsuits encourage a safer product and likely lower costs by improving patient care. Mo. Supreme court just overturned medical malpractice caps. Tort reform did nothing to lower healthcare costs in Missouri. We had the strictest healthcare tort reforms laws in the us and they did nothing but make the public pay for the injuired. The watts boy should be taken care of by the doctor that messed him up not by the tax payers.

[Justin Spencer]

Overnight in hospital with no monitor on and no nurses checking on me was 2,853.27$ A night in a very nice motel room at most is 165.00 a bottle of asprin is 7.00 for 100 count yet hospital 1 pill was 17.00 or 1,700.00 a bottle... Now tell me why that night and pill should have been any more than $182.00? lets tack on a doctors visit that night before bed of 45 typical existing patient price and dinner of 12.00 just to be fair and im still only at $239.00 for a nights stay!

Insurance pays 80% of that I pay 20% I think most people could afford that even without insurance. We need healthcare reform true reform not a tax and not a forced insurance or someone telling us to be healthy or die. We need medical care pricing reform and medical professional protection to the doctors and staff and that is the true solution.

I'm not going to pretend I know anything about running a hospital or how they figure costs, but we all agree that $17 bucks for an aspirin is rediculous. I also know that the same people against obamacare would say that putting price limitations on hospital charges would go against our capitalistic system and would be the govt. trying to run heathcare. At the same time the hospitals would claim they aren't making any money and some would shut down, the quality of care would suffer, drug companies would quit making enough medicine because they weren't making money, and the list goes on and on. There is a reason that no one can come up with a plan everyone can agree on, because it is a complicated problem that is going to require a pretty big amount of government intervention.

I guess the moral of the story is, bring your own aspirin to the hospital and go home if think you are not risking your life, otherwise it will cost you a couple grand.

I would have thought F&F should have been hooked to something in case of a problem, and if he was at risk for a recurrance, and he was being watched closely (neither of which seems to be the case) then 2,800 bucks to potentially keep you from dying is not that bad a price.

[ness]

$17 aspirin, and $2,500 a night make good talking points, but have nothing to do with the market price of a pill and a bed for the night. It's what a hospital can charge to deliver the care. Part of that delivery cost is recouping the cost of the palatial new hospital, the machine that goes bing, salaries, insurance, administrative costs, etc.

Where I get to scratching my head is when I see massive spending, and everybody screaming about runaway costs.

I had an infection a couple months ago. The doctor discouraged a cheaper antibiotic due to side effects and steered me toward another with the warning that the pharmacist would say it wasn't covered when in fact it was. She gave me a little pep talk and told me to call her if the pharmacist gave me any trouble -- she'd set them straight. Well, I didn't get the coverage, so it was back to square one to get a new prescription. Back to dr. and then pharmacist -- The cost was $600 for a month's dosage, or $10 if I called the 800 number on the coupon. Where the heck else do you have that kind of price discrepancy?

Things is jacked up.

[Wayne SW/MO]

putting price limitations on hospital charges would go against our capitalistic system and would be the govt. trying to run heathcare.

Do you think you'll get the same care? If you tell Jackson you'll only pay a pre-set price you'll get Coosa's instead of Rivieras, if they have to absorb some of the cost?

palatial new hospital, the machine that goes bing, salaries, insurance, administrative costs, etc.

Well for one who unfortunately has suddenly had to spend dome time in them, I don't want to go to one that looks like government housing, or one that doesn't have the machine that goes bing, this is the problem, or doesn't have insurance if someone really messes up, doesn't have people to specifically do all the government paper work, clean the floors, fix things and make sure everyone knows their job, especially the RN's. OK I'll give you etc..

It's no accident that liability insurance isn't free and that doctors cost sky rocketed when suing for every little thing became a popular lively hood for the industry. Insurance didn't even bother with office calls a few decades ago because the expense wasn't that high. When I took my kids to the doctor 40 years ago we paid out of pocket and we didn't have to take out a loan to do it.

As far as your medicine Ness, the act didn't touch medicine, the pharmaceutical companies bought their way out, with the patients money of course.

[ness]

Oh, I'm with you on a lot of that Wayne. We've had our share of medical issues in my family, and I've always been grateful for what's been available for us. And, I wasn't passing judgement on ACA -- more making a general statement about the jacked up economics in medicine. There's just too much money sloshing around, and the solutions put forth don't really address the cost issue much. We're just kicking the can down the road.

[Quillback]

Oh, I'm with you on a lot of that Wayne. We've had our share of medical issues in my family, and I've always been grateful for what's been available for us. And, I wasn't passing judgement on ACA -- more making a general statement about the jacked up economics in medicine. There's just too much money sloshing around, and the solutions put forth don't really address the cost issue much. We're just kicking the can down the road.

Yep and that can grows more expensive as it goes down the road.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I don't believe lawsuits drive up the cost of health care. If anything lawsuits encourage a safer product and likely lower costs by improving patient care.

You have to think in terms of the whole process. Liability insurance can be very expensive, especially with the threat of some of the awards we see now.

There is another phase that hasn't been addressed and that is the predicted doctor shortage. If you think about all the trips to the ER for aspirin by those on Medicaid, think what it will be when everyone can see a doctor for what ever tweaks their curiosity.

Our healthcare didn't need a complete overhaul, it needed adjusting and that was something that should have fallen to a bipartisan committee. Instead we get something written by Harry Reid's aides.

[ness]

I've been hearing about the doctor shortage for a number of years, yet when I go by the beautiful new hospital the doctors-only parking lot is jam-packed with Porsche, Lexus, Infinity, BMW and Mercedes cars.

It is a pain in the butt to get in to see my doctor though -- months to get an appointment. But I think that's because he's a good doctor with a large and loyal patient base. I don't think I'd have too much trouble finding a new one -- they're out there. My wife just switched to somebody closer to home. He's a GP, and just one example -- I know that.

I just looked up the hospital I am referring to -- Shawnee Mission Med Center. They built a new $114 million 8-story building in 2009, spent another $19 million finishing it off in 2011 and then broke ground on a $42 million maternity building after that. That's a crap-load of dough, which makes me think it's a pretty good business to be in right now. Anyhoo -- I don't offer that info as commentary on ACA, more as general grumbling at medical economics being so out-of-whack.

I'm no flaming Libertarian, but I am a believer in the idea that we ought to leave most things to the private sector; have a government that protects people from abuses, without getting in the middle and trying to fix everything. Government invariably introduces 'politics' into the equation, and that gets us stuff like we see now: no accountability, outsized costs and decision making based on about anything but what's good for the whole population of people affected.

So, that's about all I've got to say about that. I know it's dangerously close to political, and will raise a few hackles, but I'm not looking to start an argument.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I just looked up the hospital I am referring to -- Shawnee Mission Med Center.

Ness don't you have to agree that given the economic base of the region that it might not be a good example? I'm not familiar with STL and its suburbs, but the cities that make up the Shawnee Mission area are upper middle class and and beyond and the cream of the western Missouri area.