Less government equals less healthcare costs

Here's a perfect example of why healthcare costs so much. I went into the patient's room and she said the following:

I have no insurance. I have all the stuff to take a breathing tx at home. I know as soon as you start the treatment it's going to cost me $100, and I'm going to have to pay it. If you can talk to the doctor and have him write me a prescription for Albuterol solution, I can get it for $4 and I can give my self treatments for free at home."

You see, she is paying for her own medicine, and so she questioned what the doctor ordered. Because she was paying on her own, she didn't want to pay for it.

Now if she had health insurance, and if she had medicaid or medicare, and she never saw the bill, then she wouldn't care what the cost of that treatment was. She wouldn't have questioned the order.

This is a perfect example of why we need to have a healthcare system where there is an incentive to question the order. The truth is, at present, most of us don't. And that's why healthcare costs so much. It costs so much because people keep getting, and they don't pay. Since someone else is paying, they don't question the order.

Think about it. If you give something away for free, everyone is going to come running to buy it. So while supply of hospitals, doctors and medical equipment stays the same, demand for it goes up because it's free. Per basic economics 101, the price has no choice but to go up.

The best way to get the price of medicine to go down is to force people to pay for it themselves. Back in the 1960s this is how it was, and medicine was affordable. Ever since the advent of Medicare and Medicaid and HMOs and third party payers, healthcare has skyrocketed.

It's not a coincidence. The way to get healthcare costs down is to get the government out of it. The way to get healthcare costs down is to get Jane and John Doe to question the therepy they are being provided.

That way, what isn't needed won't be given. What's needed they will pay for. And yet the healthcare reform bill passed 6 months ago does exactly the opposite of that. It places more patient's on the government dole, which means more free (but it's not free) medicine for more people.

Look, there are some people who really, truly cannot work and really, and truly could use a helping hand. I'm all for them getting help. Yet that system of helping out the needy, or our retired parents, has gotten out of hand or out of control.

It's time we had more patients like I had today. The patient who says, "Hey, before you open that and charge me $100 bucks..."

Crossfire appreciated, yet no flames aloud.

What's wrong with this picture???

This has actually been around a while, but I thought it's still fitting for an RT blog. One of my fellow RTs pegged the following pic to the RT Cave bulletin board a while ago. It's stupid enough to be funny -- but it's not really.

This is a classic example of how stupid some people are. I bet this is the kind of lady who has no clue who George Bush, Obama and McCain are. She may not even know how to read.

My wife likes to tell me about all the stupid people she meets in OB on a daily basis. Of course you have the mom who is 19 and is going on her 5th child. But when she tries to get a tubal she learns that you have to be 21 for the government to pay for it.

I guess it's cheaper to pay for another family member-- NOT. I guess it's better to allow another kid to be born to a person who is a complete loser and has no clue how to raise a child.

Oh, and lets not forget this ladies five-year-old girl has no teeth because her mother is too lazy to "teeth" her how to brush. Then again, when you look at the mom she herself has no teeth.

And the first thing she wants to do when unfortunate kid #5 is born is go outside and have a cig, right before she breast feeds.

Then s she is leaving the hosp. the RN says --- SPECIFICALLY -- "Do not take this child to Walmart or to church."

OB nurses have learned to specifically say Walmart and church because when they say, "Do not take your child anyplace where there are a lot of people, because where there are people there are germs. You want to keep your newborn away from germs for at least four weeks."

My wife said that when you say it that way, many parents think Walmart and Church are exempt from germs. So, when my wife leaves work and goes to Walmart, there is the 19 year old who gave birth yesterday.

What can my wife do but roll her eyes.

So the young mother's new baby is an excellent breast feeder -- which science has proven is the best way to feed your child. Yet, because she wants to smoke, this young mom of five decides to bottle feed because formula is free from WIC -- a government program.

I think the reason government programs are designed the way they are is because some people in government (we won't mention name or party) wants people to be poor because poor people vote for them.

Yet some people are too stupid to vote. They probably don't even know what a vote is.

Which brings me to another thought my wife placed into my head: You have so many people who would be excellent parents who can't have kids -- or decide not to have kids for all the right reasons, and then you have losers who have kids every year so they can get free government assistance.

Of course while on Welfare the mom also gets free dentistry, but she is too lazy to take herself and her child to the dentist while she is on Welfare. So she and her poor little children all have black rotting teeth, or no teeth at all.

There is no reason anyone should have to live like this. While I think there are many people who live like this due to their own laziness and ignorance, there are many people who live like this because the government creates a nice easy cushion for them.

Then again, it all comes back down to laziness (Is stupidity a precurser to laziness or the other way around?) Still, there's no excuse for either one in my opinion.

It's true one can't help who one is born to, but it's up to you to prevent yourself from becoming a loser. I know this is possible because I have met many people with terrible folks who are not losers themselves.

So, that in mind, here is the neat little picture I was referring to. What's wrong with this pic?