Canadian doobies: "DISGUSTING!!"

[Dr Mordrid]

Guess there won't be too many border-crossings after all

http://www.cjad.com/content/cjad_news/article.asp?id=n091543A

Dr. Mordrid

[ZokesPro]

Note to self: The Gov sells cheap shit!

[gt40]

Has anything ever gotten better once the government was involved?

[Jammrock]

ROFLMAO!!!!

I think it's hilarious. It's like making the cough syrup taste like @$$. Seperates the people with real medical needs from those who are using it as an excuse to legally smoke marijuana.

Jammrock

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by gt40
Has anything ever gotten better once the government was involved?

Nope, which is one huge reason to keep 'em as far from health care as possible. From my observations health care started going to hell in a handbasket in the US as soon as the govt. started pumping money into it.

Absent this cash flow there wasn't any financial reason for the trial lawyers to get involved on a massive scale and combined with the govts. tendency towards over-regulation helped force prices through the ceiling.

Example: the cost of getting an MRI scan

The govt. controls how many facilities can get them and through the licensing procedures stretch out how long it takes between a facility needing one and getting one. This can take months or even years. This reduced availability forces the existing scanners to run 24/7.

That all might sound good in terms of limiting un-necessary procedures, but because of the laws of supply and demand this forces up the cost of each procedure. It also prevents many people who could benefit from an MRI from getting them because of the use guidelines.

Pfffftttttt.....

Dr. Mordrid

[Chrono_Wanderer]

ROFLMAO...

Dunno why, but this doesn't sound right...

[Dr Mordrid]

You have to have been there on the inside to fully get this, but because of govt. intervention in the health system several facets became highly distorted. Things that increased in cost:

1. material/supplies cost. Often due to the insurance requirements brought on by trial lawyers suing everyone in sight, more often than not with no logical basis. Insurance companies settle out of court rather than go to court because it's cheaper, so everyone pays in the end including the suppliers. Their costs go up and they pass it on.

2. equipment costs. Same basic problem as #1, but this raises the cost of things like x-ray, MRI, CT, angiographic and other special procedure systems. Again prices go up.

3. increased costs for insuring MD's. Hospitals pay the costs for those on staff. Same reasons, and with juries awarding millions for rediculous complaints we again see the insurance companies settling out of court to reduce legal costs.

4. increased govt. regulation. A biggie. The cost of getting a purchase permit for scanners etc. is extremely high, often higher than the equipment itself. If the govt. says no then the facility is forced to lease the gear which costs even more. Guess who gets the bill?

5. cost/procedure. Pure supply/demand for special procedures because of #4. All the above costs apply and with fewer available systems in the marketplace the cost/procedure has to go up to pay the overhead.

If every facility that wanted to provide a service/procedure could this would force prices down due to the competition, but the govt. doesn't get this basic econcomic truth.

Doing single provider just ups the administrative costs and regulation. I guarantee you this does nothing to reduce overall costs and the Canadian experience shows that it also reduces availability of services for those who are older or infirm.

This can be seen in any private hospital in the US that's near Canada; Canadians line up in droves to get services their govt. health care plan denies them because they're over 50 or some other silly reason.

Worst of all the heavy scheduling of procedures with the limited number of MRI systems denies many the ability to a fast/accurate/painless/safe diagnosis.

Safe? Painless? Yes!! Absent an MRI people end up getting riskier and often painful procedures instead. Some of these involve contrast media. A small percentage of people who are administered contrast media become very ill or die. Many more get ill with 5% suffering allergic reactions. Most these that occur "on the table" require medications (epinephrine, benedryl etc.) which have their own risks.

Dr. Mordrid

[Wulfman]

controlling the number of available machines isn't a bad thing under all conditions. here nearly every doctor is allowed to make x-rays. as the machines are rather expensive, doctors tend to use them as often as possible to get their expenses back - the result: radiation exposure from medical procedures is rather high compared to other nations.
another side-effect is the use of cheaper / older equipment which results in even higher radiation doses. if fewer people would be allowed to own the machines, they could use the more high-end stuff....

in combination with recent research about the effects of low-level radiation (can be found in "nature") this leaded to an interesting discussion.

mfg
wulfman

[GT98]

Originally posted by gt40
Has anything ever gotten better once the government was involved?

I saw a bumper sticker one time that said this:

US Goverment....if it isn't broke, fix it till it is!

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by Wulfman
another side-effect is the use of cheaper / older equipment which results in even higher radiation doses. if fewer people would be allowed to own the machines, they could use the more high-end stuff...

wulfman

Easily taken care of by letting a company take a depreciation deduction off their taxes as long as the money saved is put to upgrading their equipment. This is commonly used in the US tax code to encourage modernization, but isn't always available to not-for-profit organizations. It should be.

Dr. Mordrid

[paulcs]

Canadian boobies are not disgusting. I bet there are millions of fine boobies in Canada. Big Canadian boobies. Small Canadian boobies. Some are nicer than others, I'm sure, but Canada shouldn't be singled out for "disgusting boobies."

I do agree that the government should not regulate boobies. What a woman does with her boobies is her own business.

Paul

[Dr Mordrid]

DOOBIES, Paul....not boobies.

Get 'yer mind out of the gutter for 5 minutes

Dr. Mordrid

[KvHagedorn]

Doc, if this sort of thing is such a problem, why doesn't the AMA spend its lobbying efforts trying to get more reasonable legislation passed, instead of propping up already overpaid doctor's salaries? None of this explains why a neurologist has to charge $900 for a 15 minute office visit. There are all sorts of doctors, and I've known some nice ones and some who are snot-nosed pricks (mainly because they think themselves superior beings to anyone who doesn't have a medical degree.) I once observed an anesthesiologist whining about getting his salary cut from $325,000 per year to $275,000 per year. He actually expected to find a sympathetic ear in one of our salespeople here, who makes less than 10% of that ridiculous figure. I think the attitude that many of these guys get from being so highly paid results in a lot more mistakes, simply because they think they are above making them (and if they do make them, oh well.. they are operating on an inferior being so it doesn't really matter.) I know someone who is a rep for a company that makes replacement joints. He was in the operating room with a surgeon who was trying to install one of the things and relating how he always had to massage the egos of these doctors when they got something terribly wrong. Here's what he said to one guy who was trying to install a knee upside down: "Well, with your skill, you could probably make it work that way, but you might want to check its orientation again first."

I really hate arrogant ****ers who think they are better than you are because they have a medical degree and a Mercedes. Not that all doctors are like this, but most are, to a greater or lesser degree. And I have personally dealt with 100+ of them.

[Dr Mordrid]

AMA doesn't work that way and yes, some doctors are pricks.

That doesn't invalidate my points nor does it mean that all doctors are pricks. In my years of experience it's far from the truth.

In point of fact at the U of M I've seen senior residents sent into what amounts to exile to the worst hospital in their system for behaving like that. This is considered a fate worse than death since the chief of medicine there takes pleasure in whipping them back into human form.

Dr. Mordrid

[paulcs]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
DOOBIES, Paul....not boobies.

Ooooohh.



Never mind.

Paul