Health Care Scams

I have come to the conclusion that doctors have no financial incentive to make their patients well. Why should they? It means less business for them. I have several unresolved health problems that have yet to be resolved by a caring, thoughtful, thorough doctor that will take the 20 minutes to read my whole complete medical history and develop a comprehensive game plan for my long term wellbeing. Between a dislocating jaw that triggers migraines, dislocating shoulders that inflame my neck which hurts my neck which triggers migraines, to getting my teeth cleaned regularly, the whole system is a mish mosh of incompleteness that results in major pill popping. I know I am not alone. I read regularly how under-served Americans are in good preventive health care. It was with no big surprise that this article from today's news illustrates the low level of health care in some critical areas...cost, quality, access, efficiency, and outcomes. Yahoo News Link

Americans get the poorest health care and yet pay the most compared to five other rich countries, according to a report released on Tuesday. Germany, Britain, Australia and Canada all provide better care for less money, the Commonwealth Fund report found.

"The U.S. health care system ranks last compared with five other nations on measures of quality, access, efficiency, equity, and outcomes," the non-profit group which studies health care issues said in a statement.

Canada rates second worst out of the five overall. Germany scored highest, followed by Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

"The United States is not getting value for the money that is spent on health care," Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis said in a telephone interview.

What a dismal outlook on the health of us taxpayers. basically, we are paying outrages prices for very little positive outcomes and it makes me agitated which certailny doesn't help my blood pressure, depression, or anxiety. (The Left Coaster addresses the political perspectives of American's health care, here.)

A recent article in the New York Times illustrates perfectly what I mean. Doctors are paid millions to prescribe certain medications that may increase a patient's risk of heart attack or stroke. Basically, our medical professionals are "bribed" by pharmaceutical companies to prescribe pills that make you ill and makes them richer. Go figure. NYT Link

Two of the world’s largest drug companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses.

The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size. Critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients’ risks of heart attacks or strokes.

Silly naive me. I thought it was illegal and immoral to intentionally do bodily harm to people.
And it's not only doctors who scam ill patients. The insurance companies are also excellent at scamming poor people as seen by this Government Accountability report that explains how insurance companies have not reimbursed medicare drug plan recipients for which they are entitled. GuardianUnlimited Link

Some of the aid intended for the poorest of Medicare's participants - tens of millions of dollars - probably never made it to them during the first year of the new Medicare drug benefit.

Some so-called dual-eligibles - seniors and disabled people whose incomes are so low that they also qualify for Medicaid - were never told that they could seek reimbursement for some drug-related expenses, federal investigators say in a report to be released Tuesday.