A local tax on alcohol that would provide additional funding for KMC.

Health care isn't as broke as most make this out to be.  How many people are without healthcare by choice?  How many would rather spend money on things they desire rather than things they need?  We could use some fiscal responsibility rather than waiting for goverment to bail us out again.  

But, since you asked, I believe healthcare can be fixed if we limit law suits.  How much of a doctor's time is spent on documenting their procedure rather than seeing a patient?  Simply put, our society has grown dependent and irresponsible. 

Health care isn't as broke as most make this out to be. 

Oh really?  And what makes you say that?  How often do you get a medical bill in the mail?

How many people are without healthcare by choice? 

The people I've known to be without healthcare didn't have a choice - they couldn't afford it.

How many would rather spend money on things they desire rather than things they need?  We could use some fiscal responsibility rather than waiting for goverment to bail us out again.  

So.. you'd rather people spend their money on trivial things, rather than ensuring that if and when they need medical attention, it will not cost them or the government an arm and a leg?

But, since you asked, I believe healthcare can be fixed if we limit law suits.

Good idea.  First and foremost, we could have the goverment impose a new law in which Doctors can only work one shift at a time, and then must have a specific number of hours of rest prior to returning to work, except in cases of extreme emergency.  This would limit the amount of mistakes made during surgical proceedures (studies show that most malpractice lawsuits are brought against doctors who had been working multiple shifts in a row without a break), thereby limiting malpractice suits.

A similar law was put into place about 2 years ago for truck drivers, limiting them to a certain number of hours (I believe it's 10) before they must take an 11 hour break.  Since the law was put into place, truck-driver related accidents have been on a sharp decline.  It's common sense.

How much of a doctor's time is spent on documenting their procedure rather than seeing a patient? 

I don't know - how much time?

Simply put, our society has grown dependent and irresponsible.

I'll agree with that to a degree.. but I don't see how that justifies an argument against health care reform.

"How many would rather spend money on things they desire rather than things they need?"

I know, come one guys, why do you need to eat?

Cassooner, that was spoken like a true eliteist that has no clue what regular Americans are going through. 

Having a public option or single payer healthcare isn't the government bailing us out. It's the government forcing the insurance monopolies to be competitive. Limiting lawsuits is great, but if fixes nothing. Putting a good public option that competes with private insurance would force the market to adjust and it would force them to provide adequate services. You are for a free market aren't you? The insurance companies aren't. They love their for-profit monopoly. Why do you think they spend so much on lobbyists?

Fix healthcare by the following procedure.

1.  Start with Medicare

2.  Allow anyone to join

3.  Provide some mechanism (I guess bankruptcy court will do) to redistribute the assets of the for-profit  insurers as they fail

Lawsuits, by the way, are not and never have been the problem.  Lawsuits in the medical-care industry are the athlete's foot infection on the heart-attack patient.  No matter what you do to fix them, you'll lose the patient.

What we could do is take a look at what the countries with the best medical care and the lowest cost per person and model our system after that. Of course the republicans and the democrats that are getting their palms greased by the insurance industry would have to stop obstructing progress first. It's pretty easy to tell which ones they are.

 Health care isn't as broke as most make this out to be.  How many people are without healthcare by choice?  How many would rather spend money on things they desire rather than things they need? 

Tell that to the guy who didn't have $50,000 to get the bone put back into his skull.

Malpractice payouts could be severely limited if license boards would just have the resolve to remove the licenses of the "repeat offenders" (who rack up a lot of the malpractice settlements) and if that removal applied across the entire USA instead of just one state. How many times does a doctor need to be incompetent before the government says he can't practice again? A whole lot right now, and that's not helping things at all. And I'm not talking about doctors in high-risk fields where a certain level of loss is to be expected. I'm talking about doctors who botch routine procedures regularly, such as the plastic surgeon KGET profiled a couple weeks ago.

The other big issue in health care is that almost 2/3rds of bankrupcies in 2007 were due to medical bills and over half of those people had private insurance at the onset of their medical crisis. It's horrible that people can go broke just because they had the misfortune of getting cancer or of being in a car accident where the at-fault driver had no insurance or assets or any other random event that racks up large medical bills. There needs to be some sort of safety net for people, even those who have private medical insurance, so that they don't go bankrupt due to misfortune.

The uninsured are also an issue of course, but I think they've been given the spotlight while these other two issues have been overlooked.

Tell that to the guy who didn't have $50,000 to get the bone put back into his skull. 

Now, h&f, they *OFFERED* to replace it instead with a paper plate.  It was *HIS* choice... 

.

Malpractice payouts could be severely limited

If malpractice payouts and lawsuits were *ABOLISHED* it wouldn't save the medical system.  That's.  Not.  What's.  Wrong.

About half of the staff at a doctors office are there to deal with insurance forms and the paper work.

That’s a lot of overhead unrelated to medical care. A single error on the form delays payment, and with Medicare, the doctor can be fined if the form isn’t filled out correctly.

Require a single standardized claim form for all insurance providers, private or government. There are well over 200 different types of medical insurance claims forms, and none are standardized.

Big savings because of reduced overhead.

How much of a doctor's time is spent on documenting their procedure rather than seeing a patient? 

Interesting segment on VPR a couple of days ago. Two general practitioners stated that at least one additional RN was required to be present for simple procedures for expert documentation, just in case of litigation. 

PP2, all of your biased opinion always favor government bailing your butt - like a leach.  Stop blaming others and take charge of your life.  Go out and get a job (not the one at McDonald, but get an adult job). 

http://online.wsj.com/artic...

Sure, there is always an exception, but do you really want the governemt to step in only to make it worse?  I was fortunate to have some form of health coverage for most of my adult life through either military or through my company.  However, I knew some friends that did not have health coverage because they would rather buy a new car or some other desireables.  Therefore, the inflated numbers of uninsured is just that.  I know some of you (PP2  random) would rather have gov't help you out, but remember that our gov't do not generate income -FSG .  They tax and print to buy your lazy votes.

One more...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id...

Sure, there is always an exception, but do you really want the governemt to step in only to make it worse?

I would rather have the government step in and make it better.  It's obvious what we have now ain't working.

You needn't worry about the government making it worse--Shrub's gone. 

Oh boo hoo, you hurt my feelings with your lame insult about me working at McDonalds. Guess what, I did have insurance but my employer (not actually McDonalds) had to cancel it because the costs were too high. Somehow in your mind this is my fault. I guess playing the blame game works for you and your elitest attitude. I love how on one hand you slam people that are unemployed, then also slam those that work at McDonalds. You must be one of those compassionate conservatives.

I don't want the federal govt to step in and make things worse. I expect them to make health care more accessible and reasonably priced. The free market is completely failing to do so, so this is what we're left with. What I don't understand is how anybody could be happy with the way health care is now. Not even doctors feel this way. They're so busy with paperwork, and getting permission from insurance companies they can't do their jobs. Somehow you are OK with this.