What if...

[justinsn95]

Ok I know I have asked what would happen if we totally ditched any and all socialist ways, and went with the purest form of capitolism with this country. Never going to happen, I know. And the answer to that was, a lot of things would improve but you would have millions of homeless people. But now I want to ask a new question. What would happen to healthcare, if we went pure all out capitolist with it? And only it. Leave everything else the way it was, for safety's sake. But all the sudden if you aint got the money, and you aint got no insurance, you be screwed. No medicare, no elderly discounts, no money for nursing homes, no nothing. It sounds so cruel, I know. But all men die. Such is life. I think people would only have to suffer for a few years before the competition got so stiff, that you had hospital commercials coming on TV asking you to please come to the hospital and buy a little of their services. Healthcare might just get cheap.

[buzntxn]

i'm not sure exactly how it all works but i think a more simple solution would be to disband the AMA which limits the amount of doctors in practice. with that done healthcare would drastically lower simply because of supply and demand. sound right to the people who know? i'm sure there is a give and take with any situation...

[Vertnut]

That's exactly how it is in Mexico. You pay cash for EVERYTHING...medicine, office visits, and even surgeries. My mom's been there for 8 years now, and she says it's amazing how those folks find the money for an appendectomy if they think they're going to die...
Medicine is dirt cheap (about 25% or less, of what it is here).

[buzntxn]

i saw something briefly on the news the other day about the markup of drugs, some are marked up thousands of percent but the average seemed to be somewhere around 500% for more common medicines. totally fucking wack shit. what if all the body shops got together to form some kind of association in hopes of limiting their services to raise demand? what if the gas stations did that? my first thought is it would be dirty as fuck, how can they get away with it?

[justinsn95]

That's exactly how it is in Mexico. You pay cash for EVERYTHING...medicine, office visits, and even surgeries. My mom's been there for 8 years now, and she says it's amazing how those folks find the money for an appendectomy if they think they're going to die...
Medicine is dirt cheap (about 25% or less, of what it is here).

Well, that is cheaper, I'll give you that. But my grandad's heart surgery (thank god he was insured) cost the insurance company about $110K. Take 25% off of that and what do you got? Still a price hardly anyone can afford. Something still missing from the equation. Need to get it a whole lot lower.

[Vertnut]

Well, that is cheaper, I'll give you that. But my grandad's heart surgery (thank god he was insured) cost the insurance company about $110K. Take 25% off of that and what do you got? Still a price hardly anyone can afford. Something still missing from the equation. Need to get it a whole lot lower.

I said it is 25% OR LESS. In other words, about a 1/4 of our medication. I'm not sure of the percentages on surgeries, but I know that dental work (including cosmetic) runs about 30% of ours.