The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

We often rant and rave about the problems in American health care, and while ObamaCare (FredoCare) is number one on the list, there are other malign influences that are contributing to the destruction of a marvelous system.

Insurance companies, and their insistence on process over results are a huge contributor to the complexity and cost of our current mess. They saw the opportunity with FredoCare and immediately took more control of the industry, using HIPAA and reimbursement rules and a host of other mandates to create a hugely complicated and expensive system that has as its goal not the results (good outcome for the patient), but their own revenue stream and control over the healthcare decisions of its customers.

I can simply compare two identical medical issues...one in 2004 and one over the last four months to see the ridiculous. complicated and expensive changes made to our healthcare system.

The sad part? The care itself was marvelous. Aside from the unpleasantness in October 2004 of having two nurses who were rabid Red Sox fans and who threatened to murder me in my sleep (I was deep in Red Sox Nation), the physicians and nurses were uniformly excellent, and focused on one thing...their patient's health.

But the insertion of many layers of unnecessary and in most cases overlapping demands for information and tests and approvals and signatures and other controls over the relationship between patient and physician has created a bloated bureaucracy that is a terrifying reminder of what we have in store if the totalitarians on the Left get their way and they force single-payer down the throats of Americans.

Here's my prescription for what we can do, aside from voting early and often against any politician who even whispers about more government control over healthcare:

Refuse to provide all unnecessary information, no matter how trivial. Insist on being respected by everyone involved...your name is Mr. Jones, not "John." And insist that they respect your time too...call the office and ask if the physician is running late, and if so, when do they think your real appointment time will be.

There are many other ways we can push back, but this is a small start.

&topic=world_news"> posted by CBD at 11:00 AM

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