The Rising Cost of Health Care

A classmate of mine had an unfortunate accident while affirming to himself that his talents lie in medicine and NOT in locksmithing.(don't ask) The mishap resulted in a laceration to his finger that required a few stitches. The interesting part of this story is how much the Emergency Room visit and treatment cost. He paid $50.00* and is now medical bill-free!

How on earth can these poor people down here make a living, practically giving health care away? Don't their 4x4's(gauze pads) cost $19.00 each just like ours?

Seriously, it does give one pause and makes you think that if you walked into any ER in America and told them, "I have a laceration that needs suturing and only $50.00. What can I get?"

The most common answer I suspect would be : "Directions to another hospital!"

My friend Art and I have a running joke about Universal Health Care and the (I can barely type it) Socialization of medicine in America. He takes the side that it should become a reality, and I tell him to "let's just wait until I get my first paycheck as a full fledged Physician ." (look at me alliterate!)

While I haven't yet adopted the conservative republican view, given my pending tax bracket, I do believe that wholesale socialized medicine isn't the answer. I am more in favor of reforming the system as it is. I posted some thoughts on the subject on a forum. You can read them here.

For those of you that are too lazy to click here, I'll summarize, I would like to see:

1. medical malpractice tort reform
2. Fixing the Health Care Spending Account
3. Overhaul and reduction of bureaucracy in the Medicare / Medicaid programs

I was much more eloquent in my post, you could find it here if you were looking that is hehehe.

*Disclaimer:
In the intrest of full disclosure, he did recieve the sutures without benefit of local anesthetic. But unless the cost of Lidocaine has gone up a million fold then my point is still valid. Besides my guess is the doc on duty was a Rambo fan.