The Wal-Martization of America

[Guru of Nothing]

These companies are leading to the overmedication of our country because they remove doctors as an objective party when they put them on their payroll. The doctors agenda's then change from only your health to moving that particular drug as well.

That's a no- ter!

People want their doctors to STFU and prescribe them a pill; and doctors, they want their patients to STFU, take a pill, and move out of the way for the next patient.

[Yonivore]

I learned that lesson myself when I was presented with the detailed portion of the bill from the hospital that my insurance didn't cover when my daughter was born. When I had a fit and told them if they thought I was going to pay $12 for a trial sized box of baby wipes they could kiss my ass, we were able to work out a little something better for my portion of the bill.

I like the "kiss my ass" counter offer.

[Marcus Bryant]

So your argument is: universal health care would not be a good thing? People should just take care of themselves. Of course this is a NEOCOM argument. I am not in favor of universal health care, I have seen the results of this. But an individual taking health care from a private provider is their decision. I will agree on one thing, doctors and health care providers do inflate their prices (fees) so they can justify raising their fees at a later date. But they don't necessarily get the increase, except when it comes to government. Private insurers will tell them to go suck a lemon. Government causes many increases in many things. The media does the same. How? By simply talking it up so people expect and the companies see a way to increase the price. Happens every day. And then you have futures market, but we will got there at a later time.

Bush has pushed us in the direction of greater socialized health care delivery.

[MannyIsGod]

I learned that lesson myself when I was presented with the detailed portion of the bill from the hospital that my insurance didn't cover when my daughter was born. When I had a fit and told them if they thought I was going to pay $12 for a trial sized box of baby wipes they could kiss my ass, we were able to work out a little something better for my portion of the bill.

When I was an active agent it was so hard selling my policies at times because they were no this is what you're going to get policies that cut out a lot of the adminitrative bull that raises costs.

Well, it was hard because people didn't trust you that there was an ability there to get hte prices lowered signficantly and they were all paranoid about having a 2 million dollar hospital bill.

There is so much paranoia surrounding medical issues becuase politicians love to create a 'crisis' they can 'solve' with their legislation.

[MannyIsGod]

That's a no- ter!

People want their doctors to STFU and prescribe them a pill; and doctors, they want their patients to STFU, take a pill, and move out of the way for the next patient.

Yes, my mothers doctor pissed me off recently. She tested for an enlarged heart and the her doctors first reaction was to put her on some medication and telling her "you will be on this for life".

My mother has slight calcium build up in her arteries, but it isn't bad by any means. She is much better served by watching her diet - especially when you consider we have a family history of diabetics so this could kill 2 birds with one stone. She began taking the medication and was feeling much worse than prior to taking it so she stopped. The name escapes me right now, or else I'd post it as well.

Well, I was pissed when I heard the doctors comments and forced her to get a 2nd opinion. Sure enough, the 2nd doctor put her on a better diet and my mother has felt 2042098230820830928302983 times better since then.

[xrayzebra]

I'm sure there are drugs that should be on the market that aren't because of legal complications, but much of that is also due to drugs that make it onto the market and shoudln't be. When you have a drug like Vioxx that never should have been approved and was, it causes lawyers to seek out other drugs they can make money on.

Of that I have no doubts.

However, that is a problem that drug companies share a large responsiblity for. These companies are leading to the overmedication of our country because they remove doctors as an objective party when they put them on their payroll. The doctors agenda's then change from only your health to moving that particular drug as well.

It is a very complicated system but there are far more justified lawsuits than frivilous ones. When you start to limit the effectiveness of lawsuits you put patients in a higher state of danger.

Okay, some figures:

Aspirin kills more than 580 Americans each month.

9.8 Million prescriptions for Vioxx. Using the critics claim of 27,785 vioxx users died.T he percentile of non-lethal users was 99.7 percent.

Cardiac catheterization is only 99.8 non-lethal

Tysabri which I cited in the original post had 8,000 users, three developed a rare neurological ailment call PML, Two died. It (Tysabri) was 99.9729 percent non-lethal. (I might add lawyers were on the phone immediately soliciting suits).

Again I state, look in the yellow pages, on TV, or just have an accident and see how many lawyers call to "protect" your rights for injury. Of course I hope you don't hold you breath for any money, cause their expenses plus 40 percent will take most of it, and blue isn't my favorite color. Also the media cannot wait to jump on the big bad drug companies for selling drugs that kill people just to make money. Give me a break.

Also, should we take Aspirin off the market, it seems to kill a lot of people like almost 7000 a year.

[Clandestino]

medicaid hurts society..

true story... i talked to my grandma this morning.. she said she had to go to the hospital bc she was in a lot of pain for her arthritis. she said she called the ambulance to go get her.. i said, "what? why the ambulance?" she said she didn't want to have to wake up my dad, uncle, or any of the other relatives who live within 3 miles of her!!! she said and since she is on medicaid it doesn't cost her anything!!!

that is the problem with government healthcare and bull like that.. .people abuse it..

[SpursWoman]

I like the "kiss my ass" counter offer.

[xrayzebra]

Yes, my mothers doctor pissed me off recently. She tested for an enlarged heart and the her doctors first reaction was to put her on some medication and telling her "you will be on this for life".

My mother has slight calcium build up in her arteries, but it isn't bad by any means. She is much better served by watching her diet - especially when you consider we have a family history of diabetics so this could kill 2 birds with one stone. She began taking the medication and was feeling much worse than prior to taking it so she stopped. The name escapes me right now, or else I'd post it as well.

Well, I was pissed when I heard the doctors comments and forced her to get a 2nd opinion. Sure enough, the 2nd doctor put her on a better diet and my mother has felt 2042098230820830928302983 times better since then.

So manny, is the drug companies at fault here, or the doctor who prescribed the drug. You did the right thing, had her see a doctor who was a doctor. I wonder sometimes, should we ban doctors or the universities who graduate them. I would hope myself and others would choose the right doctor. My doctor and I have many discussions about drugs, now who would have thunk it, my doctors know what I think, and I respect their opinions, because I know what they think.

[xrayzebra]

I like the "kiss my ass" counter offer.

Funny how this phrase works for many businesses as well as hospitals, especially when they know they are dealing with someone who really knows what is going on and they are getting ripped off.

[Yonivore]

Funny how this phrase works for many businesses as well as hospitals, especially when they know they are dealing with someone who really knows what is going on and they are getting ripped off.

Nah, I'd just like to kiss SW's ass. It's a more attractive offer than payment as far as I'm concerned.

[SpursWoman]

9.8 Million prescriptions for Vioxx. Using the critics claim of 27,785 vioxx users died.T he percentile of non-lethal users was 99.7 percent.

My mother took Vioxx right up until they took it off the shelves. A few months later she suffered a stroke, had brain surgury, and suffered another stroke within hours of that that the doctors could not explain. She died at the ripe old age of 61 in otherwise great health. I'm trying to figure out what your point is....is it that my brother and I should have no recourse for losing our mother about 25 years too soon?

How is death frivilous? That wasn't the type of lawsuits I was talking about.

[SpursWoman]

Nah, I'd just like to kiss SW's ass. It's a more attractive offer than payment as far as I'm concerned.

[Clandestino]

sue.. everyone else is..

[SpursWoman]

sue.. everyone else is..

Even the (original) Coyote...but at least he's still alive. I wonder how much he'll get?

The bad part is, up until recently the thought never entered my mind to do so...that was the only thing she was ever given for her arthritis that made it actually stop hurting, and she was inconsolable the day she couldn't get it anymore. So why would I sue? Sometimes it was the only way she could make it through the day.

Now I'm thinking why not? Everyone else is...and I could probably get more because there was an actual death. And I still think to do it is ty.

[MannyIsGod]

I think Merck needs to pay and pay a lot. I hope you sue and I hope you get a good settlement out of it.

[Clandestino]

Even the (original) Coyote...but at least he's still alive. I wonder how much he'll get?

The bad part is, up until recently the thought never entered my mind to do so...that was the only thing she was ever given for her arthritis that made it actually stop hurting, and she was inconsolable the day she couldn't get it anymore. So why would I sue? Sometimes it was the only way she could make it through the day.

Now I'm thinking why not? Everyone else is...and I could probably get more because there was an actual death. And I still think to do it is ty.

it won't bring her back, but it will still help you and your family out... it may not have even caused her death, but i think you should at least try. she may be up in heaven saying, "god damn it spurswoman! go get that ing money!"

[MannyIsGod]

@ Her mother calling her Spurswoman.

[SpursWoman]

it won't bring her back, but it will still help you and your family out... it may not have even caused her death, but i think you should at least try. she may be up in heaven saying, "god damn it spurswoman! go get that ing money!"

That's exactly what she'd say..."WTF is wrong with you ... you can fix the ing A/C in that house and put those goddamn kids through college...I'd probably end up paying for that anyway! Call Abe, and bring me my checkbook."

[Clandestino]

well, then, it's settled, call a lawyer today!

[RandomGuy]

medicaid hurts society..

that is the problem with government healthcare and bull like that.. .people abuse it..

The cost of abuse is MUCH less than the cost of denying people access to health care.

This is a bit like saying "some of our soldiers at Abu Ghraib did bad things, let's get rid of our military".

I can accept a bit of abuse as unavoidable. Take steps to mitigate it, but in the end medicaid does more many times more good than bad, morally and economically.

[Yonivore]

The cost of abuse is MUCH less than the cost of denying people access to health care.

This is a bit like saying "some of our soldiers at Abu Ghraib did bad things, let's get rid of our military".

I can accept a bit of abuse as unavoidable. Take steps to mitigate it, but in the end medicaid does more many times more good than bad, morally and economically.

Some reports claim that as much as 1 in 3 dollars is wasted through fraud and abuse. If a third of our military were corrupt, yeah...we'd need to get rid of it.

[RandomGuy]

Some reports claim that as much as 1 in 3 dollars is wasted through fraud and abuse. If a third of our military were corrupt, yeah...we'd need to get rid of it.

Ahhh...

The old "some reports claim". Whose reports? I would like to see this data first hand.

I would be willing to bet that the 33% figure is just a *bit* overstated.

[SpursWoman]

The cost of abuse is MUCH less than the cost of denying people access to health care.

I agree to an extent, but here's another example that's not so cut and dried:


I have a friend that was pregnant with her son the exact same time I was pregnant with my daughter. We had about the same household income but one small difference: she declined health care coverage at her job, I accepted mine.

I found out I was pregnant, did all the prenatal stuff...the hospital stuff....natural delivery, very little complications...left the next day with a total paid to doctors & hospitals of about $2,000, on top of the premiums I paid for my coverage.

My friend found out she was pregnant, ran down to the medicaid office and got emergency coverage or some weird-sounding like that ...did the prenatal thing...but had a breech baby that required a C-Section and a 5 day hospital stay...walked out having to pay not a single CENT.

Is that fair? Or am I just stupid for not letting someone else foot my bills?


Of couse, when my son was 6 months old and I had switched jobs and was only without insurance for 90 days ... he ended up in the hospital for a week with bronchilitis. Do you think I got the weird sounding emergency medicaid ? no, I got a $12,000 hospital bill. So I'm jaded and bitter about public welfare, so take my responses with a grain of salt.

[Clandestino]

crazy !