Recently I had to go for a Doctor consultation for COLD/COUGH and i tried to get an appointment,but the appointment date i got was after 10 days.
I asked the receptionist why it takes 10 days to see a doctor for a general consultation,She said this is normal waiting time.
I thought how many days it would take for me to get an appointment for an operation!!!
Do i need to wait for 10 days to see the doctor to get diagnozed for cold..my cold would go away in 3 or 4 days.
She said,If i needed to see the doctor the same day,i would have to go in as a Emergency case.The fee for it is very less - $600.(By appointment is $250)
It will be paid by my insurance,But If i dont have an insurance,how can i pay $600 from my pocket.
In India,we can walk right into any hospital/doctor and get a general checkup done with a very nominal fee.
Why is medicare so expensive in the US?Are there not enough doctors?
Most of the people in US are employed by Private companies and their retirement age is much higher than 60 yrs.People does not stop working until they are really old - may be to support themselves because they are on their own,living away from children or someone who can take care of them.
They have a big burden of paying their healthcare premium because without a health insurance in US,health care is really really expensive.
So,When the average retirement age is increasing,there are fewer jobs available for the youth and this is definitely one of the problems for unemployment rate growing higher.
Why is the US government not acting to improve the situation.
Solution:
Make Healthcare Cheaper
Open new medical colleges,make more doctors available,open new hospitals and provide more aid to pharma companies for research.
New Hospitals will create thousands of jobs startig with construction,Nurses,Front office staff,Lab staff and various other categories in line with hospital administration.
Access to more hospitals/medical services will drive down the medicare costs and it makes people less dependent on Medical Insurance.
i.e Medicare should be available at less cost for people even without Medical Insurance.
Is it the Pharma company/Insurance company lobby that is stopping the government from doing it?
Or the system is complex enough that it is very difficult to change it.
Or this is how it works in Developed countries!!!!!!!!!!!!
(When i started this blog few days back,i took the example of my friend who had to go to emergency checkup for $600.
But just before posting this blog,i paid $720 from my pocket for a Physiotherapy treatment(It costs less than 700 Rs in India).And my insurance is not paying it for some reason)
Even I had the same opinion until I learnt few things from the American colleagues. Patient-Doctor-Insurance point fingers at each other for increase in health care expenditure. I was told by one of my American colleague that a doctor pays huge amount to the insurance company to get coverage when people sue the doctor for thousands and thousands of dollar. Co-incidentally the father of this colleague was a doctor and I was told the father was paying around $80000 a year to the insurance company as premium. So he had to make $800000 + $$ to make his living + $$ to pay to his employees + $$ to pay his office rent, electricity ....etc.and so the reason the doctor charges a couple hundred dollars to every patient visiting him/her.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting thing I learnt is about how many patients a doctor can treat in a month or in a year? Let us assume Dr. X is a very famous doctor in town and he is known for providing good medical care. Given the fact that Dr. X is a proven doctor, every sick man would prefer to get treated by Dr. X rather by Dr. Y or Dr. Z. If everyone visits only Dr. X, then Dr. Y and Dr. Z cannot make their living because they don't have anyone to treat and don't know any other profession. So the government has passed certain laws which impose limitations on how many patients a doctor can treat in a month or in a year. Now again the doctor has to make all those $$ to pay his insurance premium, and pay for other expenses by treating limited number of patients and the only way to make more money from less people is to charge the less people more money and that is what is being done.
Lot of information i dint know le..Thanks..
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