what are some reasons as to why the cost of health care should be lowered?

Healthcare costs are astronomical, and it's mainly due to the fact that doctors feel they are so above everyone else that they deserve the kind of money they make.

For example, the last time my wife went into the hospital, they used a 5 inch Q-tip type thing on her, and we got a bill that had that on it, 26.00 for the qtip. Why? Because they know that they can charge whatever they want and people will have to pay it, or else skip going to the doctor which isn't feasable.

The other reason health care is so expensive is because of all the lawsuits against health care providers. People in the US are willing to sue for as much as they can, with or without a valid reason. Even if they lose, which a majority do, the cost in defending themselves drives the malpractice insurance up, which increases prices, which...blablabla, you get the idea.

The reasonsthe costs should be lowered are kind of obvious... namely so that those of us who cannot afford insurance can still go to the hospital or the doctors without fear of having our credit ruined because we can't afford the bills. So that people with 4 or 5 kids can afford to keep their kids health whereas now, they have to sacrafice everything when a child is sick.

The only way the healthcare costs will ever come down is if the government steps in and puts a stop to all these over-the-top charges. I recently had my appendix removed. The bill came out to be close to $5,000.00. I stayed in a room for 1 day, had 1 meal, and a 40 minute surgery without even being opened up, just 3 small slices in my belly and wands inserted to do the work. 40 minutes. I can't honestly say that a night in a hotel (basically the same thing) and having some doc look through a scope for 40 minutes is worth 5K. There's no way.

But if I didn't have it done, I could have died. Hence, they can charge whatever they want. It's an unending cycle

***EDIT***

To the person above who said everyone should have to pay for insurance...

Think about it, then look at your last pay stub or your W2... see that thing that says Medicaid? We all DO pay for insurance, it's just not for ourselves.

Sometimes it really sounds funny when people say that other countries have health care for free when they are paying high taxes to the government.

Since you are doing research, consider looking into ways healthcare costs can be lowered through market forces. Look into presidential candidate congressman Ron Paul's insights.

He is a medical doctor and active congressman with ample insight.

It would be great to be able to lower the cost so more people could afford it however it is unlikely. One way would be to require everyone to pay for insurance EVERYONE whether you need it or not. If each person pays at least a little then it might help pay for those who need care. If you don't happen to need it that year you would be lucky. Then when you did need it, it would be there for you.

It costs money to open more clinics. If it there isn't the money to pay for them, it will not lower the cost.

well, besides that almost every country has free health care for their people except US... the cost of life in US is pretty expensive, some ppl cant afford to get sick, and i dont think the problem is the clinic... the problem is the prices, any regular visit to a Doc is easily $125 and to the ER 1,000 min.

Because the amount of people that are uninsured is on the rise, and everyone wants to turn to medical care from the state which is costing a lot more money for taxpayers. I think we should do it like Canada, free health care.

Regardless of the product or service competition always supplies the best balance of the best quality at the lowest price, with the consumer being the one who decides where the balance point is.

Wherever it has been tried government supplied healthcare has always resulted in rationing of services and extreme costs arising from the high demand created by a service that appears to be "free."

not all people have a lot of money, or medical insurance to offset the cost.

You should watch Michael Moore's 'Sicko'... all of your answers and more are in that film.

three days in a hospital cost fifty grand......

Because the health care system has been hijacked by the few large insurers who are NOT being held to antitrust laws or contract laws, which is JUST WRONG. Therefore, they deny legit claims and rob taxpayers blind while pouring UNEARNED millions obtained by FRAUD into the pockets of a few.

Health care is NOT like any other field--when you need it, it can be a matter of life and death, not not getting the car or house you want.

First solution:

QUALITY, ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE health care for all.

That means preventative care (physical with follow up). Real medication (no Medicare "donut holes" the really ill are ripped off again.) No bogus ridiculously low "caps" on needed medical procedures. No abuse of the ER. No paying for the silly with the sniffles to go to the doc for free. No more bankruptcies over medical bills. I want THIS plan that ends abuse of the taxpayer, takes the burden off employers, provides price transparency, and ends the rip-off of the US taxpayer at the hands of greedy insurance CEOs (which has been repeatedly documented).

http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.html

Read the PDF, not the blurb, for the bulk of the plan. Book is searchable on Amazon.com

Cassandra Nathan's Save America, Save the World

Now documentation of VERY REAL PROBLEMS:

More than half of all bankruptcies in the US are over medical bills AND most of those folks have insurance ("Costly illnesses trigger about half of all personal bankruptcies, and health insurance offers no protection against ending up penniless, according to findings from a Harvard University study" http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/02/national...

Hospitals especially and some docs have become so aggressive about medical bills that that bankruptcy issue is likely to get worse (http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/conten...

The corruption of the HANDFUL of large insurers is appalling and the government is impotent in resolving this issue (http://www.newsmax.com/medicine_men/medical_insura...

The special treatment of insurance companies is unacceptable. No other industry gets the multiple breaks they do. Jamie Court's Making a Killing book is an eye-opener (http://www.makingakilling.org/contents.html). Why should it be that when a person's insurance comes via his employer (as most peoples' do) that the insurer has such protections for refusal to pay for treatment the patient needs, can't afford without insurance, and has reason to believe IS covered results in the patient's death? Such a suit can't be brought if the person dies; if the person lives and is in a world of hurt, all the patient can recover is the cost of the denied procedure. Talk about an incentive to NOT provide treatment!

This is not just the author's imagination. Linda Peeno, MD testified that SHE had often denied treatment JUST to save the insurance company money (http://www.thenationalcoalition.org/DrPeenotestimo...

Furthermore:

"the vast majority of health insurance policies are through for-profit stock companies. They are in the process of “shedding lives” as some term it when “undesirable” customers are lost through various means, including raising premiums and co-pays and decreasing benefits (Britt, “Health insurers getting bigger cut of medical dollars,” 15 October 2004, investors.com). That same Investors Business Daily article from 2004 noted the example of Anthem, another insurance company. They said the top five executives (not just the CEO) received an average of an 817 percent increase in compensation between 2000 and 2003. The CEO, for example, had his compensation go from $2.5 million to $25 million during that time period. About $21 million of that was in stock payouts, the article noted.

A 2006 article, “U.S. Health Insurance: More Market Domination, More CEO Compensation”

(hcrenewal.blogspot.com) notes that in 56 percent of 294 metropolitan areas one insurer “controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting." In addition to having the most enrollees, they also are the biggest purchasers of health care and set the price and coverage terms. “’The results is double-digit premium increases from 2001 and 2004—peaking with a 13.9 percent jump in 2003—soaring well above inflation and wages increases.’" Where is all that money going? The article quotes a Wall Street Journal article looking at the compensation of the CEO of UnitedHealth Group. His salary and bonus is $8 million annually. He has benefits such as the use of a private jet. He has stock-option fortunes worth $1.6 billion."

--Save America, Save the World by Cassandra Nathan pp. 127-128

"While growing into a colossus, UnitedHealth has repeatedly failed to perform its basic job of paying medical bills. UnitedHealth, which covers 70 million Americans, has been sanctioned in nine states for paying claims slowly; shortchanging doctors, hospitals, or patients; or poorly handling complaints and appeals.

One Nebraska woman complained to state regulators that UnitedHealth's computers had incorrectly rejected claims related to her son's surgery six times.

At one point, UnitedHealth owed Dr. George Schroedinger, an orthopedic surgeon, $600,000. He and his clinic sued UnitedHealth of the Midwest in 2004.

Deciding for the clinic, U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh of Missouri declared that the company's claims processing systems were "flawed in many ways, denying, reducing, and improperly processing claims on a regular basis. And despite innumerable requests, United was unwilling to remedy the underlying errors in its systems" (Star-Tribune Dec. 12, 2007).

Payment troubles continued after the verdict, and Dr. Schroedinger filed a second lawsuit. "These people can never get it right, which says to me that they just plain lie," he said in an interview.

Failure to pay isn't the only complaint. The insurer also gives incorrect information on which physicians are in its network, creating enormous problems for physicians' staff.

The AMA said that no other insurer has prompted as many complaints as UnitedHealth about abusive and unfair payment practices. AMA officials have met with UnitedHealth executives 16 times since 2000, with little to show for it.

"They have always got a new plan to fix it," said Dr. William G. Plested III, past president of the AMA. But "nothing ever happens."

It seems to us that this case is just the tip of the insurance iceberg. More and more stories are appearing daily in the news media about how insurance company are instructing employees their jobs are to deny claims and/or delay payments.

With such a high percentage of medical premiums and other costs going to the legal profession, to maintain compliance with endless government rules/regulations and being hoarded by the insurance companies and executives — is it any wonder medical costs are increasing so dramatically?

It's time to take a closer look at the medical insurance companies.

UnitedHealth Group is not the first medical insurance company to rob patients, hospitals and clinics to pay obscene salaries to their executives.

It's a modern day robbing patients to pay pimps.

Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., comments on medical-legal issues and is a visiting fellow in economics and citizenship at the International Trade Education Foundation of the Washington International Trade Council.

Robert J. Cihak, M.D., is a senior fellow and board member of the Discovery Institute and a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

http://www.newsmax.com/medicine_men/medical_insura...