Another Reason health care needs to be reformed

You absolutely have to “consider the health” when looking at outcomes. It truly is amazing how long we live on average considering how unhealthy we are in this country.

And I agree we should focus on the preventative. Unfortunately most Americans are trained to be reactive rather than proactive when it comes to their health. We are building our practice on the foundation of integrative medicine. But we probably have more patients than average that embrace the big picture compared to reactive and you can even say proactive to a point. I consider a patient that does their two cleanings a year proactive. But many of those patients would benefit from doing more. But insurance has trained them that two cleanings a year and X-Rays will solve the problem as it is paid for by insurance under “preventative”. While it can be the case. Likely there is far more that can be done when it comes to preventative.

And you do touch on a key point. Barely being kept alive for 20 years is one of the major issues with our healthcare. And it is not appealing to me either. And it is paid for mainly by the socialized side of our system (Medicare). And the hospital systems know how to use the system. Which makes it a very tough issue to deal with. I will never forget my Grandfathers final 6 weeks. It was border line criminal what the Osceola Medical Center did…

 

Last place while being most medicated.

Hmmm …

 

He never does.

 

Are you a dentist? Are you familiar with the oral care active ingredient calcium sodium phosphosilicate - bioglass 45s5, NovaMin - that was commercialized by a small company in Alachua? GSK purchased the technology and sells it ex-US in its Sensodyne product.

It is very effective in development of hydroxyappetite on the tooth surface and has a significant positive impact on soft tissue and gingival health. I’ve been using products with NovaMin for 17 years and it’s good stuff. It’s rectified all sensitivity issues and facilitated regeneration of soft tissue.

 

I am not a dentist but my wife is. You don’t want to see me anywhere near the dental chair lol. I will ask her about this.

She has learned so much since getting her degree at UF from the Dawson Academy in St Pete along with some other platforms.

I will say we have moved away from Fluoride unless the patient is prone to high caries. It is great to kill bad bacteria. But it kills the good bacteria as well. The oral microbiome is way to complex for me to get into outside the general stuff. But I do think it is something almost no one thinks about. Yet is vitally important to not just oral health. But overall health.

 

Sensodyne Repair and Protect from Canada is what I use

 

No reason to eat modestly, exercise and take responsibility for your own health while there are the ubiquitous adverts announcing all you need is a pill or a minor surgery and all is well. Sadly, all too many of us have bought the lie.

 

God bless Joe Biden for leading the fight on insulin prices

 

I am totally pissed at my doctors and myself for not keeping an eye on the cost of my medications. Up until this year I never reached what they call the doughnut hole in my Medicare Advantage plan. At the end of last year my Cardiologist put me on Farxiga and my primary care doctor put me on Anora Elipta about the same time. Both are $500+ prescriptions. I never paid attention because they were mostly covered by my plan.

The other day I went in to pick up my Farxiga and the druggist asked me "do you know what it costs" I answered it's not a problem. He said it is $160. I answered "it was never that high before". He said apparently I had entered the doughnut hole. When I got home I looked up the doughnut hole and once you and your insurance company have combined for $5000 of prescription cost for the year Medicare no longer pays it's full share. My farxia went from $40/month to $160/month. Anora Elepta will be about the same. I think it is about time I ask my doctors about generics.

 

Americans Often Pay 3 Times More for Medicare Drugs Up for Negotiation Than Comparable Countries

 

Over my 25 years with Orange County I inspected houses of rock stars, actors, pro athletes ect. The 2nd most expensive house I ever inspected was huge. The contractor asked me if I could guess what the homeowner did for a living. I answered "He is a drug dealer? ". He said I was close, he sells legal drugs. He was a salesman for one of the big drug companies.

 

Blue Cross doesn't get to make their own rates. There is a state regulatory agency in every state that regulates the rates. If BCBS of Alabama wants to raise rates in 2025, they have to file the rate adjustment with the state of Alabama. BCBS has a team of a score of actuaries who analyze everything to predict what the rates should be in a year from now. Sometimes they miss the mark, but most years they nail it. Since BCBS is a not-for-profit organization, they can't have any profits left over. Some of that is moved to escrow because by law they have to have enough money in reserves to pay hospitals and providers in case of hardships and they have happened before. I don't know the numbers, but it's a pretty sizable cushion. There are years where they have submitted a rate decrease and even that has to be approved.

But for those that want Europe's healthcare system, you need to try them out first before asking for it. In most cases, it ain't free. Even in Portugal, a large ex-pat nation, their citizens enjoy good healthcare that is part of the taxes they collect. So for those who earn more than $75K, their taxes are nearly 50%. So if I would take my healthcare premium and even the deductible, it would be about $24K a year. That's for a pretty good plan for my wife and I and our 21 year old son. We are closing in on 60 so our use of the healthcare system has gone up so we elect to pay a lower copay and deductible for a higher premium. So one could argue that if we took that $24K out of taxes and no more premium or deductible, it would be easier to deal with. But by how much? Would we pay 60% in taxes? This is universal healthcare so everything is added in - pre-existing conditions, cancer treatment (and all of those conditions that cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars), and people who don't work and don't have Medicare, Remember, the US pays more for healthcare than every country on the planet and that wouldn't change if the government provided universal healthcare. Unless the government capped fees and forced Big Pharma to lower all drug prices, the taxpayer might have to pay 60, 70, 80% in taxes.

Also for those that have no clue of owning a business, your employer actually pays a substantial portion of your healthcare costs. My wife's business pays 70% of the costs, which is average for a small business. Larger employers pay as much as 80% of your costs, so universal healthcare would continue to have your employer pay the same rate? It can't go away because who pays that portion now? 95% tax rates? See where I'm going? It's not cut and dry for the US to all of a sudden create a new healthcare system overnight. It would take decades and no one really knows how much in taxes our "free" healthcare is going to cost, but it will most definitely double. The other issue is quality. Some countries have pretty good care but they are countries whose population is barely that of Dallas, TX. What is easier to manage - Dallas or the US? Lots of red tape at the federal level and that wouldn't go away with universal healthcare. Think waiting 2 years is a long time to wait for a knee replacement in the UK or Germany, wait until we go through it. Might be 5 years.

I ask this - if the EU is so great, why do all of them have private coverages? Keep in mind they are already paying for "free" universal care so why also pay for private coverage.

 

So many factual issues here.

A person making $75k in Portugal doesn't pay nearly 50% of their income. Even if you include social security, it is about 40%, not 50%. So if one were to take the 32% that you pay in premiums alone, according to you, that is a pretty solid deal actually when you consider that there aren't co-pays and deductibles as well for nationally provided services.

Second, universal healthcare does not necessarily include all procedures. Many countries have hybrid systems where emergency and life saving treatment is covered and other treatments are handled via private insurance. See, for example the Swiss or Australian systems.

Third, one of the points of such a system is to negotiate with providers, including pharmaceutical companies, with more negotiating power.

Employers do pay a proportion of healthcare costs now. However, that simply has the effect of raising employee costs and suppressing wages, with the relative effect of each of those being dependent on the labor market at the time. Taking that burden off of companies would make it cheaper to hire employees, even with a higher salary.

The notion that we would need to pay 95% for healthcare is so beyond absurd that you really need to think through it more next time.