Obama's Healthcare plan.

Ok, give me half a second. The American healthcare system is broken. Obama's solution: use tax money to buy more people into the broken system. WHAT THE FUCK.

And since I'm bitching. I saw a clip where Obama said, more or less, "we need to start paying doctors to treat diabetes. Right now they would rather cut off a leg and make 30, 40, even 50 thousand dollars to cut off a leg."

HOLY SHIT. Can I sue Obama for malpractice? First, doctors do get paid to treat diabetes and we do it pretty well. The problem is not with doctors aggressively treating diabetes, its with diabetic patients being compliant with the prescribed treatment. Oh, the actually payment to the surgeon (HILARIOUS because surgeons cut people, they don't really treat diabetes) for cutting off a leg is 700 to about 1100 bucks which includes the post operative care.

So how do we fix healthcare?

1) Get rid of insurance. As long as the "it only costs me $20" mentality exists healthcare costs will be insane. People must be unblinded to the cost of the care they receive. Unfortunately, our society is leaning more and more towards a mentality where we should get what we want and someone else can pay for it. Another problem with insurance. They take the biggest chunk of the healthcare profits and they provide he least actual service. Free up about 20% more profits to distribute to hospitals, doctors, and nurses and you will drop the amount of money those entities charge (in theory, never underestimate human greed). Also, insurance companies consume a large amount of dollars in their operating costs. Get rid of all those corporate executives all the way down to the people working in the cubicle and you free up another large amount of money. Remember: health insurance providers make money. That means we are flushing money somewhere when we pay those premiums.

2) We must, as a country, redefine our expectations of medicine and its ability to make us immortal. When an 85 year old has a massive stroke, there is no reason to spend 3 million dollars in ICU care to extend their life by months. Exactly where we draw the line will take a lot of discussion, but it has to happen somewhere.

3) There must be some motivation for people to stay healthy. The majority of the people reading this blog are probably disgusting fat fucks. You probably eat like shit. Some of you drink, some of you smoke. And why not? There is no motivation in this country to stay healthy. I wont say how we impose the penalty errr motivation, but I think personal responsibility for ones health has to come to call at some point.

4) Encourage saving. WE MUST as a society get over the idea that we will pay for everything with money we will make in the future. This goes for everything. People making 60k a year purchasing 500k houses is insanity. The same goes for medical care. People should be encouraged to "self insure" or save money that can only be used for healthcare. Tax incentives, whatever. But we need to find a way.

5) Tort reform. Fat chance. Obama has all but said he has no interest in tort reform. Imagine that, a lawyer not wanting to regulate lawyers...

These are just starting places. Doctors need to change too. No more appeasing patients requests for expensive medicines, lab tests, and imaging unless they are absolutely indicated. Drug companies shouldn't be allowed to advertise to the public. There is no need and it adds to he cost of the drug. SO MANY PLACES TO TRIM THE FAT and all we hear about is public options.

Obama is failing this country. I don't care if you like the guy or not. Don't settle. Don't allow people to vote for a bill that is long to the point that no one really understands whats in it. We must reign our politicians in and make them answer to us, their bosses.