Can we save money by stressing Preventive Medical Care?
By bobmnu
@bobmnu (8157)
United States
December 13, 2008 1:22am CST
In a discussion it was mentioned that President Elect Obama said that his National Health Care Program would pay for it self through stressing preventive health care and there fore people would not need the expensive medical treatment. One person pointed out that keeping people healthy is very expensive in the long run. About 80 to 90 years ago there was almost no cancer. People would die from pneumonia at a much younger age than they do now days. Both of my Grandfather died this way. If they had the medical treatment we have today they would have lived much longer. My mother lived to be in her 80's before she died. She had several bouts with pneumonia in her life time and was treated and recovered. Because she was given life through modern medicine she lived on and had a heart attack that required open heart surgery(costing close to $100,000). She also required assisted living care at the cost of almost $400,000 for the last several years of her life. She did not require Nursing Home care. Cost almost double for Nursing Home Care.
Not to be Ghoulish, but did my mother have a obligation to die so as not to use up the limited dollars of medical funds? In many countries with socialized medicine older people are given lower priority for medical care which is often based on who can benefit society more. The longer we live the more expensive our medical care becomes. At what point does the government say that we are not worth keeping alive?
1 person likes this
2 responses
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
13 Dec 08
"At what point does the government say that we are not worth keeping alive?"
Interesting question. Let's see if we can discover the answer together. The best way to find the answer to your question would be to travel to the future and just take a look at what is going on. But you have no time machine? Yes, you do. It exists within your mind. You need only understand how to use it and why it exists. Ready? Here we go.
As the entire cosmos and all life exists forever without beginning or end the tell-tale remants of events not yet transpired exist within us all. As the information concerning the future only marginally affects our day to day life and actions, this information is rather difficult to access. Our creator designed us that way. This process of information retrieval is also not without error. Considering we were not necessarily intended to view that information, this is not surprising.
Now, let's get to it. Let's go! How do we then travel to the future? Our physical bodies can not, but by extrapolating trends our minds and imaginations can take us anywhere. Let's start with a truism that has the potential to take us to the point in the future we wish to see. I propose the truth which can take us to see, "At what point does the government say it is not worth keeping us alive?" is that universal mostly unwritten but widely understood commandment, FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Only 2 other truths are needed to find the future point in the time-space continuom we seek. These truths are:
1) The certainity of increasingly sophisticated computer databases and the interconnectivity between them.
2) Increasing greed on the part of our politicans.
Now, close your eyes, relax, and imagine as we journey to the future. Imagine computer databases at the IRS (records of everyone's earnings), imagine the computer databases at every retirment and pension fund (records of current and future payouts of funds to everyone), imagine the computer databases of medical schools (records of the prognosis of all disease), and lastly imagine the computer databases of every hospital (records of the costs of all diseases).
All these databases will converse with one another much the same as we are. No, they will not trade info or data on their own accord as to their own wishes. Computer databases will not soon become self aware and capable of their own thought or intiate their own actions. These computer databases will await the commands of their masters who have the legal authority to access them all. Who?
The increasingly greedy politicians! The answer to the question, "At what point does the government say it is not worth keeping us alive?", is within those databases.
Legal, actuarial, and medical experts will peruse these databases at the behest of the greedy politicians. Being sought out will be a locus for the reality of who is worth keeping alive.
Who would that be? Those whose future payment of taxes is expected to be great enough and whose demands on retirement funds is expected to be small enough to be worth saving. FOLLOW THE MONEY.
BTW: All humans possess this skill to travel to the future. Like any other skill it must be practiced to obtain full potential.
1 person likes this
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
13 Dec 08
As long as the government (Politicians) see money for them to spend they will spend it. The great Social Security fraud was based on the life expectancy being just under 65 years old. The vast majority of payees would never collect but the politicians would have all that money to spend. If we let the politicians pay for our Health Care they will tax us to pay for it and then deny us coverage when we need it most. And they tell us big business is evil.
2 people like this
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
14 Dec 08
On our journey I glimpsed the same future of which you speak and conclude the same of the politicians.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
26 Dec 08
I think it's only simple common sense that preventative care saves both lives and money in the long run. I think it's sad that the right seems to put all of the emphasis on money and none on the human factor. Of course, the concerns for the bottom line never include trying to control costs that have spiraled out of control. It's the capitalist way to allow the insurance and pharmaceutical companies to rape the public. There's nothing wrong with a hospital refusing to even put someone on a list for an organ transplant, for instance, if they don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay up front.
People are living longer today in many cases because of preventative care and they're also remaining healthier longer. However, there are still people suffering and dying needlessly and that's immoral as far as I'm concerned. Right now the government is already saying some of us aren't worth keeping alive simply by NOT having universal health care.
Annie
