DO DOCTORS STILL SWEAR THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH?

There is no doubt our medical system needs an overhaul. Proof of this? I just received a bill for $706 for 15 to 20 minutes of a doctors time. That's on top of the hospital's bill of $500.  And $2k to get a spot of skin cancer removed from a different place. But is a government takeover of the entire system the answer? Just what has your government done for you with the "Affordable Care Act"? What has all of the bruhaha, political shennanigans, outright bribery for votes, and government BS actually done for  us citizens?

Basically, not a damn thing except drive the price, not only of insurance, but also of medical services, even higher. The following figures are right from "healthcare.gov". For a single retired male, or a young family, the only plans that come anywhere near being affordable, even after the "tax credits?  have either a $6250 / year deductible, or a $3500 deductible and you pay 30% of all charges. So basically, the only thing they're good for is if you get cancer, have a heart attack, or need some other major surgery. How many young families have $6k in the bank to pay deductibles? From what I've heard, most employer plans are almost as bad.

So who has Obamacare helped? I don't think anyone. The "poor", have always had free medical care, they still have it. The rich can afford it. And once again the working man gets screwed. Only now, the cost of care is up even more. So what have we accomplished other than adding a hundred thousand more federal government employees to administer the law? Adding another layer of bureaucracy and cost to a system already burdened by tons of laws, costs driven sky high by fear of lawsuits, and the age old human bugaboo, greed.

That's right, greed is just as rampant in the medical field as everywhere else today. You've heard about doctors charging you almost twice what they will accept from an insurance company as payment if you don't have insurance, right? I ask you : is this any different from someone robbing you at gunpoint? How in God's name can these people sleep at night? If you can't afford insurance, how are you supposed to be able to pay double what they accept from insurance companies?  If they can cover their cost of doing business and make the high incomes they do at that rate of compensation, how do they justify screwing over the poor working man? Do doctors still swear to the Hippocratic Oath?

I have said before that anyone can detail (bitch) about the problems in our society today, but the idea is to come up with solutions. Well, truly, I'm stumped on this one. The only thing I can see that would help WITHOUT the government stepping in and controlling everything, including doctors salaries, is to get rid of the lawsuit crap. That fear of lawsuits causes doctors to routinely prescribe tons of expensive tests to protect themselves. One referral after another. Turning what should have been a, let's say $2k procedure, into a $4k ordeal. Actually, we need total tort reform, but since 75 to 80% of Congress are lawyers, that doesn't get done.

If you have any other ideas on how to "fix" the system, please detail in the comments below. Maybe if we get enough "average" people (as opposed to the rich elites in D.C.) thinking, we can come up with something better than what those prostitutes in Washington did.

Dumb Farmer