Hospital and health insurance costs.

This includes cost of hardware, medications, use of technology (MRI, CT, labs, etc). All these account for 40% of health care costs and their price market is ruled by a greedy profit-avid sector. We need to regulate this expeditiously.

Just to grasp you attention:

Why a typical hospital admission to rule-out MI costs around $5,000 in the US and only $500 or less in other countries? The answer is that in other countries people will not pay $5,000; so the market self-adjusts.

Why is the price of a broad spectrum antibiotic can reach $300 in the US and sells in others for $50 (even from the same lab company)?

And, what is this relationship between health-ware vendors and Insurance companies willing to pay for over priced hardware (say total knee prosthesis- up to $6,000, excluding hospital costs) when in other countries the entire case can be done with the same results for only $4,000-$5,000. By the way these same insurance companies will only pay $1,500 to the Doctor per a 2hr and complex case including some f/u for free; pay $600 for a 2:00 AM ruptured appendix or pay $60 for an office visit (60% of the $60 is absorbed by overhead of which 14%-20% is just the cost of collecting from these insurance companies).

These are the things we need to start regulating in order to bringing costs down to a feasible reality that will allow us to keep health care costs below the National Gross Produce ( you think I'm exaggerating, is almost 40% of the NGP)

Current plans to cut on Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement to providers is not a solution and will only increase shortage of Doctors in already undeserved areas.

Docs can't sustain this any more. Surgeons, Internists, and Primary care providers are closing their offices and running away from rural areas seeking refuge in large metropolitan areas and is because this cuts added to the low volume of patients they see.
What is the repercussion of this shortage of providers,well, people needing to be referred to a larger city hospital either via EMS or helicopter, thus increasing the costs even more.

If we really want o fix this problem we need to regulate more health care industry, you wouldn't let a group of farmer manipulate produce prices to the point that buying an apple will cost you $10, so why we allow these insurance companies and health-care vendors to profit without limits?

Capitalism is not an excuse any more, specially when American don't have elsewhere to purchase health and are obligated to dance to the swing of the puppet master.

http://www.denkenresearch.com/library.html

The article is entitled “How will the next President of the United States impact you as a small business owner?”

Please share this with every entrepreneur you know to make sure they are well educated on these issues and make an intelligent choice on November 4th. And, in addition this blog, I invite you to voice your comments/concerns/opinions on my blog (http://denkenresearch.com/blog/). If you scroll all the way down to the bottom, there's an entry on the lower left under the same title as the article. Let me know if you have any outstanding questions. I’ll do my best to find answers for you. That's what a do for a living…

So, what say you about those folks who were born with deceases. Were they supposed to take responsibility for their actions or the actions of their parents before they were born?
According to your logic, we have a health care problem because americans are fat, and it has nothing to do with the fact that it takes on average 5-6 times more on every dollar to provide health coverage through private health insurance than it does through medicare.
The costs of healthcare are so high because insurance companies deny coverage and hospitals and offices like yours end up with unpaid bills, so that they HAVE to raise prises to recoup their losses. Plus, insurance companies need to pay enormous bonuses to their CEOs and other managers who get them based on the number of claims they deny per month.
Medicare for ALL is the only feasible and humane solution. I do not care if you call it communist, or whatever. I lived in Russia most of my life..and thank you very much it works VERY WELL. I do not need your conservative friends tell me how horrible it is because they never lived and experienced it.

Americans eat vast quantities of high fat, fast food, though they acknowledge it causes disease. They smoke vast quantities of cigarettes and drink vast quantities of alcohol. Both have warnings from the surgeon general printed directly on the label about the diseases they cause. Sometimes, after having had intoxicating quantities of alcohol, they even choose to go for a drive afterward. As a population, they are probably, on average, the most obese population in the world. And the mountains of cocaine and other illegal drugs they use are so vast that they are impossible to measure.

The diseases that result from these voluntary behaviors are no surprise to anyone, but after volunteering for these diseases, American media responds with shock and indignation at the cost of treatment.

To be sure, the profits of insurance companies and drug companies contribute to the problem. And the performance of government thus far is no great source of hope, either. But as an individual, none of us has much influence over what the government or the insurance and drug companies do, but we each have total control over our diet and lifestyle choices.

I don't know what it would take to persuade Americans to stop abusing themselves as ambitiously as they do. But I know that if they ever do make that choice, this problem will immediately become much, much smaller than it is.

I am equally confident that if Americans continue to volunteer to be sick in these enormous numbers, no medical system can be devised that will withstand it. In closing, I would point out that, if you think medical care is difficult and expensive to get now, wait until it's free.

When you tell this population that it can eat, drink, smoke and snort all they want and have free and unlimited healthcare to address the effects of those choices, what will be the cost of medical care then?

I don't have a perfect solution, but any proposal that does not include individual Americans taking more responsibility for their own health, is probably a waste of time…

Healthcare is a right, period. Don’t agree, fine, but when it is your parent, child, spouse that is critically ill and you have no/insufficient coverage or the health insurance thieves are denying coverage, remind yourself it is not a right.

I have lived in Canada and the UK and both countries provide superior care in my experience than the US does for a fraction of the cost.

Worried about the bloat of government bureaucracy? So am I, but I think the last stat I read was 35% of healthcare expenditure was on administration and billing.

Please raise my taxes by 10% and give me universal healthcare. The current money being spent on health insurance will more than cover it and will put out of business the most evil companies in the world – the health insurers – I have more respect for school playground crack dealers.

When government experiences increased costs, it can just move money around or raise taxes.

During the debates, both candidates were asked about health care. Obama said it was a right, whereas McCain said it was a responsibility.

Assuming it's a right, does that necessarily mean it is the government's job to provide it? I'm not so sure.

As for McCain's response, that's easier. One's health IS one's responsibility, no matter who pays the bill. Far too many people in this country make poor choices regarding their health (diet, exercise, etc) and then cry and whine for someone to save them from the consequences of their poor choices.

Those of us who make good choices regarding our health and reap the benefits should NOT have to pay for those who do not want to take personal responsibility for themselves.

Education about nutrition, how to use the coverage they have, and how to use the system we have in place already.

Financial education-how to manage your finances is desperately needed as a required course starting in Junior High

Smoking should be illegal

Group Health Insurance should not disappear but be able to be taken with you to your next job, accross state lines and people should not have a choice to have DR visits covered or cheap meds covered.

Insurance should only be for amounts greater than $5000. Anything under that, we should all pay ourselves from our savings accounts that earn good interest and are flexible enough for other things. They should be emergency funds.

Can you imagine what would happen to our economy if no one could go into debt unless approved by a financial adviser, if we all had emergency funds of at least 1 months income and we all had accountability on our eating and exercise habits. All of this could be done from within each large and even small companies supported and regulated by the government and state orgs.

Anyone disagree with this?