I'm unclear what you are referring to, as I was mentioning the inefficiency of indirect payment and you segued off to tort issues.
I'll give you an example of what I was referring to. A couple of years ago I was lifting some heavy objects (200lbs) and I knew it was making my back sore. I had a bit of back pain through the night, but didn't take any ibuprofen. The next day at some point I bent down to pick something up, and my back "went out" without any real stress on it. Quite severe pain if I bent or twisted, but not too bad if I basically kept my back straight. So I attended the Wikipedia School of Medicine for 1/2 an hour, and realized I had the classic symptoms of a herniated disc. Well, what to do? Answer is to take anti-inflammatories, and be very careful for several months. So it proved to be. It was several months before I could really do most things effectively, and 6 months before I was really 100% over it, and even now, I'm much more careful with how I treat my back. I didn't go to the Dr, because in educating myself on the subject it was very clear that the Dr wasn't going to do anything useful, so why waste the money? And it would cost me with my deductible. So since I'm still in the payment loop, I use my brain.
But if you go to any ER, you'll find it plugged up with welfare mom's taking there kids there with a cold. They aren't paying a dime of course, and they shouldn't be there anyway. The ER has no cure for the common cold. But when medicaid is paying, and you aren't (or even your insurance is paying 100%) you might as well "play safe" and waste the money. After all, you've already "paid" via your premiums, so now its time to recoup the loss isn't it? Thats the problem with indirect payment. |
