Physical Evaluation Board Forum

An interesting read from the NY Times on the costs and economics of health care and specialists (I don't know why the link shows as "advertisement," the article still displays):

NY Times Advertisement

Military medicine does not face these same pressures. But, it is still hard for me to get a grasp on the fact that I have some clients who seem to be able to access any test they want, while others have to fight to be seen by a specialist, even if they have a diagnosis that clearly warrants it.

All in all, health care in the US is going to be a big issue in the coming years (both for reasons having to do with the election cycle and for the impact that the costs have on our economy).

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Jason

Physical Evaluation Board Forum Administrator
New Members- Read OVERVIEW OF MEB/PEB PROCESS

Health care in the United States has become astronomical. What blows my mind is stories coming from sailors, expats, and world travelers. Health care is becoming as good or better in several countries for a third or less of the cost than here.

That's something that a lot of people are becoming very conscious of recently. In a newspaper I read through waiting at the hospital there were several adds for health care from American-trained doctors down in the better parts of Mexico. New Zealand is another place rated highly for their medical care. So are parts of South America, Thailand, and on and on.

Maybe if we weren't so happy to accomidate every malpractice lawsuit (not saying there aren't ones that are necessary, but suing because the doctor chipped your nail? Come on), it wouldn't cause insurance for doctors to skyrocket, and they wouldn't give outrageous bills to offset those costs. In South Carolina, the last I heard was OBGYN malpractice insurance was at $2 million a year. I know this isn't the entire problem. It's a big one though.

Having been through a year of health care issues (At non-MTF) with my dependent son, I can say from personal experience one MAJOR problem with HC in general is the paperwork. The first words out of everyone's mouth are "Who's gonna pay for it." And, "Here, fill these out." Even in the ER ... it's absolutely mind-boggling the amount of paperwork that accompanies any treatment today. And it's duplicated over and over, no matter that it's a different office in the same clinic.

AND, if the HC unit makes an error, "Oppps, too bad." and the client pays for the error, with no accountabilty for the HC worker error. And the treatment suffers.

Never do I hear, "Okay, here's the treatment, now how do we pay for this." It's always, payment papers first, even when you don't yet know what the treatment will be ...