You said, “Most of them (government workers) seem to be working for the government because they couldn’t make in in the private sector. In other words, not very effecient. Not all, but most.” Really? Is that based on a wealth of experience? What government employees have you actually observed at work for any length of time.

While serving in the Air Force for over 20 years I worked with hundreds of government civilian employees. Most of them were driven by a desire to do something for their country – to make a difference. Now I am an executive for a government contracting firm and frequently observe government employees in their work environment doing good work, work that has to be done, with the full knowledge that they could probably be making more money working in the private sector. The myth that the average government worker is a lazy, inefficient slob is only perpetuated by comments like yours.

And as for Dick Cheney, when I was in the USAF and he was the Secretary of Defense I was a fan of his. But sometime after leaving that position it seems like he joined the Dark Side and now when I see his picture I feel like I’m looking at Darth Vader without a mask.

And thanks for getting us off topic again!

Keith was making so much sense. Then you have to try to muddy the discussion with reference to Dick Cheney, which you may have a legitiment beef, but we Conservatives could throw mud to, at, lets say, Al Gore for starters when it comes to polititans making money at our expense.

When government pays a (businessman, re: doctor) less than they deserve, fraud is their only way to get paid their just wage. I am not saying that is right, I am only saying human nature kicks in. I agree, an oversight is needed, but my experience with government workers has not been too good. Most of them seem to be working for the government because they couldn’t make in in the private sector. In other words, not very effecient. Not all, but most. Or maybe the problem is with incentive, or supvision or something lacking that the private sector provides. So there is a problem there. Maybe the answer is a private sector business set up to oversee and catch fraud with a % of that recovered as their incentive (pay), and a contract to turn the names of the perpetrators in to law enforment or The Attoney General or some such governing body and a fine so steep it discourages fraud. If everyone were honest and self policing, wouldn’t we all be happy. Dream on………

Thanks for reviving the discussion and throwing some interesting thoughts and ideas out there.

If nothing else, I think this demonstrates that it is a very complicated subject and there needs to be some kind of change made. Instead of fearing change and wanting to stay with the status quo because we personally don’t have a problem or because we are politically opposed to the current Administration, we should be encouraging our elected officials to get involved in shaping the change for the good of society as a whole. I know, that makes me sound like a radical liberal, which I certainly am not.

Big business for the most part is motivated to increase profits, not develop a system that serves the people most effectively. If somehow corporate profits were more closely tied to customer satisfaction, limiting abuse, and continuous improvement of the system, then the free market system might work without government intervention. Big business needs to look down the road 5, 10, 15 years instead of doing what it can to maximize profits or grab a bigger piece of the market this year or next. If GM and Chrysler had done that, who knows where they would be now…

Have a nice weekend, Everyone!

You hit the nail on the head with your comment on the motivation of business vs. government, but this…

“Though I will admit, Dick Cheney made a ton of $$$ for his private business friends & companies through gov work.”

….is golden.

Thank you!

I am always amazed that the public bureaucracy is viewed as so vile vs. the business bureaucracies. There is no profit incentive in any Social Security employee I’ve ever dealt with nor those at my DMV or Dept. of Public Health or any of the government institutioons I’m aware of. Though I will admit, Dick Cheney made a ton of $$$ for his private business friends & companies through gov work.

Unfortunately, even though it is a great benefit for seniors and others to have basically “free” services though Medicare, it is a system that is ripe for fraud. Implementing more government programs will surely lead to more of this type of accounting abuse of the system. Even a whole swam of auditors would probably still not be able to identify most of what are correct charges and what may be overcharges, fraudulent, etc.

A system needs to be developed to encourage the consumer to actually review the Explanation of Benefits and review these in detail for errors. As the system currently stands, these EOBs are completely confusing, redundant, and there is no incentive for the beneficiary to review these at all to ensure they are correct. As long as someone (else) is paying the bill, most people don’t care what is being charged, even if they could understand these EOBs, etc.

The system needs to be overhauled to make it simpler for the consumer/beneficiary to review bills and needs to have an incentive (usually financial) to get people to actually review these charges. Transparency of services and costs will help to bring down costs, reduce fraud, and eventually improve services. My thoughts are that increasing the co-pay amounts, etc would give people an incentive to look at the cost/benefits and help make more informed decisions. This isn’t an idea that is palletable to a lot of people because if you are sickly or have genetic predisposition to illness, or have some other reason for using the medical system more often then this would hurt you. However, any rational solution should take these situations into account and afford a solution for these obstacles that work hand-in-hand with increasing financial transparency and accountablilty.

There may be completely different solutions that would work. Unfortunatley I’m not an expert and don’t proclaim to have all (or even a lot) of the answers. I’m just suggesting taking ideas and concepts regarding the free market that work in other aspects of our lives and attempting to apply some of these to fixing the health care system. I’ve learned a lot from all the comments above and a lot of them have got me thinking in slightly different directions.

No one solution or approach is going to be the silver bullet, but if you get enough people with enough different ideas out there discussing it, surely a combination of things can be created to fix a good portion of the issues. Hopefully everyone can see portions of peoples comments that may be good or might not work. If you find parts that don’t work, perhaps minor tweaks or modifications, or even setting up a parallel system that aligns with the primary system for the outliers may work.