Medical Costs

Listening to the Governor Lepage's weekly address this morning on the radio and the following Democratic response by Senate President Justin Alfond peaked my interest. Lepage stuck with the fact that Maine needs to pay it's bills, that the money owed to hospitals is a necessity to the continued great care that Mainers deserve. Now similarly Alfond said we need to buckle down and pay these bills, but in the same paragraph outlined the need to address medical costs. Specifically he brought up a fact (where he found it I have no idea) that in Portland you can get an MRI for about $1000 and in Houlton that same MRI will cost you $4000. He stated it's these costs that drove the numbers that have yet to be paid by the state.

I call bullshit on this one. Medicare and Medicaid only cover a portion of any cost associated with medical testing. That means they only pay what they say they will pay 'reasonable and customary' charges. What does that mean? That means that the State and the Federal Government will only pay a portion of the bill and will not allow the provider to ask for more. It's the government's cost fixing that is driving up medical costs. Not only do they dictate that they are only going to pay $400 for a $1200 test, they also don't pay their friggin' bill for 5 years running! Senator Alfond is blowing smoke up your asses. The people that do pay their bill have to pick up the slack of the indigent, one of which is our own state. That means they charge $4000 retail for a test because no one else is paying the bills!

I've written time and time again about simple economics, how supply demand and cost drive a commodity's price. What we have here is simple: Supply- there is plenty of people needing (and most not needing) MRI's. Demand- you wouldn't believe the amount of people that DEMAND care. Cost- driven by the majority of people getting MRIs have Medicaid and Medicare because the old and infirm tend to utilize the majority of services, but because the friggin' State won't pay their friggin' bills the cost goes up. See, the cost of a commodity is driven by these factors. The biggest factor being cost of service. If the test only costs say $400, but only 40% of the people getting the test pays, then they have to pass that discrepancy to the consumer. A $400 test now costs $1200 just to get the other 60% paid for BY THE PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY PAY.

People don't have any accountability. I have a deductible, so if I ain't bleeding to death, or in imminent danger of cashing it in, I'm not going to the ER. People on Medicaid or Medicare? Hell no. They show up at the ER for pregnancy tests, blisters on feet, tick bites, yeast infections, dental pain and countless other bullshit reasons. And if they don't get what they want, they just check in again or go to another ER. The problem isn't 'medical costs' Senator Alfond, it's the people that stack up one CT Scan after another for no apparent reason, visits to the ER for their complementary starter pack of narcotics, ambulance rides because they don't have money for a taxi cab and the STATE NOT PAYING THE BILLS THESE PEOPLE INCUR!

Do you moronic Obama followers actually believe that giving these nut jobs a card that lets them go into any hospital for any service without accountability is going to bring down costs? Your bigger idiots than them. You give a dog a pound of food he's happy. You give a dog 50 pounds of food, he eats all the food shit's everywhere and is just as happy. They will take all you will hand out, but they will learn nothing in the process. You've robbed them of their independence.  

So, Governor Lepage and Senator Alfond we the people of Maine don't care about your politics. JUST PAY YOUR FUCKING BILLS.  And as a side note, how about doing it with the money from the people that caused the problem, not our future citizens. Your doing a great job chasing off all the young people anyway, there won't be any future citizens to pay your bills.

That's my two cent's, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.