"Gene Kearns" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 10:27:19 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:


The reason why health insurance policies typically place a low cap on
annual dental charges is directly related to the outrageous prices many
dentists charge for their work and the work of their "assistants," and
the mark-up on work they send out to their labs.

I was moved by a television show I saw the other day. In many
cultures, care givers will not charge for their services.... relying
for their livelihood on donations from their patients. These care
givers consider money charged for helping others. who are sick or in
pain, as tainted money.

Name one culture in which a person spends 12 years in school, 4 years in
college, 4 years in medical school, and 2-4 years in a residency...and then
doesn't get compensated for his/her work. Donating a couple of chickens and
a cow will not help repay a school loan of $250,000...nor will it pay
malpractice insurance premiums equal to or greater than that amount.




Being old enough to remember house calls and the attention given by
one physician to one patient, I am saddened by the horrendously
overpriced cattle herding mentality of present-day American medicine.

....as am I.


Vast quantities of available money have made the drug companies and
physicians easy targets for lawsuits

No, greedy attorneys have done that.


..... a situation made worse by
the fact that physicians no longer treat one patient at a time and,
thus, make it more likely that a mistake will be made.

I agree here. However, my office is one patient at a time. Sure, there are
less expensive alternatives (clinics with multiple docotrs who double and
triple book), but people are willing to pay more for personalized attention.




While I don't endorse socialized medicine,

Sure you do. Afterall, you embrace a system where the caregiver will not
charge for his/her services.


I certainly see how
physicians and drug companies that live such an opulent lifestyle will
force upon themselves some sort of further controls and restrictions
designed to protect those that simply must do without, rather than
remit what they don't have.

I can certainly see how those who choose to spend their money on luxuries
such as multiple TV's, new cars, CD's, and vacations to exotic places,
rather than on health insurance, would much rather have physicians sacrifice
their lifestyles rather than vice versa.



One would think that people holding a
doctorate could grasp the simple concept of the parable of the Monkey
with his hand in the cookie jar. Maybe not.

I can grasp the simple concept that people who work hard deserve their just
rewards. I can also grasp the fact that somebody has to pay the school loan
bills, and high insurance premiums. The fact that physicians are also
helping people is an added bonus.