Read in the local free paper today: government plans to make patients pay for “unnecessary” visits to the doctor or emergency room. This is probably not going to become real policy, but is used as trail balloon to shift the window on how we think about medical care, slowly shifting more and more of the burden towards the individual rather than the insurer or the government. The healthcare system here is slowly being hollowed out, insurance premiums going up while basic coverage is whittled down; this is just one more shot in that war.
Robert
October 13, 2012 at 12:34 pmAt one level they have a point. My sister’s a paramedic, and I’ve been hearing for years about abuse of the system. When, for example, the paramedics can predict someone’s weekly ‘chest pains’ (in time to get a free ride to the bingo near the hospital) someone is abusing the system.