Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for June 04, 2024

Would you mind filling out this 5 page questionnaire …

before the operation?

You will receive excellent care until the survey is complete and then they’ll leave.

So, in other words, another day in the US healthcare system.

You’ll need to be suffering from something interesting if you want to hold their attention.

And when you get your final bill, you’ll find that every one of them that’s there has added some type of “consultation fee” for being there.

My country is very primitive, we tend to only involve medical professionals in our healthcare.

Just as appropriate would be a peek into the accounting office onto an employee figuring out the current bribe rate for garnering 5-star comments on its webpage.

Nailed it! I’m in primary care (27 years of Internal Medicine) and insurance-based health care just sucks.

Look at all of the great things Wall Street and Private Equity have done, the bubble, the housing bubble/bust/ Great Recession, and now health care, including dentistry. What could possible go wrong when the mission statement is “Get a 20% return on equity.”

Apparently, the trick to getting good treatment at a corporate store is to make a big showing of filming your workers. There are dozens of shots of people getting huge meals at Chipolte this way

Marketing photo. Using kitchen and janitorial staff with white coats and clipboards.

Their focus is his wallet.

Far too true to be even remotely funny.

They’re there to inflate his medical insurance claim.

Oh this is only a joke? I thought it was real life! :P

Has anyone ever had a “mandatory evaluation” in some rented office by a doctor hired by the workmen’s comp insurer? Talk about building a brand…

One option: Get a passport. Go to another countries for medical and dental treatment, everything from organ transplants, cancer treatments, orthopedic surgery, to tooth extractions. One can even obtain a medical tourist visa, which extends the time one can remain in country [Thailand allows 60 days]. One friend, who was told he was too old for a heart transplant had it done in Europe [he lived another 11 years]; another friend had dental problems while visiting Egypt and was so impressed with his care [and the low cost], that he returned there to have dental surgery a couple of years later. Of course Medicare and probably a lot of insurance companies will not cover the costs, but if out-of-pocket costs are going to be in the 6 digits here but only in the 4 digits there, . . . definitely worth investigating.

insurance company staffers

Government care has some awful problems, too, but we can’t deny the problems here as well.

I have a moderate to severe case of being sick to death of all the pharmaceutical commercials !!!

Everyone in accounting heard about that cyst on your bum, they’d like a peek.

If employment based health benefits were taxed as income, as they should be, you’d see support for universal government supported healthcare increase dramatically.

But we do have a Machine That Goes ‘Ping!’

I don’t what your job is, but right here on this clipboard it says you’re doing it wrong.

I used to do contract work at a doctor’s office many years ago, and happened to notice on his desk a pile of paperwork from big pharma encouraging doctors to promote such and such drug, and if they “sell” a certain amount, they’d get a free trip to Aruba, Bermuda, the Bahamas, etc…..

You’ll get a lot of anesthetic before the walletectomy.

It’s not even a real focus group; it’s a group interning to be a focus group.

“Interns are not aren’t in the budget” [The administrator’s bonus have to come from somewhere.]

You did ask for a second opinion.

The American healthcare system, despite having some of the most amazing technology available, is pretty much unavailable to a huge percentage of our population. No one, but no one, should ever go bankrupt or go hungry because they get sick, or lose their insurance coverage because they lose their job. The ACA was a good step in the right direction, but was almost rendered impotent by a thousand cuts, made by those who wanted to preserve their share of those sweet, sweet profits. #MedicareForAll now. There is no other humane solution. Remove all profit from the healthcare equation.

The “Care” in Corporatecare is ironic.

Always knew medical facilities were just money-making organisations; and where are they training the new students? Probably in Gaza .. they’ll get more hands-on experience there than 5 years in a supposedly training hospital …

And they can afford a focus group. What’s wrong with this picture?