Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE
Below is a comment made to my son, Brad Feld, on his blog, when he asked everyone following his blog to join his dad’s Posse.
Kinky Friedman is running for governor in Texas. We have our own Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jessie Ventura combined. Kinky Freidman is the Texas Jewish Cowboy Country Music Star and Author.
Denise ------- wrote
Dear Brad
Comments:
I would like to join your dad's posse. Here is a letter I wrote to Kinky about healthcare. If your dad's interested have him contact me. I've been researching healthcare on my own for the last 4 years.
Here's the letter, they never responded to it.
Dear Kinky,
Please excuse my boldness, but I am writing this to help with your platform on healthcare.
I like the leave no teacher behind, bio-fuels and the I’ll sign anything but bad legislation; however that is not enough to get my vote and the thousands of Texans who are either un-insured or under-insured.
It is not just about covering the poor. I have found out how a middle-class person can quickly become poor without insurance or with inadequate insurance.
The Problem
First I want to make you aware of a few problems in healthcare costs:
The un-insured are charged at least 10 times the amount charged to insurance companies.
A blood test called CA125 cost me $198.50 when I was un-insured and only $22.50 when I got insurance. The $22.50 was before my deductible was met! I could give you more examples but you get the idea.
A person cannot get prices before purchasing healthcare services.
o I had to have major surgery after my health insurance was canceled. So like I do with any large purchase I tried to shop around and called different hospitals to get an approximate price. Impossible! I called 4 hospitals; one hung up on me thinking it was a prank call, two didn’t know what to tell me and would call me back, which they didn’t; and one called me back and told me $15,000 which of course was way above what an insurance company would pay.
A hospital official was quoted saying," We have to charge the un-insured more to make up for the discounts we give health insurance companies."
o Does this seem like common sense to you?
Doctors are not allowed to give a discount to the un-insured or under-insured.
If I could have paid the rates given to health insurance companies I wouldn’t have lost all my savings, I could have stayed in the middle-class.
Where does pricing come from?
o One ENT I saw charged over $2,200.00 for a Limited CT scan of the sinuses while another charged over $600.00. Since I had insurance at the time each cost me $210.00, again this is without my deductible met.
o So how much does a Limited CT Scan and other procedures really cost? What is a fair price?
The Solution (maybe not THE solution but an idea)
Allow the un-insured to pay the same fees for procedures given to the Federal Government under Medicare.
This would cost the taxpayers nothing. It would simply be a Medicare Discount Card.
Allow doctors to give the un-insured discounts
Price transparency-have doctors, dentists, labs, pharmacies state their prices up front.
At the very least make no interest loans or credit cards available for medical debts.
So in conclusion I have another campaign slogan for you:
Leave no Patient behind!
I would love to hear something back from your campaign or from whoever reads this.
Give me some healthcare hope and Ill give you my vote; and campaign my friends and family to vote for Kinky.
Dear Denise
You are now an official member of the Stanley Feld M.D. ,FACP, MACE Repairing the Healthcare System Posse. Enclosed is an official membership card. Your letter to Kinky is great. You hit the nail on the head. You are talking about transparency of prices. You are also talking about leveling the playing field for all patients, insured and the uninsured.
I think Kinky Friedman will listen. He might not know what to do. Through my Posse,I plan to tell him and every other elected official what needs to be done to Repair the Healthcare System
We need about 10,000 Texans sending Kinky this kind letter detailing their experience. If he responded appropriately he could get elected in Texas as Jessie and Arnold got elected in their States. I sent him your letter and a detailed explanation of the letter’s importance. His public relations people have not yet answered.
Wouldn’t it be fabulous if two people from Texas could start creating the Tipping Point that would Repair the Healthcare System.
I would like to request that you send this note to your entire email list and invite them to visit my blog and subscribe. They, too, need to be members of the Posse and learn what to do to Repair the Healthcare System. The time has passed when we can leave it to someone else to fix things for us. If the politicians want to be our surrogates, they should know what the we want them to do to earn our vote.
Good luck ,Great post,love you!Thanks for the info it had cleared out too many things in my mind. Your recommendations are really good.
Posted by: gabriela | October 21, 2012 at 05:28 AM
Dr Feld --
Your blog is most interesting and informative. I had the good fortune to meet your son Brad last week and we touched on your Posse and its similarities to something Jean-Francois Rischard suggested in his book "High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them". He proposed Global Issues Networks around each of the problems, to be comprised of concerned citizens, government officials, and experts. Your Posse already benefits from two of these groups; adding Kinky and other public officials will no doubt help. I'm happy to join the New Mexico contingent anytime!
Dear Clairborne
Attached is an official Repairing the Healthcare System Stanley Feld Posse Membership Card. Brad sent me a copy of Rischard’s book 2 weeks ago. I am in the middle of it and plan to model the approach around some of Rischard’s thoughts.
Someone has to do it. It is not going to be the policy makers or critics. Everyone writes about the problem. No one does anything because they know without doing multiple corrections at once the system we become more distorted. The only way to reach the tipping point of constructive change is through People Power, in my view
You can help by getting all of your friends and colleagues to subscribe to the blog. They need to get engaged in first understanding the mistrust that has develop by all the stakeholders. They, then have to participate in being part of the solution. Actually, they must be the driving force in the solution. Let us put together a New Mexican team.
Thanks for the comment
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
Repairing the Healthcare System
www.stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com
Posted by: Claiborne Booker | June 29, 2006 at 10:55 AM