Quote:
Originally Posted by JPhillips
But it isn't nearly as simple as person does X and gets Y disease. Everything is about the percentages. Behavior X increases chance of disease Y, but so does genetics, or environmental factors. And some people with a low chance of getting a disease, still get the disease.
Illness isn't fair, and you aren't ever going to create a system where payment for treating illness is fair.
|
Just to be clear I am not arguing a side, Im hoping to encourage debate and educate myself and challenge my thoughts and grow from this. That is my intent.
So someone is morbidly obese, but perfectly functional (see: Tiger, CU circa December 2018) and wants to have Gastric ByPass or other weightloss surgery. Its expensive, its risky but done. 2 years later said patient didnt change lifestyle and wants again.
Do we pay again? Or do we deny and then when he dies its '.gov healthcare's fault for denying his right to surgery'
I guess the scary part to me becomes pharma lobbyists. If the .gov wont pay enough in their eyes for a script do they set the bar for diagnosis so high doctors cant prescribe except in the extreme cases. In converse do they get the bar set so low where we are needlessly prescribing or over prescribing the populace. (see Ritalin and ADHD diagnoses)
Maybe I am just assuming the worst in people, but I can see a scenario where doctors are prescribing nose job surgeries for breathing reasons as opposed to pure cosmetic reasons because its a way to beat the system. Just as a quick and obvious example.