Thanks!

Do you not know that thousands of mother dogs and their puppies starve-to-death every day???

Maybe you should re-think your analogy.

By the way —How much is that hound dog in the window???

Did you know it is legal to purchase a casket individually now…. we would need a roving senior-pound to collect all the dead and de-composing bodies under your system.

I am an advocate of the consumer-driven market and some elements of FFS as the best way to control human healthcare costs and describe how businesses can lead this movement in my book, “It’s All About Money: Winning the Healthcare War!” Although the consumer-driven aspects of the small animal veterinary business and the addition of more personal financial responsibility can work in human care, other differences abound.

Pets may be highly valued and deemed worthy of large financial expenditures by their owner, but they are not as highly valued by society as a whole. Society expects hospitals, community clinics, etc. to serve as safety nets for human care while many animal shelters struggle to survive and must euthanize thousands of animals “dumped” on them because their owners either no longer want them or cannot afford to care for them. Several years ago my wife found an injured dog on the highway and took him to our own veterinarian. His response was, “If you will pay, I’ll take care of him. If not, I can’t do anything for him.” I also doubt that veterinarians’ malpractice insurance premiums or practice patterns are impacted as much by our overly litigious society as that of physicians rendering human care.

Pet care is rationed based on financial resources just as human care is rationed in single-payer national healthcare programs in other countries. If a pet owner has the money, the animal gets the care. If the owner doesn’t have the money, the pet is euthanized or treatment is withheld until the pet dies. In some countries, delaying or withholding treatment may be deemed a socially acceptable form of euthanasia.

Three of the biggest problems with the healthcare business in the USA are: 1) the absence of financial incentives for individuals to care about cost & consumption; 2) the absence of incentives to live healthy lifestyles; and 3) the absence of a transparent competitive model. Today, hospitals, physicians and other providers compete for network contracts by charging obscenely high prices to private pay patients and giving equally obscenely high discounts to networks and insurance companies. We should eliminate the unnecessary overhead of networks and force hospitals, physicians and other providers to compete for individual patients based on price, quality and service.

All are rated for quality. The dentists and vets are rated for price, but not the docs.

The reason, presumably, is that Checkbook customers don’t have to worry about price for docs; insurance pays.

I have COBRA insurance which is $800 a month for only me and I have to pay 100% out of pocket until the $1500 deductible is met. I currently own a small business that doesn’t have enough employees to qualify for group insurance. Because I’ve had melanoma, I no longer look good on paper to insurance companies and cannot find a policy that I can afford.

I haven’t had an income in two years so the COBRA is about to become a casulty of economics. I have three pets who do not go out in public as they haven’t had their shots in two years.

It’s pretty scary to realize that routine medical care is no longer routine in my life and that I must now choose between gas in my car, food on my shelves, and medical care for me and the kids…forget the animals.

Financially this is rock bottom for me. I don’t have a home to mortgage and have sunk all my assets but the car into my business. I’ve always been able to take my family – two and four legged – to whomever for the best medical care.

They (the pets) are part of the family and they contribute to the emotional well being of all of us as we continue to try and survive this very bumpy ride. I repeatedly tell my children to take very good care of our four-footed friends. Taking them to the emergency animal hospital is no longer an option.

When I received my college diploma and walked down the aisle with the “love of my life” I never dreamed that at 46 I would be income-less, non-insurable, and the sole responsible adult in the lives of my children.

Lin Zinser said, “without government intervention, the market can provide many varied resources to ensure that most people can afford medical services, and in America, history has shown that without government intervention, charity will take care of the rest.”

I must take issue with that statement. How is charity taking care of the 47 million uninsured people in the U.S. today? Where are all of those uninsured people going for preventive healthcare? Who is caring for the 13 million uninsured children? Sure, they can be treated at an ER for acute issues, waiting for up to 8 hours to be seen. But they are not getting PAP smears, prostate exams, vaccinations, breast exams, mammos, scoliosis screenings, and colonoscopies at the ER.

Zinser also says that some people will mortgage their house to pay for healthcare and others will choose not to. Is this really a moral decision, as the commenter suggests? What if that person has no house to mortgage? If they do mortgage the house, where will they live? How many Americans have been bankrupted by healthcare bills?

There are many poor and uninsured people who receive no preventive care whatsoever, and society will eventually pay a higher price for their care in the end when they are disabled, stricken with chronic illness, and wards of the state. Covering everyone is expensive, yes, but the dollars spent on preventive care will save many more dollars in the future.