Hospital services pre-payment may loom large in future

Get rid of the not-for-profit status for hospitals and let them compete with doctors, free standing clinics and anyone else who can stand up to them. Alternatively allow doctors like me who treat over 15 % of our patients for no fee or highly reduced fee to get a non-profit status or at least a tax write off for the losses. That will solve the problem of poor access and affordability of care in this country.

The allegation against M.D. Anderson Cancer Center was even more disturbing---that the patient was in the MIDDLE of a chemotherapy session, and the nurse would not hang the next IV bag without permission from the business office.

I am surprised that no news organization realized that M.D. Anderson has a code of ethics, and that the final portion states:

Principle 10
Cancer therapy, prevention, education, and research are costly endeavors demanding conscientious stewardship; however, financial considerations should not dictate the quality of care offered to each patient.

Ironic.

Dr. Murali's comments (above) are right on the mark. What is needed is thinking outside of the box, the box being the current payment structure for medical services, whether reimbursed or not.
John Marshall,an early Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote that "the power to tax is the power to destroy".
The reverse is also true today. Tax deductions and tax rebates can also create. Physicians and for-profit hospitals both pay taxes on the income generated from their services. Permitting them to take 100%+ tax writeoffs on unreimbursed or under-reimbursed services would enable them to perform these services at no cost or at a reduced cost (using, say, the Medicare reimbursement rates as the benchmark). The tax writeoffs could be in the neighborhood of 125% of the Medicare reimbursement for the particular procedure. Effectively, assuming that the physician or hospital would have accepted the Medicare fee schedule, then performing the service 'for free' would actually turn a profit, allowing a 25% reduction in taxation for other services performed and paid for.
What is needed is creative, 'out of the box' thinking. The old models don't work anymore in this day and age. Simply throwing money at the problem will not solve anything. The failed British and Canadian healthcare systems demonstrate that. New ideas need to be put forward.
By new people.