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First off the low acceptance rate was typically only in Anchorage. But that is old data based on low reimbursements. With new primary care bonuses I would bet that there would be a better acceptance rate today.
Here is a a more recent assessment, and it looks like a 4 week wait for a new Medicare patient. The hospitals already know about how to squeeze gold out of the Medicare population, so mostly likely this business model will increase in size.
The low acceptance of MediCare/MedicAid patients is state-wide, not just in Anchorage. The number of doctors accepting MediCare/MedicAid patients has declined significantly in recent years due to the Democrats lowering reimbursements to doctors. The "old" data showed ~80% of the doctors in Alaska refusing to accept MediCare/MedicAid patients. That percentage has since increased, thanks to Democrats. In another few years, I fully expect that 100% of Alaskans doctors will refuse to accept MediCare/MedicAid patients.
What is the point of having coverage when you cannot obtain treatment? Like everything else the Marxist fascists touch, MediCare/MedicAid is nothing more than another deliberate lie so they can go around boasting that 100% of everyone 65 and older is covered, when damn few can ever obtain treatment.
Same reason a $6000 ER bill to the insurance company, only to be reduced to $285 paying cash because the insurance company denied the claim, because the injury happened on private property.
The low acceptance of MediCare/MedicAid patients is state-wide, not just in Anchorage. The number of doctors accepting MediCare/MedicAid patients has declined significantly in recent years due to the Democrats lowering reimbursements to doctors. The "old" data showed ~80% of the doctors in Alaska refusing to accept MediCare/MedicAid patients. That percentage has since increased, thanks to Democrats. In another few years, I fully expect that 100% of Alaskans doctors will refuse to accept MediCare/MedicAid patients.
What is the point of having coverage when you cannot obtain treatment? Like everything else the Marxist fascists touch, MediCare/MedicAid is nothing more than another deliberate lie so they can go around boasting that 100% of everyone 65 and older is covered, when damn few can ever obtain treatment.
Medicare has made significant improvements in related reimbursements for primary care these past few years.
I am a primary care internist in AZ, and my Medicare revenues are significantly improved since 2012.
"87.2% of physicians and other practitioners in Alaska participate in Medicare Part B (Medicare Part B Participating Physicians and Other Practitioners by State, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)"
Medicare has made significant improvements in related reimbursements for primary care these past few years.
If by "significant improvements" you mean significantly lowering what MediCare/MedicAid will reimburse, then you would be right. If you meant anything else, you would be dead wrong. Why do you think the number of doctors refusing to see MediCare/MedicAid patients is increasing?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoonose
I am a primary care internist in AZ, and my Medicare revenues are significantly improved since 2012.
"87.2% of physicians and other practitioners in Alaska participate in Medicare Part B (Medicare Part B Participating Physicians and Other Practitioners by State, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)"
Doctors Face A 24% Pay Cut In Both Medicare And Medicaid Reimbursements
Doctors seeing Medicare patients face a 24 percent cut in reimbursements beginning January 1. But almost no one has grasped that those cuts will hit Medicaid too—thanks to Obamacare. Unless Congress acts, we’re likely to see a huge exodus of doctors who will not accept either Medicare or Medicaid patients.
...
Medicaid pays doctors about 59 percent of what Medicare pays them—which is why doctors increasingly refuse to take new Medicaid patients.
In a Free Market there is no such thing as "Out-of-Network".
In a Free Market you have competitive hospitals, instead of hospital monopolies, and you have a shift from the inefficient wasteful ineffective Hospital Model to the Clinic Model or Policlinic Model that Euro-States use.
In a Free Market, prices are known in advance.
In a Free Market, you and your doctor are free to use any hospital, without being penalized.
Other than nonsensical rhetoric, what factual evidence from neutral source do you have?
Really?
That chart from the OECD totally refutes your claim.
Lung cancer treatment waiting times and tumour growth.
Therefore, 21% of potentially curable patients became incurable on the waiting list. This study demonstrates that, even for the select minority of patients who have specialist referral and are deemed suitable for potentially curative treatment, the outcome is prejudiced by waiting times that allow tumour progression.
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS concluded in Part III–A that the individual mandate is not a valid exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause. Pp. 16–30.
Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority.The Framers knew the difference between doing something and doing nothing. They gave Congress the power to regulate commerce, not to compel it. Ignoring that distinction would undermine the principle that the Federal Government is a government of limited and enumerated powers. The individual mandate thus cannot be sustained under Congress’s power to “regulate Commerce.” Pp. 16–27.
Source: National Federation Of Independent Business Et Al. v. Sebelius, Secretary Of Health And Human Services, Et Al. US Supreme Court 2012
Nor can the individual mandate be sustained under the Necessary and Proper Clause as an integral part of the Affordable Care Act’s other reforms. Each of this Court’s prior cases upholding laws under that Clause involved exercises of authority derivative of, and in service to, a granted power. E.g., United States v. Comstock.
Source: National Federation Of Independent Business Et Al. v. Sebelius, Secretary Of Health And Human Services, Et Al. US Supreme Court 2012
Your turn.
Massive Fail....
Let's see the US Supreme Court decision...
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS concluded in Part III–A that the individual mandate is not a valid exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause. Pp. 16–30.
Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority.The Framers knew the difference between doing something and doing nothing. They gave Congress the power to regulate commerce, not to compel it. Ignoring that distinction would undermine the principle that the Federal Government is a government of limited and enumerated powers. The individual mandate thus cannot be sustained under Congress’s power to “regulate Commerce.” Pp. 16–27.
Source: National Federation Of Independent Business Et Al. v. Sebelius, Secretary Of Health And Human Services, Et Al. US Supreme Court 2012
Nor can the individual mandate be sustained under the Necessary and Proper Clause as an integral part of the Affordable Care Act’s other reforms. Each of this Court’s prior cases upholding laws under that Clause involved exercises of authority derivative of, and in service to, a granted power. E.g., United States v. Comstock.
Source: National Federation Of Independent Business Et Al. v. Sebelius, Secretary Of Health And Human Services, Et Al. US Supreme Court 2012
Massive Fail.....
"As personal income increases, people demand more and better goods and services, including health care. This means that holding other factors constant, as higher personal income increases the quantity and quality of care demanded, overall health care spending increases as well. GDP is a good indicator of the effect of increasing income on health care spending."
Source: United States Government General Accounting Office GAO-13-281 PPACA and the Long-Term Fiscal Outlook, page 33.
1] Technology up to 65%
2] Consumer Demand up to 36%
3] Expanding Health Benefits or Insuring more people up to 13%
4] Healthcare Price Inflation up to 19% (caused by Consumer Demand and insuring more people)
5] Administrative Costs up to 13% (caused by Technology, Consumer Demand and Regulations)
6] Aging/Elderly up to 7%
Source: United States Government General Accounting Office GAO-13-281 PPACA and the Long-Term Fiscal Outlook, January 2013 pp 31-36
Lying A fallacy of reasoning that depends on intentionally saying something that is known to be false. If the lying occurs in an argument’s premise, then it is an example of the fallacy of questionable premise.
Misrepresentation If the misrepresentation occurs on purpose, then it is an example of lying. If the misrepresentation occurs during a debate in which there is misrepresentation of the opponent’s claim, then it would be the cause of a straw man fallacy.
Straw Man Your reasoning contains the straw man fallacy whenever you attribute an easily refuted position to your opponent, one that the opponent wouldn’t endorse, and then proceed to attack the easily refuted position (the straw man) believing you have undermined the opponent’s actual position. If the misrepresentation is on purpose, then the straw man fallacy is caused by lying.
See if you can respond to even one of the facts cited from neutral sources....
....but none of you will
That is exactly what you are doing right now...
Mircea
That chart... It doesn't say what you think it does.
That shows that we spend far more on medical care than other countries and far less on social services. If France is spending 11.9% of GDP on healthcare and the US is spending 16.3% of GDP on healthcare how is the US spending less? Regardless, why would social services be included in a chart for total healthcare spending comparisons?
Then there's the issue of answering questions that no one asked, but whatever.
If by "significant improvements" you mean significantly lowering what MediCare/MedicAid will reimburse, then you would be right. If you meant anything else, you would be dead wrong. Why do you think the number of doctors refusing to see MediCare/MedicAid patients is increasing?
No, they did not improve.
You might want to try another lie. Nobody is buying that one.
Your Forbes link is from last year and the Medicare cut never materialized. Draconian cuts never do, and I've been in primary care since '81. We get such threats about every 5 years the last 4 decades.
Also your Medicaid fee quote is not accurate. By Obamacare law the Medicaids have to pay at least Medicare rates.
The number of docs taking Medicare remains higher than what one might be led to believe. Locally we have only one applicable doc that does not.
We docs no longer get rich on Medicare, so I have no reason to brag about their payments. I have had no perceptible raise since '88. But the reality is that over the last few years outpatient primary care reimbursements are significantly up. Using proper coding and practice, typical office based Medicare patient reimbursements are up. Essentially a bonus of $168 per patient the first year, $111 yearly thereafter. Also the new post-hospital follow up codes are a nice bonus of about $100 over a more std office visit. And these bonuses are for doing mostly stuff we have already been doing, just getting better reward. Typical primary care practices have 100's of Medicare patients, so these gains are not small potatoes by any means.
Well maybe medical "outsourcing" will be the next trend in medicine. For instance, my SIL needed dental work done. Her NJ dentist told her the procedures she needed would cost about $30,000. This involved a couple of dental inplants which I know are pricey. She's originally from Brazil and has family there, so she arranged to fly down there to have the work done in Rio. It ran $3000 for the procedures she needed and upon her return, visited her local NJ dentist, who inspected the work she had done and told her that the Brazilian dental surgeon did an excellent job. So, she goes to the NJ dentist for "routine" dental work, while anything that costs major bucks, she has done in Brazil. Net out-of-pocket savings to my brother ...about $25,000.
Perhaps more elective surgery will be done overseas at very reduced costs, while corresponding US medical personnel will be sitting on their gluteus maximus' waiting for overpriced business to come through the door ...wondering why their profits are down!
30k for a couple of implants???? LMAO...Yeah sure. I had a couple done for 4k and that was BEFORE insurance. 2K after. In NJ BTW.
The idea that the free market can solve our healthcare problem is laughable at best. Just look to other countries who have universal care. They all do it for a fraction of the cost we do it. I agree with the OP, the ACA did not go far enough. You know it's funny how conservatives like to tout "a majority of Americans don't like the ACA..." What they won't tell you is the reason that majority is not happy with it is BECAUSE it didn't give us universal healthcare. That's what a majority of Americans want. We will have it despite conservative resistance.
what is laughable is the suggestion you are making that we have had a free market where healthcare is concerned.
Govenment sticking its nose in Healthcare years ago, is the cause of the current cost. it isnt because Government didnt do enough.
The only way to cure the problem mentioned in the Op is by going to a single payer system.
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