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I'm amazed that there are fools out there that don't want some type of universal healthcare. Just the mere mention of the words "socialized medicine" frightens people, yet they welcome socialized education, police, and fire.
Stongly against, it....
HMO healthcare is the pits...what do you think, National health care would be like....???
As I've stated before, I am hearing of more and more people being misdiagnosed...socialized medicine will afford them to tell you if you need medical attention or not.
I have seen people diagnosed with physcological problems..and yet, the doctors didn't test for a lot of diseases...
National Health Care will be bad, they will dictate to you what doctors you must go to, and if your illness is serious enough to be hospitalized...or even to see a doctor...before I voted for anything, I would most certainly want to see a full length presentation and outline of exactly what it won't cover and what it will, as well as the entire policy. How could anyone say their for it, when they don't even know what it will cover????
That amazes me...???? Yeah, we want it cuz it's free....Sheesh????
UHC will not occur in the United States IMO. Reforms to the existing systems will occur - and are much easier to implement
Changing a country of 350 million to a goverment run system would be almost impossible - and expensive.
One thing to consider is, how is the government going to pay for a UHC system? And, how much will it cost?
And, this is only the beginnings of the problem.
No nation on the face of the planet - NONE - has a UHC system for 350 Million + people. No nation on the face of the planet - NONE - is geographically as diverse as the United States
Poor argument & lack of confidence in Americans. Implementing the health system will be as difficult/easy as other nations have experienced. Also, I believe you are way off in assessing public sentiment on universal health care. It will be our nation's health system quite soon. This is the foregone conclusion of even Republicans [ie governors Romney & Schwarzenegger]. The employer is no longer burdened with this responsibility. And b/c of that it will be a great savings to employers, the company will be able to hire more people & expand. Makes great sense. The money will come from taxes on an ability to pay [poor folks don’t pay to wealthy citizens paying a higher percentage per cost of living.
More and more doctors (GP's) are discontinuing taking insurance - the cost to administer was simply too high.
What they do is charge the patient a fee for service. If the patient wants to submit for re-imbursement, they can.
What's more is some hospitals have emergency rooms that offer significant cash discounts. When we took our daughter to one last summer, the bill several weeks later gave us an early payment cash discount which amounted to roughly 1/3 of the total bill. That's significant!
My question:
What if Health Insurance was gradually phased out (except for castatropic coverage) - if people actually *paid* for their own basic medical expenses ? Would the obvious loss of jobs and attrition in the insurance industry cause such a *major* financial upheaval that the country would fail to recover? Might there once again be inherent benefits to Americans being able to actually decide with their doctors on appropriate treatments - instead of insurance companies controlling those decisions? Would this help doctors reduce their costs by not having to contend with insurance companies? Maybe, along with that medical lawsuit awards could be minimized, reducing the cost of doctor's malpractice *insurance*..
I think these are really insightful questions, questions we should all be asking. If Americans paid for basic medical expenses and carried catastrophic insurance (similar to auto & home insurance), it is my opinion that healthcare costs would follow the basic principles of economics.
Let's take a basic physical examination by your neighborhood family medicine physician. As of right now, I am fairly certain that most individuals have no idea how much their physician is actually charging them (or insurance company) for such a service. Why? Because we do not have an incentive to know this information. Your family doc essentially will charge you for their time, equipment, staff fees, and some extras they will throw in for cushion room, sending the invoice off to your HMO. More often than not, the insurance company will not fully reimburse the physician, therefore, the bloated fees that your doctor has thrown in allows for their expenses to be covered in order for them to make a profit off of your business. They charge more than they actually need to ensure that they will get reimbursed enough to cover their expenditures. Thus, you don't care to know what your doctor will charge you. Your doctor will not care how much another office is charging its patients. No incentive to cut costs. All the incentive to inflate costs to make sure things get paid for.
Now, take insurance out of the equation entirely. You need a physical, but you know it is coming out of your pocket. Are you going to go to the first physician in the yellow pages, or are you going to shop around? All of sudden, it matters what your physician charges, as well as what the physician charges next door. Doc A charges $200 and Doc B charges $150. You know both prices, who are you going to go with if these doctors have the same credentials? Doc B sounds pretty good. Doc A discovers that he/she is losing patients to Doc B because they charge $50 less for the same services. Now Doc A is beginning to care about what formula Doc B is using because they are losing business. The good doctor is not worrying about what percentage of their expenditures will be reimbursed since that is out of the picture. Further, patients expand their role as consumers and have more control over how much they are going to pay for services, driving up competition, and essentially driving down costs.
I know it is not as simple as I've laid it out to be, but I believe the basic directives of economics would prevail in the health industry if it were greatly deregulated. I am not saying that the government has no business in the industry whatsoever, but I do think that their hand is too far into the cookie jar.
Great post! So intelligently written and patiently explained. Thanks for putting things in context. They won't let me rep you again caliprincess. I owe you.
But not one word of concern written about what to do with people who have no insurance and end up incurring huge unexpected medical bills and so have to declare bankruptcy, thereby running up medical costs for those who are responsible enough to have health insurance.
Are you comparing the good person who we see to renew our driver's license to someone who has made an indredible sacrifice of time and money to achieve what they have acheived and have our lives in their hands?
No, I'm not necessary talking about that disgruntled person. I'm highly educated, and could make lots of money in the private sector, yet I chose to be a civil servant. My job has far reaching consequences and affects many peoples well-being, so I have made an incredible sacrifice to better peoples lives, and I believe that this is not a unique trait. I think there are many doctors out there that would follow the same path.
Poor argument & lack of confidence in Americans. Implementing the health system will be as difficult/easy as other nations have experienced. Also, I believe you are way off in assessing public sentiment on universal health care. It will be our nation's health system quite soon. This is the foregone conclusion of even Republicans [ie governors Romney & Schwarzenegger]. The employer is no longer burdened with this responsibility. And b/c of that it will be a great savings to employers, the company will be able to hire more people & expand. Makes great sense. The money will come from taxes on an ability to pay [poor folks don’t pay to wealthy citizens paying a higher percentage per cost of living.
Your assertions simply aren't true. The dynamic of other countries is completely different from ours. Universal healthcare is a bad choice.
Your assertions simply aren't true. The dynamic of other countries is completely different from ours. Universal healthcare is a bad choice.
That's your opinion but I can assure you that you are in the minority. Americans want universal health care; look at the polls. It is overdue & will be the health system during Obama's presidency.
Get ready for an improvement in your & all Americans well-being.
Government oversight and/or ownership of ANYTHING will make it worse than it is today. Look at anything that is government sponsered and tell me if it's working and within budget ?
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