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Old 08-03-2009, 09:36 AM
 
Location: Northern California
481 posts, read 804,189 times
Reputation: 245

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In a country where virtually 100% of the insurance markets are uncompetitive, it's clear Americans are at the mercy of the insurance industry. Our skyrocketing premiums attest to this. If you have no choice, you can't take your business elsewhere when your insurance company denies your claim or makes you jump through hoops to get normal treatments reimbursed. Without competition, insurance companies that control your local market can raise premiums and cut benefits with impunity, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Overnight, Congress could fix this situation. By passing a public health insurance option that is open to everyone, people will suddenly have a choice for their health insurance. Congress can break these monopolies and allow people to take their business elsewhere if they want to.

Why are the Republicans fighting against fixing this awful problem?
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Old 08-03-2009, 09:38 AM
 
Location: I think my user name clarifies that.
8,292 posts, read 26,619,913 times
Reputation: 3925
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peggy Anne View Post
Sicko is a good film. Back in 1971, I went to a doctor in Morristown, NJ. (Dr. B) His office visit was 7 dollars. He did a lot of tests himself, and wrote prescriptions. I cleared up a urinary infection, including medicine, and office visit for $12.00. That's what I call health care.
An average new house cost $28,000, gas was 36 cents per gallon, a dozen eggs was 50 cents, the average annual household income was less than $9,000, and a postage stamp cost 6 cents.

How DARE those greedy doctors charge more than $7 for an office visit today!
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Old 08-03-2009, 09:40 AM
 
Location: I think my user name clarifies that.
8,292 posts, read 26,619,913 times
Reputation: 3925
Quote:
Originally Posted by Apples&Oranges View Post
In a country where virtually 100% of the insurance markets are uncompetitive, it's clear Americans are at the mercy of the insurance industry. Our skyrocketing premiums attest to this. If you have no choice, you can't take your business elsewhere when your insurance company denies your claim or makes you jump through hoops to get normal treatments reimbursed. Without competition, insurance companies that control your local market can raise premiums and cut benefits with impunity, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Overnight, Congress could fix this situation. By passing a public health insurance option that is open to everyone, people will suddenly have a choice for their health insurance. Congress can break these monopolies and allow people to take their business elsewhere if they want to.

Why are the Republicans fighting against fixing this awful problem?
Because it's not that easy.

And the people that are crying about healthcare - as are you - are going to be the first ones screaming about universal health-care when it's YOUR health care that is being regulated. When it's YOU that is being told "No, your condition doesn't warrant help" by the government.

People need to stop demonizing the wrong things.
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Old 08-03-2009, 09:49 AM
 
Location: Northern California
481 posts, read 804,189 times
Reputation: 245
Really? I don't see the Republicans coming out with a GOOD plan. I am on Medicare and it works well for me and my friends. We have never been denied treatment.

Please prove with links that a government system will tell me that "No, your condition doesn't warrant help." That's just bogus propaganda put out by private health insurers.
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Old 08-03-2009, 09:57 AM
 
Location: I think my user name clarifies that.
8,292 posts, read 26,619,913 times
Reputation: 3925
Quote:
Originally Posted by Apples&Oranges View Post
Really? I don't see the Republicans coming out with a GOOD plan. I am on Medicare and it works well for me and my friends. We have never been denied treatment.

Please prove with links that a government system will tell me that "No, your condition doesn't warrant help." That's just bogus propaganda put out by private health insurers.
First of all, you're completely and totally ignoring predatory lawyers that are driving the cost of health-care skyward. Who do you think is REALLY paying for all those multi-million dollar lawsuits?

You're also ignoring the fact that most doctors now make LESS than politicians. Do you REALLY want doctors to become low-end, run of the mill laborers? There is a reason that we have all these foreign-born doctors practicing medicine in the United States. Think about it!

You need to do some deeper research into the NHS in the UK. Socialist health-care is NOT the answer.

And finally, you cannot find one single entity that has become more efficient and more productive as a result of being run by the government. Nothing.
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Old 08-03-2009, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
7,084 posts, read 12,035,240 times
Reputation: 4125
Sicko is incorrect is the problem. It focuses on all the worst and outlier conditions and presents them as standard operations for every patient every day. The reality is not that bad, and it's not super 100% great. I wish people could stand in each of the major areas of health care to see how each operate, including legal, patient care, and finance to see how bad the misconceptions are.

The real problem, and what is going to be a killer for UHC and not covered in Sicko, is that government payers pay 10-20% under the cost to provide care. So then those who have insurance pay more for care and pay taxes for Medicaid/Medicare...add into that more taxes for insurance companies and it's almost like a triple tax. Something needs to be done, but this answer is incorrect.
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Old 08-03-2009, 10:03 AM
 
Location: I think my user name clarifies that.
8,292 posts, read 26,619,913 times
Reputation: 3925
Quote:
Originally Posted by subsound View Post
Sicko is incorrect is the problem. It focuses on all the worst and outlier conditions and presents them as standard operations for every patient every day. The reality is not that bad, and it's not super 100% great. I wish people could stand in each of the major areas of health care to see how each operate, including legal, patient care, and finance to see how bad the misconceptions are.

The real problem, and what is going to be a killer for UHC and not covered in Sicko, is that government payers pay 10-20% under the cost to provide care. So then those who have insurance pay more for care and pay taxes for Medicaid/Medicare...add into that more taxes for insurance companies and it's almost like a triple tax. Something needs to be done, but this answer is incorrect.
You're right. The system isn't broken, though it does need to be revised.

And seriously, anybody that thinks Michael Moore has the answer to ANYTHING needs to have their head examined. Moore is an idiot charlatan, nothing more.
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Old 08-03-2009, 10:11 AM
 
Location: Arizona High Desert
4,792 posts, read 5,889,942 times
Reputation: 3103
Most people want to be treated like a human being when they go to a doctor. Many patients are viewed as nothing more than a walking wallet. I am surprised that some of these rip off medical people don't have cash register noises coming out of their butts ! Old lady on a walker ? Cha Ching. Give her every test in the book, although she doesn't NEED it ? Cha Ching !
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Old 08-03-2009, 10:25 AM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
7,084 posts, read 12,035,240 times
Reputation: 4125
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peggy Anne View Post
Most people want to be treated like a human being when they go to a doctor. Many patients are viewed as nothing more than a walking wallet. I am surprised that some of these rip off medical people don't have cash register noises coming out of their butts ! Old lady on a walker ? Cha Ching. Give her every test in the book, although she doesn't NEED it ? Cha Ching !
If doctors let her go and she had a disorder that was able to be seen in a test, even if she came in for something that didn't warrant it, it's an easy way to pay out a hefty lawsuit.
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Old 08-03-2009, 10:29 AM
 
Location: Sonoita
227 posts, read 534,454 times
Reputation: 146
Quote:
Originally Posted by coyoteskye View Post
Regardless of how you feel about Micahel Moore and / or where you stand politically, i highly recommend the documentary "Sicko".
And, if after watching this film you don't feel strongly that the U.S. needs universal health care, .... well, i'd be amazed and i'd truly wonder why.
The health care system in this nation is insane and bordering on evil.
The health insurance companies are (evil!).
It's the worst capitalist poison i've ever seen or been aware of.
Outrageous.

I felt sick and sad in my heart while watching this ... sad for the victims of this system and sad for this country.
The man is an idiot. Should be labled a biography about his life. I watched it and he overexagerated and magnified specific faults to make it appear the entire country was that way. A country as big as this is certain to have any level good or bad of healthcare issues. He sought out the worst and made blanket statements about the entire nation.
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