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Just wondering why everyone one is so outraged & terrified over the proposition of a Government run health care system. Essentially it is not a new concept - we have had Medicaid, Medicare and VA benefits that are paid for by the taxpayer for decades. Why does the option of having a similar sector offered to the uninsured strike terror in the hearts of so many Americans? My guess is a huge percentage of residents in my home state rely on Medicaid as insurance anyway.I personally would feel more secure knowing that I had an Government run program as an option since I am in that population who make to much to qualify for medicaid should my employer stop offering heath insurance.Or even if my employer drastically raised premiums, making the government run program more affordable? Am I missing something??
It seems to work well for the French & Canadians. Once again...correct me if I am wrong.
And from my perspective as a medical biller-Commercial insurance companies will try anything to deny payment on a claim, while the government (although slow with payment) is quite reliable and straight forward with paying. Also Commercial & private payer allowable charge limits are so low that many providers are finding they can actually make more seeing Medicaid/Medicare patients.
The public is enraged and terrified because they've been told by pathological liars on daytime radio that it is government-run health care. But it's not.
It is single payer health care, with the government entrusted to assess the premiums and pay the benefits without grabbing a sizeable profit off the top for themselves. The medical community would continue to deliver the health care to the patients, who between them, will run health care.
Well, I don't have time to read the hundreds of pages of this bill. And what's worse, I have no idea who to believe. We have two sides babbling rhetoric, and it's obvious to me that both sides are telling lies.
I fear that it will turn out to not be a "health care package" at all. I fear that it will simply be yet another way for the government to drum up revenue. This thing has been slowly morphing since its inception. The last I heard, it may not even have any government provided health care at all. Now if this is the case, what the hell is it then? What is actually in those hundreds of pages? Think about it.
This is the thing about it that bothers me the most: supposedly in the proposal is a clause that mandates 'fines' upon those who do not have health insurance. You tell me what kind of logic that is? In my estimation, it's stupidity. Those who don't have any insurance, for the most part, are in that boat because they can't afford it. So, the government is going to charge them for that? And that is supposed to help them get health care how again? If they don't have money for insurance, they certainly don't have money for a fine. And that money used for a fine, assuming they somehow scrape it together, is money that could provide health care the next time they needed it. This fine bu**sh*t is certainly not going to help them obtain insurance or health care. As I said, I believe it's a slick new way for the federal government to obtain more revenue. I really see no other explanation. It's very fishy to me: fine someone who has no money. Squeeze blood from a turnip. Yeah, smart. What happens when they have no money to pay? Are nice new federal labor camps or debtor’s prisons in the works, too?
I guess you don't like your police department or your fire department. The public schools in your area must be pretty bad too, right? When you get old will you refuse to accept Medicare because of how badly run it is?
Honestly, if I wanted to point the finger right now at some entity that had done a bad job it wouldn't the government. I'd take aim at the banks and the financial service center. Don't tell me the government is responsible for that either. The trend for the last twenty years has been more and more deregulation.
On top of all this, Obama's plan doesn't call for government run healthcare, socialized medicine, or a single payer insurance system. The original plan calls only for a government-run insurance company that would have the right to compete with all the private insurance plans. This hardly sounds revolutionary. Although, I think this "public option" is going by the wayside due to the huge amount of misinformation being circulated.
I'm not sure what all the answers are yet. I know we can't count on the free market to solve healthcare problems. The market's solution would be for the poorest people in America to not get health care. That's not acceptable period. Change is needed instead of the kind of dishonest rhetoric we've heard so far.
The problem is that a large majority of people have no idea what goes into medical billing/payments/finance. It is complicated, it's what I do for a living, and between the diseases, diagnosis, and treatment codes...then the various costs and breakouts....it really requires teams of people to deal with. Those who don't want the bill to pass have taken advantage of that to scare people into coming out against it, even those who already have government payers as their insurance and don't know it.
I don't like it until they do away with the current medicare payment plan, which is on average 10% below cost of care. The way they do it in Maryland is better (not great, but better) with a cost +x% markup. If they don't pay costs corners will have to be cut, and hospitals will suffer a great deal (some will probably go bankrupt, mine is just barely hanging on). That doesn't mean private insurances are doing a great job, there are so many denials and bad behavior that something needs ot be changed (one big thing is to eliminate retroactive denials save for outright fraud).
I guess you don't like your police department or your fire department. The public schools in your area must be pretty bad too, right? When you get old will you refuse to accept Medicare because of how badly run it is?
Honestly, if I wanted to point the finger right now at some entity that had done a bad job it wouldn't the government. I'd take aim at the banks and the financial service center. Don't tell me the government is responsible for that either. The trend for the last twenty years has been more and more deregulation.
On top of all this, Obama's plan doesn't call for government run healthcare, socialized medicine, or a single payer insurance system. The original plan calls only for a government-run insurance company that would have the right to compete with all the private insurance plans. This hardly sounds revolutionary. Although, I think this "public option" is going by the wayside due to the huge amount of misinformation being circulated.
I'm not sure what all the answers are yet. I know we can't count on the free market to solve healthcare problems. The market's solution would be for the poorest people in America to not get health care. That's not acceptable period. Change is needed instead of the kind of dishonest rhetoric we've heard so far.
As I see it, the major problem is that there is no single bill. There are three or four committee proposals containing all kinds of ideas for change. The one proposal I've partially read is over a thousand pages long, refers to several other laws and programs which would be altered, and is written in the standard political speak that only the lobbyist who wrote a given section knows what the intent is.
The whole thing is potentially full of lurking un-intended consequences.
Whenever I am being told that it is imperative to get something passed immediately (and the people insisting on the urgency can't adequately explain the contents) the red flags go up and I become resistant.
People on Medicare are scared to death that the government is going to replaces it with socialized medicine.
. . . . because Medicare has worked so well. Then, why do people think the same kind of plan for everyone will not work as well as Medicare has worked for its clients?
It is the perfect epitome of our abject and unalloyed selfishness, that people are afraid that the health care of hundreds of millions will improve, at the slight expense of one's own.
I am sick to death of people whining and whining, out of pure greed and selfishness.
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