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I have been paying cash for the little health care I need and do get close to 80% discount but you must tell them when you walk in.when I was insured my yearly cancer checks ran $350 per visit,as a cash payer I now pay $50 per visit and all the free samples of safe meds I can carry. my dentist charged me $2500 for complete uppers and partial lowers including 11 extractions. try getting that price with ins. They love not having to spend thousands trying to get paid for their work.ins is stupid,after 23 years without it I figure I am about a quarter million $ ahead
I am always politely amused at posts like this. They contain pure garbage. Not only now are ALL children in the United States covered by health care access and insurance, the insurance companies have voluntarily (post passage) agreed to stop all pre existing conditions exclusions for all children. As well, by 2014 all Americans will have access to and payment for health insurance. Everyone with any sense knows that it is high utilizers without insurance which cost the system billions. Those folks now will have to see a doctor to manage their disease.
"Even the poor". That is worse than nonsense and to a degree amusing knowing that someone can be that poorly informed.
Has what to do with Obamacare?
Lots of people, including employers, will pay the non-compliance fines since it will be cheaper than actual health insurance. And since people will be able to sign up for health insurance after they are diagnosed with an illness and cannot be turned down because they have a pre-existing medical condition, people will sign up for coverage in the emergency room and drop the coverage when they leave the hospital.
I have to say that long ago I was employed in senior management for health care. I did not like working with the compromises.
I have been an R.N. now for 20 years and I would say that this legislation, while flawed is a capitalistic attempt to mandate coverage. That is central to controlling cost. After working in ER and ICU for many seasons I can assure you that most of the patients there do not have health insurance. Trauma is a key area. Most victims are young. They stay in ICU for months at $5000.00 per day not counting MD fees. Millions of dollars per person over and over again. That is a million with an M. As people are funneled towards providers who actually can assess and prevent lengthy hospitalizations there will be a huge cost benefit. I'm not apologetic if people think that they are controlled by the "system". We live in a country and have an obligation to support one another.
There are many questions and answers yet to be proposed and legislated. But if you have a kid or family member who needs long term treatment or disease monitoring I can guarantee you this law is a good idea.
By the way if people really want to WHINE about something or better yet to change things, stop alcohol and cigarettes. Their effects are pure capitalistic carnage.
Top-down cost control never works. The only way to reduce the cost of medical treatment is to make each and every patient a direct consumer with skin in the game. The way to do that is health savings accounts. Obamacare has placed restrictions on individual contributions and has placed new taxes on the use of these accounts. That is completely the opposite of what needs to be done, but it is to be expected since OBC has never been about controlling cost or delivering care.
"We live in a country and have an obligation to support one another."
"I'm not apologetic if people think that they are controlled by the 'system'."
Perhaps you could explain how a person loses their individual ability to make decisions and their personal thought process is co-opted by "the system".
Top-down cost control never works. The only way to reduce the cost of medical treatment is to make each and every patient a direct consumer with skin in the game.
Or, take the profit incentive out of providing care. How many Doctors own Clinics and even Hospitals? I assume you don't think there is a lot of excess testing and procedures taking place, that really are not needed. But they are taking place all over the Country, and they are very profitable. How many Doctors have become simple drug dispensers, it's a lot easier and less time consuming than working with a patient to alter the source of their particular problem. The number of patients is profit, not time spent with each. Why do you think Drug companies identify Doctors who prescribe a lot(there is a database that identifies those Doctors), approach them to be "Informed Educators". They tell them they are superior in their knowledge and specialty and would like them to "train" other Doctors in the same area thru speaking engagements in small to medium settings. Of course the topic is, how well their particular Drug benefits the patients. The "Informed Educator", gets his ego stoked by being identified as such, also a speaking fee, the Doctors that attend, get free lunch, and the primary target, the "Educator" prescribes even more Drugs. The Drug Cos are all vying for their own "dispensers". You think that might result in a lot of Ins claims for drugs? Until we actually address the problem in rising costs, which is lacking in the HC Law, but not absent, we will have this contention as a society.
How will that work for the millions who can't afford to put money into a health savings account?
And, how will it hold down costs?
Here's an example: My own Mom never had a health savings account, but she and dad managed to lay back a good bit of money during their lives. Right now, she's in a rest home and gets no support from Medicaid or Medicare because she has too much money. Consequently, she's paying the full cost of that care at about $5000 per month. At that rate, her savings will soon be gone.
How does her having money in the bank result in lower costs for her? It doesn't. She pays the same rate that Medicaid pays for those who can't afford it.
Show me how a health savings account, which is the same thing as just putting money into your regular savings account, will correct that?
I wonder how all of the Moral Majority, or the Religious Right, (or whatever sheep's clothing the GOP wolves wore to get the people to vote for them to begin with) reconcile their desire to repeal the Health Care reforms with Matthew 25:41?
For those that haven't read it:
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’"
I wonder how all of the Moral Majority, or the Religious Right, (or whatever sheep's clothing the GOP wolves wore to get the people to vote for them to begin with) reconcile their desire to repeal the Health Care reforms with Matthew 25:41?
For those that haven't read it:
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’"
Or, this one:
Eze 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
Why do you think Drug companies identify Doctors who prescribe a lot(there is a database that identifies those Doctors), approach them to be "Informed Educators".
Eze 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
I don't really see the problem being centered within the Christian community, and I don't recall Jesus advocating new involuntary taxes be imposed to offset a lack of charity.
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