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Different areas operate differently. Where I live a lot of the doctors are aligned with the management company that runs the hospital. It is cheaper to have one site for say x-rays and MRIs and other expensive testing equipment then each doctor having the same equipment in their offices.
Yes, that's true. But no one is admitted to the hospital for "tests" unless there is also some other reason to admit them.
I live in Jim McDermott's district and have been communicating with his office regarding how a different (WA State) legislation is negatively affecting my health care and thus the quality of my life. He has long been regarded, at least in my family, as a genuine and very accessible public servant.
Good to hear something positive on this. Sanders is excellent.
The Federal government isn't a corporation or a business so it doesn't have a balance sheet or an income statement. It does have a budget and it does track its revenues, its expenditures and its outstanding debt. If you can't find that particular information, then I suggest you look again.
The fact that the government isnt a "corporation" doesnt mean future liabilties dont exist.. Thats almost as silly as you saying it doesnt have income statements or balance sheets..
The reality is if such a program existed, physicians would stop taking insurance and only take cash particularly specialists. The overwhelming majority of dentists, chiropractors and naturopathic physicians only accept cash yet patients are still willing to see them. Physicians are aware of this and are adopting similar standards. Like dentists, physicians will accept credit cards and place patients on payment plans through third party companies. This is already occuring to some extent. Many physicians particularly in large cities do not accept Medicaid and some don't even take Medicare due to poor reimbursement. Others are moving to a cash based model. People on Medicaid in these cities have a next to impossible time seeing specialists and in some states, they can't even find a single specialist to see them and will have to drive to an adjacent to do so. It's ultimately going to happen. The popular physicians can demand cash for their services and their patients will pay it to be seen by them. In the near future, expect to pay your primary care doctor $100 to $150 cash to see them.
That's just your primary care physician, what about EVERYTHING else....you mentioned specialists but, what about surgeons, imaging, hospitals, etc.
Right now here in AZ, every insurance carrier handles Medicaid. As a matter of fact there are some that only do it and they don't offer senior suplements or under age 65 group or individual coverage. It's subsidized
so it's the safest product for carriers to offer. The problem you're speaking of hasn't become a big issue here yet. The one provider that has chose to no longer accept Medicare is Mayo Clinic and all the doctors that are with that network.
There are plenty of new doctors that have some huge student loans to start paying back....over time I can see us ending up like Canada when it comes to getting in to see a doctor. Arizona has tons of snow birds (retirees) here from Canada for the cold months and we hear plenty of stories. Up there, the doctors are not suddenly going to start getting paid a lot less, like what would happen here if they only get paid at Medicare rates.
some people confuse what is desired with what is believed to be a right. Few are suggesting that govt. healthcare is a right, many suggest that it should be. I am one of those that believe that it should be. Pass a constitutional amendment to that effect and it will be.
1. MEDICARE currently covers (only partially, it is not 100% coverage, its a 80/20) about 40 million (about 1/7th of the population) seniors and has an ANNUAL COST of 550 BILLION dollars
Part B is the only part that's 80/20 but, with no stop-loss. There are deductibles for both Part A and B. People on low budgets, they need to go with a Medicare Advantage plan....there are some big co-pays they can get stuck with (depending on the plan) if they're in the hospital for awhile but, they all have maximum out-of-pocket annual limits. The problem Obamacare wants to 500 billion over ten years out of Medicare. They claim there's enough waste in it now to be able to cut out that much but, they've mentioned several times now that it will come out of Medicare Advantage. That's exactly the the plan that seniors on a low budget have to rely on. Medicare supplements (Medigap....plans A-G), can get very expensive for older seniors.
It drives me crazy when I hear Obama say his health care reform will stop insurers from dropping people when they sick and need their coverage more than ever....and then (sometimes....not always) he'll quickly mumble the words, "Except in the case fraud".
That goes right over everyone's head....no one picks up on that. Technically, he's not lying...he's just making am big deal about something that doesn't even need to mentioned because it's already that way now.
I can't decide if he thinks that's a valid point worth mentioning or if he (or his speech writer) has carefully chosen the words he's using (without lying), to mislead people into thinking that significant progress has been made. What do you think?
Yes, that's true. But no one is admitted to the hospital for "tests" unless there is also some other reason to admit them.
Oh, Kati, what am I going to do with you? You keep changing things to suit your opinion.
"Originally Posted by Katiana You nor the person you referenced seem to have a grasp of how health care works these days. Health care has been moving out of the hospitals for decades. No one goes to the hospital for "tests" any more, like my father did in the late 60s, back when "insurance was only for hospitalization". Very few people go in to the hospital the night before surgery, like they did when I did hospital nursing in the early 70s, back when "insurance was only for hospitalization". New moms don't stay for five days after delivery any more, like they did when "insurance was only for hospitlalization". No one spends a week in the hospital after an appendectomy, like they did back in the day. New diabetics aren't hospitalized for education and stabilization, like they were back in the day. Most care is either ICU or home care. People come home "quicker and sicker".
I know I am getting old but, please show me where I or you said anything about being admitted? Where did you get that from?
I said I challenged the statement, "No one goes to the hospital for tests anymore". Sorry but, I do. Now you post out of the blue being admitted.
Oh, Kati, what am I going to do with you? You keep changing things to suit your opinion.
"Originally Posted by Katiana You nor the person you referenced seem to have a grasp of how health care works these days. Health care has been moving out of the hospitals for decades. No one goes to the hospital for "tests" any more, like my father did in the late 60s, back when "insurance was only for hospitalization". Very few people go in to the hospital the night before surgery, like they did when I did hospital nursing in the early 70s, back when "insurance was only for hospitalization". New moms don't stay for five days after delivery any more, like they did when "insurance was only for hospitlalization". No one spends a week in the hospital after an appendectomy, like they did back in the day. New diabetics aren't hospitalized for education and stabilization, like they were back in the day. Most care is either ICU or home care. People come home "quicker and sicker".
I know I am getting old but, please show me where I or you said anything about being admitted? Where did you get that from?
I said I challenged the statement, "No one goes to the hospital for tests anymore". Sorry but, I do. Now you post out of the blue being admitted.
I am starting to loose faith in you.
You "lost faith" in me a long time ago, in fact you never had any. You follow me around this board, making personal attack after personal attack, mocking me, and so forth. You know damn well I meant no one is admitted to the hospital when I made the post you quoted. In fact my comments about my father doing so "when insurance was only for hospitlaization" should have been a small clue. If not, you could have asked for clarification instead of making fun of me.
And please fix my post that you quoted to reflect what I acutally said, not your editorial opinion of it.
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