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Let me have a moment of your time to show you another side of this.
I have worked in the medical field a good many years. And I have a son that is a doctor. when you figure the COST of running a practice, the receptionist, the office manager, the nurse, the housekeeping service, malpatrice insurerance and all the other things like rent and utilities. The usual Medicare approved payment is a long way from paying expenses for the time the patient uses.
Soooo, What can the doctor do? Stop seeing medicare patients or raise the rates for everyone else?
yes. many doctors, especially those is specialized fields make a bundle, but the general practictioner is having a hard time decideing what he/she should do.
And the GP is the one that most of us see when we need help.
You deny what a malignancy corporations have made of themselves buying politicians in lieu of earning a legit living. If they'd satisfy themselves with reaping full reward and risk unto themselves, being fully accountable for themselves IAW the market rules they claim to be a slave to, this would all be a non issue. Instead you defend a tumor at the expense of health and make a mockery of conservative principles. You deserve that fate all by yourself, but you insist we all pay for your kool aid. The answer remains no.
Medicare rules are a response to what? Profiteers of strife & capitalist hyenas holding health hostage. Apparently it's what cons call making an honest living these days. Or a killing, if you un spin the gibberish they bought into.
Horse hockey!!
You liberals refuse to admit there was a tremendous negative impact caused by Medicare legislation. Liberals can't see that the arbitrarily low reimburesement rates by Medicare have been copied by private insurance business, and that the healthcare model has been negatively skewed by fed unilateral action.
Liberals can't see that many physicians are refusing to accept Medicare because they lose money on it. It's to the point that if one turns 65 without a primary care doctor then one may be SOL. Many primary care doctors are refusing to take new Medicare patients because of low reimbursements and federal bureaucracy.
Individuals do have some recourse with private insurance companies as most state have departments of insurance that help resolve healthcare issues, and attorneys general to help keep insurance companies in line. With the fed there is no outside recourse. The bureaucracy makes the decisions and the individual has little or no choice but accept it.
Apparently some need the government to dictate their lives for them. The government is not what made this nation great,..this nation is great in spite of the government.
You liberals refuse to admit there was a tremendous negative impact caused by Medicare legislation. Liberals can't see that the arbitrarily low reimburesement rates by Medicare have been copied by private insurance business, and that the healthcare model has been negatively skewed by fed unilateral action.
Liberals can't see that many physicians are refusing to accept Medicare because they lose money on it. It's to the point that if one turns 65 without a primary care doctor then one may be SOL. Many primary care doctors are refusing to take new Medicare patients because of low reimbursements and federal bureaucracy.
Individuals do have some recourse with private insurance companies as most state have departments of insurance that help resolve healthcare issues, and attorneys general to help keep insurance companies in line. With the fed there is no outside recourse. The bureaucracy makes the decisions and the individual has little or no choice but accept it.
Apparently some need the government to dictate their lives for them. The government is not what made this nation great,..this nation is great in spite of the government.
What you present is not a structural defect of Medicare. Medicare has to get serious about cost control; it has to start saying no to expensive procedures with little or no medical benefits, it has to change the way it pays doctors and hospitals, and so on. And a number of reforms of that kind are, in fact, included in the Affordable Care Act. But with these changes it should be entirely possible to maintain a system that provides all older Americans with guaranteed essential health care.
It is also possible to reduce costs and provide excellent services:
Let me have a moment of your time to show you another side of this.
I have worked in the medical field a good many years. And I have a son that is a doctor. when you figure the COST of running a practice, the receptionist, the office manager, the nurse, the housekeeping service, malpatrice insurerance and all the other things like rent and utilities. The usual Medicare approved payment is a long way from paying expenses for the time the patient uses.
Soooo, What can the doctor do? Stop seeing medicare patients or raise the rates for everyone else?
yes. many doctors, especially those is specialized fields make a bundle, but the general practictioner is having a hard time decideing what he/she should do.
And the GP is the one that most of us see when we need help.
exactly. Its not the doctors fault. Insurance companies have quotas and numbers the doctors office has to meet.
My brother is a dr. The system is broken bcs of lobbyists and insurancecompanies. YEARS ago, MetLife used to have health insurance. I worked for them. Their secret was- dont ever sell it to anyone. Annuities and investments- yes- but theres no profit for them in healthcare, its last priority.
I laugh when idiot politicians say people can "drive across state lines to buy health insurance"....wtf? Its a pain just buying it now, ranks up there with auto and homeowners- people dont have time. This was in early 90's...its been going downhill for 30 years.
Let me have a moment of your time to show you another side of this.
I have worked in the medical field a good many years. And I have a son that is a doctor. when you figure the COST of running a practice, the receptionist, the office manager, the nurse, the housekeeping service, malpatrice insurerance and all the other things like rent and utilities. The usual Medicare approved payment is a long way from paying expenses for the time the patient uses.
Soooo, What can the doctor do? Stop seeing medicare patients or raise the rates for everyone else?
yes. many doctors, especially those is specialized fields make a bundle, but the general practictioner is having a hard time decideing what he/she should do.
And the GP is the one that most of us see when we need help.
Your post is the perfect reason why we need a single payer system. Having said that, you didn't respond to my earlier post, and here is the question again:
What was your take on Obama's "Death Panels" as advertised by his political opposition?
Your post is the perfect reason why we need a single payer system. Having said that, you didn't respond to my earlier post, and here is the question again:
What was your take on Obama's "Death Panels" as advertised by his political opposition?
Sorry, I meant to answer, and then forgot about it. I have never been quite sure exactly what was true and not true about what I read about it. I would hate to give you an opinion about what some of the things I have read.
It seems that some feel the need to review treatment that is given when it can do little or no good. I'll agree on that. I have seen times when a doctor really makes a bundle "treating" a patient that has no chance of survival. There is no way that anyone can justify certain procedures done on the very elderly.
Nope, I'm not saying that we should just let them die, but there is abuse of patients for profits. Do we need to look at that side of it? yes, I think so.
The bottom line: No matter if you are liberal or conservative. Medicare is GOING to go bankrupt. Either that, or your taxes are going to SKYROCKET to cover the costs. Medicare is the single highest output in the federal budget, followed by social security.
You can put down the Republican's all you want. AT LEAST they are willing to tackle the problem and discuss it. Maybe the plans aren't perfect, however, the liberals haven't come up with anything at all, except to expand a system, which is going to fail, further. Expanding the system, as is, is only going to cause it to fail faster.
A solution must be found and very quickly, before the United States is bankrupt.
The bottom line: No matter if you are liberal or conservative. Medicare is GOING to go bankrupt. Either that, or your taxes are going to SKYROCKET to cover the costs. Medicare is the single highest output in the federal budget, followed by social security.
The claim that Medicare as we know it is unsustainable is nonsense.
Yes, Medicare has to get serious about cost control; it has to start saying no to expensive procedures with little or no medical benefits, it has to change the way it pays doctors and hospitals, and so on. And a number of reforms of that kind are, in fact, included in the Affordable Care Act. But with these changes it should be entirely possible to maintain a system that provides all older Americans with guaranteed essential health care.
Consider Canada, which has a national health insurance program, actually called Medicare, that is similar to the program we have for the elderly, but less open-ended and more cost-conscious. In 1970, Canada and the United States both spent about 7 percent of their G.D.P. on health care. Since then, as United States health spending has soared to 16 percent of G.D.P., Canadian spending has risen much more modestly, to only 10.5 percent of G.D.P. And while Canadian health care isn’t perfect, it’s not bad.
Canadian Medicare, then, looks sustainable; why can’t we do the same thing here? Well, you know the answer in the case of the Republicans: They don’t want to make Medicare sustainable, they want to destroy it under the guise of saving it.
Notice the difference in per capita cost between Canada and the U.S -- and Canada's covers everyone:
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shopping for health insurance?
....wtf? Its a pain just buying it now, ranks up there with auto and homeowners- people dont have time. This was in early 90's...its been going downhill for 30 years.
