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I would support the Medicare Administrative Contractors negotiating prices for prescription drugs and durable medical equipment for their respective regions.
What you really need is for the federal government to put pressure on States to enforce anti-trust laws against the hospital monopolies and hospital cartels that illegally collude to illegally fix prices above Market rates.
That would create the transparency you seek.
You also need the federal government to somehow coerce the American Hospital Association into abandoning the outdated and antiquated Hospital Model in favor of the Clinic or Polyclinic Model used in Euro-States, since that is one reason their healthcare costs are less.
Yes x1000.
Enforce the existing federal antitrust laws and force a breakup of the hospital monopolies that actively seek to maximize billings rather than operate as a normal business.
Enforce the existing federal antitrust laws and force a breakup of the hospital monopolies that actively seek to maximize billings rather than operate as a normal business.
Good idea, but that's a bit tricky.
State laws actually exempt and shield hospitals from anti-trust lawsuits.
The hospitals -- when lobbying for protection from anti-trust legislation -- argued that the amount of charitable work they do, outweighs all of the negative consequences of monopolies.
That, of course, begs the question: "How much charitable work do hospitals actually do?"
Inquiring minds want to know.
I've searched the internet and the university library for years and found nothing on the topic. Can't even find estimates of the amount of charitable work allegedly done.
A simple cost-of-charitable work versus annual gross revenues would do nicely, but I can't find any data on it.
If a hospital's gross annual revenues are $100 Million, shouldn't the amount of charitable work fall in the 10% to 20% range?
So you actually support the idea of what Democrats want ?????
Not, "No", but "Hell No!"
I said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea
The Liberals cannot do something as simple as expand Medicare to include everyone and leave it at that. No, they have to take over the hospitals and lord over the doctors and other services providers and meddle in all things medical.
To which you responded:
Quote:
Originally Posted by dsjj251
You didnt answer the question.
Instead, you deflected and argued political ideology.
Ideology has nothing to do with what works. its a belief system. We arent talking about belief systems here.
That proves my point that Liberals cannot simply expand Medicare to cover everyone (paying 100% instead of 80%), without assuming de facto control of all hospitals and doctor's offices and making all medical professionals de facto government employees.
You might actually get Conservatives on board if you had a true single-payer plan and nothing more.
and do not tell me "because other countries do it".
Oh, I used to be like you until a couple of years ago.
Until I lost my job in a shrinking industry (banking) and all of a sudden I had to pay my own health benefits. It was the first time I was unemployed in my entire adult life. A thousand dollars a month is not cheap to a middle class worker who is unemployed. Fortunately I now have a job with full benefits again.
But I learned a lesson. Life is all cozy when you have a job with benefits, make big $$, you are in union or you are a government worker. But if not you can be screwed and basically you can loose everything if you get seriously sick or are injured.
So it is easy for those with health care to sit back and pontificate against "socialized medicine" because they have it. But I guess for some of us, we care about other people besides ourselves.
State laws actually exempt and shield hospitals from anti-trust lawsuits.
The hospitals -- when lobbying for protection from anti-trust legislation -- argued that the amount of charitable work they do, outweighs all of the negative consequences of monopolies.
That, of course, begs the question: "How much charitable work do hospitals actually do?"
Inquiring minds want to know.
I've searched the internet and the university library for years and found nothing on the topic. Can't even find estimates of the amount of charitable work allegedly done.
A simple cost-of-charitable work versus annual gross revenues would do nicely, but I can't find any data on it.
If a hospital's gross annual revenues are $100 Million, shouldn't the amount of charitable work fall in the 10% to 20% range?
It would be very tough to do. What is charity? Is charity when you involuntarily end up with zero payment for service? I would bet that your range is close. Is it charity to give discounts? Then the hospital will show you all the write downs/offs from taking Medicaid, Medicare and even your private insurance.
I would suggest that charity=less hospital profits. And end it there.
I advocate deductibles. 7% each side wouldnt cover it with the deductibles?
You need to generate $1.5 TRILLION in payroll tax revenues to cover 100% of the reasonable costs of medical services. Based on the total payroll for 2016, which is $8,741,990,052,448 or simply $8.7 TRILLION, you'd need a payroll tax rate of 18%.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ottomobeale
I believe there should be costs, they should simply not be bankrupters.
To ensure everyone pays, you could have modest co-payments for doctor office visits, generic and name brand drugs, and hospitalizations.
But, having no deductibles is key.
Healthcare is a money-pit. You get nothing out of it.
Can you wear healthcare?
Can you eat healthcare?
Can you heat your home with healthcare?
Can you sell or trade healthcare for something tangible?
The answer is "NO" in each instance.
How does that help your economy? It doesn't. You dump tons of money into healthcare, but get no economic benefit from it.
What you want to do is re-direct monies from healthcare to other sectors of your economy to promote growth, and you can start by reducing the amount spent on "health insurance."
Quote:
Originally Posted by ottomobeale
Outside of the transparency issue. You have a problem with the no exclusives for non patented medicines? Sorry I have a big beef with the .001% creating monopolies of any kind, but especially things that are needs vs wants.
I'm not very familiar with US Patent Office rules, but I'm sure the rules could be change for drugs that are simply "re-formulated."
Quote:
Originally Posted by ottomobeale
You dont have a problem with out of network providers back billing from INSIDE in-network facilities?
If you had a Free Market, there wouldn't be any networks. You don't have In-Network and Out-of-Network automobile or home repair.
You can thank the American Hospital Association for that.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
27,606 posts, read 14,641,380 times
Reputation: 9169
Quote:
Originally Posted by nononsenseguy
That's easy: They hate America, and they hate free market capitalism. They're socialists.
Free market capitalism doesn't work in healthcare, because of inelastic demand, and no time to "shop around". Plus the out of pocket costs are now more than anyone who isn't upper middle class or higher can afford.
I mean, $1,800 for a crown and root canal? $6,000 for a CAT scan? Forget surgery........
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