Obama declares war on doctors

[blu]

seeing how effectively this country has waged war in the last 50 years I wouldn't be too worried if I was a doctor

 

[Gadawg73]

If it was so expensive, why did you go to the doctor?

Was there anyone else that could have helped you?

I suppose you could have just pulled it yourself and risked nerve damage or vascular damage because you didn't know how to pull it correctly. But you would have saved money.

You are shitting me, right?
You must be one that has their health care and insurance paid for by a group plan. An informed consumer always questions the bill. The problem is that mostAmericans with group health care are uninformed like you and are the root cause of spiraling health care costs.
I live in the real world, own 3 corporations and pay over 40K a year in health care premiums.
If you do not know that the reason these prices are borderline fraud because insurance companies pay them and get it back through extreme premiums then you are brain dead.

You do realize that XO is a Dr., right? I think he may know a lot more than you think.

And now the truth comes out.
No bias there?

 

[Gadawg73]

still whining, I see.

Whining about the facts, yes.

 

[Sunshine]

Can you imagine a business being run where the prices are being fixed as what the customers want to pay, and not what it cost them to provide the service, or manufacture the product.

I wonder how many doctors there are going to be if they keep this up.

The second reason this is a landmark case is that the Justice Department has unambiguously stated that refusal to accept government price controls is a form of illegal “price fixing.”

What’s more, the Antitrust Division has linked a refusal to accept government price controls with a refusal to accept a “private” insurance company’s contract offer. This lives little doubt that antitrust regulators consider insurance party contracts the equivalent of government price controls — and physicians and patients have no choice but to accept them.

Justice Department declares war on doctors - CSMonitor.com

This means the government believes it has the right to force doctors to accept Medicare/Medicaid and/ or insurance pricing, and that it will work to send anyone who tries to opt out of accepting it to prison. This is another example of a badly written law being applied to a situation it should not cover in the first place.

This is not the first time MDs have indulged in antitrust issues. They were sued by the chiropractors several years back when they tried to put them out of business. When one profession tries to put another out of business that is antitrust. That, however, is not the ONLY antitrust action. It is high time that the strongest lobby in Congress, the AMA, got a taste of its own medicine.

 

[Political Junky]

The Nevada "chicken lady" lost her election for suggesting people take a chicken to the doctor. Good riddance.

 

[kurtsprincess]

In the rush to defend doctors and their ability to set prices, where is the concern for patients who die because they cannot afford medical treatment?[/QUOTE]

Well, there will certainly be more people dying when doctors decide to quit being doctors and there is a sudden shortage of doctors.

 

[kurtsprincess]

The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors.

Experts warn there won't be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

U.S. Faces Shortage of Doctors - WSJ.com

That article was from April. How will those numbers change with this ruling?

Perhaps doctors will start charging for nurses, phone calls, and photocopies now. Just like lawyers. Hey when will Obama declare war on lawyers? After all, legal representation is a right.

Legal representation is not a right. It is only a right in criminal cases and the government provides those already.

And healthcare is?

 

[woodjack]

Most Doctors are overpaid for the services they provided. Traeting a haed cold, or a sore throat certianly isnt worth 125.00 - anyone who thinks it is is absolutely nuts or a life long member of the GOP.

The Doctors should be overjoyed in that an additional 40 million Americans will be forced to have insurance and under the current US structure the Doctors will be able to milk the system even more than they now do.

Most Doctors pay more then most people on this board make in a year on malpractice insurance. although it is different for which specialty you are, Plus taxes, plus overhead, plus equipment for various tests, cleaning and other agents for sterile environment, plus they still have to pay student loans. I think the Average for a surgeon is like 60k a year just for insurance, OBGYN's are up there to. If I had a sore throat I would pay 300 bucks if someone could fix it, but I hate sore throats. So you want to pay smaller amounts? and the time it took the doctor to go to school do you think that he should only make enough to cover his expenses and only afford to live in low income housing? Who would want to be a doctor? All the time and effort and your hospital janitor lives better then you. 40 million new people to see? well that varies depending on where the Doctor lives. Chicago Doctors...overwhelmed and crappy care to divy it out to all the patients, Nome Alaska doctors not overwhelmed and most likely excellent care.

 

[woodjack]

This must be what Obama thinks of Doctors

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWMO3rAD98k&NR=1]YouTube - Monty Python-doctor skit[/ame]

 

[Bfgrn]

And there are paths they can take such as medicaid and medicare

Your ER response matters not to me as it paints your premise as false.

To question you for a minute. Are you for government forceable taking money from one person to give to another. How about forcing a person to provide a service at the fee the govt dictates. You can see the dark path this will lead down.
We are a very giving country when we are not forced to give, whether it be money or services. Please don't go down the infrastructure argument as I have no problem paying taxes for community services.

Do you know what medicare is? Its only applicable if you are 65 or above. Thats not a "path you can take" if you aren't 65.

As for medicaid, my girlfriend was denied a while ago from medicaid. She was single, living alone, making $12,000 in New York City. Now $12,000 in NYC is nothing...I pay more than that in rent on just a room in an apt for myself every year. But regardless, she was denied medicaid.

She also couldn't afford doctors visits. This isn't an isolated problem.

Am I for the government taking money from the rich and giving to the poor? Yes. I am. We live in a wealthy country. There is no, none at all, excuse for individuals to be living in such shitty conditions.

If we are such a giving country, then why are there so many impoverished people in this country?

As for infrastructure, those aren't exactly "community" services. Unless you think the interstate highway system, an infrastructure system that has been a huge boon to economic conditions around the country, are somehow a community service.

Social services in this country are fucking horrible. Don't give me the shit that its so easy to live in this country if you are poor unless you have some experience with it. And sorry, but no, you are incredibly wrong about your ignorant idea that people don't get turned away from healthcare. They do. All the fucking time.

I do know what medicare is and who gets it. Big surprise, people over 65 need services too. This is not Robin Hood and the money govt takes does not all come from the rich. There are strong sides to this discussion. I could go down the path of people gaming the system with welfare kids, illegals jamming up the ER for doctor visits and etc.

People do not get turned away at the ER without health insurance. Please stop with the lie. I never stated it was carried any further than the ER.

There are legitimate people who need healthcare. There are legitimate problems in the HC industry; but the are also healthy, capable people living off govt disability and "gaming" the system. The problem is too deep and wide to discuss fully on a message board.

You still have to ask yourself the question, what does the USA do when the providers (rich) can/will no longer provide? If you don't get rid of the corruption and just continue to push for more free services, we will reach a critical mass time.

You can go down the 'path of people gaming the system with welfare kids, illegals jamming up the ER' and 'capable people living off govt disability and "gaming" the system'.

BUT, none of those people have the ability to submit a bill to the government. Medicare and Medicaid fraud is people ripping off the taxpayers. The majority ARE doctors and hospitals that bill for services they didn't provide.