Sneak peak into gov't run healthcare

Ame®icano

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Jul 8, 2008
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With a 21% cut to Medicare reimbursement rates set to take effect Monday, the nation's largest physician organization has informed its members about their options -- which include shutting off practices to new Medicare patients.

"To our physicians, we are providing information on their Medicare participation options, including how to remove themselves from the Medicare program," said James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, whose more than 250,000 members include doctors, medical students and faculty members.

Doctors threaten Medicare backlash

Medicare is in financial trouble and this is government way of fixing it. No, it didn't cross their mind to cut government salaries that are almost doubles the average of US salary.

What's next? Forcing doctors to work for government?
 
How else will they find that $500 billion they said they need for healthcare reform? Is this the "waste" the president was referring to?

This may eliminate the need for those death panels... :eusa_whistle:
 
How else will they find that $500 billion they said they need for healthcare reform? Is this the "waste" the president was referring to?

This may eliminate the need for those death panels... :eusa_whistle:

Sure, let's blame doctors for people dying, not the government.
 
seems the insurance cabal is running HC in this country any way it wishes to.....
 
Ame®icano;2068298 said:
Medicare is in financial trouble and this is government way of fixing it. No, it didn't cross their mind to cut government salaries that are almost doubles the average of US salary.

What's next? Forcing doctors to work for government?

Doctors have been slowly dropping Medicare patients for years because they lose money on them. This is nothing new. The program is unsustainable.
 
My family Doctor who is also a personal friend has already told me that he will probably either go into an early retirement or start a new exclusive practice.
 
My family Doctor who is also a personal friend has already told me that he will probably either go into an early retirement or start a new exclusive practice.

Many doctors in high risk specialties have done just that, or else abandoned their specialty for general practice. That is making it tougher and tougher to find a specialist or get an appointment when you need one. Tort reform would correct that problem in a hurry, but nobody seems to have the balls to get that done.

We have a good friend here in town, an M.D. with her husband as her only 'staff' who opened up a general medical practice that does not accept anybody's insurance. A routine doctor visit is $50; somewhat more when a longer consultation or examination is necessary such as a complete physical. (Most of us pay a lot more than that just get a routine problem with our computer diagnosed.) A quick check to see how a wound is healing or the sore throat is coming along is $25. She hands out as many samples of medications as she receives to avoid prescription expenses. If she diagnoses conditions warranting a specialist, she refers the patient on, but most routine day to day stuff she can handle just fine.

Because she doesn't mess with insurance, she gets by with a one-person staff just fine.

She has been open less than 90 days and has all the business she can handle.

What if we scrapped Obamacare and started looking a healthcare reform along the lines of that provided by my friend? Everybody just pay reasonable costs for routine stuff out of pocket, and have insurance only for the big, expensive stuff that we can't afford out of pocket. That, plus tort reform, plus being able to buy insurance across state lines would probably bring down insurance premiums by more than 50%.





What if
 
My doctor says that he will continue to see patients but he will just stop writing prescriptions. Says if he's going to only get half of the payment, he is only going to do half of the work.
 
Your friend is doing the right thing.

Real reform would change the tax code to decouple health insurance from employment and eliminate the barriers to interstate purchasing (as well as tort reform).

I like the Whole Foods model of a large HSA to be used for routine care (with surpluses accumulating in the individual's account) - supplemented with catastrophic insurance. The patient knows the price of care, and has an incentive to life a healthy lifestyle in order to maintain HSA savings.
 
Federal government didn't learn anything from RomneyCare in Massachusetts. In fact they intend to repeat the same mistakes over and over. This is an article from 2008.

Health care reform in Massachusetts has led to a dramatic increase in the number of people with health insurance. But there's an unintended consequence: A sudden demand for primary care doctors has outpaced the supply.

Mass. Health Care Reform Reveals Doctor Shortage

What happen when people who had no insurance before suddenly come to see the doctor? They demand more time, more research, more follow up visits and government is not paying for it. Waiting time to see doctor in some areas rose to 4 months.

Massachusetts Dr. Dan Levy, who left primary care for medical administration, says that's only getting worse with universal health care, since newly insured patients tend to come with a pile of saved-up complaints.

Read more in the article.

I am not against healthcare reform, but I am against one that is forced on us this way and at this cost and without solving real problems, and actually bringing more problems when we have now.
 
Ame®icano;2068298 said:
Medicare is in financial trouble and this is government way of fixing it. No, it didn't cross their mind to cut government salaries that are almost doubles the average of US salary.

What's next? Forcing doctors to work for government?

That's a great idea. The government could create clinics for Medicare patients staffed by government doctors. Then they could open the clinics to the general public who'd appreciate the chance to get health care at reasonable rates. That would drive down the level of physician fees and the whiners still would lose revenue.
 
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How else will they find that $500 billion they said they need for healthcare reform? Is this the "waste" the president was referring to?

No. Much of the waste was created when the Republicans created Part C, Medicare Advantage. They rigged the system to grossly overpay providers. That's where the $500 billion comes from.
 
Your friend is doing the right thing.

Real reform would...eliminate the barriers to interstate purchasing (as well as tort reform).

Those are bad ideas. Interstate marketing of health insurance would allow the health insurance companies to rig regulation by playing one state against another much like banks rigged credit card regulation. Tort reform has almost no effect physician costs. Insurance companies don't pass-along their savings by lowering malpractice insurance costs.

I like the Whole Foods model of a large HSA to be used for routine care (with surpluses accumulating in the individual's account) - supplemented with catastrophic insurance. The patient knows the price of care, and has an incentive to life a healthy lifestyle in order to maintain HSA savings.

Another bad idea. HSA's are tax scams and they skew the risk pool to make health insurance more expensive.
 
Ame®icano;2070767 said:
Federal government didn't learn anything from RomneyCare in Massachusetts. In fact they intend to repeat the same mistakes over and over. This is an article from 2008.

Health care reform in Massachusetts has led to a dramatic increase in the number of people with health insurance. But there's an unintended consequence: A sudden demand for primary care doctors has outpaced the supply.

Don't blame the government. The AMA is responsible for the shortage of doctors:

Still, the AMA along with other industry organizations until recently had issued dire warnings of an impending physician "glut" (whatever that means beyond depressing member wages), even convincing Congress to limit the number of residencies it funds to about 100,000 a year. This imposes a de facto cap on new doctors every year given that without completing their residencies from accredited medical schools, physicians cannot obtain a license to legally practice medicine in the U.S. Even foreign doctors with years of experience in their home countries have to redo their residencies--along with taking a slew of exams--before they are allowed to practice here.

The upshot of all this is that now the country is facing an acute shortage of doctors that even the AMA and its sister organizations cannot deny anymore. Indeed, the Association of American Medical Colleges, a private nonprofit industry advisory group whose forecasts effectively determine how many new doctors will be allowed at any given time, reversed itself in 2002 issuing this belated apology: "It now appears that those predictions [of a glut] may be in error."

The Evil-Mongering Of The American Medical Association
 

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