You are both right and wrong.
Medicare reimbursement rates, that is Medicare approved amounts (which for part B is 80% from Medicare and 20% from the patient) is determined based on the relative, average costs of providing a service to a Medicare patient, and then adjusted to account for other provider expenses, including malpractice insurance and office-based practice costs.
Contrary to claims of a lot of people, Medicare rates are not determined by what insurance companies pay. It's actually the opposite in most cases because most insurance reimbursements today is paid to contracted providers. The medicare reimbursement rate provides a basis for negotiating contracts which makes Medicare and Insurance reimbursement rates pretty close in most places.
Getting back to the question at hand, for many years many healthcare providers would bill patients for the difference between Medicare rates and their fee . If a doctor accepted Medicare as full payment, they were "Accepting Medicare Assignment". At one time, about 25% of doctors would not accept Medicare Assignment and would bill the patient the difference. Today, due to the fact there is little difference between insurance reimbursement rates and Medicare and the number of Medicare patients, about 95% of doctors today accept Medicare Assignment. Thus patients rarely see any bill if they pay their 20% coinsurance at time service or have insurance supplement.
That's actually kind of the law. But my point is, they have to raise their rates on everybody, so it's a primary factor in private insurance premiums going up. But this is why when you see health facilities close down, they are usually in lower income areas where most of the patients are government patients and there are little to no private pay patients. There is nobody to make up the loss on.
When I got into the business back in 1979, Medicare was a gold mine for my company. It was like they were flushed with money. All you had to do is send them a bill, and they paid it no questions asked. As the funds started to show signs of weakness, that's when they started lowering their reimbursement rates. So what did we do? We raised the price of renting our hospital equipment, and again, you can't just raise it on one group of payers, you have to raise it on everybody.
Medicare is not self- supportive either. They are subsidized with money from the general fund, and of course, always trying to use as little as possible.
The whole entire problem in it all, is that we have an irresponsible government that got involved with the attempted social engineering of society. The bad part is, is that it was using our tax dollars without our permission, to then throw those free dollars into the communities that inturn used it to create more and more dependents that ultimately needed more and more funds to sustain the level of births that were coming out of those communities.
Ok so what was that all about ? Trying to grow a servitude population in thought of, otherwise that it would then continue to breed cheap labor for factories, farms, and etc ????
Ok then along comes the Clinton's and their gang of merry bandits, who supported NAFTA, and the shipping of American's jobs all over the world. Then we basically had huge amounts of excess labor that had no where to go. Next our own citizen's had to either become huge government dependents, drug dealers, users, cheap labor or ended up in jail....... Meanwhile China, Mexico etc were becoming either super powers or filthy rich off of us. The results today, and the facts don't lie.
Trump comes in and attempts to restore our national strength, pride, and worth, while the enemies within fight him tooth and nail.
Wake up America
That is a misassumption
Farm labor represents only a tiny portion of the price of food in the grocery store
$8-$15 an hour would add a little but not as much as you think if we limit the same food imports from mexico where they also pay low wages
False. You changed the context in the middle of the debate. The prior poster referred to Migrant pickers, while you referred to "portion of the price of food". There are many foods, like wheat for example, that are not picked by hand by migrants.
Foods which are more automated, like potatoes for example, you as the consumer opening a bag of potato chips, might be the very first human hand to have ever touched that potato. They are pulled from the ground, sorted, shipped, skinned, cut, fried, seasoned, baked, packed and sealed, without a single human hand touching them.
In that specific situation, your claim would be correct, that the value would not directly increase in relation to the wages.
However, there are numerous other things that are picked by hand, in labor intensive farming. Apples, peppers, asparagus, grapes, cherries, and so on. Increasing the labor rates for these things, would easily increase the cost of them by a ton.
Limiting imports of food, is a horrifically bad idea.
Right now the US is a net exporter of food. The amount of food we import, is a tiny fraction of the amount we export. Starting a trade war with food, will hurt the US more than anyone else.
So it's about exports and profits in some sectors, but at what cost to the entire nation ?? Yes in certain sectors we have great growth and expansion, where as in other sectors we have stalemate and huge losses.
So who or what can create a balance in it all, and restore our faith in this nation again ?
Isn't this what Trump has been doing, attempting to bring back prosperity to the nation, and to stop allowing the nation to be taken advantage of ??? What's wrong with protectionism to some degree, otherwise if it restores balance and strength in America again ?? Many of our industries could turn within (provided the nation limits foriegn competition against them), and they would profit the same or even better if it didn't have foriegn competitors driving their prices into the tank, and in many cases taking them completely out of the picture.
I don't believe in trying to create mythology of some magic damage to the entire nation.
Faith in the nation come from doing what is right, rolling with punches, and overcoming obstacles.
As long as people land in the US, knowing nothing of our culture, barely speak our language, and have the ability to become successful..... then no American should ever question their faith in this country.
The immigrant who became a drone firm boss
This Mexican, not only came here with little to nothing, but he also didn't have his work permit yet. He setup an international drone manufacturing company.
If that dude can come here and succeed.... then no American, from Alaska to Florida, from Mississippi to California, has any excuse for not having faith in this country.
Get off your butt..... and do something with your life.
Stop whining about trade, and whining about jobs, and whining about NAFTA and all this other BS crap.... and do something. Put your butt in gear, and go make something of yourself.
My roommate came here from Bangladesh, and worked odd jobs, and low paying jobs for years. Last year, he landed a job with a months vacation, $120K a year income, and they paid to have him move to Chicago from Ohio.
Chamath Palihapitiya came here from Sri Lanka, and his unemployed father lived on welfare for sometime before landing a job.
This guy is now a venture capitalist.
13 successful tech leaders who struggled as immigrants before making it in America
Over and over and over..... people come from around the world, and succeed here. And born bred Americans, that can each speak words without people going "I'm sorry, what?", can't succeed because of NAFTA and trade and all this crap?
Then..... HOW THE HECK ARE THEY DOING IT??!?
This argument right here, really irritates me. I know a guy from Somalia, that came here, got a CDL, started driving truck. Saved up all his cash, to buy a truck of his own. Saved up his cash from that, and bought a second truck, and paid someone to drive it. He now has a fleet of 6 trucks.
How is this so utterly impossible for Americans to succeed, and yet all these immigrants who apparently don't know they can't succeed yet.... come here and succeed?
If there is someone unemployed... the problem is in their mirror. The problem isn't trade, it's not immigration, it's not who is president (yet), and so on.... Mirror. There's your problem.
