I'm sorry??? Was the public option passed?? Did I miss something??
Unless the public option passed, which it didn't your statements are simply false..
Even if, the government takes over our healthcare system completely.. It is better than what we have now.. I actually hope they do.. We will have more accountability..
At least with congress being the drivers seat.. I can boot them out of congress if I don't like the job they have been doing..
If republicans were doing such a bang up job governing and writing laws.. The dems wouldn't be in power now.. Our votes mean something..
When was the last time you got to vote on the CEO of an insurance company??
If the last few elections was more than just a total loss for the republican party.. It was also evidence that we the people still have a say in who occupies the whitehouse and the seats in congress..
That is a hell of a lot more than who is the CEO or members of the board of a big insurance company..
What you faiil to see is to what incentive does the insurance company have to do right by it's customers?? None.. It profits from killing us..
Consider that..
First off, you are wrong.
The insurance companies become puppets of the government tomorrow.
Congress is in no way accountable to us. At least with CEO's and management of health insurers we can go elsewhere or simply not buy at all. Tomorrow we will have no choice! No choice at all. If you even for a second think that you will not buy a government ordained insurance policy you will be fined.
As for the public option... it is not dead yet. Before Obama leaves office I suspect it will be the law of the land. This is NOT the final step. It was only the first baby steps.
We have absolutely zero say as to who sits in the seats of Congress. The Republican and Democrat Parties tell us who will sit there. They dictate to us not the other way around.
The incentive that the health insurance company has is profit. If they stop serving the public their profits disintegrate. Congress has no such incentive. If they stop serving us and we stop buying, they simply raise our taxes and force us to buy.
Immie
See.. This where you simply don't understand the healthcare issue or insurance issue.. Try to go to another provider now and see how far you get..
Oh, I understand the insurance issue fairly well.
I live here in Seattle.. We do not have Kiaser.. Your insurance is useless here because the hospitals in my area do not accept Kiaser... Get the issue now?? Sure.. I can phone A Kiaser office and sign up.. But for me, the nearest Kiaser Hospital is Portland Ore. So, for me to get care, I would have to go to Portland.. Some 6+ hours away..
It is you who do not understand this issue and that is obvious by this paragraph. You see with Kaiser, if I am in a location that they do not serve, I can go to any hospital I want and they cover the expenses as any other insurance company does. I could (I am no longer with Kaiser because I live in Florida) even go to a non-Kaiser hospital in California and Kaiser would cover the expenses.
You living in Seattle, there are insurance carriers that offer insurance to people in Washington. Unfortunately, the government has regulated which carriers that is and there are two or three available at a guess. Opening up the markets is one of the things that should have been addressed... I don't think it was in this bill, imagine that.
You can get any insurrance you want.. Unless the hospitals accept it, it is useless.. There is no law that say they must accept.. Which is why we needed changes to the anti-trust laws.. Something else the republicans were against.. Since those laws weren't allowed to be changed.. The insurance companies got to keep their little geographic monopolies all over the country..
Again, you prove you do not understand insurance. Insurance companies negotiate with medical providers and encourage their customers to use their doctors because those doctors have agreed to certain rates. If you go to a doctor outside of the insurance companies "system", then you have to pay the fees and the insurance company reimburses you. It is not that you can't use the medical provider.
If Doctor Smith tells you he does not accept "Kaiser" insurance, it does not mean that he can't and won't treat you. It means he doesn't bill Kaiser for you and probably won't accept their "negotiated rates". So, in order to use Dr. Smith while a member of Kaiser, you have to agree to pay Dr. Smith and then get your reimbursement from Kaiser on your own.
It is much easier for you to go to a Kaiser Doctor rather than go to a doctor who is not in the system, but you can still do so.
So.. As you can see.. We have no choices... Is group health where you are?? You should look into it.. Great rates and great plans.. Except you will have to move to Seattle to use it.. Well.. I guess you really could travel if you so wanted to..
This issue is a double edged sword.. I am a heart patient.. I have had my aortic valve replaced with a mechanical one.. Last year the wife and I were going to go to Yellow stone for a vacation.. Well.. I didn't do the thin air of that altitude to well.. I wound up in the ER of Cody Wyoming.. Who then flew me to Billings MT to see a cardiologist.. Who then sent my home to see my personal docs.. The Hospital in Cody didn't have a contract with my insurance or whatever, but they refused to bill my insurance.. Eventually sent me to collections.. When I said I wouldn't pay, they took me to court.. Well.. The judge in Helena Wyoming ruled that my obligation to pay the debt ended when I provided my insurance information.. Since the hospital would not bill my insurance, it was the hospitals obligation to pay it.. Now we all know who actually paid it.. The tax payers of Cody and or Wyoming.. But this is another example of how our current system sucks..
I don't know the specifics of your case, but the Doctor is under no obligation to bill your insurance company for you. Since you were out of the area of the service for your insurance carrier, you were the one that was responsible to the doctor to arrange payments. Your insurance company was responsible to you under contract to pay for your medical expenses.
I am sure if you wanted to take the time to read your policy you would see that somewhere in the fine print.
BTW: I hope all went well with the entire ordeal and that you are either well on the road to recovery or have already recovered.
No I am sure my case isn't the only one.. I am also sure that there are a number families out there that have a medical debt that they really don't have to pay.. I was never told my insurance wasn't accepted at the Cody hospital until I was called by a collection agency about the $23,000 dollar debt.. Expensive trip to an ER that can't handle much more than a bandaid.. This was a 9 bed hospital.. Cody isn't very big.. They had to send my chest X-ray and CT scan to a company in Australia to read it!?!?!? What is really scary was.. I know my heart beat was irratic.. The doc there wanted to use the paddles.. Ok.. I am awake and consience, I am feeling nothing, just difficulty breating.. And this moron wants to use the paddles.. Well.. I had to doctor myself and ask for some Metoprolol and Lasics.. The first one regulates my heart rythm and the second one helps get rid of excess water.. Well.. The doctor listened and got me both.. My heart stabalized and my breathing eased.. So what was the bill for?? They really did nothing at all..
However, that has nothing to do with insurance. The apparent incompetency of a doctor in Cody is not the fault of the insurance company.
I think you give the dems more power than they have..
I don't reserve that "power" to the Dems. It is Congress in general. Every single one of them. Not one of them can be trusted.
Given the behavior of the republicans.. Don't thnik the dems if they had the power would kick every republican member out of congress they would?? I am sorry you have such little faith in our government.. The passage of healthcare reform should have renewed that faith.. It was a bill for we the people and not the insurance companies.
I'm not sure what that first sentence/question means. It doesn't really make sense, sorry.
No, it was a bill for the Government of this country. It was a bill for control of we the people. I, too, am sorry I have lost faith in bureaucrats in Washington. Believe me, I would like nothing more than to have that blind faith in our political system that I did when I was a kid back.
Your absolutley right the incentive insurance companies have is profit.. They don't profit by paying medical bills.. They profit by not paying them and finding every loophole they can not to pay them.. They certainly didn't create the poilicy against pre-existing conditions because it was good for our customers.. They did it to lessen their chances of paying out.. There by increasing their profit..
True, they don't profit by paying medical bills, but also they don't profit by not paying medical bills. They are under contract to pay those bills. Within reason they have to pay those bills. Which is why they spell out what they will pay and how much they will pay for it. If they don't pay those bills customers go elsewhere and they loose market share and profits.
They will do everything in their power to limit the expenses they have as they should. If you were a business man you would understand that. However, they pay the expenses that they are contractually obligated to pay.
The government is in a unique situation. They are not contractually obligated to do a damned thing. They tell you what they will do and if you don't like it... well, tough shit. You have no where else to go. Tough shit.
You see in a nut shell.. Their profit is the death of americans.. They profit from killing us..
First off, I see your point here when you get old and the potential of further income becomes small. Sure if you are 97 years old and need a heart transplant the insurance company is going to balk. After all, the prospect of you remaining a customer much longer is not all that great even if the procedure is successful.
Do not think the government will Look at your situation any differently. The prospect of your continuing to pay taxes is highly unlikely... oh, and if you have a sizable estate...!!! Well, they get 55% of it in estate taxes... (not in 2010, but it starts back up in 2011) Well, you get the drift.
Who profits from our deaths?
Immie
