What? You think the insurance industries aren't corrupt to the bone? A-I-G. nuff said.

Sugah - re-read the part of your post I quoted. It can be taken a completely different way with your use of pronouns.

Many already do. They take limited private insurance whom they have contracts with and cash, no Tricare, no Medicare, no Medicaid.

The doc who did my radiation (Edward Hughes) and I had a talk about this very dilemma. He takes medicare AND medicaid and said, "People who don't understand this problem, people who are cavalier about it, are people who have never had to DEAL with this problem. I firmly believe that their time will come and either they themselves or a family member will experience a short-fall and THEN they will understand the need for compassionate, reasonable health care costs. But not until then."

I hope no one has to go without care because they cannot afford it. I hope no one's goddamn balloon bursts. I hope everyone just floats along without any snags in their life. Christ on a cracker, look who's lining up to decide who gets care and who doesn't.

pathetic.

why do I come here? It makes me sick. and I can't afford sick.

No, you come for the blue stones. You lurvs blue stones.:p

I thought the same thing, and figured someone would beat me to mentioning it. I thought: how ya gonna stop 'em? This should be interesting! :)

Our dentist currently runs his office this way, as does my son's clinic. They give you all the forms you need to file your own claim and try to get reimbursed, but they simply won't deal with it themselves.

Naw, just a stupid typo on my part. Maybe it was my unconscious Id taking over my fingers.

"Was it a Freudian slip?"
"No. Maybe it was a Freudian slip."

Yep. That is what I said. :p

nah - It was Bush's Freudian slip/fault

The answer to Medicaid et al is simple, as I see it. Government doctors. Government hospitals. they can have their "free" managed care for those who wan it and private doctors for those who don't.

The doctors can be paid a flat salary , perhaps with some enticement such as tuition reimbursement thrown in to sweeten the deal.

As long as there is a choice for the person in question, I fail to see the problem.

They would have a hard time staffing the hospitals with people at a competitive rate. The VA and Military hospitals really struggle with this now. They really could not afford to start their own hospital system.

Merc, I can't believe you are behind the system when you actually work in it. Every doctor I see wants the system to change, because they understand it is severely broken. shit, even Talc started admitting it over at SMN. Remember?

I know first hand how broken it is. I also know some details about various fixes that are being proposed. We have had extensive discussions about obama's smoke screen over electronic record keeping and pretty much blew that baby out of the water as being nothing more than a big black hole that money is going to be poured into. We all want change. Just not the kind you think you want.