Impeding changes to our Health Care system

[DanaC]

Fascinating, Bruce. Really interesting and clear.

[classicman]

Thats great Bruce. I'm personally still waiting for my private illegal immigrant death squad to come visit and tell me that they accessed my bank account. :P
What really scares me is the people who think this shit up and those that actually believe it.

I'm surprised the lie that this plan is going to cost less/save money while insuring tens of millions more people which was resoundingly refuted by the CBO didn't make the top 5.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate.

Illegal immigrants will get free health insurance.
The House bill doesn't give anyone free health care (though under a 1986 law illegals who can't pay do get free emergency care now, courtesy of all us premium paying customers or of hospitals that have to eat the cost)

Thanks, Dutch.

[TheMercenary]

The government will set doctors' wages.
This, too, seems to have originated on the Flecksoflife blog on July 19. But while page 127 of the House bill says that physicians who choose to accept patients in the public insurance plan would receive 5 percent more than Medicare pays for a given service, doctors can refuse to accept such patients, and, even if they participate in a public plan, they are not salaried employees of it any more than your doctor today is an employee of, say, Aetna. "Nobody is saying we want the doctors working for the government; that's completely false," says Amitabh Chandra, professor of public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

This is patently false. Here is what has been left out. What will be the rate of Medicare will be. Many physicians already refuse to treat Medicare patients because of the low reimbursement rates. You don't need to be a salaried employe for people who reimburse you to set your wages. Anyone who has been a contractor knows that. I am a contractor and although there is a little wiggle room on the job, it is within a narrow range. In some places that amount is set. You can choose to work for that or they will get someone else to do the job so in fact they do set the wages. The whole paragraph from Newsweek is smoke and mirrors.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

This is patently false. Here is what has been left out. What will be the rate of Medicare will be. Many physicians already refuse to treat Medicare patients because of the low reimbursement rates. ...

In New Jersey, Medicare pays 80% of $110ish ($88ish) for a complete eye exam by an ophthalmologist. Most for-profit insurance companies pay $40 - $50 for the same service. And here's the kicker: some patients pay a $40 copay, and their insurance company contributes zilch, nada, nil, zip, zero. But we're all better off with health insurance companies running things...

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

In New Jersey, Medicare pays 80% of $110ish ($88ish) for a complete eye exam by an ophthalmologist.

I am looking up their rates now.

Most for-profit insurance companies pay $40 - $50 for the same service.

I am thinking that you would have a hard time proving that. My for profit insurance company pays 100% for a complete eye exam each year for each person in my family.

And here's the kicker: some patients pay a $40 copay, and their insurance company contributes zilch, nada, nil, zip, zero.

Sure. It depends on your insurance. Sort of like car insurance. Not all of them will fix cars for the same and it always depends on your deductable and what kind of coverage you have. No different with the many different kinds of health insurance.

But we're all better off with health insurance companies running things...

Damm better than having the government running anything. So far they have not been able to do a good job at any of it.

[TheMercenary]

Once we can establish what the cost of a general eye exam is, which may or may not include refactory testing, which changes the cost, then we can determine what percent Medicare pays. I have the CPT codes and Medicare rates for NJ. So do you have an EOB with the phyicians charged fee on it?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I am a contractor and although there is a little wiggle room on the job, it is within a narrow range. In some places that amount is set. You can choose to work for that or they will get someone else to do the job so in fact they do set the wages.

That's between you (the contractor) and the hospital (employer). It has nothing to do with the insurance companies.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That's between you (the contractor) and the hospital (employer). It has nothing to do with the insurance companies.

True. But even in the case of insurance companies they tell the office what they are going to reimburse. There is no negotiation for that individual fee. They offer it, you take it or leave it. They set the fee schedule. There is very little choice. The office either has a contract with that company making them "in network" or not making them "out of network", which then places the burden of going after the remaining money from the patient. The relationship is the same between me and the office as it is between the office and the insurance company.

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Damm better than having the government running anything. So far they have not been able to do a good job at any of it.

Yeah we would all be better off with only toll roads, our own private security detail, cooperate owned water supply, private firehouses, cooperate ambulances (oops we already do)....you're right EVERYTHING the gov't touches falls apart. We can only hope our world soon becomes the absolute property of various cooperations.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by morethanpretty

Yeah we would all be better off with only toll roads, our own private security detail, cooperate owned water supply, private firehouses, cooperate ambulances (oops we already do)....you're right EVERYTHING the gov't touches falls apart. We can only hope our world soon becomes the absolute property of various cooperations.

You mean as long a Obamy is in charge the government is good.

[DanaC]

Obamy? I really dislike that. It has connotations I find rather distasteful.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Obamy? I really dislike that. It has connotations I find rather distasteful.

I agree, I find him quite distasteful as well. Him and all the other politicos in D.C.

Edit: Until they change the way they do business inside the Beltway the Government will continue to be completely inept at their attempt to change the way healthcare is delivered in the US. So far all proposals pretty much are doomed to failure. Sure they may appease those people "without" or with the expectation that the government will be their new mommy, providing them with all their wants, but so far most people don't buy that notion.

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

You mean as long a Obamy is in charge the government is good.

I am not dumb enough to have absolute faith in anything. Why am I talkin to you? I might as well just be

[classicman]

just send him a txt instead :p