Impeding changes to our Health Care system

TheMercenary · 09-01-2009, 01:33 PM

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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 · 09-01-2009, 01:41 PM

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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 · 09-01-2009, 01:51 PM

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

morethanpretty · 09-01-2009, 04:20 PM

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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 · 09-01-2009, 04:21 PM

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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.

morethanpretty · 09-01-2009, 04:32 PM

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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

TheMercenary · 09-01-2009, 06:55 PM

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Originally Posted by morethanpretty

Why am I talkin to you? I might as well just be

Because you want to have babies with me?

I have no idea. I thought you were joining the discussion. But look at how you framed the statement. It sounded to me like you are all ok with everything the government is doing now, but not so when Bush was in charge, back then the government was all evil. I see a common theme here as more people are cool with the government giving them more free shit as long as someone else is paying for it. What eva...

sugarpop · 09-15-2009, 10:19 PM

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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.

Funny you would feel that way, after working in a government-run agency for so long, and receiving government-run health care.

Honestly, all these politicians working in government who hate the government and think it can't do anything right? Maybe they shouldn't be in government. After all, they are the ones running it, if it's broke, it's their damn fault, right?

*edit to add* And the proof that private corporations work better is proven, I guess, by all the shenanigans those contractors were up to in Afghanistan when they were supposed to be gaurding the embassy.

TheMercenary · 09-15-2009, 10:22 PM

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Originally Posted by sugarpop

Funny you would feel that way, after working in a government-run agency for so long, and receiving government-run health care.

Yea, but everyone of those people earned it and made sacrifices to get it. What did the crack whore on the corner cranking out her babies daddies do to earn it?

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Honestly, all these politicians working in government who hate the government and think it can't do anything right? Maybe they shouldn't be in government. After all, they are the ones running it, if it's broke, it's their damn fault, right?

I can't agree more. It is the Demoncrats fault. They have been in charge of Congress for over 2 years.

sugarpop · 09-16-2009, 12:22 AM

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Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Yea, but everyone of those people earned it and made sacrifices to get it. What did the crack whore on the corner cranking out her babies daddies do to earn it?

Now you KNOW that right there is a fucking LIE. there are many people who work hard who cannot afford health care. I know you know, because you are friends with some. Why would not want your friends to have affordable health care?

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I can't agree more. It is the Demoncrats fault. They have been in charge of Congress for over 2 years.

Good grief! Democrats are not the ones crying that government is BAD, and government can't do anything right, and everything works better under the prviate sector! That is the cry of republicans! So if they hate government so damn much, why the hell are they in office?

TheMercenary · 09-16-2009, 01:07 PM

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Originally Posted by sugarpop

Now you KNOW that right there is a fucking LIE.

No it is not a lie. You can't get VA benifits if you have not been in the military.

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there are many people who work hard who cannot afford health care. I know you know, because you are friends with some. Why would not want your friends to have affordable health care?

Who said I didn't? I think that it should not be given away and if you want it you pay some percent of your income in tax to pay for it, that is all.

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Good grief! Democrats are not the ones crying that government is BAD, and government can't do anything right, and everything works better under the prviate sector! That is the cry of republicans! So if they hate government so damn much, why the hell are they in office?

To hate the Demoncrats.

Spexxvet · 09-16-2009, 08:34 AM

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Originally Posted by sugarpop

...*edit to add* And the proof that private corporations work better is proven, I guess, by all the shenanigans those contractors were up to in Afghanistan when they were supposed to be gaurding the embassy.

Not to mention this

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According to the California Department of Managed Health Care, six of the state’s largest insurers rejected 45.7 million claims, or 22 percent of the total, from 2002 to June 30, 2009. UnitedHealth Group subsidiary PacifiCare denied nearly 40 percent of the claims submitted-the highest denial rate in the state-for the first half of this year. Even Kaiser Permanente, a not-for-profit HMO that has always said it spends more than 90 percent of premium revenue on patient care, had a denial rate of 28 percent. That’s the same level reported by Anthem Blue Cross, the state’s biggest for-profit insurer, which is part of WellPoint.

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Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Yea, but everyone of those people earned it and made sacrifices to get it. What did the crack whore on the corner cranking out her babies daddies do to earn it?...

And what did your mom do? Your daughter? Are they crack whores?

There are many hard working middle class people who can't afford healthcare.

Kitsune · 09-16-2009, 11:48 AM

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Originally Posted by Spexxvet

And what did your mom do? Your daughter? Are they crack whores?

Wait until someone tells him that his taxpayer money puts out that crack whore's house when it is on fire, educates that crack whore's children, and that she drives on roads that he pays for.

Merc and plenty of people like him love to see trillions spent to send the military halfway around the world to provide welfare to people in another country, but don't want to drop a dime on American citizens. One is somehow evil socialism, the other is patriotic. Go figure.