Health Care Reality Check

[guido911]

You've lost what little credibility you had go. This is a joke. So are you. BTW, those meds are synthetic heroin and your health care program covered the cost. Now, take another pill.....

You are an unbelievable moron. You, and soccer punk, have made such stupid assumptions about me and this thread that there is nothing else to do but laugh at you both.

[Red Arrow]

They've got private hospitals and private insurance in the UK, despite the NHS. Employers often provide supplementary coverage for things like private rooms or the drug copay in the (rare) instances you'd have to pay one.

Yeah, I thought about that after I shut down for the evening.

The hyphenated word may not even guarantee that everyone had coverage although most of us probably assume it would.  I am thinking of the exemptions granted to some companies and unions to Obamacare provisions.  The hyphenated word would most likely guarantee a level of coverage.  As you note above that level of coverage may not be adequate as evidenced by supplementary coverage in the UK.  Medicare is pretty much that way.  Better than nothing but not good enough.  You can still go bankrupt on Medicare without a supplement if you are unlucky.  Could we pass a law forcing ALL health providers to accept the hyphenated word and nothing else?  Would they be free to accept cash from those who could afford it?  Would groups of people get together and form mutual associations to pool their money and spread the risk?  Would we make it illegal to provide services and medicine above the level of the hyphenated word? That limitation would most likely fly like the proverbial lead balloon.

I see health care cost as having at least two parts. 

One is the cost of the care itself.  We evidently spend a greater portion of our GDP on health care than most countries.  Spreading it around to more people will not lower that significantly.  I understand the preventative vs fixative argument but I don't believe that will be the cure for the overall cost.  There have been plenty of discussion here on TNF regarding how to lower the real, overall cost.  Lots of disagreement too.

Another part of the cost is indeed the cost to any one individual.  The only way around that is for people who are not needing health care to pay for those who do.  Period.  That is the whole premise of insurance, the "individual mandate" and probably some more.  You lefties sit down.... As much as I don't like the "individual mandate" as government intrusion, as long as we are not willing to let someone bleed to death at the doors of an emergency room, it may be the only solution.  It needs to be everyone, no exceptions for big donors to any political entity.  Now back to myself again.  Everyone needs to pay, like the payroll tax.  The fact that health care would cost more as a percentage for poor people than rich people is acceptable to me.

One idea I have is for the government to supply umbrella coverage for those under 65/Medicare.  Insurance companies exposure would be limited, say $2,000,000.  The government insurance would in essence be a really big deductible policy.  Insurance companies would not have to price their coverage to cover infinite costs.  Cost to the government could be less because the government wouldn't be paying for bandaids.  I go along with some things in Obamacare like the pre-existing conditions provision.  Eventually, all of us will have pre-existing conditions. 

[RecycleMichael]

I have a friend who is an emergency room doctor and he was saying last week that he has many repeat emergency patients who now know him and greet him by name when he walks through the waiting room. None of them have insurance.

He must feel like Norm on the TV show "Cheers."

[Gaspar]

A buddy of mine asked for the name of a good gastroenterologist last week.  I had him call a guy I know and they set him up with an appointment, but not without first sending him a document to sign with big black shouty letters that stated he understood that this group AS OF 2013 WILL NOT ACCEPT PATIENTS WITH MEDICARE OR MEDICADE.  Of course this wasn't a problem because he's only 48 and has one of those 1%er Cadillac private insurance policys that covers everything from hangnails to pedicures. 

I think it would probably be a good idea for seniors to start shopping now before their only option for care is the emergency room.  My doc stopped accepting medicare last year, and it's starting to look like that's going to be the norm for most of the established physicians.

[cannon_fodder]

Here is a question:  why does the discussion never include the need to force the AMA to encourage  MORE DOCTORs?  

There is an artificial shortage of doctors created by our medical school system and immigration policy.  Making it harder to find doctors and healthcare more costly.  Similarly, if we continue to expand the roll of nurses and PAs we can prove efficiency.  Capitalism is a wonderful thing, but when it is manipulated it often increases problems.

Add in the death of the single payer system and the rise in health insurance conglomerates and the growth of medicaid/care and we have a real failure of capitalism.  The worst healthcare per dollar spent in the world.  Even with all that money we are not in the top for healthcare by the vast majority of metrics.

No easy answer. Even finding the problem(s) is not easy.

[nathanm]

Here is a question:  why does the discussion never include the need to force the AMA to encourage  MORE DOCTORs?  

It does occasionally come up here and on other discussion sites, but your perception that it gets no traction in the media seems accurate.

[Conan71]

A buddy of mine asked for the name of a good gastroenterologist last week.  I had him call a guy I know and they set him up with an appointment, but not without first sending him a document to sign with big black shouty letters that stated he understood that this group AS OF 2013 WILL NOT ACCEPT PATIENTS WITH MEDICARE OR MEDICADE.  Of course this wasn't a problem because he's only 48 and has one of those 1%er Cadillac private insurance policys that covers everything from hangnails to pedicures. 

I think it would probably be a good idea for seniors to start shopping now before their only option for care is the emergency room.  My doc stopped accepting medicare last year, and it's starting to look like that's going to be the norm for most of the established physicians.

My mother's PCP is retiring early and she's dreading finding another doc as she's in her mid '70s.  His stated reason for retiring now is he doesn't like the coming climate for physicians.

[Teatownclown]

His stated reason for retiring now is he doesn't like the coming climate for physicians.

You mean his excuse for quitting?

I just love the difference between doctors 50 years ago and today.

BTW, I have been looking for a new physician for 6 months. It will take longer to settle on one because I want him/her to outlive me.

Lots of D.O.'s but few M.D.'s....

Let us stay well.

[DolfanBob]

I hate that I am now at the age of having to see these quack doctors.
It's like changing my car oil four times a year, With the good stuff!

[Gaspar]

Excellent video featuring Oklahoma doctors.

[cannon_fodder]

FWIW my uncle retired from his practice very recently.  His primary reason was he was tired of dealing with ignorant patients who refused to take care of themselves and then blasted him with stupid questions or demanded vanity procedures (I want a c-section on XYZ date because we have  vacation planned for ABC or I want to have a C-section before the baby gets so big I have stretch marks)....  30 years as an OBGYN in the Tulsa area and few lawsuits against him (which is remarkable for an OB).   He complained a little about insurance companies and uncessary procedures mandated by either an insurance company or a law; but by far and away his primary complaint was patients.

I never heard him complain about being unable to earn a very fine living or fearing he would not be able to in the future.  Perhaps OB is so well covered by insurance that the concerns are different?

My other friends and relatives that are MDs are all specialists too (Cardio, foot, and eye surgeon).  I'm not as close with them as my uncle, but I do not get the impression that payment is the issue.  None of my friends/relatives complain about difficulty finding new patients.  Most complaints are about procedures required by bureacracy (governmental or insurance) that do little for patients.    Again, any PCP is different... but my impression is a major problem is too many patients searching for too few doctors.

[Teatownclown]

Surgery centers are utilized to contain potential liabilities.

I would not choose this doctor. Almost everyone in this video looks unhealthy.....

"Medical business"..... aha!

[Red Arrow]

but I do not get the impression that payment is the issue. 

I had one doctor's office tell me they don't take xxx insurance because "they don't pay us". 

[Red Arrow]

I just love the difference between doctors 50 years ago and today.

50ish years ago they still made house calls.

[Teatownclown]

50ish years ago they still made house calls.

You still can, but you have to pay. Concierge medicine coupled with a huge fee. Great for hypochondriacs. Even better for those docs in the business. Clientele is usually the $250,000+ income earner.

Letter to the Editor: Taking care of own?

By Herb Rains, Ponca City
Published: 12/6/2012  1:47 AM
Last Modified: 12/6/2012  2:35 AM

Why are we Americans against providing health care for our fellow countrymen? We've achieved a status as the only western/industrialized nation in the world without national health care. I have friends in Europe who are amazed by the fact that not only do we "not" have a general health-care program, but many of us are so adamantly against it. Why?

My closest friend has been a hard worker all his life and has never taken a handout from anyone. And now he has spinal stenosis, which is slowly crippling him. He is in constant pain, losing the use of his legs and cannot even use a pencil as his hands are so severely cramped.

He has no health insurance - never has been able to afford it.

He went to a doctor for help. It cost him $400 just to see the doctor and the operation would cost him from $30,000 to $40,000. That is out of the question for him.

Gov. Mary Fallin turns down Obamacare, denying close to 600,000 Oklahomans health care. She used wrong numbers and wrong statistics to make it sound logical. And she says it isn't political? That is pure BS. She's like her twin in Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer. It is so political it stinks. Anything to go against President Obama, even if it means people in our own state will suffer.

And then she dares say that Oklahoma will take care of its own? Oh yeah, we've done a great job of that so far.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/article.aspx?articleid=20121206_62_A16_Wyaewm513692

The docs I know who were opposed to HCA are wanting single payer now that they know the law. Imagine that.