Health Care Reform

[delldude]

Under the new HC I don't think you'll be able to go outside the US for care.

Get what you pay for... :huh:

If we are not careful, our health care will go the way of our steel and automotive industry.

What the hell do you think congress is doing?

 

[Garfield1966]

You obviously have no clue about the subject at hand.

OK, I'll bite. What part of Interstate competition (prohibited) v. intrastate (allowed) competition do I not get?

 

[Garfield1966]

Dell,

What on earth does US health care have to do with my ability to travel to India for a vacation? Do you think people have just started to go abroad? Congress has not even changed anything and people have been doing this for years. According to studies, the numbers have been skyrocketing for 10 years or so. The care that people are getting abroad for pennies on the dollar in most cases far exceeded the care here in the US. Lets not play the 'google for horror stories' because we can all come up with stories on both sides of the spectrum. Remember the lady who dies in the waiting room after 8 hours? It happens everywhere.

 

[dapoes]

Do a search for US insurance horror stories. Make sure you brink a blankie and a meal. No one has done a serious comparison (at least not that I have found) of the various systems of health care.

There is no question that our current system is problematic, however having the government take it it over is not the solution.

As tort reform and interstate competition. Tort reform is a double edged sword. If you put a cap on the financial penalties then there is less of an incentive to do right. Remember the internal memos from Ford on the Pinto? They figured it would be cheaper to pay the legal fees than correct the danger to the Pinto. Had the legal penalties been capped, Ford would have been right. I have no interest in that happening in the medical profession.

Theres also a lot of frivolous junk lawsuits that also drive up the cost of malpractice insurance. There has to be some controls put in place.

As for competition, if they cannot/will not compete intrastate, what possible reason could anyone have that it will happen interstate. Granted it could not hurt to lift the ban but I have no hope that anything will change. Insurance companies have a huge about of money and leverage to throw around. They are making huge amounts of money and I seriously doubt they will give in without a fight. Also, just because they 'could' compete does not mean that they will.

FYI: The current HC bill supposedly allows this very thing. The problem is that the gov will them dictate the terms of the insurance.

Something else to consider. More and more people are traveling abroad for elective and non-elective surgery. People are able to travel to India, Singapore, Costa Rica to name a few and have the same procedure done for pennies on the dollar. he are treated by US trained doctors and are in 5 star accommodations. If we are not careful, our health care will go the way of our steel and automotive industry.

A majority of that is for elective cosmetic surgery. Its not happening in droves as you so claim either. But if people want to travel across for majory surgery then go right a head, that should be their freedom and choice. If the doctor/institution is credible then why not?

KC, with all due respect, whether the stories are from 2000, 2006 or 2009 I do not think matters. A tiger does not tend to change it's stripes over night. The same stores that happened 10 years ago are probably still happening. Given the world economy they may be worse. How ever take heart in the fact that the horror stories in the US are keeping pace with anything the rest of the world has to offer.

Is that why theres more people coming here for procedures due to their countries own NHS failure? You really need to stop watching Sicko, its all BS.

 

[delldude]

Dell,

What on earth does US health care have to do with my ability to travel to India for a vacation? Do you think people have just started to go abroad? Congress has not even changed anything and people have been doing this for years. According to studies, the numbers have been skyrocketing for 10 years or so. The care that people are getting abroad for pennies on the dollar in most cases far exceeded the care here in the US. Lets not play the 'google for horror stories' because we can all come up with stories on both sides of the spectrum. Remember the lady who dies in the waiting room after 8 hours? It happens everywhere.

I'm sure after returning to the US and developing complications after K Mart surgery that the government will slobber all kinds of sympathetic care on you.....

 

[dapoes]

OK, I'll bite. What part of Interstate competition (prohibited) v. intrastate (allowed) competition do I not get?

If you would have known how the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 affects the current HC debate then you wouldnt have said this:

What law would that be? I'm not aware of any restrictions.

It is you, that doesn't get it. Never have. Never will.

 

[KCFlyer]

You really need to stop watching Sicko, its all BS.

Did you ever watch it?

 

[Maurice Chevalier]

No one knows how many people in CA have to wait and for what and for how long in comparison to their US counter parts.

Patient sues Anthem Blue Cross over liver transplant

Ephram Nehme was gravely ill when Anthem Blue Cross of California agreed to pay for a liver transplant his physician said he needed to survive. Then, his condition went downhill fast.

The news from his doctor was bad. The word from his insurer was worse.

 

[dapoes]

The senate version of HC has recently announced that it would reduce Medicare eligibility from age 65 to 55.

At the same time Mayo Clinic is no longer accepting some Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Why?

Mayo officials said Monday that the two moves were "business decisions" that had grown out of longstanding concerns about what it sees as underpayment by Medicare and Medicaid. The officials said they were not meant to influence the national reform debate, in which Mayo has also been advocating against the creation of a government-run insurance option. But they said the moves were indicative of the need for the Medicare payment reforms it has been pushing in Washington.

"These decisions aren't based on timing with what's going on with the legislation," said Mayo spokeswoman Shelly Plutowski. "It simply is the reality of the health-care business, and how are we going to be able to continue our mission when these payments are so far below what it costs to provide the care."

The Mayo Clinic is a world-renowned medical complex that is often cited by President Obama as his model for national heath-care reform. Not so much anymore I can assume. :huh:

 

[southwind]

Reid and the Demorats say, "The Public Option is off the table!"

Don't be fooled by this diversion, as so many were by Nobama's.

Lowering the Medicare age to 55 and providing healthcare to the "Poverty level and below clientel, is nothing more than "Socialized Medicine, with the tax-paying Americans, caught in the middle, "Footin' the bill" , just as they would have been with the public option ! :down:

 

[Garfield1966]

If you would have known how the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 affects the current HC debate then you wouldnt have said this:



It is you, that doesn't get it. Never have. Never will.

The act applies to interstate not intrastate. So again, why is there no meaningful competition between insurance companies with in a state. The only thing I have seen in the HC debate relating to the act the repeal of the act to allow interstate competition.

 

[delldude]

The act applies to interstate not intrastate. So again, why is there no meaningful competition between insurance companies with in a state. The only thing I have seen in the HC debate relating to the act the repeal of the act to allow interstate competition.

Who brought that up I wonder?

 

[Garfield1966]

As far as I am aware it was the republicans. The question I am asking is why? Intrastate competition is not prohibited and the costs of insurance is sky high. Why should we expect anything else if the same companies are allowed to compete across state lines? I am not against it, but I do not think it will change anything. Not sure why the dems are against it. I have not seen anything in writing or other media that has said why.

 

[delldude]

As far as I am aware it was the republicans. The question I am asking is why? Intrastate competition is not prohibited and the costs of insurance is sky high. Why should we expect anything else if the same companies are allowed to compete across state lines? I am not against it, but I do not think it will change anything. Not sure why the dems are against it. I have not seen anything in writing or other media that has said why.

Because all those state bound insurance companies would suddenly have access to a huge market nationwide and competition between them for us would become intense.

Why haven't the Dems gone with this?

Its about control. Not healthcare.

They're severely worried about SSI/Medicare obligations to the boomer crowd.

Notice there's still going to be a huge group of uncovered citizens even after this Hurculean effort to 'fix' the terrible system you've been trained to be so biased against?

They are going to make a choice on who to 'prefer'....old citizens who are less contributing and more demanding on the HC system or young citizens who have a longer contributing period and less demands on the system.

A little denial/rationing of service here and there and these older citizens go the way of the Edsel.

It is much better for the collective good that the elderly become less and less a drain on the system.

The choice has already been made.

You're going to have 'affordable' healthcare choices at much more costly premiums and taxation than you pay now.

Affordable healthcare choices that will be age and cost related dependent upon your age/probability of usage.

Treatment ratings A-B-C-D for your ailment, which is rationing. Sure private companies ration and have denial of services now.....but you are foolish if you think the government will be any better......worse if anything.

You've fallen prey to a well orchestrated propaganda campaign to Kmartize the best healthcare system in the world by a group of radical Socialist/Marxists.

There is limited attempt to fix what 'ails' our present system and its problems. The end game is to totally change it into something it never was or will be again.

What was it Obama said about 'fundamentally changing Amerika'?

Yes.........I'm a right wing wacko extremist who loves his dying country. At least for
the moment.

Obama

 

[dapoes]

The act applies to interstate not intrastate. So again, why is there no meaningful competition between insurance companies with in a state. The only thing I have seen in the HC debate relating to the act the repeal of the act to allow interstate competition.

Again you fail to understand the topic at hand. The states regulate who can (or who can't) compete within the state. If all insurance companies can compete, (in all states) then that increases competition and can lower costs.