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Subscribe to RSSIf banking were like health care, it would take days to get money out of an ATM because the records would be lost. If airlines were like health care, pilots would decide on their own which safety checks to make, if any. If shopping were like health care -- well, you get the picture.
It’s a mess, the Institute of Medicine says in a report released on Thursday. The U.S. health care system wasted $750 billion in 2009, about 30 percent of all health spending, on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. As many as 75,000 people who died in 2005 would have lived if they got the kind of care provided in the states with the best medical systems, the Institute found.
The report, issued just as candidates for Congress and for president make health care reform a central part of the national debate, doesn’t pull any punches. The panel of experts assembled by the Institute, an independent body that is supposed to provide a non-partisan last word on important issues, leaves no doubt that U.S. health care now is anything but the best in the world.
"The threats to Americans' health and economic security are clear and compelling, and it's time to get all hands on deck," says Mark Smith, president and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation in Oakland and chairman of the panel.
"Our health care system lags in its ability to adapt, affordably meet patients' needs, and consistently achieve better outcomes."
But there's hope. "We have the know-how and technology to make substantial improvement on costs and quality. Our report offers the vision and road map to create a learning health care system that will provide higher quality and greater value," Smith says.
“What I am seeing around the country is that people are absolutely committed to reform,” says James Conway of the Harvard School of Public Health and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Massachusetts, who served on the panel.
“Whether you look at the Republican platform or the Democratic platform, you find in pretty strong language the importance of developing a high quality health care system.”
One of the biggest problems is that health insurers, hospitals and health systems don’t learn from their mistakes, the report says. Half of all health care professionals still neglect to wash their hands properly before seeing patients, even though it’s one of the main causes of infections that kill tens of thousands of patients every year.
An organized system that finds out what went wrong and where, and then provides for the health system to correct those mistakes right away would save money and lives. It’s possible in a computerized world, but it’s not happening on a systematic basis. Hospitals that report every single infection and ruthlessly track down where it came from have found they can cut infection rates to zero, for instance.
Yet just this week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a third of Americans have high blood pressure and only half of them have it under control. There are dozens of drugs to treat it, not to mention diet and exercise methods. It took 13 years for one of those drug types, the beta-blockers, to become the standard of care even after they had been clearly demonstrated to work, the report says.
What’s missing, the report says, is coordination. “What I see is people doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Everyone has their little initiative. And back at the ranch, the doctor, the individual provider, is drowning in the sea of initiatives,” Conway says. “What is missing is a much more systemic and collective response.”
The report points to two main problems. “One is the increasingly unmanageable complexity of the science of health care. During the past half-century, there has been an explosion of biomedical and clinical knowledge, with even more dazzling clinical capabilities just over the horizon,” the report says. But the current system doesn’t help providers learn this material and it doesn’t give them any incentive to apply it.
“Second is the ever-escalating cost of care, which is widely acknowledged to be wasteful and unsustainable. Unless ways are found to provide more efficient, lower-cost health care, more and more Americans will lose coverage of and access to care.”
Conway praises the Massachusetts health care system, which he says is organized with the patient in mind. The report also says government initiatives, such as the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center are good ways to test and apply proven treatments and methods for paying for health care.
“Until we organize the health care system around the people we are privileged to serve, we aren’t going to figure it out,” Conway said. “I don’t think we have done that before -- we haven’t organized it around the person with cancer. That would be a remarkable change.”
Some ways to get there? Let people see what various treatments cost up front. Employers, who cover the health care costs of 55 percent of Americans, can help, too, the report says. They can use their buying power to demand high-quality, high-value health care, and get their employees involved in wellness programs.
So what would happen if shopping were like U.S. health care? "Product prices would not be posted, and the price charged would vary widely within the same store, depending on the source of payment,” the report says.
Related stories:
- Romney attacks Obama over Medicare
- Americans hate health reform but like what it would do
- Countries with the most expensive healthcare
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A big problem of health care is not enough patient accountability - similar to schools where teachers are blamed for everything when parents are not held accountable. Lots of fatties getting knee replacements and heart medicine when basic diet & exercise would help.
Another problem is lack of health rationing. Tough choices are made for patients wating for organs. Make the tough choices for terminal patients. Limit the procedures, limit the $10,000 drugs.
You do realize most of those "$10,000 drugs" cost that much because developing pharmaceutical companies only have a limited period to recoup their investment before their patent becomes a free-for-all for over the counter med companies to produce? That's one of the principal reasons why meds in Canada are cheaper.
As for the rest of your statements about making the tough choices, if we did indeed always do that, cancer research for example would never have evolved as we'd be making that choice. Do you really want to step backwards? Or seeing as we could argue that most adult diabetes is caused by poor eating habits and lack of exercise, well let's stop all treatment for diabetics. And while we're at it, pregnancy is avoidable, so let's eliminate that from health coverage too. Common cold, hmm wash your hands and you'll likely avoid that so let's not pay doctor's visits for that. Broke a leg skiing, oh well poor choice and it was yours, so you're accountable. Get my point?
And btw how about all those skinny joggers and fitness fanatics who are getting knee replacements because they overdo it? Let them deal with it too, right?
So-called "death panels" are necessary, despite people not wanting to recognize it. There needs to be sanity in health care.
Why do you give a 92-year-old with terminal colon cancer and a year to live a hip replacement? It will likely only lower the quality of life, and maybe shorten it.
The reality is we need common sense. Prolonging life at *any* expense is not prudent, nor sustainable.
1) Money grubbing insurance companies
2) Money grubbing hospitals with very sharp business practices (oh you wanted anesthesia with your operation, didn't we say that will be extra, and not covered by insurance?)
3) Money grubbing doctors
4) Health care worker who think they're the bees knees. (I, through my insurance, pay your salary: Bitch)
That is about the same as giving a man or woman in Prison for life a new knee or hip or put them ahead of a transplant...Free
Yes, Phil, everything should be free in your entitlement driven world. Why isn't it?
tort reform is the most needed addition to our system. That would help clean up a lot of the mess
That is the problem with obamacare- it is based on lies and did NOTHING to control costs. when the Republicans tried to address that with tort reform and cross-state competition, Obama sat there with his arms folded and said, "I won". So much for compromise. He only wants to compromise when he is against the wall and wrong. Why do you think AARP was so in favor of it? They are nothing but an insurance clearing house and they and other insurance companies are making billions off obamacare.
Obamacare does ALOT to control costs: individual mandate spreads risk, health exchanges allow insurance companies to compete in public, insurance companies must use 80% of funds for healthcare (and limit administration), Medicare Fraud, making preventive medicine free makes more people use it and more diseases are caught early, doctors and hospitals are paid on quality not quantity, etc, etc, etc,
Tort Reform does NOTHING to decrease costs as is shown in every state that has enacted it--especially Texas and California, where costs are rising faster than the national average despite tort reform.
I agree that insurance companies will make billions, but sadly EVERY republican plan keeps those same insurance companies in place.
Matt, point taken, but I doubt there's many 90 year olds getting knee replacements.
And let me ask you a question about your pro-death panel choices. You seem to have issues with "old"people, but how about youngsters? If you're going to have real death panels, the same criteria can be used on infants, kids, teenagers etc. Why bother keeping anyone alive as they'll only be a drain on society, right? In fact more so because they'll have nobody to take care of them as they age and their parents decease plus they'll never be a contributing source to society. Tough choices should apply everywhere, but I suspect you're not so much in favor of death panels having NO age cap.
And I hate to tell you this, but those "old people" have contributed for most of their lives to medicaid. Why bother paying in when as you get to that point you're not going to get treatment? I am pretty sure that theoretically there would be a decent fund in one's name if you set aside all contributed medicare dollars for 40+ years before one started to become eligible. If medicare dollars were only used for medicare instead of being diluted to pay for medicaid there wouldn't be this level of discussion.
Maybe not many 90 year olds getting knee replacement, but what about that criminal who was just approved for transgender sex operation at taxpayers' cost while still in prison? Just so he/she can be "happy" while behind bars?
Health care is a mess because greedy corporate managers made it that way for profit.
The main problem we have in health care is this notion that it should be provided free at the same quality and quantity of those who pay. Too many irresponsible freeloaders are driving up the costs for those of us who pay the bills. Another problem is these freeloaders get to vote therefore we have Obamacare which is just another wealth distribution scheme inacted by our socialist leader who is killing this country on every front.
The U.S. health care system wasted $750 billion in 2009, about 30 percent of all health spending, on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems.
Obama-care will not solve any of those problems and more than likely via mandates and handouts make it worse.
ObamaCare to the rescue, and not a second too late!
Greed is the ONLY reason we're in this mess. There was a time when people got into medicine for the better good of man kind. Universal health care for all tax payers is the only answer
Poor personal decisions and lack of patient accountability is a huge problem. There are a ton of nursing home residents whose admitting diagnosis is due to some self-inflicted problem like type II diabetes or smoking and alcohol related conditions. Most of them are on Medicaid too.
How about eliminating the insurance companies? What do they actually provide in terms of a quantifiable service with respect to health-care? None that I can see.
There's a great article in the AARP monthly magazine that provides significant data on how Big Pharma pays off its generic competitors to delay producing drugs that are less expensive. Let's see now...Big Pharma has the moolah to pay off competitors so that has to mean they are reaping obscene profits in .....tah dah...delay...That fine ole good ole rich boi ploy...delay while the profits roll in. Delay until the dump job on consumers hits...delay until the government catches you red handed lying, cheating, stealing and Madoffing your way to CEOship. Yep...works for them.
Oh and by the way? That research Big Pharma claims costs soooooo much? Take a good look at the sizable obscene bonuses Big Pharma pays out to its researchers and the number of drugs these researchers research that end up causing serious side effects and death..Any BS contortion of truth for that? Every other country of the world can sell safe drugs at fair prices. But then, that would mean the hotsy totsies of R&D couldn't earn $1 mil a quarter for their "contributions" to pharmaceutical industries right?
Bart, you failed to mention that in Texas, due to tort reform, if your incompetent doctor kills your 30-year-old-ass with his treatment, the most your wife and kids can collect is something like $35,000? That's it. Texas has declared the value of a life at $35k.
(I'm probably off a bit on that number, but I'm sure it's way less than $1M.)
Health Care in America needed to be improved unfortunately the cure (Obamacare) is worse than the disease. It is just bad legislation overall too big, too expensive, too envasive and too expansive. Just because someone has a noble cause does not make it a good thing.
Workn,
You have no idea of what you are spouting about. After working in health care for a very long time, i can say that it is a mess and has been much longer than Mr. Obama has been in office. As far as those that can't pay, well you had better hope that you don't ever get a serious or life threatening problem because your benefits will not last. Healthcare fell apart once they became for profit corporations.
voter in LA- who goes to the doctor for a common cold? i mean, i know people do but, um, its a cold.
two huge things contributing to this are
-the obesity epidemic. plain and simple, obese people cost more. they are sick more often and the cost of their care is higher than someone of normal weight. this is statistically true and not just my opinion
-a lot of "unnecessary" tests and procedures are what we call CYA. Cover your a**. litigation is ruining health care. I am a doctor. sometimes we order a test to cover our a** in the incredibly rare chance it might effect the outcome. if you fall and hit your head, most people do not need a CT of their head but ER doctors order CT's in almost all of those cases. before CTs, people were instructed to return to the ER if they developed a headache, vomiting, etc... people weren't dropping like flies from brain bleeds during that time but now they all get a $1000 CT.
this article refers to "what if "x" operated like healthcare?" well, what if healthcare tort reform operated like other services. if your mechanic replaces a part on your car that wears out they don't just get sued. if they have a hard time diagnosing the problem with your car, they dont just get sued. if they accidently break something on your car while fixing another part, they don't just get sued.
and i absolutely agree with those that posted about patients not being accountable. it is frighteningly common the patient who is obese, smokes, is noncompliant and sits there asking the physician "what are you going to do about this?" and they blame the doctor when they go on dialysis or their foot gets amputated, etc...
Catydid...I'm at the opposite end of what you see...I see the huge pilfering by HMOs. 7 in Texas this year got caught stealing from Medicare since 2006 to the tune of $350 million. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. But there is another, darker reason the Bash Obama crowd hates healthcare reform: Their investment portfolios would take the hit. Not that it won't anyway. Wall Street can't be trusted not to crash every 10 years. With the Madoffers at the helm? Why not?
Way off the limit is 250K and that is only on non economic issues like pain and suffering. There still is no limit on loss of wages cost of care (those who live but need future care) etc.. So the lawsuit still could be well over a million or millions.
I didn't realize how big a mess the health-care system was in until a year ago when I had a standard routine physical. The standard preventative physical was suppose to be covered by the insurance company (RMHP), but I got a bill for $1100. Insurance company states the tests were non-preventative. The American Medical Association has confirmed all tests were preventative, and should be covered by insurance. The clinic has refused to give any help and continues to send a bill. Currently working with a government regulatory committee to resolve the issue. Told by a lawyer that I have to wait until the bill is sent to collections and affects my credit score before I can take companies involved to court. All over a standard routine preventative physical - The health-care system is a mess.
While patient responsibility to follow the advice of their doctors is important, more important is the number of physicians that serve the Healthcare Corporations. How much "quality care" can patients expect when the doctors are provided multitudes of samples of drugs to test out on us and we are guinea pigs? How can we get personal care when one Primary Care Provider has thousands of patients?
How can we get our prescriptions when the Doctor still uses a fax machine instead of internet to send the prescriptions to our pharmacy? How many times do we have to chase them down to see if the Doctor sent the prescription, or if the pharmacy is just under-staffed?
How can we tell if our doctors are actually compiling our personal healthcare issues and tracking them? My Primary Care Provider prescribed me a medication for 5 years that didn't work. I repeatedly explained how it didn't work, and my sleeping problem of only being able to sleep for 3 hours at a time continued, as did three other issues he was unwilling to resolve. I finally confronted my doctor and asked him "What good is a doctor when he refuses to listen to my problems, and only prescribes me medications I repeatedly tell him don't work? After five years, do you believe I am lying to you? I pay high premiums for quality care and feel like I am not getting it!" After this confrontation, the doctor changed my prescriptions, resolving my sleep disorder much better. After the confrontation, I was given referrals to other specialists to address my other issues! This is what we, as patients, need to remind our doctors! We need to remind them that each one of us put our health issues under their care. If they do not provide it, then take the surveys and criticise them. If waiting times for appointments exceed 2 hours for a scheduled office visit, let them know you are disgusted. And, when the doctor asks us to change our diet or excercise, we must do our part and comply!
Obamacare does nothing about costs. It does not reform healthcare. What it does is add roughly 25Mil new welfare recipients into the system.
I am a firm supporter in people with "pre-existing conditions" being able to purchase health care. But under Obamacare who do you think is going to be paying for much of that?
I saw one poster talking about people who are overweight and their health issues being expensive. I didn't notice but I'm sure someone else will come up with smokers. What about drug addicts and their health issues? Should these people pay more in health insurance premiums than everyone else?
How many of those currently uninsured because of pre-existing conditions HAVE those conditions because of the choices I listed above? I don't know myself, but I'd be willing to bet at least half.
It seems to me that there's a gross lack of accountability when it comes to pricing medical procedures - they just charge whatever they want, knowing that people have no choice but to pay. When a simple scan costs $25,000 (which my father had prior to carotid stent placement), what - EXACTLY - does all that money pay for?? WHY aren't patients allowed to see this information? I know why - they wouldn't be able to justify it, not even remotely.
jack- i agree with a lot of what you said but respectfully disagree with several points. most patient's are very thankful to get drug samples, as they are free. the drugs have already been tested and approved by the FDA by the time they are given as samples in a physician's office. a good example is pradaxa, so expensive. I have many patient's that get by just on samples. but now theres commercials to sue your doctor if you had a complication while on pradaxa haha oh well. lawyers must be happy that every medication has risks and benefits.
the situation you describe of a PCP with thousands of patients is only going to get worse. somehow people think that being a doctor is this amazing job that lands you in the lap of luxury. i have over $350k in student loans which will take abt a million dollars to pay back, seriously. this is common. I went to school and residency until i was thirty. i have a ton of debt. physicians don't make nearly as much as people think these days. this is not an attractive job, the physician shortage is going to get much, much worse.
sorry about that experience with your doctor. doesn't sound like a very good physician. that happens, unfortunately, like any other profession
I know someone who was attacked in an emergency room because his medical records were contaminated with someone who was a sex offender...no one would believe him until he got all his medical records and saw what was in there...You should always check your medical records periodically to know whats in them...he said the ER staff came at him like a bunch of red necks out to get even...he did not understand what was going on...
You should look at the documentary "Hot Coffee". The main thing Tort Reform accomplishes is minimizing how much money a victim can receive and maximizing insurance company profits. States that have Tort reform do not cost doctors any less in insurance, as a matter of fact, some states they pay more than they did before Tort reform. Tort Reform also protects bad doctors - and there are bad doctors. When someone suffers permanent brain damage (a newborn for example), chances are if they live in a state with Tort Reform, they will be forced to go on Medicaid or Medicare because $250,000 for a baby who will be disabled their entire life is nothing - passing the burden to taxpayers especially since they would have never contributed to the system. I bet they don't tell you that when the pitch Tort Reform do they?
Our system needs the "profit" part to be taken out. People need to get it through their dense skulls that insurance companies are not in business to pay out money, they are in business to take in as much as possible and pay out as little as possible. Don't let them ever fool you into thinking that they are on your side.
Pharmaceutical companies are also not in business to cure any illness - that would be bad business. They want to "treat" it for as long as possible. E.g. I'm certain someone could come up with a cure for dandruff, but why would they? Its not life threatening and they can make you buy shampoo the rest of your life. Even doctors are interested in when the next time is you are going to see them (unless of course they are too busy to actually be able to schedule you).
Work - ..."Too many irresponsible freeloaders are driving up the costs for those of us who pay the bills."... you got part of the story the story right - that is why the Affordable Health Care Act indicates that all who can, pay something - NOT FREE. Medicare is NOT free. The HMOs need to be cut out of the equation, google Forbes to see their management salaries - in the millions, plus even more in stock options. Obscene, to take healthcare dollars and operate "for profit" as pencil pushers. Any person who is uninsured can go to the emergency room for treatment - irresponsible freeloader though they may be. And now their bill is for critical care, where a visit to the CVS Nurse Practioner and getting meds could have been less than $100. (Our HMO facility docs cost us $178 per visit, until we reach a family annual deductible of $5k - happened twice in 8 years only.)
Well, even though our HMO is going on $17k a year, at least we can have our adult kids on it - not free - for a price. Our neighbor's daughter about 10 years ago had to declare bankruptsy when she got hurt as a student.
@rkaralius
There are a lot of factors that go into the costs of medical care and many do not understand why some things are so expensive. The market should always determine the cost, but regarding healthcare, it doesn't. I have a family member that works as an accountant for a hospital and the number one problem they have is billing Medicare. Medicare will only pay for 1/4 to 1/3 the cost of any procedure or exam that needs to be done. So, this hospital has to charge 3 times the amount in order to get close to what the market value actually is, which then negatively affects the market. The same with many insurance companies as well.
eric-2573068 tort reform that have been implemented at a state level have done nothing to stop insurance prices from going thru the roof in those states. Who told you it would? You realize that it maybe adds 1% to the cost of the healthcare system. Also, its usually the same doctors getting sued repeatedly. Its actually very hard to sue doctors since they are coached on what to say and do in situations and they do not point fingers at one another.
A huge problem in this country are the specialists that price gauge the system. They are guns for hire that look for ways to charge for any and everything. There are hospitals that pay doctors to work for the hospital directly and give bonuses based on quality of care. These hospitals typically cost 40% less than other hospitals with the hired guns.
My, just in time for the President's acceptance speech tonight. Impeccable timing. What ARE the odds?!
This article and the reports title are both misleading. We don't have "health care" in the US. We have a monopoly driven fee-per-service system that calls itself health care.
Eliminate insurance companies from the system, and their 30% margin (now 15% under Obama), get the quacks and cheats out, and eliminate the role of religion in deciding what health care they are ok with the rest of us having and we could provide real health care to America for less than we are spending now. Simple in principle, but it would mean that United Health Care, etc. would all close their doors and their $100M a year CEO's would have to put that third house in the Alps off for a while.
A few leaks from Bob Woodward's new book claims that the White House is a mess and very disorganized.
The same thing is going to happen with Obamacare. It will get worse if Obama is re-elected.
Wait a second... all of the Grand Ole Plutocrat party folks have been saying the US has "the best healthcare system in the world". The liberal media is at it again using dat der dag' gum' scientific methods and analysis to determine the efficiency and viability of the US healthcare system. Dang scienti-mathimagical folks disputing what our "honest", "god fearing" GOP politicians are spewing.
a liberal think tank, praised Romney and his health care reform in Mass., , and at the same time said Obama care will do nothing to help the system, HOLY SMOKES BATMAN!
Everything your say about Obamacare is what your said about Medicare word for word.
President Obama is out on the campaign trail running for reelection. and one of the major achievements he points to for his administration is the passing of the Affordable Care Act. What Obama and the rest of those who support this legislation have failed to acknowledge is the extremely negative implications of this act. In order to fund this new health care act, there were major cuts made to Medicare. These cuts are set to reduce payments to doctors and hospitals considerably. This reduction is so severe that many health care providers have stopped taking new Medicare patients or are indicating that if the cuts go through as planned that they will no longer take Medicare patients. In many cases, doctors are even telling current patients that if the cuts go through they will no longer see them as Medicare patients. These patients are being told that they will either have to become cash pay patients or find a new doctor. The ACA is creating a two tier health care system. Those people covered by Medicare will be reduced to only being able to see second rate doctors who are still willing to take Medicare as the better doctors who are not hurting for patients will no longer accept the measly payments that Medicare provides. This is a complete failure on the part of the administration and has left seniors and those on disability with trouble finding competent doctors to care for them. The lists of doctors who will accept Medicare has been shrinking for years due to the low payments and if the cuts planned as part of the ACA actually go into effect the problem is going to get much, much worse very quickly. This is one of those dirty little secrets about the ACA that the Democrats have been hiding from seniors and others in order to maintain support for this deeply flawed piece of legislation. Barring some new law being passed forcing all doctors in the US to accept Medicare, which is not likely to occur with the strength of the AMA lobby, the day is not far off when those who rely on Medicare will have extreme difficulty finding competent doctors, particularly specialists, who will take them as patients. These seniors will find themselves having to travel great distances just to receive second rate care from the handful of doctors that will remain available to them. This is completely inexcusable and is a breach of the promise made to all of those on Medicare when they were paying into the system their entire careers. Those on Medicare deserve to be able to obtain the same quality health care as everyone else and should not be forced into a second rate system of substandard doctors and facilities.
Here are some of the costs from Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado...
$28,000.00 to have sinus polyps removed;
$3,000.00 for an echocardiogram;
$6,000.00 for an echocardiogram with 0.5 cc of epinepherine [or another heart stimulant] ie. a "Stress Test."
I could go on but you get the idea.
Eliminate insurance companies, and there will be a whole industry of people out of work--where are you going to put them? I'm almost positive that the vast majority of our problems come from the fact that we partially separated the truly sick from the healthy, gave half of the truly sick insurance paid for through taxation, left a quarter of the truly sick to be covered under private insurance paid for primarily by the employer (or the lucky rich), and left the other quarter to flounder.
I think we need either:
1. a catastrophic care plan, like medicare/medicaid, but that covers everyone no matter their age or wealth;
2. to train more doctors and pay for their educations in exchange for them serving a certain amount of time as primary care physicians, as competition will lower prices;
3. for all private insurance to be purchased independently, no more employer provided coverage, and for that coverage to only cover non-catastrophic illnesses and luxury things like nose jobs and erectile dysfunction drugs;
4. to increase the contribution to the catastrophic care fund across the board to make it solvent and actually exert control over what will be paid for services, so that we don't have different prices for the same service being paid by different people and doctors and hospitals won't be able to not take the government controlled prices because their only other choice in patients will be people with colds and people who want nose jobs, and there just aren't enough of those to go around;
5. at the same time we must be careful not to let government take total control of the industry altogether, otherwise we will have a system where doctors are striking rather than taking care of the sick in order to extract more money from the people.
OR:
1. all insurance goes to private (use vouchers for the poor) with a minimum standard, so that everyone is in the same insurance pot as individuals (all the sick and the healthy together), no more government programs and no more employer provided insurance;
2. pay for doctors' educations in exchange for service as primary care physicians to control costs through competition.
One way or another, either everyone has to be in the same pot or the healthy must be completely separate from the truly ill, with a universal system for catastrophic care that covers everyone no matter who they are and private coverage for non-catastrophic care.
You think it's bad now? Wait until Obamacare goes into full effect. God (a word Democrats don't say now) help us!
while were talking reform - let's revisit allowing insurance to cover providers of so-called "alternative Medicine"
hey...if you want to go to an acupuncturist, chiropractor, witch doctor or faith-healer, that's certainly your choice; however, we should stop allowing billions of dollars to be sucked out of our health care system on dubious "treatments" that cannot cure any real disease and might, in fact, be dangerous as they could delay visiting a real doctor
$50 wooden tongue suppressors, $20 bandaids, $15/pill asprin, etc.... Of course, the health providers will justify ALL of these charges, but WE know it's a scan. Just like the military, the hospital will claim that THESE tongue suppressors are vastly superior to sanitized popsicle sticks!
Health care is the wrong word anymore, it has become a health gold mine, where if you are not insured properly at some outrages prices and still with dubious coverage you will automatically be either broke or indebted for life if you have to use the health system. Another example where the health care organization including the health insurance companies areeliminating the middle class. That existing condition Claus is the biggest rip off in the world, no one knows if they are really covered until you have a claim and then it's far to late. It's all at the insurance companies discretion if you are covered or not.
Ironic isn't it, that Obamacare was originally a conservative/Republican idea:
By 1993, when President Bill Clinton was readying his major health care overhaul bill, the Heritage approach — subsidizing and facilitating the purchase of private health plans, while using the individual mandate to maximize participation — had jelled as the natural Republican alternative.
Then-Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) formally proposed it in a bill that attracted 19 other Republican co-sponsors; the bill foundered once Clinton's effort unraveled. But the idea of the mandate gained currency in the ensuing years as Democrats chastened by the failure of the Clinton plan began considering new solutions more likely to attract bipartisan support.
...
Indeed, during the 2008 Democratic primary race, candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Obama all proposed health care overhaul plans that shared some features of the Massachusetts system. But while Clinton and Edwards included an individual mandate, Obama did not (although he did propose requiring parents to get coverage for their children).
Excerpts from: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120327/news/703279952/
Yep, that's right. The individual mandate was originally a conservative Republican idea.
I suggest reading the entire article.
Did anybody here read the article? It states that the program in Massachusetts (Romneycare) is working. Romneycare is Obamacare . Yet you all spout off how Obamacare won't do anything to fix the problem. Romney himself says he will "End Obamacare on my first day in office". Obamacare is not a problem, it's a solution. The problem is dirtbags like Romney slamming his own healthcare plan because Obama used it as a model for the nation. Now we have the right wingnuts here spouting the same lies as their hero Romney. That is part of the problem.
Healthcare is a mess and getting worse, I had heart surgery by mistake. I was misdiagnosed. I had complications, it has been two years now and the American taxpayers are still paying for this mistake. I have made a video about my experience. Erroneous information in my medical record, just a mess. hear my story, search shannon koob in youtube or visit shannon koob medical error blog.
I keep seeing people talk about free loaders on the topic. Let me tell you about a women who lost her kidney, had brain damage because she was without oxygen for too long, and now has a battle with internal scarring (adhesions) in her bowels from the surgery. After almost 20 years of being denied health insurance, ruined credit and forced to live near poverty, she has recently gotten health insurance thanks to the president's plan. This women was in no way at fault for the tumor that exploded in her kidney, but she has paid a huge price for getting sick.. But for the grace of God, there go I and any of you. Think twice before you bad mouth others and want to get rid of "Obamacare."
Arsenic, you may want to look up with a profit margin is. Health insurance companies do not have a 30% nor even a 15% profit margin. They have historically had around a 3% profit margin.
If what you said had even an iota of truth, you would have a point. Insurance is not health care. Health care is what is provided by medical professionals. Insurance is how most people are able to afford the costs of the bills created by the care.
You should also read the article. The article stated that $750 Billion was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. This is insurance, this is providers.
Also I keep seeing people talking about death panels. Think they don't exist? Think again, they are not called that, the official title would be something like "patient care planning team.". Doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, and family members get together to discuss end of life care plans. Make sure you have a will written up with specific instructions if you don't want heroics and extra procedures that will only prolong your suffering, with a "do not resuscitate" after you have died. Death is big business.
You can pass all the tort reform laws, and create all the competition for insurance you want, but until hospitals are no longer forced to treat the uninsured, which causes them to pass the costs onto insured patients, nothing is going to change.
So much for Faux Reporting News with manipulations that include the "Death Panel Activists Bloggers", who say in one breath that it's wrong to kill an embryo (regardless of the health condition of the fetus), and yet it's okay to kill someone, who may be sick. That spells "HYPOCRACY" to say the least. No one ever has the right to make the decision for an individual as to whether the person lives or dies. Only God reserves the right when it's time to take someone away. In the 10 Commandments, it says, "Thou shall not kill." And to think that members of the "Death Panel" call themselves "Born Again Christians" when they use religion (in name only) to advance their own personal agenda of selfishness and greed.
Just MSNBC campaigning for Obama
Book'em Danno - without getting into too much detail, (yes it IS complicated and I have first hand experience) insurance companies are masters of manipulating reserves for future losses. In a good year they raise these reserves to lower their profits and do the reverse in a 'bad' year.' It's called "managing your earnings" and they do it so well. Please don't swallow the republican BS; banks, oil and insurance companies are NOT your friends.
$750 BILLION DOLLARS!
$750,000,000,000 DOLLARS!!!!
SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS!!!!!!
Hmmmm, no matter how it’s written, it’s a staggering AND embarrassing amount of OUR MONEY!
And many of you STILL want our government to continue to run it. I know, I know, you have full faith in our criminal governments ability to finally fix this atrocity. Obamacare will magically fix 1/6th of our GDP which will soon grow to 1/5, or more, of our GDP due to the increased costs and taxes included.
Let me take you on a little nostalgia tour.
In 1995 the Citizens Against Government Waste published a report named, “Medicare Fraud: Tales From the Gypped, which exposed and detailed many of the problems of Medicare waste, fraud, abuse and corruption (WFAC). Contrary to your convoluted beliefs this has been going on since its inception in 1965.
In 1995, Health and Human Services Inspector General, June Gibbs Brown, estimated that up to $17 billion, or 10 percent of Medicare funds, were lost each year because of WFAC. In 1996, following the first comprehensive audit of Medicare since its inception 32 years earlier, the IG was forced to revise that staggering figure upward, estimating that the true losses due to fraud, waste, and abuse were closer to $23.2 billion a year ($33 billion in 2010 adjusted dollars). That was $63 million per day, or about 14 percent of total program costs, in net overpayments by Medicare in FY 1996.2 Almost half (46 percent) of the $23 billion was the result of insufficient or absent documentation. The IG admitted that her staff was unable to determine exactly how many of the improper payments occurred as a result of outright fraud and how many were simply honest human errors.
The report addressed major questions surrounding Medicare, including: Who's at fault for the WFAC, the system itself, those who use it, or both? Who are the real victims the taxpayers, the seniors who rely on Medicare, or those who are expecting to draw down benefits in the future? What is the best way to cure Medicare's afflictions in the long run? Should the current course of treatment be continued; i.e., attacking fraud, reducing payments to hospitals and doctors, and marginally increasing choices for seniors in Medicare services?
Or, ws the country ready to embrace more innovative approaches that would allow seniors to regain control of their healthcare choices, rather than deferring to third parties and the federal government?
Medicare investigations indicated that the system could be as much, if not more, to blame as healthcare providers. While there were certainly plenty of unscrupulous individuals bilking Medicare and the examples offered in the report would rightly outrage the public there were genuine disagreements between the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) and providers, and a significant number of these discrepancies grew directly out of misinterpretation of vague and sometimes conflicting HCFA guidelines.
Seniors are not the only players in the Medicare debate. Legislators, law enforcement officials, lawyers, healthcare providers, healthcare consultants, accountants, and bureaucrats all have a stake in the outcome. Ironically, two groups members of Congress and HCFA (today the HHS) employees wield a disproportionate percentage of power over which healthcare procedures will be covered by Medicare and at what cost, despite the fact that few of them are healthcare professionals.
Their decisions are heavily influenced by the well-organized and well-financed lobbying efforts of hundreds of special interest groups. Members of Congress are under a constant barrage from groups demanding changes to the Medicare laws that address their special causes, diseases, or constituencies. Expensive legal advisors must, in turn, be retained by hospitals, healthcare professional associations, trade groups and other organizations to interpret the impact of these new laws on their ability to deliver quality healthcare to their patients. And finally, accountants, consultants and healthcare insurers must also pore over the 45,000 pages of convoluted Medicare regulations to determine which medical procedures they can bill for and for how much.
Healthcare should not be decided by a massive bureaucracy, it should be decided by physicians and the consumers.
Real change in Medicare will only come about when the power to make healthcare decisions is taken away from politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers, consultants, and accountants, and placed into the hands of those who depend upon the program. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 was a good start in providing seniors with more choices and more control. But it does not address the core problem. Medicare will begin to slide into bankruptcy in 10 years, as the baby boomers continue flooding the program.
WFAC exists in multiple sectors. Kickbacks, home healthcare, nursing home fraud, laboratory fraud, durable medical equipment fraud, hospital fraud and others contribute to our escalating “mess” in healthcare.
When we see a staggering figure such as $750 BILLION of OUR hard earned money being lost to WFAC we need to seriously reassess our options. Obviously NOTHING has changed under our governments leadership, it’s only gotten much worse. As governments reach exceeds its Constitutional limits this is not difficult to understand. If WFAC were simply a healthcare issue we could probably deal with it, however, this problem is systemic. There is NO sector of our government that isn’t filled with WFAC. This is why our Framers understood the true role of government. They laid out our blueprint in a simple 6 page document with the last direction being to allow the States and the People to govern the other issues.
Friedrich Hayek, the Nobel Prize-winning economist said, “there are only two ways of holding men accountable: prices and prisons”. Enforcing price controls, massive regulations and bureaucratic oversight requires throwing people in jail. Unfortunately, some of the people who get thrown in jail may have honestly misunderstood the regulation they needed to follow. But, when prices are set by free-market forces, overcharging for a product is simply punished by the loss of market share. Winners and losers can only be determined by free-market forces. Government is incapable due to its weakness of being influenced by massive amounts of money and promises.
ROMNEY/RYAN 2012 for real Americans
@ lu 1328381 #1.42
I think we need either:
I am with Lu here, with couple exceptions, but the main thrust of the argument is to get away from "Employer Provided" Health Care, and the "You gotta have a job, to get insurance argument".
I Agree with the voucher system, in that, employers can give employees a voucher(equivalent to what they are paying now in premiums) so they can get which ever insurance plan they want, like, say one that includes birth control or ED pills.
That way an individual can customize a plan and provider, just like car insurance or life insurance.
Insurance companies can provide a catastrophic care plans as a basic, like liability only car insurance, with a deductible. And let's combine Workers Comp with this, that way, you are responsible for your work place injuries. (Free up employers to pay a bigger voucher) I also have a feeling it would reduce Work Comp claims, because YOUR premium would go up when you file a claim, just like car insurance.
And just like bad drivers, bad patients will pay a higher premium, you can get credits for going to a gym, or getting a good physical report, like you get for having a safe driving record. (Patient Accountability)
Instead of taxpayer vouchers, we pay for Doctors and Nurse Practitioners education, in exchange for them to work in public/non-profit clinics or rural areas at a reduced salary for a specified time. And let's work on expanding the Nurse Practitioner programs, to allow RNs to use work experience in their promotion to NP's. We also need more Med Schools, we are going to have one heck of Doctor shortage once (if) Obamacare takes hold.
And yes, let's do some tort reform.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released the first updated estimate of the Democrats’ health care law since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which indicates that ObamaCare’s Medicare cuts will be 50 percent higher than initially predicted. Just two years ago, when ObamaCare was signed into law, CBO predicted that ObamaCare would slash Medicare by more than $500 billion from 2010 through 2019. Now, CBO’s updated analysis predicts that the Democrats’ health care law will gut the Medicare program by more than $750 billion from 2013-2022 to fund a new entitlement. A tally of some of those Medicare cuts in ObamaCare include:
$308 billion: Cuts to the Medicare Advantage program, where more than one in four Medicare beneficiaries receive their Medicare health benefits (note: the amount includes interactions);
$294 billion: Payment cuts to hospitals (including DSH);
$66 billion: Cuts in payments for home health services;
$39 billion: Reductions in nursing home payments; and
$17 billion: Cuts to hospice payments to hospice providers....
Obamacare must be repealed!
@ Dan-312359
How about prisons having to give am inmate a free sex change operation. If it's a personal choice they can pay for it with their own money!
@ Harley Chic - great post! I find it interesting they are more than willing to cut payments to providers, but nothing is there to end wasteful medicare management and fraud. Protect all those govt. workers and further short pay the providers. Many Doctors limit or have ended taking Medicare patients due underpayment. But we need to cut more to them. Sad, and a great example of how Obamacare does not solve our problems.
I've read many incorrect posts on this thread. This is part of the problem that is Obamacare. Even after 2 years, many of you have no idea what you are talking about and you scoff at the ones that do. Obamacare will ultimately fail as there will never be enough money to make it work. Let alone, at some point, there will be so much Public outcry over what they've lost, Washington will have to do something. Obamacare will never be affordable health care, unless you are poor to start with, (but they already have care thru Medicaid) and it will never keep you from having a Medical bankruptcy. After you lose everything, then the govt. will help you, but by then, it's too late. You've lost everything and your health as well......maybe that is what the Dems really want.....weed out all the weak ones.....
Having worked in healthcare insurance at one point, I'd say flipping burgers after an extensive 6 month training program that begins with the idea they have to actually show up to work and stay there for 8 hours.
That statement says it all. The tax dodger and his used tea bag munnions will have us believe that ObamaCare means the end of civilization as we know it. Lies, lies all lies.
I am not sure why he thinks the patient is at the center of the MA system. As someone who works in it I feel the insurance industry is at the center of the MA system. As far as administrative costs go there is data showing that they have actually increased under RomneyCare
Dingle or should I say "Dr. Dingle"...get a freakin' clue...Type 2 Diabetes is inherited. I should know. I'm not overweight and never have been, never smoked or drank and guess what genius? I have Type II Diabetes just like my great grandmother who was no more than 90 lbs. her whole life, never smoked or drank and now you can man up.
As for overweight...Take a good look at the guts on those good ole bois out there in Big Oil Country...and the double asses on them. Ever see one eat a whole side of cow they call "steak" at one sitting?
You can stop your blame games. It's obvious you think your kind will live totally illness free...Nope..wrong again...If Big Oil's pollution doesn't kill you, Cheasapeak Energy's fracking will.
Let's see...32 years of paying into Medicare...That's free? 32 years of paying into state and federal Medicaid...that's free?
I always love the jerks out there who go right for the jugular before they use their brains God hopefully gave them...If I paid for Medicare or Medicaid...how is that free? And why exactly should only my employer have the right to choose which HMO I can use? Which doctor in the HMO network? And why exactly is Aetna charging $50 a pop for copays to see a doctor? $5,000 for a hospital deductible? $40 a pop for prescription drugs? All while I also continue to pay for Medicare and Medicaid.
I started to reply with a list of reasons of why it isn't a lie and also tell you reasons why Obama and Democrats lie about Obamacare so they can tote it around like a trophy. However, looking at your name, "Obamanatic", I can see you are probably an ignorant stubborn liberal who wouldn't know an intelligent statement if I slapped you in the face with it. Oh, and I work in Diagnostics, and no I'm not a doctor. So, I see a lot of problems with healthcare,but Obamacare is part of the problem, not the solution.
I will say this,though, doctors are huge part of the problem. They are way over privileged and over payed. They are not magicians or sorcerers, like some people want to make them out to be. They are just another human being with a different degree. They order a ton of tests,most of which have nothing to do with a pattern, hoping to find something, all the while charging you and insurance for all of it, unnecessary and necessary. It's ridiculous how the docs get away with it just because they have an MD next to their name. A lot of doctors just play guessing games. It's sad.
mfromt...Montana is a huge unpopulated state. Try thinking about the kinds of overpopulated states with tons more need for healthcare than a few Montana ranchers who shoot themselves in the feet on occasion.
I visited Montana in 2004 and 2005...I love the idea of those clinics instead of huge hospitals. They were much more efficient but again...the HMOs would never accept them in my state or other with double Montana's population. HMOs would lose billions in profit every month with local clinics.
When Obamacare kicks in we will see many doctors quitting. Then we will see an influx of foreign doctors.
When my workplace changed insurance plans I was forced to leave my doctor and select one from a provided list. Most all doctors on the list were foreigners. I selected one from the list and it was a bad choice. My health problems went downhill until I finaly started paying out of pocket and went back to my original doctor.
President Obama is out on the campaign trail running for reelection and one of the major achievements he points to for his administration is the passing of the Affordable Care Act. What Obama and the rest of those who support this legislation have failed to acknowledge is the extremely negative implications of this act. In order to fund this new health care act, there were major cuts made to Medicare. These cuts are set to reduce payments to doctors and hospitals considerably. This reduction is so severe that many health care providers have stopped taking new Medicare patients or are indicating that if the cuts go through as planned that they will no longer take Medicare patients. In many cases, doctors are even telling current patients that if the cuts go through they will no longer see them as Medicare patients. These patients are being told that they will either have to become cash pay patients or find a new doctor. The ACA is creating a two tier health care system. Those people covered by Medicare will be reduced to only being able to see second rate doctors who are still willing to take Medicare as the better doctors who are not hurting for patients will no longer accept the measly payments that Medicare provides. This is a complete failure on the part of the administration and has left seniors and those on disability with trouble finding competent doctors to care for them. The lists of doctors who will accept Medicare has been shrinking for years due to the low payments and if the cuts planned as part of the ACA actually go into effect the problem is going to get much, much worse very quickly. This is one of those dirty little secrets about the ACA that the Democrats have been hiding from seniors and others in order to maintain support for this deeply flawed piece of legislation. Barring some new law being passed forcing all doctors in the US to accept Medicare, which is not likely to occur with the strength of the AMA lobby, the day is not far off when those who rely on Medicare will have extreme difficulty finding competent doctors, particularly specialists, who will take them as patients. These seniors will find themselves having to travel great distances just to receive second rate care from the handful of doctors that will remain available to them. This is completely inexcusable and is a breach of the promise made to all of those on Medicare when they were paying into the system their entire careers. Those on Medicare deserve to be able to obtain the same quality health care as everyone else and should not be forced into a second rate system of substandard doctors and facilities.
You think it's bad now? Wait until Obamacare goes into full effect. God (a word Democrats don't say now) help us!
It's funny how you all blame Obamacare for the ills of this world, yet when the individual pieces of what make up Obamacare are asked about - without political spin of any kind- you all get willy nilly in love with them.
MANY polls have shown that if you divorce the name 'Obamacare' and ALL political spin from the issue, the vast majority of the items in 'Obamacare' are wanted by a majority of people in this country.
So let's stop slinging mud just because 'Obama' is part of the title that you've given 'Obamacare' and let's start talking reality.
$50 wooden tongue suppressors, $20 bandaids, $15/pill asprin, etc.... Of course, the health providers will justify ALL of these charges, but WE know it's a scan. Just like the military, the hospital will claim that THESE tongue suppressors are vastly superior to sanitized popsicle sticks!
Asking the federal government, be it Democrat or Republican controlled, to fix health care is like asking the fox to fix security on the hen house. The government's waste makes the 750 billion wasted on health care look like chump change.
Still on that tired old worn out line papa? What happened to the mass exodus of doctors if the bill was passed? Didn't happen. Then it was suppose to happen when parts of the bill went into effect. nope, didn't happen then either. As for foreign doctors, clearly you haven't been to a American Hospital, clinic or private practice lately. Your worn out paranoia doesn't work.
the system can be fixed. If you talk to emergency personell and administrators they would tell you of the trillions wasted by a few that drive up the cost for the majority. Fix it don't throw it out and act like the government knows how to run a program. Come on. What the hell have they run efficiently so far? Nothing. The only way for obama mis care to work is to keep raising the costs to all of us and take away the benefits to the aged. This will also kill off a lot of 74 plus year olds out there and save social security. When my folks die because of this along with a lot of other kids with aged parents the polititians may be afraid to show their heads in public. Democrats can do their stumping via the internet.
When I need Health Care, I make my first call to my Attorney. I ask what my risks are, how to avert liability, and other unrelated issues that all seem to be part of the service we refer to as Health Care. Is it Health Care or is it simply a act to support the Judicial System, Government Workers, and other non producing entities masquerading under the title of Health Care?
I'm not fond of the system, my mother's cancer came back and this time around she can't work thru it. The chemo and countless other issues that have come this time are not letting her do much of anything with her life. She has paid into the system for over 40 years yet she can't get assistance? The state and federal programs she doesn't qualify for because of 1 of 5000 reasons. They will reavaluate her situation when she is dead from not being able to afford medical help, food or the roof over her head. Yes this is more or less what they told her just in my blunt words.
Obamacare will solve all the problems!
Granny will be thrown under the bus, those with long term illnesses such as cancer will get "adequate care" similar to that doled out in Germany when they nationalized their healthcare system in 1933. All others will receive priority care based upon their party affilliation. Those registered Democrats who contribute regularly to the Party and loyal party members such as Union people will get higher priority. All others will get two choices:
First choice: 2 aspirin
Second choice: Come back in two years and try again.
Those delusional souls who think that the quality of care with Obamacare will not deteriorate are only fooling themselves. Obama's promises that you can keep your insurance and your doctor are just as believeable as the statement that Joe Biden regularly has sex with Black French Poodles
AMAZING, the timing of this article can't be calculated by dr. obammas administration...
It is beyond words that a lot of you just don't get it. Some of you say that when I employer switched insurance company, they were forced to use different doctors. So is that good or bad? I could go on and on about the benefits that the Obamacare will bring to your health care system, how much money it will save the nation, but it is pointless. You just cannot debate with STUPID. Really, I have been in a position of running salary negotiations for employees of my company. In the previous years, most of the raises were gobbled up by the constant health insurance cost increases. Finally, Last and this year specifically. There was ZERO insurance cost increase. Whoever wants to stay with the old version, must be truly sick in their head. I have no words. But again, you can't argue with STUPID.
I haven't read all of the bill obviously, but neither have most of the politicians. I have worked in health care 30 years and I can tell you lots of stories about non intelligent use of health care dollars.
1. 89 year old patient lost a lot of weight on diruetics over a couple of weeks. I ask the MD if she can check her electrolytes. He said no-we did it a couple of weeks ago. Well, she has lost 20lbs of fluid since then. In a day or two she falls and goes to ER. They xray her knee, BUT don't check any labs even though she is on a bucket load of meds. Within another week I finally get an order and guess what! Her electrolytes or all messed up and her meds need to be changed stat! Could have, should have 3 weeks earlier-before the fall.
2. Pt in Congestive heart failure gains 7 lbs within two days. We call with wt gains of 3 lbs if patient has diagnosis. Any med changes? NO. I ask how much does she have to gain before you want me to call?
When she gets short of breath! She gets short of breath the next week and goes to the hospital and stays and has a big bill. The entire hospitalization could have been avoided.
3. There is a part in the bill that calls for Medical Bundling. That means they want to pay the hospital a flat fee for the hospital, rehab, home health, oxygen, etc etc. Well, where I live there is one hospital that IS the only game in town in a lot of our cities. If that happens everyone that works for other agencies will be unemployed because they will have a monopoly on EVERY thing. Their rehab facility, their home health agency, their oxygen supply company-etc etc. No competition.
4. I resent when they call Medicare an entitlement since we all paid into it over the years thinking that we were investing in our future care. I am in my 50s. If you actually look at what you have paid into the system all these years it still couldn't pay for one hospital bill at today's prices.
5. There are a lot of MDs that are over priced, but since I work in the profession as a nurse I know that a lot of internists and GPs really don't make a lot and have to jump through hoops to get anything. An example-a MD bills for $50 for an office call and medicare approves 27.50. Let's say they pay $17.00 The MD can only get a total of $27.50 between medicare and patient pay. Think of all the time just to try to collect and staff-overhead. Medicare wants to LOWER reimbursement. Trust me- MDs are thinking it is not worth being on call, malpractice insurance, paper work that makes forests disappear-and lower reimbursement. they are better off as plumbers.
Why would anyone who wasn't insane prefer sticking with this bloated, half-working system we have now?
GOP - If you don't like "Obamacare", WHAT'S YOUR PLAN?
Doing the same thing and expecting different results is not sanity!
Obamacare was modeled after Romneycare. Romneycare has been effect for years, and the results are apparently showing in Mass. Obamacare also rewards providers for quality care vs quantity of care, and doesn't fully kick in until 2014.
All the fear mongers saying woe is us can simply look to Mass and thank Romney for the national model.
Have you ever actually had health coverage in another country?
I have, and I can tell you that the scaremongering is LIES. Canada's health system is BETTER than the US's, and costs 1/2 as much. With EVERYONE covered.
Why do you think some of the rightwingers on here (like Roy_Wilson) fly to Costa Rica for healthcare? Because it's GOOD and CHEAP.
Just because it's the way America has "always done it" doesn't make it the best. Open your eyes!
Lie, lie, lie
NONE of those are "dead". The Post Office is dying, but that due to "free market" factors, and it's an independent agency, anyway.
Medicare's overhead and administrative costs are FAR lower than those of private health insurers. Notice you didn't mention that on your little list.
Have you been to an emergency room lately? Those doctors sit around and do nothing and want to make all this money. Their patient bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. The insurance companies will only pay a certain amount. I would rather have a foreign doctor who was skilled, cared, and is knowledgable than a lazy american doctor, who feels entitled, who barely made it through medical school, his goal is to get rich and play golf. In Canada and England the doctors are paid a set salary and medical services are a set price. If the doctors leave because of loss of income, then they should find another professsion. I thought doctors became doctors to care for patients and cure diseases, if that changed then something is wrong. No one wants to deprive them of making a good salary for their knowledge and skills.
So much for Faux Reporting News with manipulations that include the "Death Panel Activists Bloggers", who say in one breath that it's wrong to kill an embryo (regardless of the health condition of the fetus), and yet it's okay to kill someone, who may be sick. That spells "HYPOCRISY" to say the least. No person ever has the right to make the decision for an individual as to whether the person lives or dies. Only God reserves the right when it's time to take someone away. In the 10 Commandments, it says, "Thou shall not kill." And to think that members of the "Death Panel" call themselves "Born Again Christians", who use religion (in name only) to advance their own personal agenda of foul name calling, selfishness (me, myself, and I), living in a complete "state of cluelessness," and greed. Some bloggers need to get their uneducated facts straight.
cactus, what in the world are you talking about? "...Those registered Democrats who contribute regularly to the Party and loyal party members such as Union people will get higher priority. All others will get two choices...". You make it sound like it's a there is a public option or a one-payer system. You do realize health insurance stays with private health insurance companies who do not know one's party affiliations. Furthermore, my employer-provided insurance doesn't "know" what my party affiliation is. Obamacare will not change that simple little fact. Please, please please, try to make SOME sense when you try to bash something you have no idea what you are talking about.
You're right. Banks are not dead. They're just "mostly dead".
Well no wonder this system is in this state. Do you ever go to the doctor and ask how much is this going to costs? There is no communication between the provider of the service and the recipient. So the doctor can charge whatever he wants for the most part. And now with Obama Care we not only have to pay the doctor and all of his help, we have to pay the insurance company and all of their help also. The insurance company is not there to give you money. They are there to take your money. What a crock. You want to fix health care then get the recipient and the provider to talk to each other and work out a price. I know there are some out there that will say that sometimes you cannot talk to the recipient. I know this is sometimes the case but most of the time it is not. And the times that it is the case I do not know one doctor that would deny coverage even if he knew the recipient could not pay. If they had that attitude they should not be a doctor. The bottom line comes down to that we are turning over our health care to the people who waist more money in a day than a millionair does in an entire lifetime. The federal government and big business. How long do you think it will take at this rate before we go from the best health care system in the world to the worst?
Another "Canada vs U.S." healthcare comparison. "It costs half as much". Have you bothered to check Canada's income tax rate compared to the U.S.? And remember the Canadian skier who was seriously injured....they brought her here for treatment. Why was that?
With you, PatriotJane - seriously we ought to have experienced nurses in charge. They know what works and what doesn't. As for doctor shortage/imported physicians - having spent more than 2 decades working in a community hospital I can say a few things about that. [1] the number of available doctors, like teachers, ebbs and flows over time. Shortages are not new; doctors age as do the rest of us, retire from practice or cut back on office hours, or plain burn out. It has been ever thus. [2] we've had "foreign" doctors for decades - same with nurses. [3] we have had a large influx of superb nurse practitioners and physician assistants who can and do take up a large segment of what doctors do, and for less cost.
“Whether you look at the Republican platform or the Democratic platform, you find in pretty strong language the importance of developing a high quality health care system.”
Uh nooooo, you hear it from the Dems but not the Reps, BUT either way its still just talk! As long as big pharma and insurance company lobbyists have exclusive access to our so called "elected leaders", the one thing that will change is that it will only continue to get worse!
The Repubs don't want the system to change because too many people are making money off the system. This is why healthcare was never brought up the 12 years Congress was majority republican.
If you have ever worked with insurance companies, especially health insurance then you know the money is gobbled up by inefficiency in the case handling, IT, management, the entire organization. More time and money is wasted denying coverage than what it would cost to provide the coverage.
There is more inefficiency as doctors order more tests to cover their butts from possible misdiagnosis and mal-practice suits.
Gov Hater--my TOTAL reason for opposing the Obama care plan was that it happened at the WRONG level.
Big insurance is PART of the problem--excessive tests, etc. just to minimize risks of lawsuits (which ALSO is part of the problem--our out of control 'lawsuit happy' culture) IS the reason why so much of your money goes for unnecessary tests.
And the HCB HANDED Big insurance 30 million NEW FORCED customers.
“Whether you look at the Republican platform or the Democratic platform, you find in pretty strong language the importance of developing a high quality health care system.”
BS The only repub plan is to take us back to 2008. HOW WILL THAT FIX ANYTHING?
US health care system is not a mess - it is a CON GAME!
Harson,
Put your tin foil hat back on. Nothing you have said is true or rational.
I'm sorry to be the thumbtack in your liberal balloon factory, but health care is a mess not because insurers are inefficient (they are, but this is a reaction to policies), or doctors don't wash their hands properly (which may be true, I don't know). Health care in the USA is a mess because the government, beginning in 1942, has had an ever-increasing hand in how health care is distributed.
It began with the simple, almost unoffending (unless you like the Constitution like me) idea that we should give firms tax breaks on health insurance bennies they give their employees AND not charge those employees a tax for the benefit they just got. Over time it has progressed. The MASSIVE expansion of the governmental role during the 1960s with Medicare and Medicaid caused (as opposed to merely being coincident with) massive price increases. How?
Simple. Neither program covers the entire cost of services provided which either causes prices to be shifted to others (privately insured individuals) or causes a major increase in the number of procedures performed. More tests, more pills, more everything, if for no other reason than to up the total revenue. It also worsened the already--at that time--tenuous relationship between prices and benefits for individuals. You see it in this little article too: How many people, other than those paying cash, ever know the actual cost of the procedure or service provided BEFORE it is provided?
So answer yourself a couple of little, but significant, questions...If you knew the price of the product AND could benefit by buying more cost-effective products, would you? And, does anyone really think, particularly since even Mr. Obama now seems to admit that his own halth care reform will cost us far more than promised, that government intervention HAS produced higher quality, or lower costs, or both? And one more...Would giving MORE power to DC bureaucrats improve your health, or your pocketbook thickness?
The answer to the larger question is that more government has caused worse quality and higher costs. So, when in a hole...STOP digging. Get the government out of health care and prices will decline, or quality will go up, or both.
I dont think Obammie or rummie the dummie are going to make much difference. They will both spend, cut and tax people just like any other president before them
Rich - your argument is like saying insurers won't let people die for lack of care because they'll lose customers.
We all know that's not the case.
If they can make more money by screwing over their customers than by serving them, they will.
Your "free market" doesn't work unless there's regulation.
The rest is just magical thinking.
@K.Harson......
i don't want to turn you off from the rest of this post in the first line but.....
do you listen to yourself talk?
it sounds to me as though you are the one spreading hate. this story and the discussion are about america's health care system. granted, political powers have crossed that line and started legislating health care. but do you really believe all the crap you're saying about dems? surely not. stop a minute and think here. everything is going waaaay too bi-partisan. unplug for a minute man! you can still get your current events without going mainstream media. you can have an opinion of how the health care system should be operated without alienating and bad mouthing YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS!
i've got news for you; DEMOCRATS ARE HUMANS. REPUBLICANS ARE HUMANS. ALL PARTIES ARE HUMANS. AND THEY ARE ALL AMERICANS.
we all have the right to life and good health. that goes above and beyond any political standing, doctrine, or a nations laws. yeah, it might not run the way you want it to but lets face it......it's not all the dems fault. the health care system didn't just find its self in this situation overnight. it's been happening for many decades. can you squarely blame that on every dem that has ever held office in that time and equally give no blame to repubs? absolutely not.
stop turning gumball machines into a political thing. start acting like an american instead of a loud mouth. stop regurgitating all the spin you get from your news outlets. agree to disagree, and then compromise. stop dealing in absolution. i have never heard a dem call anyone a nazi or a fascist and mean it. if they did, it was only to seek out attention or cause controversy. just like our dear bill o'reilly....he's not an analyst or news reporter. he's an entertainer in a new breed of broadcast that isn't labled yet....call it "reality news". we all know that reality shows are all fake, fake-ality shows. just like bill....fake-ality news and views. dude has more spin than a play ground merry go round.
in short sir....be part of the solution. right now, you are part of the problem.
K Harman- Aside from all the lies facts about what democrats want, obviously you did not read your own description of Communism. you have not one shred of evidence that Obama wants a government takeover of private property, wealth, or resources. As for the social aspects of society, Republicans are closer to your definition than the democrats ever could be. the Democrats don't call for this to be a Christina nation, they call for it to be an all-religious inclusive nation. They don't tell a woman what to do with her body- that is between her and her conscience and her beliefs. they don't tell someone who they can sleep with or love that is a Republican concept. The party of No is far more government restrictive than the Democrats.
The issue with the Republican philosophy is how far to the Right-n-Libertarianism are we getting to go, or are we to maintain a governmental system of certain aspects of our needs are kept in the 'Commons' and paid for by a tax revenue system. Our K-12 education system. Should it be free paid by the 'Commons'? Cops and Fire Emergency services. Should they be paid by the 'Commons'
Should everything be privatized. Effectively, get rid of all taxes and allow business interests and profits dictate everything. Eventually, even the Military and Judicial Bodies will be privatized.
In the final captivation of this coming Libertarian Utopia, we will be controlled by an uber private company whose purpose will be to provide security and judicary, maintain relations with other countries.
The only difference between that and what we have now. The CEO and BODs of this company will be paid like Wall Street Executives expectations versus the measly high public salary they enjoy now.
What we got, a CEO who is paid 20 billion a year versus a President's 500K we got now.
So, do we want to fix the governmental system we got now as per the Democratic Party Agenda, or get rid of it as per the Republican Party Agenda.
This election is a telling point of the direction America is to head.
Fixing the health care system is actually meaningless as compared to this bigger agenda.
Hi RealAmericansFirst,
I don't have too much trouble with regulations, and if that is where your federal hobbie-horse stopped we might find common cause. A very good regulation would be, for instance, that your benefits are spelled out clearly and in plain English so that if you have a procedure done you know, going in, who pays. This would also allow you to decide how much to pay for insurance to begin with since, your post to me notwithstanding, you are smart enough to decide for yourself how much coverage you want for how much money you want to pay.
There are people, lots of them too, who cannot--as opposed to will not--pay for coverage. But a far better way than more government control exists to get these people the kind of coverage you wet yourself imagining we should all have. We could do it, simply put, with a refundable tax credit towards the purchase of care. And, to get cost containment momentum, part of that refundable tax credit could be convertible to cash should you use less than your actuarial cost prediction.
Now, I know you probably have no idea what I just wrote, but the gist of it is that everyone (as opposed to Obamacare where as many as 30 million may still remain uninsured) could then own their OWN policy. This means the total population would be covered. Which I think is your ostensible goal. But it gets even better...I mean, since it would be YOUR policy, you would now have total portability, something else liberals claimed was their ostensible goal. And, because it would put you into a position of wanting to save money so you could pocket some coin, it would, unlike Obamacare, help contain costs. Of course, it would put you in charge of yourself, and remove governmental control over your life to the extent possible, and so I understand why leftists, such as yourself, would never agree to something so simple and complete: It empowers the individual and disempowers the government.
"Conway praises the Massachusetts health care system, which he says is organized with the patient in mind."
To All Obamacare haters, hello?!? Here's is Willards plan that seems to be working but the uber lying hypocrite will repeal on day one IF he makes it to the W.H.
Like everything profits must be limited or people will use and abuse the system. Insurance companies are one part of the problem, they should be providing a useful service, but greed gets in the way every time. The vast majority of people will PAY more in insurance then they will ever get back in services. They HAVE TO or else the insurance companies would go bankrupt.
Why am I paying someone to hold my money for AND have it lose value? Since the vast majority of people PAY more then they get back the VAST majority of people would be BETTER off without insurance. If I give money to a bank they will at least give me something for it atm. I have paid more in auto insurance premiums then I have coverage for. IF ONLY I HAD BEEN ABLE TO SAVE THAT MONEY INSTEAD OF BEING FORCED TO PAY IT. I could have bought a house, had some investments, savings, etc.
Why not make a government fund that everyone must pay into, but the money is kept separate for each person. We and the government would have more money since it would not be wasted on management fees like it is now. If you had an accident AND DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY COULD YOU NOT GET A FING LOAN? Stop with the lame excuses and stop letting FEAR rule your life. That is why you have insurance FEAR, and that "everything will be alright". It is also why you PAY MORE for the SAME SERVICE. How stupid do you have to be to pay more for the same or worse service.
Medicare and Medicaid are also forms of insurance. People like Rick Scott defrauded these programs for billions of dollars. Rick Scott would not have ALL the money he does if he did not STEAL it from the taxpayers. He thinks it is ok to steal from programs designed to help people. He figured why not help him self since he was obviously in need of help.
I forgot to add since your employer pays for part of the coverage then it is not "FREE". IT IS COMING OUT OF YOUR PAY/CHECK. If the company did not have to pay part of the premium then they would have more money to pay you, simple math.
Hey Tired,
Holy Cow! Everything must be limited? Why? Because you perceive some unfair advantage plays out to someone you dislike or something? No, how about making you more free. Free to contract with who you want for what you want. Free to earn as much or as little as your talents and motivations allows. Free to associate with who you want. Free to do just about anything you want so long as no one is harmed by it. This does NOT mean, btw, that if your feelings are damaged that you can or should prevent the person doing it from doing that activity.
However, all that said, your second post is actually a very cogent economic truth. But I wonder how intellectually honest you will be...Would, say, an increase in taxes on firms not be an increase in taxes on consumers or employees or owners, as opposed to being an increase on the tax for the firm? In other words, are leftists honest when they argue that businesses should pay more so that people won't have to? I would argue that businesses simply pass along costs in whatever way possible--higher prices, lower quality, lower wages or benefits, lower shareholder value--so that it isn't "the firm" that pays the money. They just collect it. What do you think?
ps--I'd love to find a compromise with liberals that could eliminate the business tax, along with all other taxes but for the tax on individual income. Wouldn't it make more sense for voters to know their actual tax contributions to the government so that come an election they can make wiser choices?
bob in los angels;
I have to take issue with your views. Republicans do not demand that this be called a Christian nation, they state that it was founded on Christian principles, which it was. The people of this nation can engage in any religion, or not, they choose.
Republicans do not tell a Woman what she can, or cannot do with her body, the Woman determines that. But when a Woman "chooses" to allow the opposite sex to deposit his sperm in her, she has chosen to share her body with her mate and if a pregnancy arises, the Woman now must recognize the rights of the Male and fetus, and after 21 days from conception there is a heartbeat, and a new life. The situation becomes complex, a situation that she "chose" to engage in.
With regards to contraception, no Woman is denied. Religious employers who oppose this practice simply do not want to pay for it but they are not dictating whether the Woman can participate.
Gays can live their lifestyle, they're gonna do it no matter what faction opposes them, and Republicans don't dictate who they can love, that's nonsense. Republicans are holding true to the traditional definition of marriage, that's it, they just refuse to acknowledge a union between persons of the same sex to be marriage. It's not a Republican concept, it's a religious belief Christians believe established by God, they're merely adhering to it.
Is anyone surprised that there is 30% inefficiency in healthcare costs? It's easy to dissect the information with the benefit of hindsight. However, if we look at the root cause as to "why" we have such a high level of inefficiency is because the healthcare industry is forced to spend large amounts of money and resources to cover their a$$ in the event that something does go wrong. Of course everyone knows that the majority of tests aren't needed. But, in a highly litigious society, healthcare providers cannot afford to omit something that could come back to cost them.
People can argue that malpractice only contributes a fraction to the cost of healthcare. It's not the actual proven malpractice that impacts the cost of healthcare. That is a mere proverbial "tip of the iceberg". The actual inefficiency lies in the measures taken to minimize malpractice claims.
What's wrong with our health system is lack of innovation in administration. We excel in medical science and innovative therapies and treatments, but we fail miserably when it comes to delivery and information sharing and dissemination. IMO, this stems from lack of accountability, poor oversight, and tragically outdated information systems at EVERY level, and from a very broken health coverage system. I fully support privatization when it comes to service delivery, but the current pay systems (health "insurance") does not serve us well. Until we go to a centralized single-payor system, this problem will not be resolved. Government payor health systems, e.g. Medicare, Medicaid consistently outperform private insurance when it comes to administration on a per-patient basis. I would also be in favor of eliminating the VA as a health provider and fold veterans into one "Medicare" type of system for all Americans. Patients pay a percentage from their own pocket and choose their own providers. This gives full freedom of choice while incentivizing value-shopping. Capturing all health and cost-related data in one massive database has it's own benefits, as it can be mined for health and cost-related trends so continuous improvement can occur. We could have this and the best health delivery system in the world if Congress was not bought and paid for by private interests.
SanityCheck...you sound like a reasonable and thoughtful person. There are several issues that you may have over looked. The rate of wrong drug/wrong dose/wrong patient mistakes in health care are enormous. An estimated 90,000 adverse effect incidents occur each year. The single largest risk factor in contracting an infection in the hospital is from the physicians, nurses and technicians coming into your room. Despite the tremendous effort put into "Time-Out" procedures, where everyone involved in surgeries and invasive procedures have to all agree it's the right patient, the correct procedure on the correct site, there are still problems with the wrong surgery on the wrong site and/or patient. Post-Operative infections from IV lines and urinary catheters still abound. We have a long laundry list of problems at the "grunt-level" in health care to fix. This is still only the tip of the "Health care Iceberg". The health care issues have to be attacked and solved on multiple levels and almost simultaneously for any solution to work.
Not sure if you're talking about Tim Geithner or Mitt Romney? Anyway, I see the article praising Romneycare - not Obamacare.
The minute the middleman HMO took over, doctors became their employees. Don't believe it? Ask your doctor how many times his diagnosis is questioned by an idiot with no medical experience at an HMO. If there is wrongdoing, it may just be because HMO demands on doctors and nurses have these professionals marching to HMO tunes that are not compatible with medical training or healthcare needs of patients.
I recall one of the 10 HMOs my employer has had in the past 15 years (all to save the bottom line of course) refused to allow my PCP to draw blood in his office. Oh no...it had to be done at a Quest Lab one of the cronies of the HMO. The technician who drew blood screwed up and I had a swollen arm for 4 days. The reason? HMOs demand that these technicians see a specific number of patients every day and some at Quest Labs are working 36 hours straight. No wrong doing by sleep deprived technicians, doctors and nurses?
I have worked in health care for over 20 yrs. The reason there are so many mistakes is because the nurses are overloaded. Taking care of 8 patients and spending more time on the computer, documenting takes all your time. You don't have time to give quality care to anyone, but the hosp. Second of all if we stopped illegials from crossing the boarder dropping off their sick family members and leaving them for the USA to take care of and foot the bill our health care would not cost so much. Third if the doctors did not order unnecessary MRI's, CT's, EGD's, and other treatments we would be better off. It is all about the money, it doesn't matter who is president (both canidates suck eggs, anyway) we need work on fixing these problems.
Sanity Check~
I totally agree with your comments. Why do we have so many government health programs - Medicare, Medicaid, VA, Native Americans, military, government employees? Let's just roll all health care, including private, into one non-profit program for all citizens, and eliminate insurance companies. Can you imagine walking into the doctors office, getting treatment, and walking out? And the doctors office submits the charges to this one entity and gets paid within 30 days. And when you go to a different doctor or the hospital, all your records are on electronic file, and you don't have to fill out one of those interminable four page forms - AGAIN! Doctors could eliminate the expense of one or more people who do nothing but deal with the hundreds of insurance companies and policies and co-pays and deductibles, that exist now. Anyone who wants to pay for private insurance is welcome to it.
The insurance companies will never allow it.
Consider the amount of profit insurance companies make and the amount they spend on lobbying. Now consider the likely-hood that Congress would approve anything that would hurt the insurance companies profits.
Oh but the 'private sector' is soooo much more efficient than the government; just ask any fleabagging republican. (sarcasm included). As one who has worked in the controller's dept of several insurance companies over a 30+ year career, you'd be shocked at how much money and effort is expended on DENYING your claim. The rules of the game are delay, obfuscate, deny and ask for more information and it's INTENTIONAL; it's intentionally done to frustrate the hell out of YOU, the insured, so that you just give up and pay it yourself. I love when they say: "you want a governmental bureaucrat involved in your health care?" As opposed to what ... an insurance company bureaucrat?
Do all Veterans a favor and leave the VA Medical Health Care alone. It is absolutely the best healthcare in the US. Why not have the rest of the country follow the VA example - electronic records and quality nurses and doctors who honestly CARE about the patient! Thanks to each and every VA Medical employee - no matter what their position - YOU ARE THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If people do not believe Marc, check out Wendell Potter. Wiki, google or amazon his name. He wrote a book which is a "kiss and tell" regarding the heinous methods of the for profit insurance companies named Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans.
Mr Potter was VP corporate communications of CIGNA. His whistleblowing has been largely ignored by the media and legislators which makes it all that more important for US citizens to know about.
We should look at who in the world has the best system, the best outcomes and the best delivery and design a similar system. If we weren't so arrogant as to think we always know best, perhaps we could learn something from some other country who has figured it out. Apparently some things work and others don't. Maybe we should stop doing what doesn't work and start doing what does. We don't have to re-invent the wheel.
ObamaCare raids the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (Part A) by $517 billion and Supplementary Medicare Insurance Trust Fund (Part B) by $247 billion over the next 10 years. You may recall that Obama Administration officials have repeatedly warned that ObamaCare’s Medicare cuts are so drastic that seniors' access to care might be jeopardized. So it’s not surprising that the CBO analysis comes with a sobering reminder that ObamaCare’s Medicare cuts “might be difficult to sustain over a long period of time.”
Obamacare IS a death trap for seniors!
It is a mess, and I am a physician. There is no talk of fixing the real issues because there are too many vested interests in not doing so.
Corporate medicine has no goal to provide better and cheaper care. There are things that capitalism won't do on its own. Education for all, a safety net for the least advantaged, providing health care for the sickest are among these.
I am considering being employed by a hospital system. The rules are suchI am seeing peers nearly doubling their salaries with more vacation and less work. The hospital have means to get funds that I can't. It is financially bad for me to provide the most cost effective care. If I do a minor procedure in my office, I eat the cost of the clinic time, the sterilization of equipment, nursing staff, sutures (20.00 a piece), etc... If I do it at the hospital, I get the same fee and they get to bill for the facility and the cost. The biggest issue is we are being drowned in a sea of paperwork. I employ 3 people (3 Dr. Clinic) to play the insurance game, I should have 1 for this job. I could easilly see 1 more person every hour if I could do the paperwork that is meaningful, not what is needed for EM codes.
It is a disguised genocide....
VETHOM
EXACTLY vethome! The best "prescription" for our healthcare system woudlbe for everyone to have care similar to your Tri Care; which essentially could be what Thom Hartmann calls "Medicare Part E" the E is for EVERYONE. If that were to happen, administartive costs would be reduced to the 5-6 % that the VA/Medicare operates with, rather than the 30-35% administartive costs for most typical insurance based "care".
where are the liberals on the NEW VOUCHER for poor seniors just started by Obama care?????
2 million poor seniors are now getting vouchers under OBAMA!!!
What a lie, Wayetsi
Wayetsi.................What the f$#@ are you talking about ???????????
State your facts instead of spewing lies that you mimicked like a parrot from some right wing hillbilly that listens to Rush Limbaugh and has gotten this person to "vote against his/her own best interest"
Even with Medicaid or Medicare the doctors don't care about any of their patients. My mom went to the hospital (she is elderly on Medicare) and they sent a copy of her bill. The hospital charged Medicare for 3 X-rays..she only had 1 done. They charged Medicare for 6 IV fluids..she only had 2. They charged Medicare for 3 antibiotic fluid drips...she only had 1. They charged the Medicare for 2 visits to the ER and she only went 1 time. The doctor didn't inform her that Medicare wouldn't pay for a procedure that the doctor ordered and now they charging my mom (who don't make but barely $1000 a month) over $700 for it. Do you see the picture. Hospitals and doctors are abusing the situation as it is that is why there is never enough money for the government to help those who have no insurance and needs the help. So sometimes its the greedy doctors and hospitals at fault for a lot of the money not being there for those who need it. Like my mom who worked over 35 years and retired and is disabled and barely has enough for herself. These are the people that needs their retirement money and deserves the medical help they paid for through their working so hard to pay the bills in their younger days.
Crack down on the doctors and hospitals that are charging Medicare and Medicaid for things that patients are even receiving.
The problems within the health care system are too numerous to list here and those problems run the entire spectrum; waste, fraud, lack of consensus about procedures and protocol, over reliance on traditional roles, patient abuses, redundancy, etc., etc., etc. This report is broad in it's description but exactly dead on in it's point. The system needs an overhaul in the worse way. Problem is we can't afford it, it will take decades to enact and during the transition from what we have now and where we think it should be, the entire landscape of health care and our society will change. So however and whatever we plan will have to be exceedingly clever.
So Romneycare is better than Obamacare. That makes for an easy vote in November - oust the corrupt Chicago Democrat and let him go back to selling drugs in Chicago.
Why is the Romneycare so much better thgan Obamacare I know why_— because its called Obamacare even if its the same plan.
You seem to need a brain scan, Jamie.
Romney Care and ObamaCare are remarkably similar. They were both tweaked by the Heritage Foundation, an otherwise conservative and thoughtless institution. However, the Republicans refused to make it mandatory -- as it is in Massachusetts -- and it therefore is more problematic to fund. That said, it is essentially identical in its requirement that everyone be insured and be able to get guaranteed coverage.
The conservative b.s. hates this profound truth, and it is why Romney got pilloried by the other republicans and Tea Bigots running for office. But, it's a fact.
If you want to vote for the party that only knows how to lie, then lies about their lies, and then tries to hide the lies, please vote Republican. You damn fools deserve each other. Meanwhile, learn how to say thank you master, why yes master, and please don't outsource my job master. "cause you're gonna need to love your millionaire masters. Meanwhile I'll recount my IRA which has more than doubled in the past 3.5 years, and collect my SS, and use my Medicare to get a health checkup. You'll never see any such benefits with your new masters in charge.
Romney did his at a state level, while Obama forced his ideas on the nation..........many states said no we do not want this (both legilative and by popular vote/poll.
Regarding your good fortune over the past 3.5 years, shut up. It was doing fine during Bush too until the collapse. I bet you never praised him for how well you investments did during the first 7 years, did you?!?!?!?!?
"US health care: It's officially a mess, institute says"
Just wait until Obamacare kicks in...
Can't wait for the Doctor to come in the room and say...
"Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help"
Pathetic just pathetic...
The middle class and your grandchildren can't afford 4 more!!
Have you read any of the ACA? If not, then please do so before attacking it.
It helps increase patient accountability and administration accountability, two things very lacking in our health care system.
Hey Maxx, here's a news flash. Without Obamacare, or some sort of government-based health plan, chances are the future middle class and your grandchildren will never have to worry about hearing what a doctor will say because they will likely never be able to afford to see the inside of a doctor's office.
What is wrong with people in our country? How can any "sane" individual believe that "Government" could operate/manage any service efficiently? If you think health care has problems now, turn it over to the government to operate and we will all suffer tremendously.
Maxx Power...Not to worry ...with conservatives now the neocon rich class calling themselves Middle Class, your kind will never have to worry about affording healthcare.
Sometimes you just want to stick a pin in this overbloated gas bag know it alls.
Bruce...I see...so if we privatize 99% of the government in hands of Madoffers, Kozlowskis, Ken Lays, Jeff Skillings, Ebbers and the rest of the privatized feeders at the public trough we get to not only hand themmn our tax dollars in subsidies they don't need but now we should do away with government completely because it shouldn't be a government but a corporation with a CEO and board of directors? And just how much voice will taxpayers have then? About as much as freakin' Cheney and Bush allowed that got us into this mess in the first place. No thanks. Keep your privatization in your investment portfolio. I am the government. I don't need help from a thieving CEO to tell me when I need a doctor.
obamacare run by the government? LMAO If the government ran the Sahara Desert, it would be out of sand in a years time.
So you're saying that everyone's entitled to the best healthcare they can afford. Can't afford it not your problem. Just die quietly.
Actually Bruce there are many instances when the government is better than private industry. You have jumped on the band wagon where the government can do no right.
Costs of running prisons has gone up tremendously since the government switched to using private firms. Actually, almost any time the government switches to using private firms, costs escalate dramatically. Why? The companies that get the contracts usually tend to provide nice donations to those that are in charge of their operating budget. Or they have made donations which help them get the contracts in the first place. Governor Rick Perry recently awarded a billion dollar contract to an engineering firm from Kansas that blew thru their budget on a previous project while only completing 10% of the work. At the same time, government workers finished a similar project under budget. They were laid off and the billion dollar project was given to the private firm.
And you think the insurance company bureaucrat is here to help? Lotsa luck! The fleabaggers have you bamboozled too.
So you see a privately run health care system that is collapsing, overrun by exploding costs and rampant waste, and rapidly falling far behind other health care systems in the world, and all you can say is that you think government can't run anything. People, private industry is doing a horrible job here, it's time to try something new, and the only bright spots mentioned in this report just happen to be government programs.
But, by all means conservatives, please continue to allow your uninformed prejudices to get in the way of logical thought. You all do that so well.
J Heron, I like to call it "profitization" rather than privatization since that makes the concspety what it is: moving tax dollars to a provate company rather than having our government run the agency the profitization would replace. Current examples of government run or subsidized agencies which work MUCH better than private industry: Medicare, Social Security (never missed a payout since 1934), Tri Care, the USPS, US Military (as opposed to "military contractors") and it goes on and on. The big lie being propagated since Ronald Reagan is the theme that breaks down to: "Government bad, private industry good". Of course, for critics of government, the "facts" have inconvenient bias toward democratic (yes, small d) policies, which is why the big lie has to be propagandized as much as it is. In fact, there is even an entire TV network and many newspapers(WSJ, Washington Times) which are wholly owned subsidiaries of the right wing.
www.thomhartmann.com/
I think we should focus on the insurance companies. Put the pressure on them first.
I don't agree with privatization. At least the government is somewhat accountable to the taxpayers. But a private company has no such accountability (for example, hospitals), and they all can raise their prices whenever the stockholders decide they want more money. You say "shop around". That doesn't work since the other hospitals also raise their prices. All health care prices are outrageous. Highway robbery.
Romneycare is great for Mass. but the nation don't deserve it because the Democrats wants it.
Wait until Obama's bureaucrats start telling you what health services you CANNOT have because you're, too, old, or young or sick or unlikely to recover to exist. They are directed to save money and have NO KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICINE, so you are a statistical number to them --not a human being. Pancreatic Cancer? Hmmm, statistics say you won't survive, waste of money to treat. Clayton, you go see a dietitian and let her give you some recipe that you might tolerate as you DIE. These Bureaucrats are like taking your car to be repaired to your Hair Dresser. Our pets will receive better Medical care from Veterinaries than people will from the Bureaucrats who will run Healthcare under Obamacare.
And you will be TAXED out the wazoo to pay for these igits.
clark...hate to inform you but as an office manager for my company, you ARE a number to HMOs. Don't believe it? Call them and the first question out of their mouths is "What is your membership/provider number? Your name doesn't matter to HMOs...only your number. That's how they pull up your medical records...nice to know a bunch of HMO strangers have access to your ALL of your personal medical information that should only be between you and your doctor, right?
By the way, you already pay for Medicare and Medicaid each payroll period ...and some of us pay Medicaid at the state level as well as federal.
We're getting that from the private insurance companies now. What's the difference? At least the government's primary purpose isn't to make a profit from it.
Well said Clayton. For the hate mongers, it not right if Obama does it, but they will trumpet if Romney does it.
No wonder why Romney is silent--he can't have his cake and eat it too!. And he can't explain why he was for it but now against it? He is just playing politics.
There is a saying--crazy guys wouldn't mind loosing two balls if that would guarantee the enemy losing at least one....
300,000 tax paying baby boomers are retiring each month for the next decade and becoming consumers of SS and Medicare. David Berwick, an admirer of the British NHS, was Obama's preference for head of IPAB. Britain has developed the "QALY," Quality Adjusted Life Year, which makes life and death, and quality of life decisions based upon a bureaucratic score of quality of life expectancy. Obamacare is an expensive bait and switch leading to single payer. Medicare will be severely stressed until demographics again favor the young. Obamacare will lead not to Medicare for all, but Medicaid for all. The numbers belie any other conclusion.
Our healthcare system a mess?!!? Never!
Everything is great, and anyone that doesn't agree is a commie!
/sarc
HA
We do not need hundreds upon hundreds of private health insurers with their thousands of different forms and myriad rules and regulations that cause doctors, patients, hospitals and pharmacies to spend well over 30% of every health care dollar on non-medical costs.
Medicare-for-All, done right could easily save Americans half a trillion or more annually. We should give HR676, Medicare-for-All serious consideration----- and if we had legislators who cared more about American's health and less about lobbyist bribes it would be given an honest debate and due consideration.
Bob, when the Feds straighten out the current Medicare system and the VA and Medicaid THEN I will consider National health. Bringing in tens of millions of people intp a system already messed up would cause a total collapse of health care in this country.
Janine...Not true. The ACA still gives Americans choice if they so choose that route. You can even pay out of pocket for you healthcare if you want it. This is an age of mass communication. Facebook proves that. Doctors today use email to communicate with patients and even order prescriptions at pharmacies all over the country via smart phone.
There simply is no longer any excuse for not centralizing healthcare other than those who oppose it will lose tons of profit and their investments in HMOs.
And they have lots of money for lobbying.
The group with the fewest complaints about healthcare? 1 Politicians 2 The elderly 3 the poor If memory serves me aren't those all government run programs payed by tax payer money?
Medicare for All??? Most doctors these days don't even accept medicare. If Medicare was the only payer, doctors would be in a much shorter supply.
DOESN'T ANY OF THIS MAKE SENSE TO YOU PEOPLE????
AND, a short supply of doctors will in turn raise cost even more. Just ask the rich people in Canada, they come to the states and pay for health care out of pocket.
TRY GETTING ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY OR ANY SURGERY IN CANADA. You are about 8 months out.
THINK ABOUT PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are just turning over our health care to the two entities that waist more money in a day then a millionair does in his life time. The federal government and big business (insurance companies) Doesn"t that make you feel great and taken care of?
I have to agree with you cooch (I actually laughed while typing that. Juvenile humor, I know. LOL)
I'm currently 7 months and 3 weeks pregnant. I have insurance provided through my employer. When I got married last year, I tried to put my husband on my insurance because he is a tattoo artist. He is consindered self employed. I was told to add my husband to my plan, it would cost me $989 a month by my employer. My jaw hit the floor. That's about $200 less than half of my monthly take home pay.
I hesitated to ask them how much it would cost the add the baby because of that, but I had to. In order to insure my child, it will cost me $619 a month. That's about 1/3 of my take home pay. So I tried to talk to a private insurance company. They won't insure my baby until he is a year old. So no luck there. I try to get state funded insurance and I get told that my gross pay makes me uneligible. I make too much to qualify for the familycare plan in Illinois but not enough to cover the costs of private insurance on my own. With 9 weeks left of my pregnancy, I've never been more worried... hopefully I don't make too much for the state to cover my baby for the 1 year until I can get him covered on his own. I'm not even trying to do it for free. There is a bracket where you have to pay for it. I will gladly pay my way if they didn't charge so much!
THe problem with the state funded insurance is that they look at the gross income. But they don't take into account that between federal taxes, state taxes, medicare/medicaid, and social security, that $1700 check I get turns into $1250. I'm not complaining about my income at all, becuase it is certainly better than most get, but I wish it was more affordable for me to have my husband and child insured. I'm scared that my baby will be uninsured until he is a year old because of this. I feel like I have no choice in the matter either.
Apparently this is your first child, otherwise you would already have "family plan" health insurance. Please consider that your situation may be a blessing for your baby's health! If midwifery is leagl in your State, and if you are in good health with no complications, please consider a home birth. MUCH safer for you and your baby. You will not be forced into a ceasarian because some doctor has a golf date. Your baby will avoid the multiple vaccinations that hospuitals force on newborn infants, and thus minimize the chances that the child will develop autism. You will be allowed to hold your child immediately after birth, instead of suffering the dismay of having you baby stolen from you at birth to be "processed" into the "nursery". You will be allowed to suckle you child without a brigade of social workers poking your breasts. If you breastfeed, then the baby's immune system will be at least as strong as yours, so you needn't worry about disease. And your baby will avoid amoxicillin poisoning. If you want to do the best for your child, then stay as far away from doctors as possible!
This mess never had to happen but our do nothing congress just for all my life time have been sitting on their hands to stupid to get together and fix it for the good of our citizens. There are other countries of this world that have a real healthcare system that works but not our stupid political grid lock bunch of over paid wothless do nothings in our congress. This also lays on the backs of the working class for letting the unions be killed out by Reagan, the unions were what kept the rest of us in a good job with benefits. The government and the news media helped Reagan and his goons kill all our strong unions until we are now in a real fix, you know people dying because no heallthcare coverage, you might just be next.
You want to talk about unions! They were great in the beginning and now they keep the lazy working while the croonies at the helm use the money for what ever they want.
I have seen many years what the unions do, nothing! I work in a power plant that was once run by union employees, it took over 20 of them to run it and now we run it just fine with 8 of us, and unions is what forces company to move out of the country, along with the high taxes on business's. Enough!
Yeah, unions, get paid $60 bucks an hour to screw tires on a car on an assembly line and then wonder why the American car industry isn't competitive not to mention letting the mob into your pension plan to pilfer it. Please give it a rest.
Unions are usually good intentioned at first and then ruthless in the end as the power pendulum swings from one extreme to the other. Its like democracy; once people figure out that they can vote themselves a living then the end is near.
Well Romneycare is the same as Obamacare. The same Doctor designed both systems. Both systems came from a RePub think tank from the eights. Obama settled with this plan without the public option and without the GOP vote but he made a deal with the GOP even if they are saying they had nothing to do with Obamacare. They lie. Plus people the problem with medicare is not health care cost. If we bring down the health care cost medicare will survive with some minor changes. We spend 7500 per person versus 3500 per person when you look at Canada. Please do not buy the lie that Canada system is not good. Yes they wait but at least they do not die because they cannot see a doctor because they are too poor. The people waiting in line maybe dying and waiting but all the people in the same line are dying and maybe waiting a little longer but they get the treatment to say most if not all the lives of the people in line. At all the dying people in Canada have hope. We only have hope in America is you can pay. Now I wonder witch system God would like. The one for self or the one that attempt to treat every last person even if they are dirt poor and dying so please keep the one lady from Canada who said she had to come to America to get treatment and it is great she did but she also skipped over the other dying people in line. Get this people. Canada send people to America to get treated since we have waiting doctors for pay. God help us.
Not quite. there are some differences. RomneyCare leaves the flawed but still necessary employer provided system intact while ObamaCare uses the so called Cadillac Tax to try to end it.
I guess you could say that Jonathan Gruber is a doctor, a PhD. He is an economist NOT a physician or any other kind of healthcare professional. Based on his theories he seems to know little about the actual nuts and bolts of healthcare.
I agree with staypuft people collecting disability are under no condition to improve their health hell theirs a disability lawyer running advertisement every commericial break. I believe in disability for the ones who need it but I see and know of people collecting it and they done nothing to improve their health to get off it. They get back pay and use it to go on week vacations becuase they think they deserve it. Also drug testing should be a requirement if your going to collect a check from working tax payers to support your none contribution to society
So you support drug testing for members of Congress?
WRONG! it has been recorded that Canadians have died waiting for a procedure. Canadians come to the U.S. just so they can get the procedure they need so they don't die. Lost a lot of friends and friends of the family while they waited for Canada's health care.
Sure tireds, and I'm the queen of england.
Nope. I personally lived in Canada for 22 years and can tell you from direct personal experience that the wait times for scheduled services there are roughly on par with the wait times State-side. There, it's a question of having enough resources to treat everyone. Operating rooms run 24x7 and so do testing facilities in most major cities. Here, the delays are due to the umpteen rounds of bureaucratic hoop jumping, multiple referrals, and redundant tests required of the patient so that enough people can get a slice of the available funding. Either way, you've got delays.
Every Canadian that I know that needed bypass or brain surgery or cancer treatment came to the US for it.
RAW -
Then explain why my Canadian friend had to wait almost 2 years for knee replacement surgery.
She would have been on disability a minimal amount of time had they done the needed surgery in a timely manner.
This article highlights the single largest flaw in Obamacare. It is most likely the largest flaw in any GOP proposal as well, in all fairness. When gov't starts paying the bills, no one ever holds anyone accountable. They simply pay the bills and pass on the cost to the taxpayer. Ergo, Medicare fraud is out of control and in the $Billions.
Obamacare must be repealed, simply because it will bankrupt the US and do nothing to provide quality healthcare, for the above reasons. There is only one way this November to do that. But then it is incumbent on the voters of this country (And I'm speaking of just the citizens who voted, not the illegals.) to hammer their newly elected representatives, until they craft a health care plan that does scrutinize providers.
glaird...One of the reasons for fraud is the duplication of paperwork across the board. Example, Medicare through AARP has several HMO healthcare insurance providers from which to choose. Most of them are underwritten by United Healthcare if you do the research.
Once you have 1,000s of HMOs in the mix each demanding paperwork in triplicate, you end up with a huge storm of information that is a loophole for fraud. The IRS has no problem locating frauds quickly does it?
The problem occurs the minute you allow "competition"...that competition in HMOs never was intended to lower the cost of healthcare. That competition was between HMOs to see which one could maximize their profits the fastest and the most. That's why we have fraud....no other reason.
What you say just isn't true. If it is repealed we will be in a world more of hurt than we already are.
Hi, I'm doc "Fosz" excepting new mentally ill Republicans immediately....Please, send me your check first. Need to make sure you money is good before seeing you. Thank you, and looking forward to seeing you shortly.
If an airline were like healthcare you would pay for your ticket by making an insurance claim. You would pay your airline insurance monthly premium and then the ins. co. would decide whether you could fly. You would still have to pay a baggage fee and a seat fee. If you never fly, you would not get your premium back. Before you took off, the pilot would have an hour's worth of paper work to complete. The airline would be required to maintain a computerized personal flight record for each passenger. The pilot would need to write a prescription for each passenger's onboard meal. The pilot would be distracted by several malpractice claims against him or her. The pilot would graduate from pilot school with $200,000 of student debt and would work four years as a pilot intern 80 hrs per week below minimum wage since his salary would be based on a 40 hr week. The pilot would be chronically stressed and sleep deprived. In other words, there is no fair comparison between healthcare and banking, airlines, shopping, etc.
it went downhill from the day the johnson admin said it would pay "customary fees." Corruption then took over
Not rocket science. Every civilized nation has a national healthcare program, lots to look at and draw up a model that works for the US. From someone who lives in Canada, you all just need to get past this whole "socialism" nonsense and start acting like something other than a 3rd world country when it comes to health care. And before you start criticizing the Canadian system, let me just say it's a damn sight better than what you have which is a joke. Nobody goes broke here when they fall ill.
Thanks Zeebol. Yes we are a global company and our employees in Canada love their health care. Plus get this our company health care cost for workers in Canada is zero so they hire people in Canada with the same skills just because of health care. The company may pay a hire tax but it is a lot cheaper than paying the health care cost of each person since we are not based out of Canada. Plus the people in Canada make less money. Well I guess it works even if the taxes are high but they do not have to pay for health care cost directly from their checks.
Well said, Zeebol.
Seems logical, sign me up!
If we are so screwed up, why do people come here from Canada and elsewhere for treatment. Wait, I know you can go to Mexico for some voo doo crap to cure cancer.
How many Americans go to Thailand or India for routine surgery?
Our system in the USA is broken no doubt about that. The ACA attempted to correct the problems but it failed to go far enough to get at the root of the problem. The root is the for profit model. Make it a non profit model with or without insurance companies and that alone would go along way to improving the system. When the profit motive is introduced things are sure to get out of control in the name of profits after all that's what a corporations legal objective is by law "Profits at all costs for the shareholders".
gdale, if you remove the profit motive you also remove all incentives for the businesses to improve their service or even to exist in the first place. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a world where the quality of my healthcare is determined not by the desire of my provider to be the best -- because that means more business for him -- but by a bureaucrat dictating a standard which he can meet-but-not-exceed with no consequences. When you level the playing field you destroy the highs right along with the lows.
Or to put it another way, what is special about the healthcare industry that it is somehow an exception to the laws of economics? If nationalizing works for healthcare, why wouldn't it also work for, say, real estate? Everybody has to live somewhere, after all. Why wouldn't it work for the clothing industry? Everybody has to have clothes. Why wouldn't it work for the food service industry? Everybody's gotta eat. If you really want to see the flaw in your argument, look no further than the teaching industry, where bored, phlegmatic teachers with no motivation to do more than the bare minimum are legion.
Your view of corporations is, to be kind, simplistic. Yes, their goal is profit, as it should be. It does not necessarily follow, though, that they will steamroller everything and everyone in their path to get that last thin dime out of your pocket. Corporations are not just after profit, period, they are after sustainable profit. Why do corporations pour money into charities when doing so adds nothing directly to their bottom line? Because it does benefit them, indirectly. Why do they pay huge amounts of money to build their public image through ad campaigns? Because it leads to more profit.
You seem to think that corporations will do anything in the name of the almighty dollar. That's simply not true. They might do anything they think they can get away with, but in the Information Age, "what they can get away with" is surprisingly small, certainly much less than it was 50 years ago. Whatever the excesses of corporations are, that's just the price we pay for their effectiveness and efficiency, both of which are lightyears beyond what government can produce.
To me, as provider there are several issues that create the ongoing health care crisis. Number one: Insurance companies who are in the game to make a profit. Period. They limit access, services etc in order to generate revenue. Second is lawsuits. Granted no physician is perfect and mistakes are made. If the mistake is malpractice then there should be a reward. If the mistake is a bad outcome and there was no malpractice then there should not be a financial reward. Bad things happen. Period. If you take a blood thinner, you trip and fall and bleed, then it is not the drug company's fault. Another is the enormous amount of paperwork and regulations, some good, some BS. Organizations such as JCAHO create additional stress for the health care system and its workers. Many of us spend so much time dealing with the bureaucratic BS because its required that we dont have time to think about the care of the patient. Hospitals pay these organizations to review them, pay them to set the rules, pay them to belong etc. Its a profitable game that no one is ready to stand up against. Last but not least is the physicians. Too little time, too many patients, too much to do. There is no coordination of care between all the services involved. Often times the right hand doesnt know what the left hand is doing. The result MISTAKES. Why does this happen. Well it comes down to revenue. Why should I spend 2 hours on the phone discussing care, coordinating doctors and arguing with insurers when there is absolutely no reimbursement for it. That's 8-10 patients I am not seeing. Thats less revenue and more pressure from non physician administrators to increase the number of patients I see. Revenue I generate so they can spend all day at meetings perpetuating the problem.
This is a deep problem and neither Republican or Democrat solutions will solve it. The answers: make insurers non profit. Tort reform with specialized panels to set monetary awards. Reduce the paperwork. Computers only make it worse. Limit administrators. I wonder how much the people who did this study get paid to tell us there's a problem. This is not an all encompassing list but its a start.
Nice one Stonecold, couldn't agree more. As soon as Nixon made it "for profit" it was the beginning of the end for what could have been the basis for a viable system.
How about changing malpractice tort into criminal tort, it would reduce the overall costs and weed out the incompetent all in one fell stroke. And by the way, there aren't that many physicians who aren't in it for the money either.
Stonecold
I don't think making insurance companies non-profit will decrease the administrative burden. All of our local insurance companies are non-profit and we also have a good number of patients from out of state covered by the for-profits. I see little difference in the pre-approval, appeals, denials, etc. We have to do the same administrative work for both.
It's all about the accuracy of the paperwork not the patient, huh?
I worked for Blue Cross in Harrisburg, PA (1965-1970). It was non profit then. It was still non profit when I left their employ. I can even remember when the insurance company and doctors and hospitals actually talked with each other; now all they do is play games about payment. Once the insurance companies began to go public their responsibility was no longer to the inusrance subscriber, but to the share holders and therein lies at least one of the problems. Now all the insurer cares about is the bottom line and keeping the share holder happy.
How about scraping the whole system, it doesn't work. Every major nation has a national health plan, why not the USA? We can take the best of each and make it work.
To RT - simply put it is a job and I do appreciate a paycheck. But it doesnt matter if I'm a doctor, architect or dishwasher we do it in part for the paycheck. However I could have put better use to 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school (at a cost then of 100,000) 4 years of residency in which I had a starting salary of 19,000 and could barely make my rent never mind my loan payments, 4 years of fellowship. I didnt start actual "work" until I was 36. over 100,000 dollars in debt. Sure I wanted a paycheck. And sure I felt I deserved the salary (less than 100,000 annual) I was earning for 60-80 hour work weeks. That hasnt changed in 20 years. If, however, I was only in it for the money than I could chose a helluva lot better field to be in. I think most doctors do it for several reasons, financial being one. However those financial rewards are long gone for most physicians. The other reasons being interest in the science of medicine, and some sort of wish to help people. I cant say a cosmetic surgeon has the same idealism but I think most physicians and other healthcare personnel view helping people as their main job. I would add the caveat that as the field becomes more and more cumbersome the cream of the crop so to speak will look elsewhere.
Brainwave...funny, in a sarcasm filled kind of way.
Healthcare in the US has "officially been a mess" for DECADES. They are just now admitting it.
Healthcare in a mess,just ask the nurses who work in the hospitals,We are trained to provide the best of care but guess what,too much time is spent on documentation that prevents lawsuits.The insurance companies charge too much so people do not have insurance the Obama care isnot he answer.The medical profession itself should be the ones to present all with what works,after all we work in this field.Some people at the top make profits ,but the rest of the medical workers do not.We are there to help but still need a salary to pay the bills.Make insurance affordable for all,but no government involvement,and revamp the system with modern computers that track all records and not repeating the same tests ect.People need great care,they are sick and that is what all of the medical personnel went to college for to help the sick.
The primary cause of bad treatment options in some third world nations is fraud, not technology. In contrast, its obvious that having know-how and technology has only shifted the problem to bad administration. In a way, administrative costs are just a disciplined way to steal, as is evident from our need for 'discipline' in everything and a failing economy. Increasing organization, stacking up poorly thought-out rules that have loopholes and mindless following of these imperfect rules just seems to be the american ways of life.
"75,000 people who died in 2005 would have lived if they got the kind of care provided in the states with the best medical systems"
In 2012, 75,000 people with similar medical situation says, "Death is more appealing than Obama care"...
So we can assume you'd prefer death to treatment under ACA. Well, go for it.
Sorry but I have worked in healthcare for years and the main thing that is wrong with it is government interference! If the politicians would focus on running the country and let medical people run the health care system we would be alot better off.
Government can't run the DMV with any efficiency and they want run our healthcare?
And I've worked in the insurance industry for years and you think they're any better?
If you want to know about the problems of the health system, forget about asking doctors or administrators, ask the clerks and nurses.
The doctors and administrators are only interested in one thing, money. What is worse is they do not care where it comes from. That is called Greed and the Insurance companies and Pharmacy companies provide for their greedy needs.
I speak from a position of experience after having worked in a medical setting for many years and seen the abuses. The corporations that own the Hospitals deliberately lower the level of patient care by cutting wages of the most qualified people in the hospital and that is Nurses(RNs). They fire senior nurses that have the greatest experience and then hire lvns and nurses right out of schools. They hire relatives of family members with no mediac experience, much less specialized experience like surgery that have MBAs in marketing or hospital management to run departments they have less than zero experience or knowledge in. All they are qualified to do is to count beans.
Patients go in for simple surgeries and die and the hospital will play dumb when they know all along why the patient died. My wife just spent almost three months in a hospital because of the Insurance company forceing the hospital to release her too soon with a persistent infection after the surgery. She had contracted a Septic infection of a rare, but extremely deadly germ, but had not manifesed itself because ot he intravenous antibiotics given after the surgery. The fever went down and they literally kicked us out the door, Two days later she was dying at home and I caled an ambulance to take her back because my medical experience told me there was something terribly wrong. A family with less experience would have just let her sleep, but I knew she was in serious trouble.
Texas has made it more difficult to sue Hospitals and that may not be all bad, but we are now looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary medical bills. I am very experienced in the medical field and saw first hand many mistakes being made by hospital staff especially in the area of cross contamination, that would have surely killed her if I had not been there watching over her and making noise when I saw mistakes being made. I knew they were mistakes because I am trained and experienced in patient care and have a medical degree.
The largest group of criminals in Washington are the Lobbiest who use bribes to get favorable laws passed to their corporate best interest. The stongest lobby groups are related to the medical field like pharmacy, Insurance, and the AMA.
The reason America has so many of the doctors of the world come here to practice like from India and China, is the greed factor. Just the legitimate wages for Doctors are huge, but add on the graft money from politics, research, Insurance, and Pharmacy, and the potential for financial gain is limitless.
I have not read the story yet, because I already know the answers for the problems of the Medical field, without listening to the rhetoric based on Greed and Politics.I have heard it many time before.
Back to the hospitals, once they have fired all of their experienced middle management and nurses, the bottom line looks good for a quarter or more, but the death toll rises in the community along with customer dissatisfaction and the bottom line begins to drop. The ER and hospital in general is understaffed and those employees they do have are over worked and under paid and unappreciated. That is when the CFOs and hung out to dry, and upper managers are quitting like rats jumping from a burning ship.
The surviving CEOs pat each other on the back and give themselves huge bonusses, especially if they can convince the State, Local, or Federal Government to bail them out. Corporations are a cancer and should not ever be allowed to govern a medical facility as a business. Cutting spending does not increase production, it just hides the bottom line for a little while.
I almost lost my wife of 20 years due to medical mishandling, and corporate greed in the insurance not allowing the hospital to be paid for my wife's proper care, and she is a hospital director. She almost died because of corporate mismanagement.
Lazarus
the entire country is a mess, period.
Well, that's helpful.
Nice to hear some American can-do attitude coming from the health care community.
"US health care: It's officially a mess, institute says"
How can this be now that we have Obamacare?
I'll forgive your ignorance as it's common.
"Obamacare" does move healthcare toward a lot of these ideas mentioned in the article.
It moves toward accountability for hospitals. Hospitals that repeatedly have poor outcomes will lose some of their medicare/medicaid reimbursements for instance.
It also puts the focus on outcome-based reimbursement rather than service-based. So if my hospital treats diabetics with effective and inexpensive education, and yours treats them with expensive drugs and surgeries, and my outcome is better, I'll get more reimbursement. It's the reverse of today where there is no incentive to use equally effective but cheaper treatments.
It also provides incentives to move to more computerized record-keeping.
But the Republicans and the media don't talk about this stuff because it's hard to understand. They'd rather talk about the insurance mandate and use it for political gain.
You obviously don't work in healthcare field. Records have been switching to computorized for years, lord obama didn't create that any more that did gore create the internet.
The Joint Commision and CMS determine if a facility is still suitable, not obamacare
It absolutely does not give outcome based incentive, it give cattle car incentive.
Oh, and it will cost the average 45 to 70 bed facility over $6 million each to implement and an additional $2 to $4 mill a year to maintain.
So in your own words, I'll forgive your ignorance as it's common.
Spoken like someone who is well insured and doesn't feel the need for change. You will someday!