Impeding changes to our Health Care system

[skysidhe]

That's something everyone can understand better xob.


and I especially like this one kit.

Originally Posted by Kitsune

[DanaC]

That's a fantastic video Bruce. Really awesome.

[DanaC]

Fascinating, Bruce. Really interesting and clear.

[classicman]

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

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

[TheMercenary]

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

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

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

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

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

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

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

I am looking up their rates now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

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

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

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by morethanpretty

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

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

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

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

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

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

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

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by sugarpop

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

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

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

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

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by sugarpop

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

Republicans are people who believe government doesn't work and then get elected to prove it (P. J. O'Rourke).

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

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

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

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

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

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

[TheMercenary]

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