Every Governmenet Program Is Bankrupt, And They Want Them To Run Healthcare?
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I recently been talking to some friends, and the fact was brought up that all programs run by the Government is basically Bankrupted. Now with the track record, do you want them to run your healthcare system. It appears, from the history, that our healthcare is doomed if the Democrats get their way.
Yes We Do Need HealthCare Reform, But Not The Ones Being Presented
I agree that we do need several changes in our health care reform. But I do not believe the Political Gods and the Great Messiah have the answer. It appears that they want the following:
- Nationalization of the Healthcare system,
- Dish out correct procedures, As Pres. Obama said, that due to life expectancy, may the person should be given the red pill instead of an operation (has everyone forget his statements during the election.
- The want to force the "Big Bad Insurance Companies" out of business,
- Have made closed door deals with the pharmaceutical companies to protect them and get their backing, where actually a lot of the complaints come from pharmaceutical costs.
- Let the unions be the ones hired for the administration of their healthcare.
- Decide what doctors should and should not get paid for,
- Decrease Medicare funding (I though Medicare was funded by Medicare withdrawal from employee paychecks. So are they going to keep the tax, and move the money somewhere else?)
- Increase taxes or debt by over $800,000,000,000 (did I get enough zeros in?) over ten years for only five years of coverage. Of course our taxes will have to be increased for this to happen.
- Lower the amount that Doctors can be sued for. This sounds great, but many of hte operations to correct the damage cost this much or more, and the patient will not get enough money to correct the wrong. Also, this protects the bad doctors. The insurance goes up for bad doctors. This is the only way to get the quacks out of the system, because they can't afford insurance any more.
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Health Reform That Is Actually Needed
I have studied some of the items thats would actually work and improve healthcare.
- Higher deductibles, lower premium plans, and couple this with a health care spending program which is refundable. I currently have to pay about $220 for health care through my employer, and he has set up a $500 health care spending program which is not refundable, but it can be rolled over into the next year for a certain limit. This is not bad, but I feel, I paid for it, I am going to use it. I think we go to the doctor more than we need to, but the thought is, "I paid for it, I am going to use it!" What we need a system that is more of a pay as you need it, i.e. allowing refundable of money not used, and possibly higher deductibles. I know, my family would go to the doctor less often on the small things.
- My son had set up a doctor's appointment for some specialization stuff. The doctor office said it would be $295 if we submit it to the insurance, but only $85 if we pay it ourself. Wait a minute. is this telling me that insurance and using the doctor;s offices to submit the insurance for you cost a lot of money. If so, set it up that I pay for the appointment up front, and allow me to submit it on my own. If the cost is lower, then I get reimbursed part of the difference, or it goes against my deductible or health care plan. Thus saving me and the insurance company money. The Doctors get their money up front, and do not have to go through the insurance submittal and waiting for payment.
- Open up healthcare insurance to compete across state lines.
- Make hospitals and Doctors give you a bid on major items such as operations. I have went to the local Doctors and Hospital and asked them for an estimated cost of a procedure that was needed. It was almost impossible to get a cost. The reason I wanted this, is that we have a small local hospital, but within two hours drive, we can go to the Mayo Clinic. At the time the insurance company we used was based in Iowa, and consider the Mayo Clinic to be out of network. After getting the cost estimates, we could proof that it was cheaper to go the Mayo Clinic and get the procedure done there that it was at the local hospital. So, generally, the insurance company would give us promission to go to the Mayo Clinic. Who would you want to do the procedure, a small hospital or the Mayo Clinic. Therefore, just as a mechanic is required to give you a quote to fix your car, hospitals and Doctors should be required to provide the the expected cost to the patient before hand, so that the patient can shop around for the best cost. This I think would save us a lot on health care.
- Place more emphasis on prevention. Many health care prevention methods could be stressed and possible give tax breaks on. Healthcare membership fees could be tax deductible. Weight loss program could be tax deductable, or part of the health spending fund.
Does The Present Healthcare Reform Bill(s) Provide This?
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Comments
The current plans are competing with one another and the result will be a major collision. I am holding off cracking up at this point until I see where we land.
Thanks for hubbing by, Tom and Pop
I have just heard about how the healthcare reform can never be done because it is too complex. Even if they planned it for 2013, it would be delayed because they could never would be able to get it off the ground. This is why it is turning into a 2300+ page bill. They are addressing to much.
I think some common sense will start popping up in congress and this thing will never get passed. At least I h0pe.
Keep on Hubbing!
Excellent article. I don't expect the government to do anything with efficiency or with simplicity. It will be another bill full of pork as usual if they get one passed in my opinion. I wish I could be more optimistic.
My first respose was kind of ornery but in all seriousness.
In the 1950's my father was a partner in a small grocery store. The only insurance we had was for hospitalization. It was a Banker Life White Cross plan. It covered no doctor bills. Office calls were $5, in 1963 when I had an appendectomy the doctors bill was $250.
After I started working I had a group plan with Aetna with a $1500 family deductible and 80%/20% up to a max out of pocket of $5000. I have an old canceled check from 1976 for one of my daughters for a pediatric office call for a total bill of $7 (that wasn't a co-pay).
Insurance cost is just like banker behavior. Every participant is a better consumer if they have their own skin in the game.
You hit a homerun here, overy. I can't disagree with anything. The administration and Congress has missed the very heart of the bill they should have been backing, the one with cost savings and a disincentive to use the system built in. For example, tort reform, medical savings plans where, unlike your plan, you actually get to see the money in a savings account or something if you don't have to go to a doctor that year - or at least a carry-forward feature. Larger deductibles and co-pays usually dissuade people from over-using the system. But the bill proposed does none of this good stuff.I'm not sure we're not just stepping into a big jackpot at the end of five years when we have to re-fund this bill that now they say will cost almost a billion dollars for the next five years. It isn't a sound bill - just a lot of unsound compromise. I wish they would let some of us, the people, go to Washington and make our own bill. Hey, maybe that's the answer. Give us each five thousand dollars a year cash and let us fund most of our own, with the exception of the catastrophic situations. I would bet we would have a much better system. But that's the point, we already have the best health care in the world, why mess with it? Why? Simple, because Obama and his Democrat buddies want bigger government and more control over our lives. Thanks, Eovery. Don White
Pam, Don and Tom, thanks for hubbing by again.
I just got donw seeing Hannity, and I realized this healthcare business is just a big experimenet. In Tennesse and Maine, they have tried healthcare and it did not work. They are betting everything on it, and it is so dumb. It is such a big change and it effects the economy, too.
I think these self righteous idiots who think they have all the answer because the are so much smarter than the rest of us, and can solve world crisis'es had better slow down and not ruin the the country. This is serious.
Keep on Hubbing!
eovery, I can't comment anymore without being repititous. I myself have a high deductible and 100% coverage after that. I love my insurance. My premiums to tend to go up every year but this last years was minimal. We will see what they come up with but I just don't think I am going to like it. If I do, I will become a liberal. ;o)
eovery you forgot the Infinity sign on the amount of zeros for the cost on healthcare ! Otherwise outstanding job . The Dems are meeting behind closed doors all the time now on this legislation . I sure do love this new transparent Government we now have !
Thanks for your comments ehern33 and tony0724.
I hear Pelosi only hs 200 of the 248 votes she needs for the public option. I see these guys are starting to wise up slowly.
Keep on hubbing!
I am interest with healthy. I think US is concern about healthy. Like a modern hospital and the equipment also. but I have new information after reading this hub. With the condition right now, it little different. And all back to healthy insurance.
Yep! Ditto! (otherwise I'm repeating every comment here) Thanks E!
Thanks for hubbing by Candie,
Keep on Hubbing!
I dont know what the solution is but I know the government never has "OUR" interest at heart. The CEO of the corporation called The United States of America has the job of making money for the corporation and its stockholders. That does not include giving reasonable health benefits for the slaves who work like dogs for the corporation. Whatever bills are presented to the slaves, for the slaves, by the government, be assured that it is for the stockholder's benefit and the corporation's greed, not for "we the people". This BILL, like all the others, are just what they call it, ANOTHER BILL FOR US TO PAY.
Nice job!
The political gods (I prefer kings and queens) will be political at best. They have a track record of regulating for one purpose. Acquiring money to keep their jobs. The result is more control.
An example is Microsoft (or any number of successful companies). The excuse was MS was to big so government filed an antitrust suite. MS has to protect itself. They now lobby and feed lots of money to politicians in hope any further regulation will be favorable. They have to pass the cost to us.
Everything government touches increases in cost.
It will be no different for health care.
Lisa and Joe, thanks for hubbing by.
Keep on hubbing!
Latest on health care insurance profits and they are puny.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091026/ap_on_bi_ge/us
The waste is HUGE.
I am all in favor of your common sense approach versus government control. More government control means less freedom. Keep up the fine work.
Here Here James. Thanks for your comments
Keep on hubbing!
eovery
Great Hub!
Your comment on the government failing at all their undertakings and now wanting to fail at healthcare is the real issue. Sorry, I paraphrased your actual statements.
As for healthcare reform, my opinion is that the quality of healthcare is the real issue. Even if everyone had the opportunity for affordable health insurance, it would just mean that everyone had an equal opportunity to receive poor quality healthcare.
A real culprit in these issues is the role of the drug companies. There hasn't been a real medical cure since the 1950's with the Salk vaccine for Polio. The drug companies want to maximize profit and not cure diseases. They want long term treatments to maximize profits.
The health insurance companies dole out ineffective and time wasting medical attention. They delay treatment for their insureds and they dictate what treatments that they are covered by in any situation. This is in effect practicing medicine without a license.
While patents protect the business interests of the drug companies, they also inhibit progress in research against many diseases. The better plan to cure disease would be for anyone to build on the success of research even if it interferes with patent rights. The way it is today, competing research and drug companies have to start from scratch to develop a cure or even a treatment. This is ineffective in fighting disease as is evident in the fifty years of finding no cures for major diseases. Jerry Lewis has spent over thirty years supporting research and donations to cure MD. It is most likely that no cure will be found in during his lifetime.
Over ten million illegal aliens get free medical treatment that are unavailable to American citizens that are down on their luck and don't have the money or the insurance to get decent medical treatment.
The real need is to improve the quality of medical care. A good start would be to replace Mammograms with MRIs as the former is truly ineffective at getting early detection of breast cancer. The same would be true of replacing the doctor's finger with MRIs to detect Prostate Cancer.
Medical science is awesome when the problem can be fixed mechanically or surgically as in heart repair and even replacement, but with say Cancer, they are totally in the dark. Sure, they have hit and miss success but that is like finding mine fields using your feet and a blindfold.
BTW, what MBA genius convinced us that prescriptions were separate from doctor's visits. I would suspect that over 90 percent of the doctor visits, result in a prescription being given to the patient. In fact, without the prescription the visit to the doctor would be a waste of time.
Smoking and drinking excessively are your rights (maybe) but don't ask the rest of us to pay for your self inflicted and expensive maladies.
My point is that getting everyone on the healthcare system is not the real issue.
my opinion.......
Opinion Duck
I hear where you are coming from.
Keep on Hubbing!
Tom Whitworth says:
5 weeks ago
I agree with everything you said but it's too much commom sense for a government plan. It's just like the old commercial" Geez boss I always wanted to fix a transmision".They got us comin' and goin', and there not about to let us go. Unless we fight our way out of it.