Re: Medical Bankruptcy

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...edicine_09.pdf

I have not seen anything from the administration advocating singler payer. I have HEARD talking heads spewing that but I've yet to hear the administration advocate it. Have you?

 

No one has proven that there will be a decrease in quality of care. Again, talking heads and talking points.

 

I have heard speeches from Obama, Barney Frank, and Nancy Pelosi all talking about single payer and how to get there. IMO, If you don't think that is their ultimate goal then you are not listening.

 

You are right, no one has proven that there will be a decrease in the quality of care. But niether has anyone proved that it won't. If you look around the world you can see that quality of care in other countries is inferior to ours, and also that the quality of care has decreased in several countries that have socialized medicine. Mostly because they have to ration health care to control costs.

There are numerous problems with healthcare. The costs are not just those for drug companies advertisements.

 

Lawsuits - When doctors have to pay 6 figures per year for malpractice insurance due to being sued by every ambulance chaser who advertises on TV daily, they does not help the costs. Hospitals also get hammered by this. I am not saying that legitimate malpractice isn't a reason for a suit, but many of these are simply looking for a scapegoat and run up the costs of insurance tremendously.

Medicare/Medicaid - When doctors and hospitals have to fight in the hopes to be paid by medicare/medicaid for services rendered and still will wait 6 months for payment, that is not a 'thumbs up' for government involvement being the end all / be all to fixing the problem.

Battle between insurance and testing The doctors want to run every test imaginable to pinpoint what the issue is but also to keep from being sued even if they know what the problem is. On the flip side, insurance doesn't want to pay for the testing as they try to reduce their costs.

 

I have no problem with helping those who truly cannot afford health insurance. However, there are lots of folks (I know several myself) who choose not to carry health insurance but can afford it. My son is 20 years old and we had to spend weeks to convince him how important this is or he would have chosen not to carry it.

 

I have a problem in banning drug companies from advertising their products. If we are going to do that, however, we ought to ban the ambulance chasing attorneys from running their ads as well. If you haven't seen these ads, then you haven't watched TV in several years.

I have heard speeches from Obama, Barney Frank, and Nancy Pelosi all talking about single payer and how to get there. IMO, If you don't think that is their ultimate goal then you are not listening.

 

You are right, no one has proven that there will be a decrease in the quality of care. But niether has anyone proved that it won't. If you look around the world you can see that quality of care in other countries is inferior to ours, and also that the quality of care has decreased in several countries that have socialized medicine. Mostly because they have to ration health care to control costs.

 

:thumb:

There are numerous problems with healthcare. The costs are not just those for drug companies advertisements.

 

Lawsuits - When doctors have to pay 6 figures per year for malpractice insurance due to being sued by every ambulance chaser who advertises on TV daily, they does not help the costs. Hospitals also get hammered by this. I am not saying that legitimate malpractice isn't a reason for a suit, but many of these are simply looking for a scapegoat and run up the costs of insurance tremendously.

Medicare/Medicaid - When doctors and hospitals have to fight in the hopes to be paid by medicare/medicaid for services rendered and still will wait 6 months for payment, that is not a 'thumbs up' for government involvement being the end all / be all to fixing the problem.

Battle between insurance and testing The doctors want to run every test imaginable to pinpoint what the issue is but also to keep from being sued even if they know what the problem is. On the flip side, insurance doesn't want to pay for the testing as they try to reduce their costs.

 

I have no problem with helping those who truly cannot afford health insurance. However, there are lots of folks (I know several myself) who choose not to carry health insurance but can afford it. My son is 20 years old and we had to spend weeks to convince him how important this is or he would have chosen not to carry it.

 

I have a problem in banning drug companies from advertising their products. If we are going to do that, however, we ought to ban the ambulance chasing attorneys from running their ads as well. If you haven't seen these ads, then you haven't watched TV in several years.

 

I agree with that too.

I have not seen anything from the administration advocating singler payer.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk

 

 

 

At 2:55 mark in the last one. "Single payer is NOT off the table" - Howard Dean.

I have not seen anything from the administration advocating singler payer. I have HEARD talking heads spewing that but I've yet to hear the administration advocate it. Have you?

 

No one has proven that there will be a decrease in quality of care. Again, talking heads and talking points.

 

So, this bill will allow government to help us (and 50 million more) pay less money for care that will be better or as good as what we have now? I may be gullible, naive or even stupid, but I know better.:thumb:

I have heard speeches from Obama, Barney Frank, and Nancy Pelosi all talking about single payer and how to get there. IMO, If you don't think that is their ultimate goal then you are not listening.

 

.

 

So his 2003 quote is what you're basing this on? Has he said it since he's been POTUS?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk

 

 

Free advice.

 

Any time you see "excerpts" from a speech take it for what its worth. Do yourself a favor and find the entire speech so you can gain CONTEXT.

 

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/events/healthforum/obama_transcript.html

 

Here's more of the actual speech. The bold is what you saw on the clip. Notice how the message is completely different when you hear/read it all.

 

OBAMA: As I indicated before, I think that we're going to have to have some system where people can buy into a larger pool. Right now their pool typically is the employer, but there are other ways of doing it. I would like to -- I would hope that we could set up a system that allows those who can go through their employer to access a federal system or a state pool of some sort. But I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out where we've got a much more portable system. Employers still have the option of providing coverage, but many people may find that they get better coverage, or at least coverage that gives them more for health care dollars than they spend outside of their employer. And I think we've got to facilitate that and let individuals make that choice to transition out of employer coverage.

 

OBAMA: And one thing that I think is important is to recognize that there are a lot of small employers who would like to get health care for their workers but they themselves can't afford it because they don't have access to large enough pools to allow them to save money. That's why I think it's going to be important for us in whatever system that we set up to make sure that in addition to the employer based system that we've got an alternative system that individuals who aren't getting it through the job can access. Now, I just have to repeat something I said earlier. And I'm absolutely convinced of this. The most important challenge for us is to build a political consensus around the need to solve this problem.

At 2:55 mark in the last one. "Single payer is NOT off the table" - Howard Dean.

 

Gov Dean now speaks for the administration?