FReeper Forced To Join With Socialist Nitwits

self | June 06 2002 | moonman

[d14truth]

"The lawyer told her that her pride and vanity isn't helping her case any."

Might tell the lawyer that 'class' shows--dress the murderers in suits, and the saints in sackcloth. What a 'rotten' bunch of lowlifes many lawyers are.

How is character to be judged, and need? By appearance? That 'smacks of profiling' to me.

May you and your wife take comfort in the 'blessed assurance', not those of the lawyer.

[moonman]

I wasn't complaining about not having a national health plan. My point was that due all the circumstances, I may begrudgingly be forced into one. Given the choice, I'll take affordable free-market anything ... anytime!:)

[moonman]

Thanks all for you encouragement, advice, options and prayers.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Hmm , You might want to talk to my husband Sir . Respectfully , He may be able to assist you .

[ConsistentLibertarian]

I did a quick and dirty Google search to find rates for medical liability insurance. The AMA, in a four page flier promoting tort reform, cites rates between $7K and $12K a year for internists in LA. If you look at the annual cost of sustaining a private practice in internal medicine, that's going to be less than 5% of the total cost. Far less. So even if we eliminated all lawsuits, every single last one, not just frivolous lawsuits, and not just punitive damages, but every last lawsuit and every nickel in damages, that would save less than $45 out of that $900/month bill.

[zip]

There are many of us finding out about the real world of health costs. I retired a couple of years ago and was allowed to keep my health insurance BUT the premiums keep rising. Now it's $663 a month with over 2000 a year in pharmacy copays. Health insurance is a requirement for anyone with assets since one major surgery cost me (my HMO) 41000 a few years ago so I can't complain about but it still is a hardship. I wish I knew the answer.

[ConsistentLibertarian]

My guess is that the cost is largely driven by his pre-existing condition and his wife's current condition. Think of an analogy with life insurance, where medical malpractice insurance isn't driving up rates. If you smoke and have had a prior heart attack, it's going to be hard to get life insurance, and if you do, you'll pay a small fortune for it. That's the free market pricing risk. An overwhelming percentage of the money spent on health care for any given individual is spent on care during one's last six months of life. No medical insurer wants to be the one holding your policy during those six months. They'd go bankrupt. The more likely you are to need care, the more expensive your insurance is going to be. That's the free market, the private sector, working as it should. If you're in favor of regulating the free market to distribute costs more evenly, that's another matter. But let's be clear about what's being argued for.

[ConsistentLibertarian]

Addendum: If his $900/month insurance includes a prescription drug benefit, then the percentage of his bill going to medical liability insurance is going to be even less.

[ConsistentLibertarian]

"This is how the game is played in our system. Individual health policies are only a good deal for the young and healthy." Just to be clear: "our system" is a free market system. And what you've just pointed out is that there's no profit motive for anyone _allow_ the infirm or the elderly to join group plan. The free market medicine is going to "just say no" to the infirm and the elderly if they don't have five figures a year to spend on medical care. Widows might end up homeless to pay for medical care, but that's the free market. Sell your house, sell your car, sell your blood, sell an organ, participate as a subject in high risk medical trials. Those are your options.

[Dat]

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out.

[Colombia59]

Everyone is complaining about the symptoms and not the problem. As long as the American Medical Association can maintain its monopoly power by limiting the number of total doctors available, doctors will continue to be able to work four day weeks and make $400,000 per year. This is the real villain.

[castlebar lass]

Just think the people getting SSI receive 100% Medicare and Medicaid and many if not most never paid dime into the Social Security Fund. A girl I know works as a hairdresser, is divorced, and has two children. This year she applied for the Earned Income Credit on her tax form. She got back $3000. Her sister watched the kids and she took a cruise. I had to pay an extra $3000.

[castlebar lass]

Just think the people getting SSI receive 100% Medicare and Medicaid and many if not most never paid dime into the Social Security Fund. A girl I know works as a hairdresser, is divorced, and has two children. This year she applied for the Earned Income Credit on her tax form. She got back $3000. Her sister watched the kids and she took a cruise. I had to pay an extra $3000.

[Looking4Truth]

There is no free lunch. Either the gov't collects your premium or the insurance company or you pay direct. On average its the same cost except the gov't has overhead and no incentive to keep costs low.

It is a shame that most sheeple that are actually for national health care are too blind or stupid to understand the logic in your statement. That is exactly why the gov't needs to keep its nose out of the free market.

[d14truth]

From your example it appears that 20 families at $900/month could sustain/subsidize a 'medical practice' and that all families treatable above the 20 by the 'practice' could be maintained for free.

No physician should endeavor to care for more than 20 families, it doesn't pay, and neither do they. Killing freedom through dictates and regulation, IMHO.

My only pre-existing condition is age until another condition manifests itself, the same for everyone. We should all pay the same, unless 'profiling'/discrimination is allowed.

[lawdog]

BINGO!! Kennedy et.al. will not be happy with medical care until the only "HMO" available will be ,you guessed it the " fedi-care " plan.

[biffalobull]

They've got one in Canada, and England

Truly, we in Canada have probably the best system in the world.

Living in Alberta I can't speak for the eastern seaboard provinces.

Why Americans are against socialized medicine beats hell out of me.

Don't you realize it is your own tax dollars paying for it. I am 70 years old. I have just finished a 36 treatment radiation course for cancer.

The cost for EVERYTHING from start to finish, was zero. It took seven weeks

My wife died last year from bone cancer. She was in the hopital four days a month for close to seven years for chemotherapy. Her cost for EVERYTHING was zero.

Our health care premiums together were 71.00 dollars a month. You read it right,71.00 a month. Since She has gone my cost is 32.00 a month. She was in the hospital 3 days after being diagnost. We pay 25% of all drug costs, with a maximum of 25.00 per prescpition. There is no time limit on howlong you can stay in the hospital, or how much drugs you need. I believe the difference between our two great countries could be in your defence budget.

If anyone would care to contact me thru freep mail and discuss this further, I will prove everything I say here. Keep Healthy

[pray4liberty]

Social Services will also help with medication if you qualify. Swallow your pride and ask for help..

Look at it this way, Moonman; you paid for other people's coverage for 52 years. The System owes you big time, so collect on this way-overdue bill. Even if you avail yourself of *free* health care for the rest of your life, they will still come up short for what you put in.

Liberalism is unprepared to foot the real bill for their folly.

[Doe Eyes]

In many countries, pharmacists can prescribe medications, bypassing the trip to the doctor.

[LibWhacker]

. . .doctors will continue to be able to work four day weeks and make $400,000 per year. . .

Well, I do agree with you that we need more doctors. But few doctors work four-day weeks. Just the opposite -- which is exactly what you'd expect of any kind of worker who was in short supply. Most doctors put in brutally long hours, often working for months on end without a day off. Twelve hour days are not uncommon either. Also, very few doctors make anything like $400,000/yr.