Posted on 01/11/2009 1:37:09 PM PST by george76
Criminal in a figurative and literal sense. The complexities and confusion of Medicaire paperwork leads hundreds of millions of dollars (maybe billions depending on what study you read) of waste and fraud.
Patient record keeping and the inability or difficulty of doctors and hospitals sharing those records amongst themselves quickly and confidentially leads to disastrous patient care outcomes everyday. Things like drug interactions, overdosing and allergies cause thousands of deaths (maybe many more) every year. The Quaid baby case last year is a great example.
I think that this is an area where government and only government (or a government empowered private agency) could have significant and beneficial impact.
I don’t want nationalized health care...don’t misunderstand. I don’t want to get into free trade...too long as you noted, but I am damned mad that good jobs were lost-it could have been avoided...I’ve been sounding the warning for quite a while now that such a loss would lead to socialism, and it has. We will never go back to pay as you go insurance because health cost is way to expensive for most Americans to cover. So what now?
I am always respectful and enjoy a good debate...as for doctors, there is no government regulation of doctors in any state This is left up to other doctors and rarely are bad doctors licenses suspended...if they were, they merely set up shop in a different state...no idea how to fix this.
Harry and Louise worked because fewer people were without health insurance...even people on Free Republic (not me) have posted that they think some form of national health insurance in needed. It won’t work this time.
As Ronald Reagan said, “Government is the problem, not the solution”
I can’t believe how narrow minded and uninformed so many Freepers are. All you have to do is look north to Canada to see how successful government is in the health care business.
But no one bothers to do so. The life span in America is at it’s peak, as is the quality of it’s health care. It’s obvious to anyone who is watching that you and your ilk will have their way.
What a shame, 100 years average age was within reach.
After reading your post I have to ask myself if you read mine. What ilk exactly are you referring to?
If you, even for a moment, don't think that America's health care delivery system is broken, I'm not sure how in touch with reality you are. Even the most conservative Congressional representatives acknowledge that there's serious problems with our health care system.
When Reagan was President, the uninsured only made up less than 8% of the population. Now, some estimates have the number as high as 38%. If it ever gets to 50%, which may be likely depending on how prolonged this recession becomes, radical change will be a certainty
If this oblivious sect of the conservative movement (apparently like you) doesn't stop denying the obvious an engaging the problem, we will surely end up with a Canadian solution to an American problem.
The American health care system IS broken. The government broke it. On purpose.
I’ll just give one example: Here in CO the Dem legislature managed, over a course of many years, to force the insurance companies to only offer health insurance plans that no one would buy IF they had the choice to buy the plans they used to buy 20 years ago.
Instead we have plans that cost at least twice as much as the plans that the consumers want.
"Some estimates" is a slightly less meaningful term than the estimate to which it refers. Democratic pie-in-the-sky estimates for those who are uninsured are 40 million (note that 13% is ever so slightly less than 38%). This 13% estimate also includes a large number of people who can afford insurance (gross yearly incomes over $50k), illegal immigrants (who we shouldn't be covering in the first place, let alone counting), and the cyclically unemployed (those who happen to be uninsured at any point in time due to them being temporarily unemployed).
Yes, there are serious problems with our healthcare system. Many of which arise from incredibly poor health habits of people who do not have to pay for their own care in any meaningful way which results in an artificially inflated demand for healthcare services which, in turn, drives up the price. But many of the problems with our healthcare system will be exacerbated by becoming "single-payor." And our spot as the #1 most reponsive healthcare system in the world will definitely become a thing of the past.
"Some estimates" is a slightly less meaningful term than the estimate to which it refers. Democratic pie-in-the-sky estimates for those who are uninsured are 40 million (note that 13% is ever so slightly less than 38%). This 13% estimate also includes a large number of people who can afford insurance (gross yearly incomes over $50k), illegal immigrants (who we shouldn't be covering in the first place, let alone counting), and the cyclically unemployed (those who happen to be uninsured at any point in time due to them being temporarily unemployed).
Yes, there are serious problems with our healthcare system. Many of which arise from incredibly poor health habits of people who do not have to pay for their own care in any meaningful way which results in an artificially inflated demand for healthcare services which, in turn, drives up the price. But many of the problems with our healthcare system will be exacerbated by becoming "single-payor." And our spot as the #1 most reponsive healthcare system in the world will definitely become a thing of the past.
This was a typo. I meant to type 38 million. As for the rest of it, I don't disagree with anything you proffered.
My larger point to an earlier poster is some Republicans can't continue to pretend that there isn't a problem. When the GOP had both houses and the Pres, this was an opportunity to draft legislation that offered market-based solutions. They didn't, at least not seriously. So, now we're left with practically no legislative power and no veto. Elections have consequences and those consequences aren't going to be pleasant.
I was thinking pitchforks and torches.....and tossing their cars in the Potomac
THAT was a great short lesson in history....too bad too many Americans are too ignorant/lazy to watch it.
This is going to be a common refrain, so buckle up people.
Come on, afford? Who says we have to be able to “afford” it. When you’re a slave you can’t afford anything. It’s gonna be great!
“Last visit to Vancouver Canada I met a lady who was severly gimped up with a bad knee. She had been waiting 6 month for simple orthoscopic.”
<<Very sad, I lived in North Dakota and would often see Canadians coming south of the boarder to receive medical treatment. Wne my children are sick, I pick doctors based on how quickly they can get them in. Yeah, I am spoiled with good insurance and very competent health care providers.
This paradigm shift in terms of WHO is in control of your healthcare REALLY scares me.
“I’m not sure I’ll like what Barry comes up with, but anything will be better that what’s happening today, which is nothing.”
I’m not so sure about that. If you house is on fire, you don’t go throwing gasoline on it just to do something, do you? That appears to be the solution Congress and the Executive Branch are heading toward — do ANYTHING — but just do SOMETHING. Not the best answer, IMHO.
If you don't do something and the perception becomes that you don't do anything, you end up losing the Presidency and both houses of Congress in two years. We had our chance to do something and we didn't. House leadership and the executive branch turned a tin ear towards an ever increasing problem.
Now, the opposition will run roughshod over the the Republican membership, and there's really nothing they can do about it.
I still believe there are right answers. They are truths that pass the test of time. I expect them to find the right answers and implement sound policies. I expect a degree of oversight to help those who are tempted to cut corners stay true to course. I also hope PEBO will think long and hard before he signs FOCA. I really hope he decides to put off his decision to sign it into law — not for my sake, but for his and this country.
I agree. My Dad used to say that Medicare ruined health insurance because it drove prices up...he said anytime the government is involved, prices go up...In Georgia they have the hope scholarship and college tuition has gone up tremendously.
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