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How ObamaCare Will Affect Your Doctor
Wall Street Journal ^ | May 12, 2009 | Scott Gottlieb

Posted on 05/12/2009 5:10:11 AM PDT by reaganaut1

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To: Atom Smasher

Doctors especially psychiatrists are leftists.


41 posted on 05/12/2009 7:07:03 AM PDT by Chickensoup ("Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.")
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To: taildragger

<The young ones that voted for the Bamster are already asking, how do I pay my student loans...

That’s what I was wondering. Unless they are going to change the whole process of medical education, why would students go into medicine if they don’t have the hope of paying back their loans? If they make higher ed free or almost free,then that’s one thing (and of course we can argue over the definition of ‘free’), but if the ed pricing system stays the same, then medicine becomes much less attractive an option, resulting in fewer doctors, longer waits, poorer service.


42 posted on 05/12/2009 7:07:29 AM PDT by radiohead (Buy ammo, get your kids out of government schools, pray for the Republic.)
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To: ScottinVA

trumped=trump


43 posted on 05/12/2009 7:07:45 AM PDT by ScottinVA (Impeach+President+Soros!!!)
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To: ScottinVA

trumped=trump-TRUMPET

sheesh


44 posted on 05/12/2009 7:08:12 AM PDT by ScottinVA (Impeach+President+Soros!!!)
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To: Straight Vermonter

“What they don’t say is that doctor’s order lots of tests to confirm what they already know just to cover their butts.”

Not true in my case. I had had pain in my side/back for a while. My doctor sent me for xrays. Showed a very enlarged kidney so I was sent (insurance wanted) for a cat scan. Doctor wanted immediate surgery but the insurance wanted yet another test (nuclear scan). Finally got cleared for the surgery after 6 weeks. In the mean time, kidney was so enlarged, had I taken a fall or gotten hit in the side, it could have killed me.


45 posted on 05/12/2009 7:16:02 AM PDT by AirForceMom (Locked and loaded, and sharpening wooden stakes.)
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To: Daisyjane69
I didn’t know until today that Medicare patients are not permitted to pay “over and above” to doctors, if those doctors don’t accept Medicare as payment in full. I was shocked.

A doctor can charge a fee 20% above what Medicare pays. It is called the "excess". Most Medicare Supplement plans pay for that 20% excess.

46 posted on 05/12/2009 7:17:59 AM PDT by tc45a
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To: reaganaut1
Fully two-thirds of the privately insured will move out of or lose coverage. As patients shift to a lower-paying government plan, doctors' incomes will decline by as much as 15% to 20% depending on their specialty.

Doctors will lose 15 to 20% but Democrats will still make sure patients can SUE them. All those trial attorney's supporting dems are going to win the doctor lotto!

47 posted on 05/12/2009 7:18:46 AM PDT by GOPJ (If Nixon had been a Democrat, Woodward and Bernstein would have been Linda Tripp.)
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To: RipSawyer
I am also told that, at least in my area, many “independent” testing labs are actually owned largely by the same doctors who send samples to them for testing. Isn’t this an incentive to order unneccessary testing to pad the doctor’s income?

The doc's in my area get a kickback bonus from the local hospitals for all the lab work they send to them.

That being said they are ordering the test because they don't want to get sued and are covering their bases.

48 posted on 05/12/2009 7:21:38 AM PDT by tc45a
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To: IceAge
I always tell anyone willing to listen:

What 2 sectors, outside government itself, have increased pricing well beyond the rate of inflation the last 30 years?

Higher education and health care.

In what 2 sectors has the government assumed the biggest role in subsidizing prices?

Higher education and health care.

The fact that the answers to these two questions are the same is hardly a coincidence. Despite Pres__ent 0's rhetoric to the contrary, we can expect more of the same in health care, the greater government involvement becomes, with the only antidote available to the payer (government) being ruthless, arbitrary rationing. Those that are elderly or with serious medical issues should prepare themselves for rough days ahead.

49 posted on 05/12/2009 7:25:56 AM PDT by Emile ("If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" -- Unknown)
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To: reaganaut1

What we should fear most about Obamacare is these outcome based decision making on health care treatment. Using Daschle’s book as a blueprint, government bureaucrats will develop clinical “guidelines” that may deny large numbers of patients treatments. For example an 80 year old woman currently living independently, but with diabetes and a history of breast cancer could easily be denied further cancer treatment because the guidelines say statistically she has no chance of surviving but a few more years. The nation’s elderly will get reduced treatments and fill nursing homes and even us baby boomers with the typical ailments of people our age may be denied life saving treatments like cardiac bypass surgery.


50 posted on 05/12/2009 7:33:43 AM PDT by The Great RJ (chain.)
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To: Cheburashka

In communist countries, the leaders do not have the same medical care as the “workers”. Of course they have their own elite, private doctors who are much better trained than the ones the common people get. (Or they travel to other countries for special treatment at better hospitals). So Obama and others aren’t too worried about what they themselves will be facing, they know the mess won’t apply to them.

We have a missionary friend who had to have surgery at a hospital in Ukraine (it was urgent so there was not time for her to fly to a Western country), her descriptions were horrifying. Being left on the operating table for long after the surgery alone and cared for, having to have your friends or relatives bring your own food and buy your medicine, just very primitive, uncaring, awful conditions. They were able to get somewhat better care than average because through their missionary contacts they were able to locate a better doctor,but for the most part the people working there just didn’t care about the patients at all. Just a typical socialist workers attitude of doing the least to get by. This was right after the fall of the iron curtain, possibly it’s better over there now.


51 posted on 05/12/2009 7:38:25 AM PDT by boxlunch
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To: G Larry
not to mention Obama’s new “Duty to Die” policy, which is the result of restricted access to healthcare

What is this? I have heard of this attitude unofficially in countries with socialized medicine, but had not heard of any official policy under Obama with this name. Can you provide a link?

52 posted on 05/12/2009 7:40:43 AM PDT by boxlunch
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To: reaganaut1

The sickest patients and the elderly will be allowed to die under BarryCare.


53 posted on 05/12/2009 8:01:10 AM PDT by counterpunch (In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.)
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To: Chickensoup

What do you base your info on?

I can tell you, as someone who works in Medicine, > 70% of the Docs I know are very conservative, like most small business people.


54 posted on 05/12/2009 8:05:32 AM PDT by Chesner
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To: MortMan

“I have not heard, read, or seen any evidence that Obama’s mother was not a U.S. citizen.”

I haven’t done the calculations. I too have seen no evidence she wasn’t born a citizen, but she did spend an inordinate amount of her working life outside of the US. To qualify for SS and Medicare, you have to have a minimum number of quarters of earnings.

So despite being a citizen, it’s possible she would have been technically ineligible for Medicare. Also, Medicare only available to those 65+ (which she wasn’t, to my knowledge) or permanently disabled (which possibly she was, but I don’t know enough about her illness/end of life to state this with certainty: there’s a minimum 4 months to qualify for SS Disability, so until she qualified for that, Medicare would not have been in the picture etc.).


55 posted on 05/12/2009 10:13:32 AM PDT by DrC
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To: reaganaut1

not this physician. I will retire first (and I’m about 12-13 years away from planned retirement) I make a nice living, but not as much as your plumber, handyman, etc. For this I get to work nights, holidays, weekends, kids soccer games and dance recitals, etc. Oh, and by the way, I did not start earning until my early 30’s due to school, residency, etc, all of which generated student loans to pay back.

It’s not just the money issue, however. The government already tells me far too much how I have to practice medicine. This would only become worse under the current plan. I will not be a low paid government employee who is not free to practice in the way I think and know to be best. But that’s OK, I have wanted to open a quilt shop for a while. Much less income, but much less hassle to go along with it.

We may get Obamacare pushed down our throats, but good luck finding an American trained physician to provide it.


56 posted on 05/12/2009 10:19:07 AM PDT by Mom MD (Jesus is the Light of the world!)
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To: nascarnation

But they can’t keep us from quitting altogether.


57 posted on 05/12/2009 10:20:31 AM PDT by Mom MD (Jesus is the Light of the world!)
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To: StarFan; Dutchy; alisasny; BobFromNJ; BUNNY2003; Cacique; Clemenza; Coleus; cyborg; DKNY; ...

ping!


58 posted on 05/12/2009 10:21:49 AM PDT by nutmeg (DemocRATs: The party of tax cheats and other assorted crooks)
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To: nutmeg

Thanks for the ping!


59 posted on 05/12/2009 10:26:33 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: Emile

“In what 2 sectors has the government assumed the biggest role in subsidizing prices?

Higher education and health care.”

Yep, though it goes beyond subsidizing prices. Food Stamps neatly address the inability of some families to afford an unquestionable necessity of life without distorting the market for everyone else. Because they are given for a fixed dollar amount, Food Stamps don’t incent grocery stores to inflate their prices and their simplicity encourages nearly all retailers to accept them; hence the poor retain strong incentives to look for the best value for the money, but also can go grocery shopping where everyone else does.

In contrast, Medicare promises FIXED BENEFITS and imposes administered prices on hospitals, doctors and other providers. This greatly undercuts the incentive to shop carefully, but also distorts the market for everyone. The government’s own studies show that 30% of Medicare spending is wasted on care that is either unneeded or costs more than necessary.

Obama could achieve dramatic improvements in efficiency simply by treating Medicare beneficiaries like federal employees: give them a fixed dollar coupon to purchase private coverage and then let them use their shopping skills to purchase private coverage. The coupons could vary by health status (sick people would get a higher voucher to reflect that the private market will charge them a higher premium: indeed, the simplest way to determine the value of the voucher is to based it on the lowest-priced plan(s) available to a given individual given their condition, age and geographic location) and by income. There’s no good public policy reason to use tax dollars to pay for Medicare for Warren Buffett.

But of course, our “brilliant” president is going in the exact opposite direction. Rather than remove Medicare from the market, he wants to EXPAND it to cover millions more Americans. We all will be the losers if he succeeds.


60 posted on 05/12/2009 10:30:35 AM PDT by DrC
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