Posted on 07/12/2010 7:49:01 PM PDT by george76
Cuts to the reimbursements given to doctors who treat patients covered by the state's low-income health care program are raising fears that already declining physician participation will fall even further...
The health care and insurance industries fear that a 1 percent cut in Medicaid fees scheduled to take effect Sept. 1 will be the first in a series of cuts as state agencies are asked to trim their two-year budgets by 10 percent to help cover an expected $18 billion revenue shortfall...
less than a third of the state's 48,700 practicing doctors accept patients covered by the federal program, according to Texas Health and Human Services Commission. And some doctors who do participate in the program limit the number and kind of patients they accept.
A survey by the Texas Medical Association, the state's largest physicians interest group, showed that 45 percent of its members who responded said they would limit how many Medicaid patients they would treat if the Medicaid fees were cut by 1 or 2 percent, while another 24 percent said they would stop accepting any Medicaid patients.
The issue is one of financial survival, said Tom Banning, the association's lobbyist. He said Medicaid pays about 70 percent of what Medicare, a federal insurance program for people age 65 or older, pays for the same service.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcdfw.com ...
Whose right is health care? Do you think it's yours?Congressman Anthony Weiner has said that health care is not a commodity. If it isn't a commodity then do doctors and nurses have rights? Assigning health care the status of a right makes health care workers slaves to that right who must serve it. On what ground could a health care worker refuse to provide their products and services since that would violate the patient's "basic human right to health care."
That is a direct loss of individual rights for health care providers. The collective right of the people to receive health care would supersede the provider's individual right to set fees and hours or to change their occupational status or even decide how to apply their skills and knowledge if taken to its logical extreme. A collective right, by practical definition, is a state right because it is a right that is created and given by the government to those it chooses to give it to. It is not a natural right possessed by each person protected by the Constitution from the government. It is also a collective/state right by virtue of the fact that it would supersede individual rights when the two come into conflict. How else would the government view a right that it created and administers vs. one it has no control over?
Of course it isn't stated in any bill that a patient's right to care supersedes a provider's right to set fees and hours etc, but it doesn't need to. Rights, as always, are adjudicated in the courts. The Health Care Reform bills simply establish the foundation for the courts to rule in favor of the collective right.
Weiner’s view is collectivist, fascist and totalitarian. Collectivist because it has to be described as being a right of the many instead of the one and superior due to that fact. Fascist because ultimately the sole authority for its creation and oversight is from one entity the Federal government. Totalitarian because the Federal government is the enforcer of this collective right as well. State and local jurisdictions will have little say about it.
Congressman Weiner's view is the underlying philosophy of all of the Health Care Reform legislation in the House and Senate. Consider this section in the Senate version of the bill; the setting up of community watch dogs that will monitor citizens for various health parameters. Read pages 382 - 393.
TITLE I—QUALITY, AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS pps 382 - 393
So, even citizens themselves will be subject to Federal regulations on their behavior in order to fulfill the "human right" of universal health care. It isn't the individual's liberty that is being protected by that it is the government's control over its own health care system that is being guarded. How much clearer can it be that these bills abrogate the concept of individual rights? Someone will be checking your lifestyle, according to gov regulations, to be certain you serve the best interests of the "basic human right to health care" ie. "the Public Option."
HCR is not just about rationing care and wealth redistribution. It's about the end of individual rights as the corrosive effects of the new collectivist "basic human right to health care" spreads throughout the legal and political systems like a virus.
I think that the main purpose of Health Care Reform (HCR) is as a direct assault on individual liberties.
Health Care is a Liberty Issue
Conservative Underground - 18 August 2009 - Tim DunkinAnother Stupid Argument: Heath Care is a Right
Obama's Authoritarian, Unconstitutional Health Care Proposal
To Americans Who Believe Healthcare is a Right
OBAMA: HEALTH CARE DESTROYING FREE SPEECH
Mandated health insurance threatens freedom, privacy
Bad Laws and Unintended Consequences, part 1.
Obamacare Rips Doctor-Patient Relationship Apart
Second Bill of Rights aka FDR's economic bill of rights
(An early attempt to embed collective rights into American politics and society.)
When you can no longer get medical care outside of the fascist state, my plan is to find a retired doctor and try to barter my skills for treatment. Of course at that time, two honest men (or women) making an honest trade will probably be branded criminals.
“What an amazing statement.”
Stick around; I make ‘em all the time.
Cynical? In this forum? LMFAO. To paraphrase Captain Willard, “To accuse someone of cynicism in this place would be like handing out speeding tickets at the Indianapolis 500.”
That is a great bumper sticker.
What the government will try to do (as is being proposed in MA) is to require participation in government insurance programs as a requirement of medical licensure. There is even talk of requiring providers to limit charges to the Medicare or Medicaid rate. Of course, this would create a great deal of consternation among physicians and providers and destabilize the health care system considerably. No doubt, many doctors would drop out but many more would be forced to join hospital groups as a means of subsistence. At least in the short term, hospitals and large health care organizations will be shielded from drastic cuts to absorb essential but margin losing providers. This fits the Leftists model because, providers will now be an employed and captive group ripe for unionization and administrative control. This allows the statist to more firmly and directly ratchet down costs and restrict/ration care.
However, this heavy handed approach, although so desired by the Leftists, is too oppressive IMHO to succeed. Forcing doctors to accept patients below cost will be difficult to micromanage and enforce. Providers will resort to all sorts of strategies to avoid treating these patients. Ultra-short visits, group visits, quick referrals, and inordinate patient paperwork requirements will stall low margin patients. Government patients could be labelled as “difficult” and discharged if they become cross with the staff after waiting 3 hours. While discussing treatment, the doctor could emphasize all of the potential complications and difficulties thereby frightening the patient away. Legal challenges to forced labor on government insured patients will invoke charges of involuntary servitude and will likely be supported at least at the red-state level. Meanwhile, physicians will continue to see well insured and cash patients through direct payment or through other means such as retainers, boutique models, or some type of independent contractor arrangement with the patient, group or company.
I don’t really think it will come to any of this in the end and the pendulum will swing back to liberty and economic freedom soon. Keep your faith in the goodness of liberty.
Unfortunately your retired doctor won’t have access to very much modern medical equipment.
“It’s coming. Mark my words.”
As a doc, I’m sure you’re right. I would never encourage my child to go into medicine, even though it has been a profession that I’ve loved and have given much of my life to. It’s not about the money. It’s about self-determination. How can I truly feel I live in a free country when I can’t even decide what is fair payment for my efforts and services, and the government can make me do work for compensation rates below what it costs to render those services?
Not to worry. I’m sure everyone can find some really good attorneys, or ‘public servants’ to treat their illnesses. Heck, there are so many ‘experts’ and self-anointed geniuses in politics that there should be no problem getting one of them to make a proper diagnosis and treatment plan for whatever ails you.
Speaking as a retried physician, I’m still trying to understand you cynicism. Work with me here ... tell me why? What incident in your history gave you such a bad taste in your mouth about doctors? Have they not done some good or should we do away with all doctors?
The difference between the Liberal point of view and the Conservative is that Liberalism is based upon the idea of the collective "Rights of Man" rather than the idea of the individual "Duties of Men" that served as the basis of our society prior to the so-called Enlightenment. Until we dispense with the noxious idea of human rights and return to a worldview based upon human duties the march toward oblivion will continue.
So says the Pillsbury Doughboy monarchist who wouldn’t lift a finger to fight for his own country.
Yeah, I was totally impressed by yours too. /s
Thanks!
“...We’re a hair breadth’s away from the Feds dictating that doctors accept Medicare/Medicaid patients;...
Totally agree with you.
Medicare and Tricare for Life (retired over 65 Military’s health ins) are next.
Seniors took the brunt of 0’nazicare.
Dems write off seniors
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/06/17/elderly-and-expendable/
NO DOC FIX FOR MEDICARE
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/18/senate-fails-spare-doctors-medicare-cuts/
Seniors Must Scrutinize Medicare Mailer
IBD Editorials ^ | June 8, 2010 | NEWT GINGRICH AND NANCY DESMOND
“Your guaranteed Medicare benefits won’t change — whether you get them through Original Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan.”
BTW we received 2 of those suckers.
Print the articles out and distribute them to all the seniors you know.
Report: Bill would reduce senior care Medicare cuts approved by House may affect access to providers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/14/AR2009111402597.html
Health Reform’s Hidden Victims Young people and seniors would pay a high price for ObamaCare.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306303720472842.html
Mayo clinic stops taking Medicare patients
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=517004
Seniors’ coverage options dwindle as Medicare Advantage programs close shop
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-advantage_22bus.ART.State.Edition1.3c912a9.html
Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/health/23ucla.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=all
Survey in New England Journal of Medicine Says 46% of US Doctors Will Quit If Obamacare Passes
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2798380/shocking_survey_in_new_england_journal.html?cat=75
Slashing Medicare to pay for healthcare reform an ugly shell game
Dr. Stuart M. Shapiro,
July 27, 2009
Obamacare Impact on Seniors
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/05/Obamacare-Impact-on-Seniors
March 28, 2010 Health law’s heavy impact Paul Guppy
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/mar/28/health-laws-heavy-impact/
The Senate Health Bill: Ordinary Americans Have Been Warned
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/03/17/the-senate-health-bill-ordinary-americans-have-been-warned/
Obama Names Rationing Czar to Run Medicare
by Terence P. Jeffrey
05/26/2010
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37186
Under Obamacare, IRS Has Power to Penalize Americans Who Refuse to Buy Required Insurance
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2807832/under_obamacare_irs_has_power_to_penalize.html?cat=75
obamacare taxes on working families
http://www.atr.org/obamacares-taxes-working-families-a4745
Electronic Records to costly says doctors
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/health/policy/08health.html?fta=y
Employer health insurance plans likely to be altered after all
http://www.telegram.com/article/20100612/NEWS/6120334/1116
Maybe if we got rid of the millions of ILLEGALS we wouldn’t have a budget problem.
Governor Perry, rid us of the Mexican parasites NOW !
The way we are going, neither will the “working” doctors unless some rat death panel gives you the OK.
Very true. Socialization of medicine will completely destroy it. It will also destroy our economy assuming there is anything left of that by the time 0bamaCare becomes fully operational. It doesn’t look to me like there will be.
Well, don’t lose hope just yet. It always cheers me up to think that during the revolution, only about 1/3 of Americans wanted independence, and look what they accomplished.
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