Healthcare reform

[kapkomet]

Yea, they just accept that it will take a year to do a hip replacement. No worries. They just accept that they cannot get the same meds that they could get here. No worries. They accept it because they know no alternative. Sadly, no one else will anymore, either.

 

[FlaSoxxJim]

Yea, they just accept that it will take a year to do a hip replacement. No worries. They just accept that they cannot get the same meds that they could get here. No worries. They accept it because they know no alternative. Sadly, no one else will anymore, either.

 

Kap, I obviously must have missed the big news stories. So please link me to all the massive citizen protests that must have taken place when the rest of western civilization was marching in the streets demanding American-style health care.

[StrangeSox]

And I was saying that once Europeans understand our system and not go by the spoon fed media blitz, they realize ours WAS much better.

 

A Ferrari is better than my Pontiac but that doesn't mean I can actually afford the damn thing.

 

Even if we accept the premise that "Some random Europeans like our system, therefore it is superior", it still misses the entire point of millions being unable to afford our system.

[Balta1701]

Even if we accept the premise that "Some random Europeans like our system, therefore it is superior", it still misses the entire point of millions being unable to afford our system.

They don't count.

[kapkomet]

Yep - they can't afford the medicaid they are eligible for. Funny how everyone's a victim when they want an entitlement.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Yep - they can't afford the medicaid they are eligible for. Funny how everyone's a victim when they want an entitlement.

 

Yep. Totally funny.

 

You and I have very different senses of humor.

[Y2HH]

Whoever changed the topic caption to the "affordable care act" shows how much they don't know about what just went down.

 

I'll clue you in, from the inside. Prices aren't going down.

[Texsox]

Of course the United States couldn't possibly do something better than another country.

Yea, they just accept that it will take a year to do a hip replacement. No worries. They just accept that they cannot get the same meds that they could get here. No worries. They accept it because they know no alternative. Sadly, no one else will anymore, either.

[Balta1701]

Whoever changed the topic caption to the "affordable care act" shows how much they don't know about what just went down.

 

I'll clue you in, from the inside. Prices aren't going down.

If the Bush Administration can get away with the "Healthy Forests Act", the "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005", the Patriot Act...then although you're wrong, even if you had been right, I wouldn't care. It's a pithy name.

[Y2HH]

If the Bush Administration can get away with the "Healthy Forests Act", the "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005", the Patriot Act...then although you're wrong, even if you had been right, I wouldn't care. It's a pithy name.

 

For the last time, f*** the Bush administration and the stupid s*** they got away with, too.

 

Your health care costs are going up as they always have. I guarantee it.

[Balta1701]

Your health care costs are going up as they always have. I guarantee it.

Of course they are, we're shooting for an annual target inflation rate of 2%, according to the Federal reserve. And thanks to the Fed and the stimulus, we've at least for now avoided a deflationary spiral.

[Rex Kickass]

 

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/...0,5593120.story

 

MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere."

 

"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."

 

The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."

 

Estella Chatman, 67, of Eustis, whose daughter snapped a photo of the typewritten sign, sent the picture to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the Orlando Democrat who riled Republicans last year when he characterized the GOP's idea of health care as, "If you get sick, America … Die quickly."

 

Chatman said she heard about the sign from a friend referred to Cassell after his physician recently died. She said her friend did not want to speak to a reporter but was dismayed by Cassell's sign.

 

"He's going to find another doctor," she said.

[Cknolls]

Whoever changed the topic caption to the "affordable care act" shows how much they don't know about what just went down.

 

I'll clue you in, from the inside. Prices aren't going down.

 

 

But the deficit will. They said so..

 

[BigSqwert]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/...0,5593120.story

Alan Grayson's (D- FL) response:

"I'm disgusted," he said. "Maybe he thinks the Hippocratic Oath says, ‘Do no good.' If this is the face of the right wing in America, it's the face of cruelty. ... Why don't they change the name of the Republican Party to the Sore Loser Party?"

[Balta1701]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/...0,5593120.story

Cassell: Hospice cuts in 2012…Does the government want people to die slowly?

Colmes: Do you really think the government wants people dead?

Cassell: Well I think that they’re cutting all supportive care, like nursing homes, ambulance services…

Colmes: What to you mean they’re cutting nursing homes?

Cassell: They’re cutting nursing home reimbursements

Colmes: Isn’t what they’re cutting under the Medicare plan what was really double dipping; they were getting credits and they were getting to deduct them at the same time.

Cassell: Well you know, I can’t tell you exactly what the deal is.

Colmes: If you can’t tell us exactly what the deal is, why are you opposing it and fighting against it?

Cassell: I’m not the guy who wrote the plan.

Colmes: But if you don’t know what the deal is why are you speaking out against something you don’t know what the deal is?

Cassell: What I get online, just like any other American. What I’m supposed to understand about the bill should be available to me.

Colmes: It is; it’s been online for a long time; it’s also been all over the media…

Link

 

For the record, the National Association of Home Care and Hospice endorsed the ACA.

[bmags]

when alan colmes can pin you down...it's time you retire.

[Balta1701]

Yeah, this bill is ova, but this is kind of cool data. Martha Coakley, the Mass. Attorney General who lost the election to Scott Brown, has a report out from her office on health care costs. PDF can be found by going through this link...it has spaces so I'm not sure it's going to go through correctly. Kevin's summary is good also.

It's for one of the state's major insurers (Harvard Pilgrim) and it shows astonishing variation in payment rates. There's a 4x difference from the lowest paid to the highest paid hospital.

 

Why is this? We'll get to that, but first let's walk through all the things that don't explain the differences. Here's what the report found:

 

1. Wide disparities in price are not explained by differences in quality of care.

2. Wide disparities in prices and total medical expenses are not explained by the relative sickness of the population being served or the complexity of the care provided.

3. Wide disparities in prices are not explained by the extent to which a provider cares for a large portion of patients on Medicare or Medicaid.

4. Wide disparities in prices are not explained by whether a provider is an academic teaching or research facility.

5. Wide disparities in prices are not explained by differences in hospital costs of delivering similar services at similar facilities.

 

So this astonishing variation isn't explained by quality of care, older/sicker patients, Medicare rates, or even differences in underlying costs. What could possibly be left?

 

Answer: leverage. If a hospital group owns most of the hospitals in an area, it's got the whip hand and can demand higher payment rates. Insurers can't afford to be shut out of entire market, so they have to pay up. Conversely, if a single insurer is dominant in an area with lots of providers, it can squeeze the local hospitals, who can't afford to be dropped.

[Rex Kickass]

Wellpoint (Known many places as Blue Cross Blue Shield) apparently has been targeting insurance clients who suffer from breast cancer.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L2LS20100422

 

(Reuters) - One after another, shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer, each of the women learned that her health insurance had been canceled. First there was Yenny Hsu, who lived and worked in Los Angeles. Later, Robin Beaton, a registered nurse from Texas. And then, most recently, there was Patricia Relling, a successful art gallery owner and interior designer from Louisville, Kentucky.

 

None of the women knew about the others. But besides their similar narratives, they had something else in common: Their health insurance carriers were subsidiaries of WellPoint, which has 33.7 million policyholders -- more than any other health insurance company in the United States.

 

The women all paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, none had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.

 

They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.

 

Once the women were singled out, they say, the insurer then canceled their policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information. WellPoint declined to comment on the women's specific cases without a signed waiver from them, citing privacy laws.

[Balta1701]

If they would have just included a live chicken in addition to their premiums, they wouldn't have had this problem.

[ChiSox_Sonix]

Wellpoint (Known many places as Blue Cross Blue Shield) apparently has been targeting insurance clients who suffer from breast cancer.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L2LS20100422

 

Obviously this is just one individual circumstance, but my mom had breast cancer 6 years ago (she's fine now) and Blue Cross Blue Shield was great. No hassles and very helpful, reimbursed/paid for pretty much everything.

Edited April 22, 2010 by ChiSox_Sonix

[NorthSideSox72]

Obviously this is just one individual circumstance, but my mom had breast cancer 6 years ago (she's fine now) and Blue Cross Blue Shield was great. No hassles and very helpful, reimbursed/paid for pretty much everything.

Glad to hear she made it through.

 

So this might be unpopluar with both parties, but... I personally have no problem with insurance companies triggering fraud investigations when major diagnoses occur. I think its a natural part of their process to keep costs down. That isn't the problem.

 

The problem is when they go cancelling based on basically nothing. I believe (but could be wrong) that the health care bill specifically looks to change the rescinding behavior of these companies, to try to keep them to real cases of fraud. So, the bill may suck overall, but that aspect is a good thing.

 

[Texsox]

I am still troubled by the no pre-existing clause. I see a potential for abuse. If someone decides to not have insurance, then is diagnosed with cancer, they can then buy insurance. Insurance is based in part by having the people that do not get sick pay for those that do. If people just wait until they have a major problem, it runs the cost way up.

 

 

 

 

[mr_genius]

I am still troubled by the no pre-existing clause. I see a potential for abuse. If someone decides to not have insurance, then is diagnosed with cancer, they can then buy insurance. Insurance is based in part by having the people that do not get sick pay for those that do. If people just wait until they have a major problem, it runs the cost way up.

 

kind of like buying home insurance after your house burns down and expecting the insurance company to pay for the whole thing. then cancel the insurance right after you get the check.

[NorthSideSox72]

I am still troubled by the no pre-existing clause. I see a potential for abuse. If someone decides to not have insurance, then is diagnosed with cancer, they can then buy insurance. Insurance is based in part by having the people that do not get sick pay for those that do. If people just wait until they have a major problem, it runs the cost way up.

That was the thinking behind the mandate (right or wrong). The idea being, if everyone has to be insured or pay a fine, then that sort of instance would be very rare.

 

Its a very complicated issue.

 

[southsider2k5]

kind of like buying home insurance after your house burns down and expecting the insurance company to pay for the whole thing. then cancel the insurance right after you get the check.

 

Except you left out the part where someone else pays for the policy...