Insurance

[Ross]

A big first step that would brin immediate cash to the table - would be to chase down, eliminate and prosecute the FRAUD that is rampant in both medicare and medicaid...

Billions are at stake, everyone agrees - yet nothing is done to reduce or prosecute those criminals.

But I don't think people are interested in SOLVING the problem..nor will this new "health care plan" change things..too much money at stake...

YMMV

For fraud I have advocated triple damages penalty plus license loss. But that still doesn't address the need for personal health care.
No one is going to care more about your health than you.

 

[Steve Dion]

KD3PC:

You are correct. There are some serious problems with fraud and excessive insurance premiums (tort reform) for the medical profession. If the law makers would attack the problem head on they could make inroads to making health care more affordable for everyone that "wants it".

 

[AbbySedge]

Abbey , I wish you and yours well. Nancy and I are coming up on 44 years in February.
My son is an ICU nurse and he tells many sad tales of people much younger than I that come under his care.
Life is always a crap shoot but sometimes we can load the dice.
Nobody lives forever but is sad to be crippled before our time is up.

Thanks Ross, I appreciate your well wishes. We have several nurses in our family. My daughter is a nurse in CCU, daughter- in- law in NICU, or the premature nursery and a grand-daughter works for a pediatrician. She use to work in the NICU with the little babies but had to get out of it because she wanted one of her own so badly and miscarried twice, so it got too depressing for her. I think she is enjoying what she is doing now.

 

[kenn]

Kenn: When you say it is less expensive overall who are you taking about? The person that is receiving the service or the tax payers.

Medicare & medicaid are the most expensive insurance programs that there are in the US. Our doctors are already dropping out of Medicare. They are posting notices in their offices that they will be dropping Medicare patients.

Now we will be seeing waiting lists to see a doctor if you do not have private insurance or pay cash.

The US is already over 14 trillion in debt what do you think this is going to do to the debt?

This is a sailing forum, so I'll be brief.

You pay for health care one way or another; up-front, via premiums to private for-profit insurers, or by government deductions. Anyone who's done the numbers honestly can tell you that it costs LESS overall to deliver health-care through a single-payer system than through an unregulated for-profit insurer system. Cries of "socialism!" are equally misinformed; there's plenty of opportunity for businesses to be providers of services and products within a single-payer system.

Americans have been fed alot of BS about how a single-payer system inevitably leads to rationing and inferior care, and it's just not true. US primary-care physicians can spend 20% or more of their worktime doing paperwork and fighting with insurers for reimbursement - this waste is non-existent in Canada.

234 years ago, the notion that all men are created equal was considered radical, yet your new government was founded on such principles. Today, the notion that health-care should be up there with life, liberty and the "purfuit of happineff" is also perhaps radical, but the next logical step.

My Dad has 13 years with a prosthetic hip, and my Mom got two new knees about 5 years ago, and between them have survived and beaten 3 cancers, all without driving them into bankruptcy. To me, the concept that anyone, in a rich democracy, has to accept being crippled (or dying prematurely) because they can't afford the treatment... is barbaric.

And it's much, much easier to detect and eliminate fraud in a single-payer system, as well as vastly-reduced incentive for fraud.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Thanks, kenn, for that analysis. It talked with a dockmate just yesterday who'd finally turned 65 and was eligible for Medicare. He'd been uninsured for over 3 years because of costs. I was tempted to write my former private insurer after 15 years of being in single practice business because of their insatiable and unsupportable rate hikes, but my wife still needs them for a few more years, then we'll tell them how we really feel about them. The non-competitive pharmaceutical "deal" and the donut hole "negotiated" by the former administration remains a travesty. Health care should be a right for all citizens of a civilized society.

On a UK sailing forum, one feller's signature line reads: "If I wanted to live in a banana republic, I would've moved to South America."

There's simply no reason, other than the BS you mentioned, that the rich can have it their way but still allow the rest of us to get proper health care. I just don't understand why the "haves" keep resisting allowing the "have nots" to get the basic health care necessary for supporting life.

It's criminal and the lies are getting out of hand.

It isn't "socialism" it is the basis of civilized society.

PS - Much of my family lives in Canada. They ain't complaining and are quite healthy. They think we're nuts.

PPS - I broke my leg skiing two years ago in January 2009, and the titanium plate they put in BROKE seven months later, requiring a second surgery. If the original accident had been in December, it would have meant it was in two different years and I would have been exposed to a lot more costs for he two surgeries. Nonsense. That's why I had insurance, but the yearly deductible was just that, yearly. Glad I went skiing in January!

 

[kenn]

Thanks Stu. I'm typing this from my parents' home, because my Dad had a small operation today so I'm in town for that. He's been battling a persistent infection and has been in hospital since Sept. He's not out of the woods, and he's elderly, so the final outcome is in doubt... but at no time during this process has ANY treatment decision been based on whether he's insured or can afford something. Every treatment decision has been based on medical factors. THAT'S how a civilized country should treat its citizens.

PS nurses are awesome. If I wasn't happily married, I'd spend my evenings wining and dining any/all nurses. (ok, for the guy nurses it would be a hockey game). God bless all nurses.

 

[peoples1234]

This is a sailing forum, so I'll be brief.

You pay for health care one way or another; up-front, via premiums to private for-profit insurers, or by government deductions. Anyone who's done the numbers honestly can tell you that it costs LESS overall to deliver health-care through a single-payer system than through an unregulated for-profit insurer system. Cries of "socialism!" are equally misinformed; there's plenty of opportunity for businesses to be providers of services and products within a single-payer system.

Americans have been fed alot of BS about how a single-payer system inevitably leads to rationing and inferior care, and it's just not true. US primary-care physicians can spend 20% or more of their worktime doing paperwork and fighting with insurers for reimbursement - this waste is non-existent in Canada.

234 years ago, the notion that all men are created equal was considered radical, yet your new government was founded on such principles. Today, the notion that health-care should be up there with life, liberty and the "purfuit of happineff" is also perhaps radical, but the next logical step.

My Dad has 13 years with a prosthetic hip, and my Mom got two new knees about 5 years ago, and between them have survived and beaten 3 cancers, all without driving them into bankruptcy. To me, the concept that anyone, in a rich democracy, has to accept being crippled (or dying prematurely) because they can't afford the treatment... is barbaric.

And it's much, much easier to detect and eliminate fraud in a single-payer system, as well as vastly-reduced incentive for fraud.

You are right on and obviously I couldn't agree more.

I hope we realize this soon, but I doubt it. Too much emotion and sensationalism embraced from both sides for any real progress to be made.