The reduction of reimbursement rates to doctors and other health care providers will likely only exacerbate this problem. Obviously an issue that will need to be addressed.
Warren's new Medicare For All Plan
- Thread starter astonmartin708
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The reduction of reimbursement rates to doctors and other health care providers will likely only exacerbate this problem. Obviously an issue that will need to be addressed.
This is why we need to cut out middle men. Insurance companies don't care that you're improperly billed because they're not the ones paying when they're not covering the cost. The government would be covering 100% of the cost, so they're sure as heck going to be making sure that a screw is worth what the hospital is saying it is, and if the hospital wants to fight that, they can take the government to court.
Exactly why did I have to work 50 year's to earn mine and now she wants to give it away.I hope you are right. But in government, both parties often promise things that don't work out the way they are promised.
That's because the defense department has one party supporting it having a nigh unlimited budget with coffers to stash money away from congressional budgetary oversight.
Why do people work 20 years, die and their families never see a penny?
The world's not fair, but we can at least make it better. You shouldn't have had to work 50 years just to get single payer healthcare.
The real question is why would you care. If you get what you paid for, why would it matter what happens for others. If you didn't 'get' what you paid for then you would have a beef, but that's not happening.
I'm an operating room nurse. At my hospital, we charge 4x on everything a medical device rep bills us for. that screw likely cost $400 to the hospital, hence the $1600 charge to you (without insurance). There was a 100% chance there was an Arthrex rep in the room when you had your surgery. He got probably 3-5% commision on the implants. The hospital does not expect $1600 since they have agreements with hospitals and providers for discounted, negotiated rates. A good insurance plan would pay like $700-800 for that screw and shouldn't charge you for it at all I wouldn't think (it's an implant, not a prosthetic). Medicare probably pays like $410. While that screw probably only cost Arthrex $40 to produce, it does have to jump through all the bazillions of hoops to get FDA approved and JCo approved and CMS approved etc. Is $400 excessive, probably. But that is THE most vital part of your ACL repair. Is it excessive to upcharge you 4x by the hospital? I think so. I have no idea how expensive it is to run a hospital. But to have surgery done at a hospital is likely at least twice as much as a surgery center. And an ACL is outpatient, so surgeries like that should be done at a surgery center (unless you have significant comorbidities that increase your ASA score (risk)).
Suppose we could look directly at Medicare if you wish
https://revcycleintelligence.com/news/documentation-issues-behind-23b-in-medicare-improper-payments
that's why SS should be privatized into your own account; that way you can leave it to your family, not the government.
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Or, you could leave it in the system so that they (and others) might benefit from it later.
Social Security / Medicare aren't government savings accounts. They're social programs designed to guarantee everyone who lives to a certain age a certain minimum standard of living. If you treat them like savings accounts then you're going to have a ton of people impoverished elders. That's the entire reason social security was created in the first place. Just because everyone has the same opportunity to save doesn't mean they have the same ability to save the necessary amount of money to sustain them when they can't work anymore. The people that had extra pay for the people that put all they could in but their contribution still wasn't enough.
We area community that takes care of those in need. Social Security (as it's built now) is how we do that. We promote the GENERAL welfare.
Right now coverage does not include nor promote those ideas although that is one way to drive the overall cost for coverage down...make people healthier. The current system wants people to be unhealthy and sick...that's how the shareholders and CEOs get wealthy. Keep 'em medicated and sick.
The problem with this explanation is that our government treats SS as a quasi savings account in it's reporting to those who contribute. We get a report of the amount we've contributed and based on those numbers said report details the amount of monthly payments one should expect to receive. I'm on record as pro-single payer. However, our governments refusal to address the issues present in SS and Medicare give me pause....as it should everyone. When a government social program is on shaky financial ground our leaders must be responsible in addressing said issues.
I'm all for a healthier population. Those who are in shape (not obese) and non-smokers should receive a benefit when it comes to what they pay as they cost less on the system. This is obviously outside the actual healthcare system (for the most part). However, our health care industry should do more to encourage and reward a healthy lifestyle.
A single-payer system could actually allow coverage of those services whether it is a dietitian, a personal trainer, etc. Problem is, most health insurances do not cover those things. Also screwed up is the whole "you need a referral" to see a specialist. I can guaran-damn-tee you I know more about my body than my doctor. after my 1st torn ACL, I started self-referring myself to the orthopedist who I trusted when I knew there was something my doctor would tell me I needed to see an orthopedist for. You know what having to see my primary care physician first when I broke my wrist got me? 16 weeks in a cast with little to no healing (and the doc knew this) before he referred me to an orthopedic wrist/ankle specialist who then told me I needed surgery because said bone in wrist doesn't have an adequate blood supply and rarely, if ever, heals on its own. So, 6 more weeks in a cast/brace post-surgery plus needing to use a "bong growth stimulator" for that period of time as well to ensure the bone healed in addition to the screw they inserted to hold it together. So, 4 PCP office visits, 4 sets of xrays BEFORE I ever got referred. Sounds like a waste of money to me.
Yep, that's what's wrong. Everyone is lazy. Only Republicans work. Democrats just eat Avacado toast while playing video games all day. /s
Couldn't agree more with the "you need a referral to see a specialist" comment. Most people know when they need to see a specialist. Requiring a visit to a general to be able to see an ortho for an ACL or whatever is one of the more frustrating things I come across in the current medical landscape. I also agree with providing access to a dietitian. One would think with all the nutrition information available on the internet that such a service would have a limited use but I would be willing to give it a try. In my experience obesity is more often about lack of discipline than lack of knowledge. Most obese people know they need to eat less and eat more veggies, etc...and less fried food, sweets, etc.. They just lack the will power to do the same.
I think there would be a lot of visits to the dietitian that were equivalent to an unused gym membership.
My best friend growing up weighs well over 400 lbs. He has all kind a weight related health issues and knows the weight will eventually kill him (I remind him just in case he forgets). That said....he just doesn't have the discipline to eat less/better. Sad situation as his time here is limited.
The issue is to get someone to commit to it for a month with no exceptions/cheating. If you commit for a month your body acclimates to the different eating habits, and many of the things you used to enjoy don't satisfy you anymore.
A coach who does it with you is a grand help, but that is often hard to find. Especially since you need to see them several times a day eating meals together, or live with them. You might cheat occasionally after that month, but the cheating will be lessened in frequency and severity.
Why is it "pay you fair share" on the input side, but not on the output side.
Why does someone deserve my money.
Because the world needs janitors. The world needs grave diggers, and dishwashers, and cashiers. Not everyone earns enough to input enough to garner enough output to sustain themselves when they can no longer physically or mentally do their job appropriately. If you don't fund those that were on the lower level, then you have huge swaths of the elderly (who vote btw) that are utterly impoverished and they become burdens to the future generations.
I find it ironic that you don't support smoothing out the distribution of retirement funds to those in need, nor do you support mandating that those who should be paying more into SS are compensated adequately while they are working age via an economically necessary minimum wage.
Basically, you just argue that the poor are A) Lazy B)Selfish or both. Somehow you just can't comprehend that maybe, juuuuuuust maybe, someone who's working a low wage job works hard for peanuts because peanuts is all they're able to get.
The US can not depend on charities to sustain people in times of trouble, nor should it. Go re-read Grapes of Wrath and As I Lay Dying and report back to me.
It's defiantly not the job of the government; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Are you defending the grave diggers, dishwashers, and cashiers in SE Texas who lost everything they had to Hurricane Harvey too? As I understand it from the mouth of Aston, they deserve everything bad that happens to them due to insufficient wokeness.
Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness isn't the job of the US Government. It's the fundamental rights of man in our society. The government has various jobs to help ensure those fundamental human rights:
Jobs of the US government:
Establish Justice
Ensure Domestic Tranquility
Provide for the Common Defense
Promote the General Welfare
Secure the Blessings of Liberty for Ourselves and Our Posterity.
I was never angry at anyone living through Hurricane Harvey. I was angry at the politicians using it as a photo op when they had denied help to Democratic states months earlier.
To add to this TUFan, you either pay a little through the tax and everyone gets to enjoy the same quality health care and benefits from it, OR you pay your monthly premiums (or your company does) which slowly go up more and more and more because the so-called "freeloader", "entitlement seekers" etc. who do not have a job where they pay for insurance premiums and the salary said employers pay is not enough to cover rent, food for the family, clothing, AND medical insurance, do get sick and do go to the doctor. Most clinics/doctors don't turn patients away due to inability to pay. It's unethical for them to do so according to their Hippocratic oath (which is why you never see most doctors anywhere near the front desk of a check-in station at an Urgent Care or ER). Who do you think is paying those actual expenses like medicines, vaccinations, etc.? The medical fairy? Ha, the giant conglomerate med companies pass those costs on to the insurance companies they own by "negotiating" office visit fees. Wonder why your co-pay goes up? This is why (and to dissuade you from going to seek medical attention for minor problems like rashes, fevers, etc.) While you probably believe that your right to own a gun is God-given, what about other peoples' right to be healthy? Is life not God given? Did God not give us wisdom and knowledge and an ability to use both to advance medicine that can both enhance and prolong the life He has given? Should those advancements not be available to all?
Yeah, but don't forget the GOP perversed the 2A as a fundamental God-given right. And most of the GOP have opted for Israel's safety and security over our own as they truly don't understand the meaning of separation of church and state.
You didn't just talk about politicians and you know that. There's a reason Junkie flipped out on you.
Btw, one thing I really appreciate is that we can be total jerks to each other here and still bond over Tulsa sports in the other forums.
I can see Aston's point. Trump doesn't even hide the fact that he believes he doesn't have to help a state that didn't vote for him in the election. He's always quick to trash CA and Gavin Newsome for the wildfires that state has and he has even hinted at not giving them FEMA money to combat them or recover...yet earlier this week he mentioned perhaps giving Russia some foreign aid to combat uncharacteristic and unseasonal wildfires in Siberia right now. W didn't even stoop that low and he was surrounded by some of the most despicable bureaucrats in history (sycophants and still despicable).
She flipped out on me because she was from there and she probably was a bit preoccupied with the emergency her community was in to hear criticism about her state's politicians. I'm not a "thoughts and prayers" kind of person though. I'm a, "this was an inevitable situation that your state supported" kind of person. If she wanted to be mad at anyone it should have been anyone that voted for Cruz.
I don't like the two faced federal politicians from Texas. Espcially Ted Cruz. Cruz should have been publicly apologizing on every news outlet for hurting Americans who were in the same type of emergency that his constituents were then in and begging for the rest of us to overlook his scumbaginess in order to come to the aid of the people that elected (and re-elected) him.
Instead he made it into an "us vs. them" agenda item again, saying how bad the Democrats were for criticizing him at such a dire moment. He's a sleezeball who will hug the same guy that called his wife an ugly cow. His only loyalty is to himself. I care about the people of Texas as countrymen, but that doesn't mean I have to be okay with how the people they elect act.
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Aston...to be fair if my memory is correct, you went after the actual people who were displaced by the Hurricane because they lived in a red state and showed no compassion for the same.
