Suggest everyone take a look at it.
Posted by coltman (Member # 21272) on :
What is there too keep? Current healthcare is complete disaster . most doctors do not care for the patients ,nor do insurance companies , nor the policy writers.
Any good HC left is already regulated to death and strangled with lawsuits (LLMDs being prosecuted and chased everywhere is good example). Drivers behind this is for profit insurance companes and doctors who "fall in line" and whose primary concern is be on the safe side (safe from lawsuits, safe from non -reimbursement) , not the patient care
America has one of the worst HC in the first world (if not THE worst) , change is needed
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Coltman,
You have been sucked into the lie my friend.
Step back and look at it all objectively.
Posted by cbb (Member # 788) on :
Unfortunately, the definition of "change" doesn't include "improvement." It just means things won't be the same.
In my opinion, the changes they are pushing will mean we go from, as you said, worst to worser.
I do not want a board in Washington to make my medical decisions. No two people are exactly alike, so identical treatment plans for everyone will not be a change I want to see.
Also, I'm very concerned because I'm in the age group who will probably find treatment rationed.
As the old saying goes, "be careful what you wish for......"
Posted by Ocean (Member # 3496) on :
I did not watch the clip as I don't want to stress about it since I can't control it. I was really hoping Obama would not become president, but he is and now he's doing what he wants. When he spoke of this health care during the election I cringed.
Geneal,
I agree...it's going to be a disaster. All of these people think it's going to be great and it's not. Just ask people whom already are under a socialistic health care program.
It's stupid because even if you don't have health insurance, by LAW an ER cannot turn you away. So we already have health care for everyone, even illegal aliens. Also, back in the day when I was sick with Lyme but didn't know it and my husband and I were both in college, we had Medicaid for about a year. So if you truly can't afford it, it is there!
I think a lot of people can afford insurance, they just choose to have 'toys' instead, or things like cable/internet/cell phones. I know someone who chooses not to get insurance because they don't want to spend the money on it, so they use gov't money for their kids if they get sick, they just take their kid to the ER every time they get sick. Drives me crazy!
Sigh....there is nothing we can do which really sucks, I just hope there is a way to keep your current health insurance if you really want it and not have to pay for the 'Federal' insurance too (highly doubtful).
[ 07-24-2009, 12:36 PM: Message edited by: Ocean ]
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Unfortunately, according to Betsy, we are not going to be able to keep our insurance. I have a great plan.
Posted by Hoosiers51 (Member # 15759) on :
Has anyone else thought about getting IV's now, while they would still be available to us (and not deemed unnecessary/too costly/inefficient)...for those of us whose insurance would cover it currently?
I keep wondering if I should try to get rolling on that sooner rather than later, because my current coverage is great.
Don't people from Canada have to come here to see an LLMD? I wonder if our LLMD's are worried?
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Hoosier,
I am thinking you should if you can and also write/call your state representatives and voice your opinion on the current bill.
A question keeps nagging at me.....Why are we so focused on health insurance? Why isn't the government going after the high cost of medicine and medical services?
Why is government wanting to set up a national INSURANCE plan? I'll tell you why. They want the profits and you and I will never see the benefit of these profits.
What does insurance have to do with my health?
Why not have a program that covers medical costs for the uninsured? Oh yeah. We already have that. Medicare/Medicaid. Is something flawed about these programs? Why not fix them and expand them to cover more people?
Make no mistake. This is another way to enrich big government. We think big business is bad but we are totally blind to the big government that is robbing us blind.
Seen any poor politicians lately?
Posted by Renee K (Member # 21220) on :
I am glad to see others here concerned with this
I have written about this on my blog trying to alert others.
Mistakes in our healthcare system were made over 20 years ago when HMOs were allowed to determine what care could be given, where, when and to whom. The decision-making was taken away from the physician/patient.
It was supposed to assure more preventative care and better "managed care"if specialists were needed with the Primary doctor being the captain of the ship, in the know and in charge of ALL the patients care. The specialists were to be used as CONSULT only, communicate back to the Primary who would then discuss options with the patient.
Instead it is the most Mis-managed-care system ever thought up where Patients are Products and medical care is given in "assembly line style" or "cookbook" medicine. PCPs throw their hands up with anything out of the norm,refer to specialists without first talking with them about the patient, the specialist takes over, orders tests already done because none were sent over or they were lost somewhere...CHAOS!
I now am in a PPO and make my own decisions although I find newer doctors have been taught to follow one size fits all medicine. They are learning this in medical school...
We need to keep our eye on this current version of government "healthcare reform".
I am afraid it will mean those of us chronically ill will not be "cost effective" in the system and care will be denied to us. Also those of us who are older will be considered of no further use to society and better off dead.
Yes they are planning cuts to Medicare just as the baby boomers are entering retirement. Cannot believe the AARP is supporting this.
Not only that, but the government is getting in bed with selected pharmaceutical companies, the largest insurance provider BCBS, physicians from large teaching institutions....will have them be advisors as to what care is considered effective. This is what they mean about setting up an advisory board to determine which plan of care is most cost effective. IDSA anyone?
My biggest fear is that the alternatives that many of us use now such as herbs, supplements and homeopathics will be regulated...this has been tried before.
The pharmaceutical industry would like nothing more than to shut down our ability to obtain OTC vitamins, herbs etc. and have their overpriced patented drugs the only things available to us
This all frightens me
Posted by lpkayak (Member # 5230) on :
labrat...WHERE have you been???????
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Renee,
I work in the insurance industry on the property and casualty side but it is a very small industry and we all know each other.
I haven't heard a whisper of fear or complaint about Obama's plan among the insurance grapevines which has had me wondering if the insurance companies are somehow in on all this.
I also noted with dismay that AARP and the AMA are endorsing this death to the elderly and disabled healthcare plan.
Yeah. This is not going to bode well for us I am afraid.
Posted by sometimesdilly (Member # 9982) on :
fact check before you fear (there is enough to fear in plain reality about health care planning, no need to conjure up socialist ghosts and whatnot):
Where did I mention socialism? I think the government has been in bed with big business ever since the Federal Reserve was enacted.
We are losing our freedoms daily. That is fact.
Posted by Renee K (Member # 21220) on :
Not spreading fear...I know of what I speak, worked in healthcare for 35 years, heard all the promises of how HMOs would improve our healthcare
Didn't believe it then and do not believe it now.
Also being a nurse and having suffered through the system for over 20 years to finally get a diagnosis out of network from an integrative MD.
No one without some kind of medical background should be making decisions on how healhcare is administered and that includes the insurance companies
The pharmaceutical industry and insurance industry have great influence over the training of our physicians, why do you think so many are clueless?????
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
dilly,
I went to your link www.factcheck.org and read about how Obama's plan is doomed to cost Americans trillions of dollars contrary to what Obama said in his televised conference to the nation.
Well, Obama's plan will basically help insurance companies get more customers, which is why they like it. Do you enjoy having the insurance company denying your lyme care? I am going broke paying for this myself, even with supposedly good insurance. It is hard for me to be concerned about a govt bureaucrat making decisions instead of some lackey without medical training in an insurance company.
Do you know what the phone people at the ins co are saying now when I call in: "We appreciate your business." Oh really, why then are you denying payment?
Anyone who listens to the socialized medicine scare tactics needs to explain to us why they are not more scared of insurance companies and stock holders that are rewarded when a company denies payment. Do you think this is the way to deliver healthcare? Insurance is good for houses and cars, not healthcare.
Just when you think some people have disappeared for good, they reappear. Labrat, how are you doing healthwise?
Posted by MADDOG (Member # 18) on :
Well hi there Labrat!!!!!!!!!
Long time no see!!!!
Good to hear from you!!!!!
AAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
MADDOG
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Lou,
My insurance is paying all my mainstream medical costs. All labwork and meds less my very low co-pay.
Of course, they pay none of my considerable alternative care. I know this isn't covered by insurance so I don't expect it. Because of this alternative care, I was only unable to work for 3 mths. The alternative care alone got me back up and functioning well enough to return to work. Later I added allopathic treatments and with the two I am doing extremely well.
At first, I kept trying to convince my husband to drop health insurance and use the money to pay for my alternative care. I honestly am glad now we did not do that as my conventional meds and labwork far exceed my monthly premium.
Guess the insurance company is not making a big fat profit on me.
The insurance company hires nurses, doctors and medical technicians to examine claims for validity and to be sure the medicine fits the illness.
They didn't used to do this but were forced to do so when medical fraud became rampant.
I know. I was a claims adjuster for 10 yrs and saw plenty of medical fraud.
Why don't you just pay for your own medical care and skip insurance? Or if you can't afford to do that, apply for medicaid?
If you make too much to qualify for medicaid but not enough to afford insurance, there is a true need. My recommendation is for the government to expand the eligibility requirements to cover all people who can't get or can't afford private insurance.
Isn't that simple and effective?
Why is no one suggesting that? Too simple?
Posted by nomoremuscles (Member # 9560) on :
Luvs2,
I really love the contrast between the tone of your posts on this subject and your tag line:
"When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, there will be Peace."
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Well nomore
That is the problem with an e-mail. It is impossible to type with the right tone of voice. I am not snapping those suggestions out. I am quite sincerely offering other options.
If insurance stinks so bad, use the premiums to pay the bills yourself. I really do support that principle. I believe medical costs would come back down if we paid the bills. We would fuss, complain and shop around.
I really am serious about expanding the eligibility for medicaid for folks who need it.
When I say "Why is no one suggesting that?" I mean no one in government.
What is combative about that?
Usually when someone tears down the other person, nomoremuscles, it is because they cannot argue the facts.
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
Well, the obvious answer to your question is that medical care for really sick people costs more than the premium. That is why people need insurance. How can someone who was a claim adjuster not know the basic economics of this?
Glad your ins pays for what you need. Mine doesn't and alternative treatments will not work for the lyme situation I have. You are lucky that they will for you. I have a letter saying the IDSA guidelines do not support the treatment I am getting, so no pay. Everyone who thinks it is OK for the ins cos to behave this way should send me a thousand bucks to help pay for my treatment.
Posted by LabRat (Member # 78) on :
I'm doing good...thanks for asking! I've been lurking but to be honest I went off my doxy and seems my mind drifted off, I forgot my pass word, didn't mind that so much as nothing was going on, but when the arthritis came back, it dawned on me that I had better do something before the bugs get hold of my heart again. Sooo, I doxyed up and about a month later, I remembered my pass word and jumped back on looking to beat up on Mo, but she was no where to be found. Guess I'll have to drink alone. The battery in my old ICD was getting weak so after five years I went to an upgraded three wire ICD about four months ago. The operation wasn't pleasant, the deadener didn't put me completely under and I could feel the cutting and shocking. The doc was aware but what could he do, I appeared out but wincing in pain. I think this one works much better than the old one, things do improve. This thing makes my lifestyle possible. Seems in most countries I wouldn't have gotten the first ICD much less the second one and at age 70 at that! You can keep that change you had in mind Mr. Obama, I'll stick with the (messed up?) system we have. Denying care isn't change I want! You didn't get my first vote and if I have a second vote, you'll not get it either! My cardiologist has turned into a real lyme detective and has found several undiagnosed cases of lyme in people suffering with heart problems. The doc's are tuned in to lyme now and it's high on everyone's list. I hope I haven't created too much excitement with my last post. I put that up and spent the weekend at the farm messing up the dirt with new equipment I squandered my gambling money on. Had a great time in the 108 degree, (it's a dry heat you know) heat ripping out a hedge row between three tiered fields, sort of looks like a Chinese hillside field. I'm going to replant the hedge row with grape vines, peach trees, apple, pear and pecan trees. Pretty ambitious, considering I'm seventy and it takes about ten years for the nuts to appear. Anyway, came home and logged on to find twenty some odd replies and I thought, here come the torches and pitch forks, but it was pleasant and interesting. Maybe we have a higher clientele now and not so many with only ``one brow''. My sister in law was bitten by two copperhead snakes while working alone in her garden out in the country. She drove herself to a local hospital and received one unit of antivenin and was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Austin where she received (I think) three more units in addition to a tetanus shot. I can't remember what the bill came to but it was an eye squinter! No insurance and the hospitals wouldn't dicker. She could have paid the bill but it was so outrageous she told them she would make payments of $50 per month till it was paid. At six hundred a year, she wouldn't live long enough to pay a quarter of the bill. It's good to see everybody, Lou, doggie, meg and everyone here! Anybody see Mo, give her a rabbit punch for me!
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Lou,
I'm going to rename you Paul.
Whenever a country robs from Peter to pay Paul, it can always count of the support of Paul.
Quote from George Bernard Shaw
Alternative medicine, BTW, is good for everyone. It builds up the body so the body can fight the disease.
And your insulting first statement actually shows your ignorance. If everyone draws from the medical kitty, how can the insurance company make a profit? They do need to make a profit to stay in business, ya know.
So they increase premiums which sets everyone howling. The government will do the same but they will call it taxes. And to be sure you pay your fair share, they will increase consumption taxes and on all those yummy foods that are poisoning your system will cost you dearly. You know, the foods alternative doctors would teach you not to eat.
There is no free ride Lou.
Posted by davidx (Member # 8326) on :
Can someone help me understand this:
There are 46 million uninsured people in this country (approximately). Part of the $1 Trillion Dollar health care plan is to cover those who are currently uninsured. If you believe the statistics then around 30-40 million of those will become covered.
That's the demand side.
Now, how many net new doctors will be in business to cover these additional people? The articles I read say zero.
That's the supply side.
So, while covering more people is a noble cause, can someone please explain how this is going to improve the healthcare in our country? It would seem to me that squeezing in even more patients cannot possibly improve the healthcare delivered in this country.
Posted by dmc (Member # 5102) on :
agfain I say look at the VA system...the most ineffective inefficient program....
We are ALL gonna have that type of care.
Someone said on the radio today...
"Congress not taking for themselves the new better healthcare they are pushing on us is like forcing us to eat dinner at a restaurant where its chefs & staff won't even eat".
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
Not going to bother replying to luvs. Waste of time.
Labrat, sounds like you have given up on the fish farming. Now going into horticulture big time.
So, did the hospital accept your sister's payment plan? Usually that is when they send in the collection agencies. My brother-in-law had a back operation that cost $150K. Had insurance, but don't know how much he still had to pay.
And Mo doesn't come around much these days. She has had a really horrible time trying to get help for her son who has lyme-caused mental problems. I think she would rather have a hug from you at this point.
Posted by LabRat (Member # 78) on :
Nope! In fact, strange you should ask, just replaced some of the water and air pumps and have refilled both 9' diameter tanks. I had been husbanding some Rio Grande Perch that mysteriously appeared in my farm pond with a view to transporting them to Corpus Christi to be raised in my green house tanks. The problem is daytime temp across the arid stretch from Eagle Pass to Corpus runs up to 117 degrees this time of year, would be to hot to transport the fish un-refrigerated, so next week I'm picking up 100 catfish fingerlings instead. I plan on an Aquaponics vertical gardening system. I've wielded up two 4x8 growing beds and have bought additional stacking pots. It's too hot outside to garden now so I've boarded over our indoor hot tub with 2x12s and 4x8 marine plywood and made a platform. A 55 gallon barrel sets below the platform and acts as a holding tank for the circulating plant food. We'll be installing additional grow lights tomorrow after lunch. This fall we'll start growing in the green house using fish wastes for fertilizer. Fun,fun,fun! About sister in law's medical bills, haven't heard anything else about it. Something was said to the effect, ''they can charge what ever they want but as long as your paying something'', making some effort, I'm led to believe they can't or won't do anything. That was the last I heard. Just checked on this and yes it is correct. As long as you're paying something, usually they will make an offer of a considerable discount if you'll pay it off. OK, hugs for Mo, but only till she's back on her feet. I wonder why her kid is having such a problem for so long.
Posted by sometimesdilly (Member # 9982) on :
lou- some people reappearing etc....does that include me? Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
Sure dilly. However, I guess it would be better to hope that people can leave the forum because they are getting better.
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
lou said:
Sure dilly. However, I guess it would be better to hope that people can leave the forum because they are getting better.
END QUOTE
I guess that won't be you lou?
Posted by Meg (Member # 22) on :
LabRat-!!! Good to see you can still spit some fire We've missed you around here.
You know I agree with your post--or did you have any doubt??
As for Mo, I haven't seen her in ages, but I'm sure she checks in occasionally. I do hope she and her family are well.
[ 09-20-2009, 07:08 PM: Message edited by: Meg ]
Posted by LabRat (Member # 78) on :
I'll check it out Meg, thanks. Good to hear from you!
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