Real stories of health care

[Dickie4:20]

What do insurance companies do? Meaning what value added do they bring? You dont shop around when you need an operation. Its not a cammodity. The insurance model doesnt work.

Whats the difference between "government-run" and health insurance companies with a brand name? People seem to get confused between liking their doctor and/or hospital and liking their insurance company.

Tell a person 55 years old that their getting Medicare next year. There gonna be very happy.

There are many times when people have a problem with their health insurance. Very rarely do people have a problem with their Medicare service.

We should extend Medicare to more people.

We do have a problem financing Medicare, I agree 100%.

There is though less Medicare spending growth than there is in private insurance.

I care about the 46 million uninured of course, but I really care about taxpayers like myself who end picking up the tab for the uninsured when they go to the emergency room. A person cant be denied emergency medical help, who do you think pays for it? The same goes for undocumented immigrants.

This (a robust public option) would give relief to the localities.

The U.S. pays 2.5 trillion per year on healthcare. If we dont get it down to 2 trillion in 5 years from now, healthcare reform failed.

If we dont get the overall cost down, we fail.

I dont think a co-op will work.

We need a bill with cost containment, which the public option does.

[aaronman]

Originally Posted by Dickie4:20

I care about the 46 million uninured of course

Even the ones that make over 75k a year, and can afford insurance but don't buy it?

What about the 10 million of them that aren't even US citizens?

I believe the real number of unwillingly uninsured US citizens is closer to 15 million.


Still though, we should try and help them.

Choices:

1. Increase taxes, decrease quality of care and standard of living, equalize everybody.

2. Decrease taxes, increase quality of care and standard of living, equal opportunity for everybody.


And Obama's deal with Big Pharma says he won't try any cost containment.

[Dickie4:20]

Originally Posted by aaronman

Even the ones that make over 75k a year, and can afford insurance but don't buy it?

What about the 10 million of them that aren't even US citizens?

I believe the real number of unwillingly uninsured US citizens is closer to 15 million.

People can keep their private insurer, get into the public option, or not have anything at all.

Yes i agree the undocumented immigrants part is an issue and i am all for reforming that whole situation. We already the pay the price for treating them though. In a least efficient way that is. Doctors are required to treat people with certain problems, such as
a bronchial infection. The hospital gives us the tab in the form of higher prices for other patients, which equals higher insurance premiums, and with Medicare and Medicaid, higher taxes. Its better to have those people at the doctors at the first sign of illnes rather then when they do actually have the ailment.

Also, urban hospitals treat more low-income uninsured people than suburban and rural hospitals. To even it out, hospitals that treat fewer uninsured patients pay into a fund, which then gets redistributed accordingly. As a result all hospitals take on the cost of treating the uninsured.

One research group estimates there are 11 million "illegal immigrants" in the U.S. However, the Employee Benefit Research Institute gave an estimate that insuring undocumented immigrants would save about $11 billion a year. Thats assuming there are about 6 million uninsured undocumented immigrants and that we spend an average of $1,900 per person per year on uncompensated care.

Plus, there would be savings from the increased productivity of illegal immigrants who are healthy rather than sick.

I dont really support the idea, but it might just be a potential source of savings.

[UnbyJP]

Yeah, many of the uninsured are illegal. Many of these are also hispanic. Doesn't come as a surprise that the most prominent group is hispanic males 18-25 .

We're the only ones who know how to defy this damn nation. We messed with their precious health care system so now they are trying to force us on board with 'reform'. Fortunately for them, you're opinion doesn't count in this country unless your a citizen, so they can make one up for us. Which they do every day they say that we want Obamacare. Is all g tho. Our Mexican brethren in the cartels are busy messing with their plans for expanding social control by legalizing MJ.

[Dickie4:20]

The point of healthcare reform is to keep the costs down and we cant do it without a competition for insurance companies. We should have Medicare for all Americans.

Is there a single Republican committed to voting for any healthcare reform?

Do we really think the insurance companies are really just going to give up their 30% in profits and overhead? Not without competition.

The insurance lobby is tough and they dont mess around. Theyve done a good job of keeping the staus quo.

If the insurance companies cant compete, they wont have any customers. Shouldnt we give people that choice?

Medicare has a 4% overhead rate. Insurance companies take out about $230 billion every year out of the system in profits and overhead.

People who have Medicare like it quite a bit. 40% of Americans het their healthcare form a single-payer government administered plan.

Healthcare is not a commodity.

[smokinp]

The US goverment need to make cutbacks to be able to afford to provide healthcare to its vunerable..

Slash spending
1.
$9 billion spent fighting marijuana.
$9 Billion Of Your Tax Dollars Is Spent Dealing With Marijuana Laws Each Year. | My Two Dollars

2.
$18.7 billion spent on NASA.. Massive cuts here.. Fuck going to the moon.. The US has better things to spend its money on.
NASA Budget - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3.
$1 trillion spent on defence.. This could be slashed in half.
Military budget of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



The list goes on.. Instead of trying to convince people that they need it and that it is a good thing Obama needs to show that he has the balls for change.. Thats it for me.. Show us your balls Obama and find the money by making radical cutbacks and changes..

Sounds simple and at the end of the day it is..

[aaronman]

Smokinp,

What if we cut all that spending and gave the money back to the people that actually earned it, instead of into some other government program?

Would you be so opposed to that?

[smokinp]

[QUOTE=aaronman;5422496]Smokinp,

What if we cut all that spending and gave the money back to the people that actually earned it, instead of into some other government program?

Would you be so opposed to that?[/QUOTE

I would be open to that if further savings could be made to provide adequate health care to the vunerable.. The federal budget is ridiculus and massive cuts need to and could be made..

As long as the vunerable did not suffer i would be in favour of it..

[Dickie4:20]

A study by the Urban Institute public policy center estimated that a public plan could save taxpayers from $224 billion to $400 billion over 10 years by lowering the cost of proposed subsidies for the uninsured, while preserving private coverage for most people.

The federal employee health program, which covers members of Congress, offers a total of more than 260 options and 10 nationwide plans.

Consumers would find it much easier to shop for a plan through the exchange. For one thing, they would be able to readily compare benefits and premiums in different plans. Also, participating insurers would have to take all applicants and not charge higher premiums to those in poor health. Offering the option of a public plan would supercharge the competition.

[aaronman]

Sounds good, but I don't trust Urban Institute studies.

Do you have the actual link?

[Dickie4:20]

Originally Posted by aaronman

Sounds good, but I don't trust Urban Institute studies.

Do you have the actual link?

http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/411...lan_option.pdf