The health care debate thread.

[Mormon Red Death]

We keep saying, "who will pay for it?"

Yet, we currently pay more for healthcare and get the worst results.

Why don't we take the money already being spent, and spend it better.

Yeah, your taxes might go up. But your healthcare costs will go down, creating a wash, at worst.

Odds are, costs would go down overall under single payer, because we already pay more than everyone else.

If only it were that easy. Remember when Medicare Part D was being debated and everyone thought "oh if we make it so Drug companies have a single payer from the government it will save costs" Drug prices havent gone down for seniors. Their is an inherent problem with just saying whatever you are paying now just has to go to the government. For most of the commercial business companies pay 75% - 80% of premiums. If you tried to regulate and say oh you now have to pay what is essentially a tax on what you were giving as a benefit companies will find ways to get around it. A lot of companies are also self insured so it would be really hard to keep tabs on what the were paying. The old saying of "you build a better mouse trap..." is applicable.

The reality is if we go to single payer like Canada we are going to have to ration care. Whether that is by panels or pricing it will have to happen. Additionally, one of the strongest lobby groups (The AMA) would fight everything tooth and nail. Cutting reimbursement to physicians would be a long ardous battle. Every year they try and cut the Medicare Fee schedules and pass a silly bill only for it to be rescinded when the budget is passed. IMO the only way to straighten this out is give people skin in the game and let them push the market. But it has to be everyone person with skin in the game. Only then can market forces push prices down. The incentives hospitals have right now is to keep builidng new stuff.

I've mentioned my plan before but I'd like to add some things to my list:

Medical school, Nurse Practitioner and PA schools tuition is capped at $2k per year. Most universities are not for profit and get a massive benefit from the government. If we are going to cut physician's pay we shouldn't make them take out 500k in loans to become a doctor.

[U-Ute]

I recently had back fusion surgery. The EOB's are just starting to show up.

via GIPHY

[Rocker Ute]

I recently had back fusion surgery. The EOB's are just starting to show up.

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Let the ridiculous amount of confusing paper work and billing mistakes begin!


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[chrisrenrut]

Let the ridiculous amount of confusing paper work and billing mistakes begin!


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My wife recently had some treatment for some nerve pain in her neck and back of her head. IHC apparently used the wrong billing code for part of the treatment, which prevented Medicare from paying that portion. Often multiple phone ccalls and faxes to both IHC billion department and Medicare over two months, we were no closer to getting it resolved. Medicare told us that the way that IHC coded the line items was incorrect and even illegal. We told IHC this, but they didn't offer any help, and started threatening to to send us to collections and having our credit rating affected.

Finally, I noticed on the back of the bill a procedure to dispute billing items. There was only one way to do this, by using a communication method that I could have used 200 years ago, sending a letter by mail within 60 days. Ther is no option to use new-tangled technology like phone, fax, or internet.

We we sent the dispute letter certified mail, and the department that received it resolved the issue the day they received it. I guess the lesson is that in bureaucracy, following the rules if more effective than screaming and shouting.