Patients, be on notice:
Obama is wrong when he promises you that you can keep your current healthcare plan and your doctor if his public option passes.
Here are two simple reasons why he is either lying, yet again, or he knows nothing about the subject:
1. Your employer decides your health plan. If your employer chooses his cheaper public option with inferior services, you will lose your current plan. His public option will be cheaper because he will fund it with taxpayer money. The more he funds it, the more he can outcompete (not in quality but in cost to employers) the private plans.
2. If you become a member of his public option and he slashes doctors’ fees as he has stated he would, your doctor might have no choice but to redirect you to another, lesser doctor who is employed by his public option.
Either way, if Obama's public option passes, there is a good chance your healthcare will change significantly. Don't believe those who tell you otherwise.
As your parents used to say, “If you do nothing about this, don’t come crying to me later.”
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
24 comments:
what is a lesser doctor?
If the doctor is not fit to be one , why is he able to practice ?
If you want a so called better doctor you should just pay him.
When do finally find out if this is going to pass or not?
anonymous 10:00, ahhhh, the TRUTH finally comes out. SOOOOO, IF you want better care, we should pay out of pocket, even though our government will force their care down our throats while we pay for it. You democrats should be on the next Jerry's Kids Poster.
Joe,
Employers have to offer health insurance to their employees exactly as they get it themselves. As an employer I cannot take health insurance for myself and NOT offer exact same benefits to my employees.
Will the employer be willing to go on the public option himself? NOT.
Yes there are always ways around things but that normally involves illegal acts. Legal, responsible employers need not fear.
Joe...there is no need to insult Jerry's Kids like that.
dogg
Joe you are misguided once again. First off, why do you assume that the public option is going to be inferior... If so, then why is it so hard for private companies to compete? Also, Obama has said nothing of slashing doctor's fees -- again a mistatement on your part. I find it hard to believe that you actually believe that the private health insurers are on your side and doing a good job. Ask your primary care doctor how they feel about the big insurance companies like United Health Care -- they are criminal in their denials of claims. You are fortunate if you have not had an issue with your insurer -- you either have an expensive plan that most can not afford, or you have not gotten sick. It is amazing that we feel it is a necessity to profit from people's sickness. That is exactly what the private insurers do and do very well. You are nothing to them except potential profit. So don't come crying to me later when you need or a loved one needs coverage and gets screwed by the private companies.
anonymous 10:09, OMG, you're an Idiot! Come here little child, I have some FREE Kool-Aid for you. GROW UP! Better yet, WAKE UP!
I am wide awake. Spend some time in the ER's and clinics around and see how much of a problem the current system is. You don't understand the difficult times that the poor and lower middle class are having. Health care is not a luxury item!!! Health care in the US is nothing but a business. Your doctor has no input into the system... insurance company execs are making decisions and denials without ever seeing or examining patients. Medicare has its problems but they don't deny claims at the rate that private insurers do.
I urge you to spend some time in the PRMC ER and see how deep the uninsured problem is. Go to a local clinic and see the people who are struggling and can't get care. The folks that you are so willing to throw under the bus are actually human beings and for the most part, are not at fault for getting sick. Such a Christian nation we are when we feel that health coverage is only an option for those with means... sad
10:02
You're absolutely right, health care IS a business. I'm sure many people become doctors or nurses to help others but would they continue to do it if they couldn't make a good living at it ? And if medical technology companies couldn't make a profit developing new technologies would they have brought MRI or CAT scans to the world ?
When you're willing to do your job for what someone else considers a fair wage (whether you think its fair or not) then you can disparage people who are trying to make a living in the health care field.
I'll chime in here, too. The point is that every person should have a choice between competing insurance providers. They need to be able to pay for your medical needs and cover you at a price that attracts you away from their competition. All involved need to pay taxes on the money that goes around. When Obamacare is offered, it will be cheaper than yours,(tax free) drawing the customer base out of private companies until they are no longer in business. That's when the door hits you in the a$$.
A question to Mr. Employer... If I employ 4 guys in my business, and carry a private policy on my family, is there some law that says I have to provide them policies as well? I mean I pay for all of my premiums, they should pay for all of theirs, and should feel free to go out and buy it.
10:46
This is the problem. The insurance companies are making such high profits that doctors and nurses struggle to make a living. I don't disparage doctors and nurses because they are not raping the public and making billions of dollars of profit. Primary care doctors will soon cease to practice due to the insurance company reimbursement strategies.
And believe it or not, a vast number of research studies in medicine are done at public institutions and in Europe. Not all medical technology is developed by for profit companies nor by Americans. We have the abilities, but unless the possibility of a large profit exists, no study will be done in the US.
I have worked for a large health insurance company and trust me, they don't care about you at all. Did we forget our responsibilty to care for others?
Your employer decides what your health plan would be anyway. If your employer choses to switch from BC/BS to Kaiser Permanente or any other less desirable plan, you still have no choice in the matter.
well said 12:03.
At least you get to vote on who governs. When was the last time your employer asked you how much you should be paid and how much he should be paid? You have no choice if you are an employee. You are a pawn. You cant even get together with other employees or neighbors to form a group to get health insurance. WE NEED MORE CHOICES. Why are republicans so afraid of a public option? A public option does NOT have to be funded by taxes, but premiums of insureds. Public and private educational institutions dont have problems competiting. Health insurance companies dont want to be competetive- they love their profits too much
12:03
Great points.My spouse has BC/BS but because its an out of state employer,getting claims denied is the norm for us.They now require all members to get a physical before annual enrollment or risk losing benefits YET if the doctors find something serious during said physical,BC is going to say its "pre-existing" and deny any related expenses.Regardless of how you feel about Obamacare,nobody can deny that health insurance companies are allowed to run amok,and they are killing people indirectly in the process.People who pay hundreds of dollars a month for coverage to start with shouldnt have to file bankruptcy for medical bills.
1:18 Republicans are not afraid of insurance companies. The companies are paying them large sums of money to oppose the public option.
Folks...if this is such a good plan for 'we, the people', then why will "Messiah", his family, and ALL of Congress be exempt from using it???? If it isn't good enough for them, then how in the world can it be good for 'we, the people'??
Some of you need a lobotomy!!!
My employer who does at this time provide insurance, which we pay a part of the cost of the policy, says they have heard that when this passes the government will be auditing small businesses who provide insurance and that if that is true that will be the end of the health care being provided at my job. I'm sure my place of business is not the only one that will have this attitude.
This folksy term "Public Option" has been thrown around for months, applied to Obamacare and the private side, BUT NEVER DEFINED. Seems to me it's a feel good pitch line to ram Obamacare op our wazoos.
2:10 you making a great case for the health care reform.
Notice to Democrat idiots. - While Medicare is a working public health care insurer you need to get your heads out of your butts and discover it is more expensive than private coverage. Aside from what you pay plus a supplement, premiums are collected by social security at no cost to Medicare. It loses $50 billion a year made up by taxpayer funds which contribute to making administrative cost at least 5% higher than private companies Then there is the matter of fraud which even congressional Dummycrats estimate to cost another $50 billion. If you like $2,000 toilet seats go for the public option.
5:13
You missed a critical point in the mathematics of medicare. Medicare patients dont pay in to their system with premiums like all other health plans. It is paid by ALL working people at 1.45% and the employers match 1.45%. Show me a private company willing to cap premiums at 2.90% of your pay????
Anonymous 10:03. You don't have a clue. I have a small business. I employ 12 people. I don't have to offer any heath plan if I don't want to. I can do this and place my family on the best private family plan I can find.
And yes, Obama did say he would cut fees to doctors and hospitals. Won't it be great when even certain hospitals start turning away government patients and redirecting them to government, Veterans Administration-type facilities.
Before you say we are crazy, start studying health care in Canada and England and the majority of nations that went socialized medicine. They all end up with two systems: a gross, poor, inadequate public system and a state-of-the-art, private system. Although there is some overlap, each system has its own doctors and hospitals.
Before you argue that this scenario won't develop here in the U.S.A, open your eyes and you will see that the European model is EXACTLY what your moronic president is after!
Anonymous 1:18 PM. You really sound brainless. You actually believed the habitual liar, Obama, when he said he would not subsidize his public option and that it would subsist on premiums paid by it members. Think, for a moment, please. The first ones to go on the public option will be the uninsured, the unemployed and the poor. Remember, the poor uninsured are the professed reason for Obama's government takeover. With what are they going to pay their premiums, prayers!
Obama will have no choice but to subsidize his public option. He subsidizes everything else. Hell, three weeks ago he subsidized, with two billion dollars of our tax money, offshore drilling off the coast of Brazil! And, he did it for a company that is owned by the Brazilian government and happens to be the eighth largest international company in the world. Yeh, he will subsidize his public plan
Hey people, no one here is saying our health care delivery system is perfect. Conservatives too don't like the amount of power the insurance companies have today, but remember how they acquired it. it was the retarded liberals who passed the regulations and bills that enabled the insurance companies to rip all the power away from the doctors. The liberals fell for the "managed care" concept and gave us HMOs. Yeh, the liberals created this mess. Don't trust them to fix it.
Historically, the Republicans have been on the side of the doctors and the Democrats on the side of the insurance companies. Study the healthcare bills of the 80's and 90's, and you will see that this is true.
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