People can no longer truly afford Health Insurance and many have no choice but to eliminate coverage. Will the Health Insurance Companies be the next to jump on the wagon and take advantage of free money from our Government
When will a Presidential Candidate step up to the plate with enough ba{{s to say, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! They're already considering adding the Auto Manufacturers to tap into the Bailout as well. Only Andy Harris stood firm on saying, NO! And some of you Idiots sport a Kratovil Sign?
I was there at SU when Kratovil clearly stated he was FOR the Bailout, PERIOD. "I" was the one asking the questions in front of the entire crowd. Granted, Frank and Nancy did everything they could to shut me up because my questions were direct and firm and everyone deserved to know the answer. The next day Kratovil stated at another gathering that he was AGAINST the Bailout. BULLSH!T!
Everything I have been stating is starting to come true, one by one. No one else wanted to discuss an assassination attempt against Obama, yet yesterday the FBI unveiled a plot to kill Obama. Open your eyes Americans and see the reality in front of us. We're headed, (if not already in) a deep financial depression.
Who can afford health insurance right now? Who can afford to heat your home this winter? Who can afford the credit card debt?
Now let's sit back and wait on this one too and see if I'm right with the health industry.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
31 comments:
The doctors have been screwing the insurance companies for years. The
doctors have been screwing Medicare for years. Having worked for a Salisbury doctor , it's a known fact that they screw every insurance company . When they are done they refer the patient to
another doctor so the piece of pie is spread all over.Doctors and Laywers , kill em all!!
Retail stores will get some first i think.
Yea and the sky is falling chicken little. Face it Joe, Obama is going to win and we will finally have some sanity in government.
I hope that anonymous never needs a doctor... the most outrageous un-educated comment that I have ever heard...
I guess anonymous should be the one to actually kill them.. how: Hang, shoot, stab..
What a nutjob!
You can sit back and complain about the current system, or you can vote for the only guy who actually has suggested significant changes: Obama! Love him or hate him, the guy represents actual change and McCain represents more of the same.
Anon 12:09, I'm not sure who's screwing who there..... The doctor sends in his bill, then the insurance company says, that's great BUT we are only paying this much because it is considered "resonable & customary." So the doctor soon learns he has to "pad" his bill to get what he actually charges. Can you imagine what would happen if we the "subscribers" sent in our payment and said, you are charging $6000 a year for this coverage, but we are only paying $2000 because that is what we consider "reasonable & customary?
Ever since we did away with "regulation" we've been in this "Extremely Hot Hand Basket".
Socialized Health care is not the answer. The real issue here is what the insurance companies are forced to pay for medications because of the pharmaceutical companies raping of the prices. The whole system is not a good one but if we can, not necessarily regulate, get the pharmaceutical companies to stop gouging the system we all would see a major relieve in cost. Go after the pharmaceutical companies and possibly allow the import of Canadian medications would shake it up to our benefit.
1209 your intellectually incoherent rant is nucking futz.
Why can't I get bailed out? Im paying for everyone else to get ahead and I am barely keeping my head above water.
you know Richard.. you are so uninformed that it's laughable..
You obviously don't understand the practice of Medicine... and have nothing but contempt for the specialty.
Last time I checked we lived in a free country and doctors as well as anyone else should be able to charge what they want. DO you want a communist system with the gov. setting price controls on everything..food, gas, houses, walmart junk????
If you do, at least you would be honest and want an old time Soviet system.. by the way.. the system collapsed and there was HUGE CORRUPTION during the USSR and other countries.. if you remember
Medicine BTW again is HUGELY regulated.. have u ever heard of MEDICARE... gov. regulated medicine..
Insurance companies are making record profits. There is no need to bail them out. Drug companies are making record profits, and those profits have increased substantially in the past eight years. Not allowing medicines to be imported from Canada, when we import everything else from them, is not to protect our health but to protect drug companies' profits. It needs to be changed. Allowing drug companies to advertise prescription drugs is a major gift from the current administration and a Republican Congress. End that, as well.
The health insurance companies are a F-N joke.We pay about $50 a week for our dental and medical coverage but have ended up paying thousands of dollars a year anyway in costs that they refused to cover.Every time one of us sees the dentists or a docotr we get something from the insurer saying basically we are stuck with part of the expense for varuous reasons.It is criminal the way they operate and now I am being sued for a $2000 emergency room bill-yes,you read that right.The hospitals are no better.It burns my ass because while this is happening to me there are people all around me who refuse to work and raise their kids who have Medicaid,which covers 100%.And you think Obama will change that?All he will do is guarantee more funds for Medicaid for the people who do not work and continue to tax me to death.So before I ever see dime one of my paycheck,theres a deduction for my worhtless health insurance,a garnishment to pay the medical debts my lousy coverage refused to pay,and taxes deducted to provide medical care for those who do not want to work.So why am I even working?I have to!Thanks ALOT!
BTW,Ted H we already have socialized healthcare-what do you think Medicaid is?
Congress needs to end the pay-to-delay crap that drug companies have been allowed to get away with. When the patent on one of their high-priced drugs is ready to expire, the drug company pays the manufacturer of the generic millions to delay production. With no generic available, billions continue to be paid for the high-priced medicine. It should be considered an anti-trust violation but the Supreme Court has declined to hear cases involving this practice. Also, thanks to the Bush administration, the length of time for a patent on a medicine has also been extended. That, plus pay-to-delay, will bankrupt all of us.
The health insurance companies are a F-N joke.We pay about $50 a week for our dental and medical coverage but have ended up paying thousands of dollars a year anyway in costs that they refused to cover.Every time one of us sees the dentists or a docotr we get something from the insurer saying basically we are stuck with part of the expense for varuous reasons.It is criminal the way they operate and now I am being sued for a $2000 emergency room bill-yes,you read that right.The hospitals are no better.It burns my ass because while this is happening to me there are people all around me who refuse to work and raise their kids who have Medicaid,which covers 100%.And you think Obama will change that?All he will do is guarantee more funds for Medicaid for the people who do not work and continue to tax me to death.So before I ever see dime one of my paycheck,theres a deduction for my worhtless health insurance,a garnishment to pay the medical debts my lousy coverage refused to pay,and taxes deducted to provide medical care for those who do not want to work.So why am I even working?I have to!Thanks ALOT!
----------------------------
50 a week for dental and medical? And you are complaining? I pay 169 every two weeks for medical and wife says that is good for family coverage. I complain about it but she says that if she had family coverage on her plan at a small company it would be twice as much.
My family dental is about 40 every two weeks, which she also says is good, but yearly and lifetime allowances suck. Wont even cover braces. Basicly for cleanings.
As far as your 2000 dollar hospital bill, send them 25 dollars a month... that shows you are making an effort to pay and they usually accept that.
Yes, health care expensive, but 50 a week is cheap.
BTW, did you my primary doctor gets paid from my insurance even if I never see him during the year? Now that is outragous!
True socialized health care will put us all under the same umbrella with the same coverage but I do agree that people like you and me that work for a living having to pay high insurance coverages when a certain portion of the society that refuses to work get free health care is totally unfair. Feel happy with $50 a week because I work for a small business and pay $170 a week for health insurance. I have to do it because I'm a single father of three with full custody and must keep the coverage. Now with that said and paying that kind of insurance rate, if Obama taxes my company with his redistribution plan I'm totally screwed.
Congress needs to end the pay-to-delay crap that drug companies have been allowed to get away with. When the patent on one of their high-priced drugs is ready to expire, the drug company pays the manufacturer of the generic millions to delay production. With no generic available, billions continue to be paid for the high-priced medicine. It should be considered an anti-trust violation but the Supreme Court has declined to hear cases involving this practice. Also, thanks to the Bush administration, the length of time for a patent on a medicine has also been extended. That, plus pay-to-delay, will bankrupt all of us.
All of the healthcare companies are screwing you! After all, you'll pay any amount you have to keep yourself alive.
When I went to the ER for an auto accident, I was sent a bill. They wanted $37 for the rubbing alcohol that was used to put an IV in me!
Now the bill is living with my insurance company. They will negotiate this charge to like $10, which is still outrageous, but still consider it $37 towards my PIP coverage.
Next, I'm sure PRMC will try to balance bill me for the remaining $27.
It's going to be a fun ride!
Hello -
Those of you who complain about paying $50.00 a week for health insurance. Well, how would you like to be paying almost $200.00 a week for health insurance? That is basically what I pay as I am self
employed. Do I complain? It does not do any good because the health insurance companies are just laughing all the way to the bank. And of that $200.00 a week, I still end up paying most everything out of pocket because of having such a high deductable to keep it at $200.00 a week. So, those of you who think you really have it bad having to pay your little $50.00 a week, count yourself lucky!
I'm sorry I should have clarified-it is $50 a week roughly for EACH of them.And I would not mind paying so much IF they actually covered the things they promise to cover.
I admit,I am kind of spoiled when it comes to insurance because I worked for many years at a union job where I paid like a dollar or two a week for my insurance and they covered everything at 100%.I had a difficult pregnancy involving many specialists and all I had to pay was a 10 dollar copay for each office visit.
I am no Socialist and do not want Social Medicine but most of the larger companies can afford to provide good insurance but they want to go with the cheapest and it ends up costing the subscriber more in the long run.If my tax dollars can pay %100 coverage for slackers then theres no reason why people should have to go bankrupt paying medical bills after paying thru the nose for health insurance that should cover those costs.I am fortunate that all my recent bills have done is ruin my credit.I have a friend in Indiana who worked hard for 30 some years and suffered a severe back injury leaving him unable to work for several months.Too "rich" for Medicaid,him and his wife almost lost their house because of those deductibles and other charges his so-called good health insurance did not pay.Theres many more out there like him.
You wrote: "I am no Socialist and do not want Social Medicine ..." "but most ... companies ... want to go with the cheapest and it ends up costing the subscriber more in the long run." ... "I am fortunate that all my recent bills have done is ruin my credit." (and you wrote about your unfortunate "friend in Indiana" who "almost lost (he and his wife's) house because of those deductibles and other charges his so-called good health insurance did not pay.Theres many more out there like him.
YES, indeed, there are many more like him! There are millions! That does not happen in other countries! No one is proposing socialized medicine. What is being proposed is to go to simple, non-profit financing of health care and get rid of the three types of bureaucracy ...
and save all of us a whole lot of money while having financial security with no medical bills. By the way, our taxes out of our paychecks will go up, but the savings from no longer paying money to health insurance companies goes to zero, resulting in the huge savings.
We very much need this change, which all other industrialized countries have (not socialized medicine; just a simple system that makes their countries more globally competitive so they have a better chance to keep their businesses and jobs instead of losing them ..... and their life expectancy is longer and they have fewer people experiencing pain, suffering, and deaths). Remember: EVERY other industrialized country has Health Care for All with NOBODY in those countries losing their credit rating or their home or their life savings due to medical bills. AND our doctors will still run private practices, but they will pay more attention to us, the patients, instead of having a huge staff to deal with the health insurance companies. Did you know that the U.S. has over 1300 health insurance companies. Let's go to non-profit, simple financing and pay for health care instead of all this administrative costs. We will recover jobs, improve our health and save lives.
Bob you are talking socialism. What you don't understand is those industrialized countries you mentioned don't have the Medicaid system we have and don't support the quantity of lazy people that we have that live off of the system. What contributes to the cost being so high? It is the people that pay for health insurance are making up the difference that the heathcare system loses for treating people on the socialized portion of healthcare. blutojthetotmom that one was for you!
Anon 2:36 First of all, regulation and communism are two totally different things! And you’re right! Our fire departments aren’t working are they? They are “Government run”! As are the libraries, police departments and numerous other agencies! But of course you don’t think they can exist. We had regulation before! You remember when our electric bill was less than half what it is today. Ma Bell was more affordable. Then there were these Corporations that told these great stories about how much better we would be if we took away regulation so that these companies could operate better in our free society. They told us of how, in many cases, our bills would be even lower than before because of competition. But that never happened. The prices went through the roof. The power companies doubled their charges, and some how expected us to believe they only went up 25%. (That one was a real joke if you called them and listened to their explanation.) And let’s not forget the Washington Mutuals of the world that not only paid a man $20 million for two weeks work, but then told us all how it was the government’s fault they went under because we didn’t regulate them!
But you are right! We should go your way and privatize our fire departments, police departments, libraries, health departments, natural resource departments, and so on. So just how much do you think the fire department should charge per call for saving your house? How much are you willing to pay a policeman per call to keep you safe? And you think I’m uninformed? I suggest you pull your head out of the sand and look around! What I am suggesting is going back to what worked! What you are sounding like is either one of those Power Company guys that doesn’t want to get back to a reasonable rate, or one of those people who bought that oceanfront property in Arizona!
Thank you, tedh! Every interaction I've had of any kind during five years of studying this topic in detail has been beneficial.
I think blutojthetotom can speak for herself, whether she studies my references or not. But, in the meantime, here's my response to you which may also be helpful for her ... as an addition to the excellent points that Richard made.
I know of no one actively proposing socialized medicine, where the government runs health care. Physicians will maintain their private practices, which I previously stated. On the other hand, there is one exception. We might not hear much about this in the news, but the Socialist Party advocates socialized medicine and the public takeover of the pharmaceutial companies. The Socialist Party is NOT a supporter of non-profit single-payer national health insurance.
To add to what Richard wrote, the proposal is to REDUCE government involvement! Did you do a careful look at the three types of bureaucracy that will be eliminated? The socialized programs will be eliminated, including Medicaid and other social programs at the federal, state and county levels. It will be a great relief to get rid of those social programs! What a complex mess! They are a significant part of the problem! Not only that, but all workers will automatically pay, no matter what their income level is. Take a look at what the average Amerian worker will experience in terms of what they give and what they receive.
If you are a Libertarian, then please note that even Libertarians who know the facts know that single-payer is the best solution, as indicated in the news about political debates. Solution for our so-called health care crisis, which is primarily a health care financing crisis. Single-payer will shift roughly $350 billion from "paperwork" to health care, not including the additional $50 billion or more from negotiating drug prices.
I hope that this is enough to convince you, because people are dying unnecessarily in the United States, and we need to stop that. Equally important is the unnecesary pain and suffering of persons who are going to be dead because we happen to be 19th out of 19 countries in our ability to minimize deaths due to preventable diseases. Take a look at the numbers. I cried a lot last year as I did the initial months of development of the website. I cry a less this year, but the numbers are higher, and I still care very deeply about this pain, suffering and death ... as well as all of the bankruptcies, divorces, suicides, continuous worry about health or health care bills, ... and so on. You get the picture.
Please get reminders to take action to get health care for all in the United States.
Regarding that Libertarian ... since I just noticed that the link is broken ...
"I do think that single-payer health care is the best solution to our current problem," Barret said, "that doesn't mean that I believe in it philosophically. ..."
(bolding added)
Bob obviously you are well involved in healthcare as I was a 8 years ago. The problem lays with one part of you sales pitch "but all workers will automatically pay, no matter what their income level is." The word workers is the problem. How will this change take place and how with the insurance companies be disbanded? Trust me I hate the insurance companies just as much as everyone else but what will be the global repercussions of this major change, how long will it take, how many jobs are going to affected, will this be a phasing change? I would like to know the plan before I can accept it. I appreciate a clean debate, Thanks.
tedh, you're welcome about the clean debate; it's disgusting and non-productive when people get nasty.
You wrote that am obviously "well involved with healthcare." I don't know what your involvement was, but ...
I've invested thousands of hours in this during the last 7 years, mainly the last two years. Before that I got to know people from all over the world during business trips, global projects, vacations and hosting exchange students. My wife and I and our two young sons lived in Canada for 4.5 years. (By the way, we do want simple financing and do not want to exactly copy the Canadian health care financing, which is 9 different provincial plans and too much day-to-day involvement of the national politicians "adjusting" the funding and causing problems.)
Anyway ... you wrote that the word "workers" is the problem. I take it from the rest of what you wrote that the word workers is not that everyone pays and everyone benefits, but rather that some workers will be displaced.
So ... here goes ...
You've asked a very important question.
As per the proposed legislation, where will the employees of those companies be employed when their company stops its operations? Some will work in the new organization. They will have top priority consideration for the new positions. Others will move back to their original profession of health care or be able to spend most or all of their day on health care instead of paperwork. For example, the hospital outpatient area where I worked for about a year the lab professionals are now also doing the job that I had registering patients! Employees who do not immediately find positions will be eligible for up to two years of unemployment compensation to help them make the transition to a new job or new profession.
More ...
-- Think about the conversion to the metric system. It barely got off the ground in the 1970's, the decade during which the U.S. was to go metric. At this point we'll need to re-start the whole metric system planning to catch up with the efficiency of the entire rest of the world. In the meantime we are causing continual inefficiency.
-- If we think of a long-term implementation for health care, it will not only have the possibility of never occurring, but the situation could get much worse, not better.
Conclusion. This change is critical for our society. Medicare was implemented within one year without today's computer systems. (There was apparently a second phase of the implementation to take care of some details after that first year, but that basic implementation took one year.) People are in pain and suffering unnecessarily and are dying unnecessarily. The country is mis-spending around $350 billion that should be spent on health care. This is a contributor not only to health, but also to lost businesses and lost jobs.
The resolution provides for a generous amount of support for workers to get them through the transition. We can and must do this implementation within one to two years. Before the actual implementation, it could take another one to two years to get enough citizens educated enough to get the resolution passed into law. The total time could be shorter or longer than I am indicating, of course. People whose careers are in the area of health insurance administration could start preparing right now in whatever way they need or want.
Remember that what I have written and referenced here is only the proposed legislation and could be modified.
When more citizens learn of the details, including that we are NOT getting our money's worth in terms of our health and health care and health care financing, there's a distinct possibility that implementation could occur solidly and swiftly.
- Bob Haiducek
Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
Health Care for All Now
To: Anon 2:36 PM
You wrote: "... Medicine BTW again is HUGELY regulated.. have u ever heard of MEDICARE... gov. regulated medicine.."
Pardon me? ... Please read on ...
It's the patients and the physicians that are HUGELY regulated by the health insurance companies.
Here are just a FEW examples of how health insurance companies regulate and restrict U.S. citizens (patients):
---- HMO -- Health Maintenance Organizations.
---- "In-network" and "out-of-network"
---- Standard and customary charges ... and negotiated rates ... set by health insurance companies ... like my major surgery of June 2006 where the payment made by the health insurance company and me was only 22% of the $110,000 billed cost!
The so-called Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 made Medicare MORE complex and LESS efficient by ADDING health insurance companies and even SUBSIDIZING the health insurance companies with OUR taxes! Read about this wrong direction!
Health Care --- We must move from "health insurance company regulated medicine" to "doctor and patient regulated medicine".
Health Care Financing --- We must move to "non-profit national health insurance" that is independent of the federal government and the 50 states! This has been insane, and we must move to simplicity! Pool our money together into ONE and ONLY ONE insurance pool and have health care costs paid from the public agency.
- Bob Haiducek
Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
Health Care for All Now
Where we agree is the healthcare system is not a good one and is very expensive. I left the healthcare industry because it was so hard to get my patients the supplies they needed through the HMO's and found it too saddening. My problem is I am scared of the government controlling anything. When you have one entity in control there will be corruption on who gets the contracts from the private sector. Once again we will have government officials getting their palms greased to get a companies contract in the door. This will also lead to the private sector funding campaigns to get more of the governments contracts. Free enterprise is what the country was built on. Now believe me this doesn't mean they have a right to rape and pillage but things could be put in place to make things fair. The biggest thing that should be done is to allow small companies to band together so they get the same rate cuts as the larger corporations.
Government Control --- Another excellent topic to discuss!
Although I haven't had it as one of my research topics, I respectfully suggest that the topic of corruption and greed is alive and well with at least some of the health insurance companies. I recall seeing many headlines in recent years about unbelievably huge fines of health insurance companies. But, again, it's not something for which I do research.
This topic immediately reminds me of Dr. Stephen Blythe [FL-15]. If you select the FL-15 link you will get access to his video or you can go directly to his audio. At 9:35 into that audio you will hear him indicate that the Veterans Administration establishes a contract for its purchase of hearing aids, paying $300 for $3000 hearing aids.
The topic also reminds me of the book that some of us call our 'bible' within the Health Care for All movement for single-payer national health insurance. That book is "Health Care Meltdown" by Robert H. LeBow, MD; revised and updated in 2007 by C. Rocky White, MD. Dr. White sub-titles the Conclusion chapter as "Fox and the Henhouse." In that chapter he mentions with emphasis that the single-payer system's success is dependent on being "accountable to the people" and "insulated from the Legislature" and "run like a public utility." See page 271.
----- ----- -----
Thus ...
National health insurance does not mean paying $1000 for a hammer. It means paying $300 for a $3000 hearing aid by negotiation. It means saving $50 billion or more by negotiating the prices for drugs, like other countries do to pay MUCH lower prices for the same drugs as we buy.
And ...
Certainly the topic of waste, fraud and abuse (greed and corruption) must be addressed. It's most likely best addressed when there is one public agency to address it rather than our fragmented system of today and all of its huge bureaucracy.
I would like to be employed or do volunteer work within health care after I have my national health insurance card in hand. However, if the more appropriate priority is to help monitor the activities of the public agency, I will contribute to that to help maintain its success.
I can't speak for your last note about small companies banding together, but I will try to keep it in mind in the coming months. Perhaps you could contact me and explain that concept in further detail and educate me on where and how that is done, as I don't immediately think of an example of it in any industry.
--- The Bottom-Line ---
I don't know if what I prepared above helps or not, but I very respectfully suggest that the U.S. implementation of non-profit financing of health care needs to occur as soon as possible. There is some risk in anything, but the guaranteed result from inaction on this topic is the continuance of the stressful and deadly outcomes EVERY DAY(!). Our life expectancy compared to other countries has DROPPED. Our ability to minimize deaths due to preventable diseases has DROPPED to the BOTTOM (dead last) within a list of 19 countries. People ARE experiencing unncessary PAIN and SUFFERING and DEATHs, many of the latter being due to preventable (!) diseases or suicide regarding the stress of finances and/or disease.
That's just part of the list of the negative results of letting this continue.
It's simply not right to let this continue.
- Bob Haiducek
- Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
Health Care for All Now
The banding together of small companies is not done because the insurance companies won't allow it because they lose revenue. If a group of companies would be allowed to do so they would be able to get the bargaining power of a huge corporation. That in itself would start an industry where a broker could manage these companies as one. What is the difference you may ask? You have a choice who you go with. A choice means more than one company which breeds competition which drives the price down.
Post a Comment