Midstream Review of Reform

[Winter_123]

My midstream assessment remains the same.

1) I prefer the Washington State model to the system we have now and to Obamacare.

2) I prefer the Canadian system to Obamacare.


I think all "Plan B's" alternatives to what we have now require one to swallow hard but the alternative is to just freeze like a birddog and hope that it will all go away in the next election if you just criticize Obama enough. I continue to think that that is a prescription for disaster and I continue to think that that is the only plan that the Republicans have.

Not pretty but that is where I stand.

 

[scagnt83]

I say we create a flat sales tax and just expand medicare to cover everyone and anyone.

Its better than the canadian system, and better than obamacare

I also support a flat sales tax in place of income tax, fica, etc...

 

[dgoldenz]

I say we create a flat sales tax and just expand medicare to cover everyone and anyone.

Its better than the canadian system, and better than obamacare

I also support a flat sales tax in place of income tax, fica, etc...

Doctors can't work on Medicare reimbursement rates without getting higher reimbursements from private companies.

 

[djs]

Doctors can't work on Medicare reimbursement rates without getting higher reimbursements from private companies.

Well, they could, but the payments on the second Porsche and the summer place in Hawaii may fall a bit behind.

I say this partly to be honest and partly to point out that this would push the people you want as your doctor out of the profession and we would import more doctors trained overseas. Some of these are great, some not so much so.

Besides, a few years ago, not many people liked medicare. They tolerated it, but they didn't jump up and down about it. Now, for some reason, it seems it's the solution to every problem. I tend to sense some rose colored glasses being put on.

Dan

 

[scagnt83]

Doctors can't work on Medicare reimbursement rates without getting higher reimbursements from private companies.

True, Doctors can take in twice the fees from the insurance companies over medicare or medicaid.

If we instituted some commonsense reforms in how we regulate medicare and medicaid and cut out the fraud we could afford to pay doctors a more decent rate. If we instituted tort reform then doctors wouldnt have to charge as much and even increase their profit margins.

If we made a total switch to universal coverage through medicare do you not think that it should.. or would.. be totally revamped? And hopefully cleaned up of the fraud and waste..?

You can argue that congress cant or wont make the necessary reforms effectively, but by conceding that your saying that its a totally hopeless situation...

 

[Winter_123]

If we made a total switch to universal coverage through medicare do you not think that it should.. or would.. be totally revamped? And hopefully cleaned up of the fraud and waste..?

You can argue that congress cant or wont make the necessary reforms effectively, but by conceding that your saying that its a totally hopeless situation...

The situation is bass-ackwards. If the feds want various public options they should come to the public and say "we are already running two of largest public options in the world, medicare and medicaid, and we are doing it more cost-effectively, with less fraud, and better outcomes than the private sector."

Instead they come saying that their costs and fraud are totally out of control but why dont we make everything like that so that we will be motivated to do something about it. Just nuts.

In regard to the sales tax for medicare, without agreeing or disagreeing, I will just say that that idea will be proposed for about fifteen of the areas where we are going bankrupt so undoubtedly it will come into play somewhere. And when we say "medicare for all" do we mean the current medicare that is going broke for all or a medicare that is truly funded for all, because you need that hefty sales tax just to fund what we have. Oh yeh, then there is social security and so on. Oy!

We just pissed away a trillion dollars on a stimulus program that was totally worthless. Could have trained a lot of docs and nurses with that.

 

[scagnt83]

Well, they could, but the payments on the second Porsche and the summer place in Hawaii may fall a bit behind.

I say this partly to be honest and partly to point out that this would push the people you want as your doctor out of the profession and we would import more doctors trained overseas. Some of these are great, some not so much so.


Dan

This is already happening more and more. And its not just because of medicare.
Its hard for normal family doctors to make the type of money they used to. The overhead has gotten to be so much its pushing more and more into specialty positions, and this is with insurance...

Im not a big fan of medicare. But with a little bit of common sense it could be a decent program.

The dems claim that medicare operates at a 2% overhead compared to an average of 10%-15% that the HI companies operate at.
But medicare has billions in fraud each year... up the overhead to 5%, regain the billions that are wasted and it will more than make up for the increase in cost.
Then doctors could receive a decent rate.


But the gov has done such a great job at screwing every single gov program up. They have lost total trust of the public... as this thread has shown.

There is no easy solution to the health care/health insurance problem as long as people dont want to take responsibility for their actions, and people dont take care of their health.
This country will be facing some hard decisions in the next 10 years when this whole health care bill fiasco blows up in our face and we are left with huge deficits and rising costs...
Something has to give, and there will be plenty of people who dont like it.
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The situation is bass-ackwards. If the feds want various public options they should come to the public and say "we are already running two of largest public options in the world, medicare and medicaid, and we are doing it more cost-effectively, with less fraud, and better outcomes than the private sector."

Instead they come saying that their costs and fraud are totally out of control but why dont we make everything like that so that we will be motivated to do something about it. Just nuts.

In regard to the sales tax for medicare, without agreeing or disagreeing, I will just say that that idea will be proposed for about fifteen of the areas where we are going bankrupt so undoubtedly it will come into play somewhere. And when we say "medicare for all" do we mean the current medicare that is going broke for all or a medicare that is truly funded for all, because you need that hefty sales tax just to fund what we have. Oh yeh, then there is social security and so on. Oy!

We just pissed away a trillion dollars on a stimulus program that was totally worthless. Could have trained a lot of docs and nurses with that.

Im all for health insurance and leaving it in the private sector for the most part.
The problem is that this country will always have a large portion of individuals who will not qualify for, or be able to afford HI.

While there is access to care for these people, it is limited and not of the quality that an insured individual receives.
This is what causes the other side to want to make such drastic changes to the current system!!

There is a huge portion of people who just kind of ignore this fact, or say that its not true.
If we would focus on providing some type of affordable care to the uninsurable and the poor, then this would be a non issue.
But because of the resistance to fix this problem, the growing anger of the uninsured has built up and caused the left to create this massive bill that overtakes everything.
Basically a lack of action to fix the small problems has lead us to a huge problem!



And I said a sales tax for universal coverage (if it where to be done) and to replace FIT and FICA.

My true stance is that medicare and medicaid should be expanded to include the truly uninsurable and the poor.
Then make the HI markets a true free market and do away with group coverage, individual only.
Then take away the federal income tax and fica and replace it with a flat sales tax; then the millions who evade income tax start contributing to the system just like the rest of us....

 

[Norwayguy]

We just pissed away a trillion dollars on a stimulus program that was totally worthless. Could have trained a lot of docs and nurses with that.

Not true I know of jobs that we created in China!