Medical Care, Will you be able to get it?

[TheBrutalTruth]

Quote of the Day: "Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, 'See, if it wasn't for us, you couldn't walk." -- Harry Browne (1933-2006), co-founder of Downsize DC
Subject: The not so mysterious case of the vanishing doctors
In case you missed it . . .
A survey by The Physician's Foundation finds that nearly HALF of primary care doctors plan to reduce or eliminate their practices in the next three years!
The survey also gives the reasons . . .
* Too much non-clinical paperwork
* Difficulty getting reimbursed
* Too much government regulation
* Lack of time (caused by the above problems) to form patient relationships
These problems exist because the government has corrupted the nature of health insurance.
* Insurance is supposed to cover rare but expensive procedures
* But various government policies have made health insurance cover the medical equivalents of oil changes and tire rotations
* This means that most medical care is paid for by the government, or by insurance companies, and not by the people actually seeking the care
* This causes people to over-use medical services, and doctors to order questionable procedures
* That causes both insurance companies and the government to limit their costs by second-guessing every decision your doctor makes
* This burden of regulation leads to piles of non-clinical paperwork and difficulty getting reimbursed
But it gets worse. Health care prices are actually set by the government . . .
* The government funds HALF of all medical care
* This gives the government huge clout as the largest purchaser of health care
* The government uses this clout to limit what it's willing to pay for every medical procedure
* The insurance companies use these government prices to set their own prices
* If these fixed prices are too low, shortages result, AND DOCTORS VANISH!
But that's only the beginning . . .
If your health insurance is tied to your employer -- if you risk catastrophe because losing your job means losing your health insurance -- you can thank the government for that. Federal tax policies created the incentives that caused your health insurance to be tied to your job.
But if you don't have employer-provided health insurance, and find coverage too expensive to buy on your own, you can thank the government for that too. State and federal laws mandate that insurance policies cover everything under the sun, making it hard to buy affordable major medical coverage.
The politicians could easily fix these problems by . . .
* Providing tax refunds for all health care expenses, including insurance premiums
* Allowing insurance companies to compete with different policies at different prices by ending mandates on what all health insurance must cover
* Funding Health Savings Accounts for Medicare recipients so they'll have more incentives to be frugal
The solution to our health care problems is less meddling by the politicians, not more. The case of the vanishing doctors isn't mysterious. The politicians did it, and they want to do more of what caused it!
Send your Congressional employees instructions asking them reduce their meddling in health care. Use your personal comments to mention the arguments in this Dispatch (you could just cut and paste if you want). If you've used our Educate the Powerful System before, do the following . . .

The more and more that occurs, the more and more I see that my political philisophy (Libertarianism) is the only philosophy that makes any sense. Doctors are quitting their practices because the government is interfering in the markets.

Prices are absurdly high, due to the idiotic decisions of government to dictate what insurance must cover (as opposed to letting the market decide what it must cover.)

More and more money is spent on administrative fees and on malpractice insurance than on actual medical supplies (due to government interference, and failure to rein in idiotic lawyers and even more idiotic judges who do not step in and correct a jury's failure to limit damages to a reasonable level.)

All of this adds up to a simple question.

In a world of Government Controlled Healthcare will you really be able to get Healthcare?

Will there be any doctors of quality?

Think about the education system, would you really want a teacher, or a principal to be a doctor?

Or think about the IRS, would you want an IRS Agent to be a doctor and be operating on you?

As usual it is being proven that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and when the government insists that the lunch must be free, instead of getting more food, you get less as those that produce the food, and prepare the food give government the finger, and walk away, not willing to waste their time for some one else's benefit with out compensation.

 

[medicineman]

TBT says:
(as opposed to letting the market decide what it must cover.)

Med insurers use actuarial tables on health assesment to determine what they will cover and how much to charge. These are all based on profitability, not on the persons health. We must take profit out of medical care, it is the rotten apple in the barrel.

 

[OregonMeds]

Brutaltruth you need to watch the documentary Sicko because you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

Brutaltruth you need to watch the documentary Sicko because you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

No, actually, the irony is that Moore had no fucking clue what he was talking about. I work in the industry, I know more about what I'm talking about than Michael Moore knows about food.

 

[OregonMeds]

So you're all set for health care so fuck the rest of us? You're saying the system as it stands works? The millions of uninsured isn't a problem? Having the shortest lifespans of any developed country or the highest infant mortality rate that's all bullshit too? Thunmbs up to HMO's and having the almighty dollar in charge of our health decisions is good?

What one single part of todays health care system do you find working and without the need for a complete overhaul?

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

So you're all set for health care so fuck the rest of us? You're saying the system as it stands works? The millions of uninsured isn't a problem? Having the shortest lifespans of any developed country or the highest infant mortality rate that's all bullshit too? Thunmbs up to HMO's and having the almighty dollar in charge of our health decisions is good?

What one single part of todays health care system do you find working and without the need for a complete overhaul?

No, the millions of uninsured like myself are not a problem

The problem is imbeciles like you who think that I should be forced against my will to get health insurance.

GO FUCK YOURSELF, BITCH!

 

[OregonMeds]

Uh huh, you couldn't defend your position rationally so you call me a bitch. You're good at proving your point.

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

Uh huh, you couldn't defend your position rationally so you call me a bitch. You're good at proving your point.

Don't need to defend my position, you're advocating using force.

There's no need for me to defend myself against your advocation of forcing me to get medical care.

Put the weapons away, and then maybe I'll talk.

Until then, you're a bitch, so go fuck yourself.

 

[247420]

really mature......

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

really mature......

If you believe Absurdities you will commit atrocities, and one of the largest absurdities out there is government providing health-care by interfering in the market place.

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

The politicians could easily fix these problems by . . .
* Providing tax refunds for all health care expenses, including insurance premiums
* Allowing insurance companies to compete with different policies at different prices by ending mandates on what all health insurance must cover

 

[OregonMeds]

Brilliant, lets allow insurance companies to cover even less than they already do, and lets assume everyone has the money to pay for health care and just be reimbursed.

Yes, that will fix everything.

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

Brilliant, lets allow insurance companies to cover even less than they already do, and lets assume everyone has the money to pay for health care and just be reimbursed.

Yes, that will fix everything.

Considering the fact that the last thing I desire when I get insurance is for them to cover me going in for a simple office visit, yes.

The idea behind insurance is that it covers the catastrophic not the mundane.

 

[ViRedd]

TBT ...

I agree with your original premise. I have a brilliant grandson who is a pre-med student. I mentioned it to my medical specialist during one doctor's visit. His response was ... tell him to get out of med school and enroll in law school.

Vi

 

[misshestermoffitt]

Did anyone see Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carey on Larry King the other night?

A doctor was on there and he came right out and said that "pharmaceutical companies control health care, not doctors"

You can have all the health insurance in the world, but if you're "out of network" you can't afford to use it. I've had one bill jacked up times 5 due to "out of network" which translates into my 20% being the same exact amount as if I'd have just paid cash. WTF is the point of insurance if they can do that with billing?

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

TBT ...

I agree with your original premise. I have a brilliant grandson who is a pre-med student. I mentioned it to my medical specialist during one doctor's visit. His response was ... tell him to get out of med school and enroll in law school.

Vi

Well, I wouldn't go so far as becoming a lawyer :: coughs :: but Medicine is definitely on the verge of getting destroyed quality wise due to all those moronic people in Congress.

More red tape, less time for the doctor to focus on the patient.

More red tape, the more the doctor charges for their time which is wasted on paperwork (instead of delivered to the patient.)

More red tape, the more the doctor charges because they have to add additional support staff to babysit the government and its regulations for them.

If government got the hell out of healthcare prices would probably start deflating.

Oh, wait, I forgot, the IMBECILES IN THE GOVERNMENT AND ON THE LEFT THINK DEFLATION IS A BAD THING, OF COURSE THEY DON'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN!

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h Quote of the Day: "Government welfare programs -- if they should exist at all -- should be limited to helping those who really need assistance. They should be safety nets, not dragnets that capture everyone." -- Mark Skousen, "Econopower," page 55
Subject: Safety Net or Dragnet?
What politicians call a "social safety net," isn't. It's a dragnet.

• A safety net would catch people when they fall
• A dragnet entangles everyone, even when they don't need help

Warren Buffet qualifies for Social Security and Medicare. Is Warren falling? Does he need help? Of course not. Why then have the politicians created dragnet programs that provide benefits to people like him, and to millions of others who don't need help?
One thing is clear -- dragnet programs give politicians vast power, foster dependence, and create huge constituencies who will fight to preserve such programs.
Social Security and Medicare are classic dragnets. They ensnare everyone. Everyone pays, but the returns are poor and mismatched to needs. Benefits go to many people who don't need them, and often those who need the most help get the least.
I know a woman who receives only $400 a month from Social Security. She struggles to survive. She has no safety. She has no net beneath her. For her, and for millions of others, the so-called "social safety net" is a myth.
Meanwhile, all of today's workers are caught in the dragnet, forced to pay regressive payroll taxes that diminish their ability to save, while fostering a need to cover emergencies using credit cards with impoverishing interest rates.
Dragnet programs usually have one other feature -- fraud. For instance, politicians describe Social Security as a retirement plan, or as retirement insurance. It's neither.
True insurance takes the form of a true safety net. It protects you in the case of unlikely but severe problems. But Social Security gives money to everyone, regardless of need. No insurance program works that way.
Neither is Social Security really a retirement plan. A true retirement plan invests money to create new wealth so that more can be paid back than was paid in. Instead, Social Security works like a ponzi scheme, taking money from today's workers to pay benefits to yesterday's workers. It robs capital from the economy rather than adding to it, and will pay future recipients less than they could have earned from savings.
Sadly, the politicians now want to create a new dragnet program that will once again fail as a safety net. And they're once again using fraudulent claims to con us. The politicians tell us that more than 45 million Americans lack health insurance. But they don't tell us what their own census surveys show about the un-insured . . .
* 37% live in households earning more than $50,000 a year
* 19% live in households earning more than $75,000 a year
* 20% aren't citizens
* 33% already qualify for current government programs
Subtract out those who could afford major medical coverage if they wanted, non-citizens, and those who fit under existing programs, and the un-insured problem shrinks dramatically -- probably to less than 10 million people.
Much of this problem could be fixed be removing legal requirements for what insurance has to cover. We could return to true insurance, which would cover major health problems, and not the medical equivalent of oil changes and tire rotations.
And here's something else the politicians won't tell you . . .

• The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a standard health insurance deduction would make coverage affordable for 7 million additional people.
• A Treasury Department study reaches a similar conclusion.

Congress could wipe out the un-insurance problem in one swoop -- not by creating a new dragnet program, but simply by letting people keep more of their own money.
In addition, the insurance deduction could apply to payroll and Medicare taxes too. These are regressive taxes that hurt low income Americans far more than income taxes do. Best of all . . .
A standard health insurance deduction would help everyone, not just those with lower incomes.
We don't need another government dragnet to give Americans what they could provide for themselves. What we need is less government and lower taxes.
Tell your Congressional employees to reduce their meddling in health care. Use your personal comments to ask for a tax deduction for health insurance premiums. Mention the two government studies that support this idea and the census data that shows the true size of the un-insurance problem. You can just cut and past from this Dispatch if you want.
If you've used our Educate the Powerful System before, do the following . . .

• Go to our home page http://www.downsizedc.org/
• Log-in using the log-in button at the right of the navigation bar near the top of the page
• Scroll down and click on the link for campaign number 16. Federal Health Care Monopoly . . . First Do No Harm
• Scroll down to the form at the bottom of the page and send your message

If you're sending your first message to Congress using our system, click on this link, scroll down to the form, fill it out, and send your message.
Forward this message to your friends and ask them to join Downsize DC by sending their own message to Congress.
Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.
Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

 

[medicineman]

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h Quote of the Day: "Government welfare programs -- if they should exist at all -- should be limited to helping those who really need assistance. They should be safety nets, not dragnets that capture everyone." -- Mark Skousen, "Econopower," page 55
Subject: Safety Net or Dragnet?
What politicians call a "social safety net," isn't. It's a dragnet.

• A safety net would catch people when they fall
• A dragnet entangles everyone, even when they don't need help

Warren Buffet qualifies for Social Security and Medicare. Is Warren falling? Does he need help? Of course not. Why then have the politicians created dragnet programs that provide benefits to people like him, and to millions of others who don't need help?
One thing is clear -- dragnet programs give politicians vast power, foster dependence, and create huge constituencies who will fight to preserve such programs.
Social Security and Medicare are classic dragnets. They ensnare everyone. Everyone pays, but the returns are poor and mismatched to needs. Benefits go to many people who don't need them, and often those who need the most help get the least.
I know a woman who receives only $400 a month from Social Security. She struggles to survive. She has no safety. She has no net beneath her. For her, and for millions of others, the so-called "social safety net" is a myth.
Meanwhile, all of today's workers are caught in the dragnet, forced to pay regressive payroll taxes that diminish their ability to save, while fostering a need to cover emergencies using credit cards with impoverishing interest rates.
Dragnet programs usually have one other feature -- fraud. For instance, politicians describe Social Security as a retirement plan, or as retirement insurance. It's neither.
True insurance takes the form of a true safety net. It protects you in the case of unlikely but severe problems. But Social Security gives money to everyone, regardless of need. No insurance program works that way.
Neither is Social Security really a retirement plan. A true retirement plan invests money to create new wealth so that more can be paid back than was paid in. Instead, Social Security works like a ponzi scheme, taking money from today's workers to pay benefits to yesterday's workers. It robs capital from the economy rather than adding to it, and will pay future recipients less than they could have earned from savings.
Sadly, the politicians now want to create a new dragnet program that will once again fail as a safety net. And they're once again using fraudulent claims to con us. The politicians tell us that more than 45 million Americans lack health insurance. But they don't tell us what their own census surveys show about the un-insured . . .
* 37% live in households earning more than $50,000 a year
* 19% live in households earning more than $75,000 a year
* 20% aren't citizens
* 33% already qualify for current government programs
Subtract out those who could afford major medical coverage if they wanted, non-citizens, and those who fit under existing programs, and the un-insured problem shrinks dramatically -- probably to less than 10 million people.
Much of this problem could be fixed be removing legal requirements for what insurance has to cover. We could return to true insurance, which would cover major health problems, and not the medical equivalent of oil changes and tire rotations.
And here's something else the politicians won't tell you . . .

• The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a standard health insurance deduction would make coverage affordable for 7 million additional people.
• A Treasury Department study reaches a similar conclusion.

Congress could wipe out the un-insurance problem in one swoop -- not by creating a new dragnet program, but simply by letting people keep more of their own money.
In addition, the insurance deduction could apply to payroll and Medicare taxes too. These are regressive taxes that hurt low income Americans far more than income taxes do. Best of all . . .
A standard health insurance deduction would help everyone, not just those with lower incomes.
We don't need another government dragnet to give Americans what they could provide for themselves. What we need is less government and lower taxes.
Tell your Congressional employees to reduce their meddling in health care. Use your personal comments to ask for a tax deduction for health insurance premiums. Mention the two government studies that support this idea and the census data that shows the true size of the un-insurance problem. You can just cut and past from this Dispatch if you want.
If you've used our Educate the Powerful System before, do the following . . .

• Go to our home page http://www.downsizedc.org/
• Log-in using the log-in button at the right of the navigation bar near the top of the page
• Scroll down and click on the link for campaign number 16. Federal Health Care Monopoly . . . First Do No Harm
• Scroll down to the form at the bottom of the page and send your message

If you're sending your first message to Congress using our system, click on this link, scroll down to the form, fill it out, and send your message.
Forward this message to your friends and ask them to join Downsize DC by sending their own message to Congress.
Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.
Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

VA healthcare works fine if funded. The problem with most government healthcare is underfunding hammered in by the republicans.

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

VA healthcare works fine if funded. The problem with most government healthcare is underfunding hammered in by the republicans.

Hello Hollow Rhetoric, please delete thyself.

 

[medicineman]

Hello Hollow Rhetoric, please delete thyself.

I know, the truth hurts, eh bud? BTW, you say you work in health care. You must be one of those assholes that deny life saving treatments for pricing, eh?