Health Care Reform

[Freedom4all]

Pelosicare Bill

Sec. 309, page 204

Beginning in 2015, 2 or more States can get together to form ‘Health Care Choice Compacts’ to facilitate individuals to buy health insurance across state lines. To help them along, the federal government will make grants available to states that would like to do this.

Sec. 310, page 206

Six months after this law passes, the Commissioner will make money available through grants and loans to non-profit, member owned and operated co-ops to help establish and operate the programs, so long as the co-ops are offered through the health exchange.

Now the rub...

Section 302. Page 156

This section outlines who is eligible to participate in the health exchange, what the exchange will offer and when eligible individuals and companies may participate.

The section also sets up the ‘phase in’ to the insurance exchange.

The first year of the program will be 2013. In that year, individuals without health insurance through an employer will have access to the exchange along with the smallest employers (employers with 25 or less employees.)

In 2014, the exchange is expanded to add in employers with 50 or less employees.

In 2015 and beyond, the exchange is further expanded to in the larger employers – employers with more than 50 employees.

Theres your government takeover.

 

[Freedom4all]

Tort reform? Nope. Big paydays for attorneys.

Explicit language found in Section 2531 in Pelosicare

(4) CONTENTS OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICAL LIABILITY LAW. – The contents of an alternative liability law are in accordance with this paragraph if -

(A) the litigation alternatives contined in the law consist of certificate of merit, early offer, or both; and

(B) the law does not limit attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages.

 

[delldude]

State's rights supporters would be all over that. Insurance is regulated at the state level. There would be huge state's rights legal hurdles to make that happen. However, it could be done. Be careful what you wish for. That could open the door to more federal regulation of what has traditionally been a state regulated function...

Funny then Techno geek........why was Obama recently commenting on possibly removing the Anti trust BS regarding HC insurance across state lines to make it more competitive(like the GOP wants)...................................

 

[KCFlyer]

Funny then Techno geek........why was Obama recently commenting on possibly removing the Anti trust BS regarding HC insurance across state lines to make it more competitive(like the GOP wants)...................................

I guess so he could ignite another states rights outcry from the right....

 

[delldude]

I guess so he could ignite another states rights outcry from the right....

If you've failed to notice.........Obama and company are scrambling to save HC....at all costs.

Tort reform and opening HC insurance across state lines are some of the most logical choices unless you are a diehard death panel/service rationing kind of guy like the Obama cabinet is looking toward................

 

[KCFlyer]

If you've failed to notice.........Obama and company are scrambling to save HC....at all costs.

Tort reform and opening HC insurance across state lines are some of the most logical choices unless you are a diehard death panel/service rationing kind of guy like the Obama cabinet is looking toward................

But the way you righties are, if Obama pushed to move insurance regulation from the states, he would be slammed for stomping on states rights. That's just the way it is.

 

[tech2101]

Health care rationing...

brought to you by our current system.

John says the principal obstacle to treatment appears to be simply his lack of insurance. In August, he qualified for an Oregon Medicaid program, but he hasn’t been able to find a doctor who will accept him as a patient for surgery, apparently because the reimbursements are so low. Doctors tell him that his condition is operable — but that they can’t accept him without conventional insurance. He is increasingly frustrated as he watches his family crushed by the burden of his illness.

 

[dapoes]

Health care rationing...

brought to you by our current system.

Yawn.....more if the same tired argument.

From the article

John’s story is not so unusual. A Harvard study, to be published next month in the American Journal of Public Health, suggests that almost 45,000 Americans die prematurely each year as a consequence of not having insurance. John may become one of them.

And yet Jeffery S. Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical School says ...

Health 'Reform' Gets a Failing Grade
The changes proposed by Congress will require more draconian measures down the road. Just look at Massachusetts.

 

[Garfield1966]

So the majority of our representatives may congratulate themselves on reducing the number of uninsured, while quietly understanding this can only be the first step of a multiyear process to more drastically change the organization and funding of health care in America. I have met many people for whom this strategy is conscious and explicit.

We should not be making public policy in such a crucial area by keeping the electorate ignorant of the actual road ahead.

 

[delldude]

Health care rationing...

brought to you by our current system.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

John will be a drain and huge expense to others.

Its time to bid farewell.

Its not about coverage or lack of...its about 'quality of life'.

And you think the 'savings' to medicare won't be anymore draconian?

The whole idea is to thin the herd to prevent boomers from placing a huge burden on social security and medicare if you've failed to notice.

A huge burden caused by the fact no one ever dealt with the shortfall and robbing of the SSI account over the years by our elected officials.

And our elected progressives come up with a plan of denial of service too foment savings through die off?

 

[777 fixer]

A huge burden caused by the fact no one ever dealt with the shortfall and robbing of the SSI account over the years by our elected officials.

Why are you concerned about SSI?

 

[delldude]

Why are you concerned about SSI?

What idiot isn't eventually?

 

[dapoes]

Health care rationing...

brought to you by our current system.

If you would have taken the time to read and digest past the headline you would have come to a different conclusion. It was debunked by an existing physician in his area as well.

In all due respect, this patient did not come see me. If he had and needed care he would get it. Cavernous hemangiomas have a low bleed rate and are only excised if surgery is low risk. They rarely result in a catastrophic bleed. I have many paitients that are observed with cavernomas rather than surgically excised. Others undergo craniotomy for resection. I suspect this journalist is bending the facts because he has an agenda. The gentleman with the cavernoma is welcome to call my office and I will see him. I would ask that the writers of the New York Times write factual editorials rather than sensationalizing a story. You are not being helpful.

Johnny Delashaw
Professor of Neurological Surgery
Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland Oregon

In the original article the author even admitted the obvious problems with socialized medicine.

In August, he qualified for an Oregon Medicaid program, but he hasn’t been able to find a doctor who will accept him as a patient for surgery, apparently because the reimbursements are so low.

So, the problem isn’t the absence of a government-run safety net. The problem is apparently too-low reimbursements in his case.

Read through the column and you won’t find a single doctor, hospital official, or Oregon Medicaid official quoted. Did Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kristof bother to try and confirm Brodniak’s medical condition with another source?
Nope:

The doctors warn that pressure from the growth could lead a major blood vessel nearby to burst, killing him. “They tell me I’m a time bomb,†John said. With a touch of bitterness, he adds, “It sort of feels as if they’re playing for time to see if it bursts, to save them from doing anything.â€

I’m not a physician, and I certainly can’t speak to the medical issues here. But I have examined John’s medical records, and they appear to confirm his story.

Obamacare would slash government health care reimbursements, not raise them. Open any local newspaper and you’ll find a doctor decrying the proposed Democrat cuts, plus 45% of doctors would consider quitting under Obamacare.

As far as the uninsured bogus, junk science claim, have you ever asked yourself how did these political doctors come up with the 44,000 figure? They used data from a health survey conducted between 1988 and 1994. The questionnaires asked a sample of 9,000 participants if they were insured and how they rated their own health. Indeed, if you actually read the study, you’ll read this:

Limitations

Our study has several limitations. NHANES III assessed health insurance at a single point in time and did not validate self-reported insurance status. We were unable to measure the effect of gaining or losing coverage after the interview.

Point-in-time uninsurance is associated with subsequent uninsurance. Intermittent insurance coverage is common and accelerates the decline in health among middle-aged persons. Among the near-elderly, point-in-time uninsurance was associated with significant decline in overall health relative to those with private insurance. Earlier population-based surveys that did validate insurance status found that between 7% and 11% of those initially recorded as being uninsured were misclassified. If present, such misclassification might dilute the true effect of uninsurance in our sample. We excluded 29.5% of the sample because of missing data. These individuals were more likely to be uninsured and to die, which might also bias our estimate toward the null.

We have no information about duration of insurance coverage from this survey. Further, we have no data regarding cost sharing (out-of-pocket expenses) among the insured; cost sharing worsened blood pressure control among the poor in the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, and was associated with decreased use of essential medications, and increased rates of emergency department use and adverse events in a random sample of elderly and poor Canadians. Unmeasured characteristics (i.e., that individuals who place less value on health eschew both health insurance and healthy behaviors) might offer an alternative explanation for our findings.

 

[dapoes]

UPDATE:

Kristof used Brodniak’s plight to argue for universal health care, decry Brodniak’s deadly lack of insurance (even though he got Medicaid coverage in August), and lambaste doctors for refusing to treat Brodniak due to low reimbursements.

Well, OHSU confirmed for me two things:

1) OHSU is a safety-net hospital not far from where Brodniak lives. The hospital accepts all Medicaid patients and would not turn Brodniak away.

Okay, are you ready for Number 2?

2) Brodniak is a patient at OHSU — and has been a patient there for the past three weeks.

In other words, at the time Kristof’s article was published this past Sunday, Brodniak was already being treated and cared for by some of the best neurologists in the country!

 

[SparrowHawk]

Blah, Blah, Blah BULL STUFF

Logic & Common sense would dictate that a government sponsored Health Care Program qouls only be run as well as the most efficient Government agency.

So which agency is that?

USPS - Happy with your mail service? Hours of operation? Customer Service?
IRS - Are you treted fairly or in an arbtrary and threatening manner?
FDA - Why are some of the best drugs on the market not available here? Yet Vioxx get approved?
State DMV - Fast courteous service?? On something less enjoyable?

The VA Health Care system is a current living breathing example of how the government runs a health care organization. Anyone recall the Walter Reed scandal? Ever tried to deal with the VA?

THINK