Health Care Question

[misterman]

Medicaid sucks. People can afford the internet and cable tv but not healthcare. Seems peoples lifestyles are more important than healthcare.

Have you ever faced the problems Cassandra and I have faced? Didn't think so.

 

[ptif219]

There is cheating in H.C. -do you actually think it only occurs to Medicare recipients? I suggest that anyone who has a stay in a hospital, scrutinize their bill very carefully. Of course, people do not if they have premium insurance and most people are in no condition to recall what services they actually received.

I am sure it is fairly difficult to police the cheaters but worse than the cheating is the incredible low tech inefficiency of the whole mess. In France, a patients have a health care card which, when scanned, transmits all the relevant H.C. information that a Doc would need to know. Here, the doctor will shuffle through a mountain of papers trying to figure out which meds a person is taking currently, which have been dropped and why. More avoidable hospital stays among the elderly are attributable to mistakes in meds than anything else. Then there is the duplication of tests...

I have explained before I got a 172 thousand dollar bill for my back surgery yet they settled for 66 thousand dollars

 

[ptif219]

That is right. If only H.C. was affordable.

If only people would make it a priority to afford they would have it. It seems to me entertainment and nice things are more important.

 

[ptif219]

Sure. There's corruption in everything. You want to ban everything?



It's not going to be free for anyone except a few people under this bill. Most will pay full price, some will pay with partial subsidies.

So they claim 30 million now can't afford it but now will get it. Your math sounds fuzzy

 

[ptif219]

Have you ever faced the problems Cassandra and I have faced? Didn't think so.

My dad had cancer and died a year later. I know all about it. I have a son on medicaid i know how much it costs me.

I just had major back surgery and seen how if you do not have insurance your bill is cut in half.

 

[misterman]

I have explained before I got a 172 thousand dollar bill for my back surgery yet they settled for 66 thousand dollars

Wow, that never happens.

Was this out of pocket?

 

[misterman]

My dad had cancer and died a year later. I know all about it. I have a son on medicaid i know how much it costs me.

I just had major back surgery and seen how if you do not have insurance your bill is cut in half.

You're talking about coverage. We're talking about getting coverage.

(Sorry about your dad, mine died of cancer too).

 

[misterman]

So they claim 30 million now can't afford it but now will get it. Your math sounds fuzzy

Huh? I didn't give you any math. I said some will get partial subsidies. Not all 30 million will get it free.

 

[ptif219]

Wow, that never happens.

Was this out of pocket?

It does happen. You do not understand that hospitals inflate prices and negotiate.

Workmans comp paid 55% I paid the rest and got my part lowered 5 thousand dollars.

 

[ptif219]

Huh? I didn't give you any math. I said some will get partial subsidies. Not all 30 million will get it free.

If they can't afford now how will they afford it later? You said it would be free for a few that is fuzzy math.

 

[misterman]

It does happen. You do not understand that hospitals inflate prices and negotiate.

I understand that.

Are you suggesting that it is easy, or smart, or cheap, to just go without insurance?

Even at $66,000, you probably paid alot more than you would have for health insurance premiums.

 

[ptif219]

I understand that.

Are you suggesting that it is easy, or smart, or cheap, to just go without insurance?

Even at $66,000, you probably paid alot more than you would have for health insurance premiums.

I have insurance. I have pre existing for my back and my wife has high blood pressure yet I found insurance for the same price I paid 2 years ago when I had group through work.

It can be done if people make it a priority which most don't.

 

[Cassandra]

I have insurance. I have pre existing for my back and my wife has high blood pressure yet I found insurance for the same price I paid 2 years ago when I had group through work.

It can be done if people make it a priority which most don't.

Saying it repeatedly does not make it true. Florida is not Maine. A family with the median income in Maine cannot spend half of it on health insurance.

The fact that hospitals will negotiate with someone who has no insurance is just another symptom of the H.C. mess that is not really a "system". What do you suppose happens to a hospital when the number of uninsured patients exceed the number who have insurance? As premium costs go up and more people drop insurance, the financial pressure on the hospitals rises and they must raise fees which forces the insurance to go up, which forces businesses to drop insurance ... on and on in a H.Care death spiral. Where Maine goes, so goes the nation. We are just ahead of other states by a few years.

 

[misterman]

I have insurance. I have pre existing for my back and my wife has high blood pressure yet I found insurance for the same price I paid 2 years ago when I had group through work.

The same price to you? Or did your employer cover some of it the first time?

It can be done if people make it a priority which most don't.

So did you pay $66k out of pocket? Were you insured when you did? Or not?

How much did you pay for that insurance coverage? Bet I paid alot more when I had a pre-existing condition problem.

 

[ptif219]

Saying it repeatedly does not make it true. Florida is not Maine. A family with the median income in Maine cannot spend half of it on health insurance.

The fact that hospitals will negotiate with someone who has no insurance is just another symptom of the H.C. mess that is not really a "system". What do you suppose happens to a hospital when the number of uninsured patients exceed the number who have insurance? As premium costs go up and more people drop insurance, the financial pressure on the hospitals rises and they must raise fees which forces the insurance to go up, which forces businesses to drop insurance ... on and on in a H.Care death spiral. Where Maine goes, so goes the nation. We are just ahead of other states by a few years.

The mess is healthcare not insurance. You are supporting the wrong solution.

So only Maine matters and the rest country should suffer because of Maine

 

[ptif219]

The same price to you? Or did your employer cover some of it the first time?



So did you pay $66k out of pocket? Were you insured when you did? Or not?

How much did you pay for that insurance coverage? Bet I paid alot more when I had a pre-existing condition problem.

It was group health so yes the company covered some. Yet now i get insurance for the same out of pocket to me when i am getting it myself.

I pay about 600 a month

I did not pay 66 thousand. The bill was 172 thousand and workmans comp negotiated. They paid 55% per a settlement which made me responsible for 45% which I negotiated that down.

 

[misterman]

I pay about 600 a month

That's nothing. I paid double that when I couldn't get group insurance and my daughter had a pre-existing condition.

 

[ptif219]

That's nothing. I paid double that when I couldn't get group insurance and my daughter had a pre-existing condition.

I shopped around. Group insurance is not the only option. Pre existing could be done away with without a government take over.

 

[misterman]

I shopped around. Group insurance is not the only option. Pre existing could be done away with without a government take over.

There is no government takeover.

 

[Cassandra]

The mess is healthcare not insurance. You are supporting the wrong solution.

So only Maine matters and the rest country should suffer because of Maine

Actually this conversation is becoming tiresome. Maine matters because we are where the rest of the country will be in 10 years.

Lets recap your position: You are apposed to any restrictions on medicare benefits- even though it will bankrupt the country when baby boomers retire, yet, you also, oppose the idea that a H. C. option be made available to small business people who have paid, via taxes, to help fund: corporate H.C.benefits, gov't employee H.C. benefits, teachers, the elderly, the disabled, medicaid beneficiaries like your son and all of the uninsured who "negotiate" their bills with hospitals.
Like I said , your position is astonishingly hypocritical.

 

[ptif219]

There is no government takeover.

Really just government boards controlled by HHS with no congressional oversight. If you think this will not lead to universial healthcare you are being deceived.

 

[ptif219]

Actually this conversation is becoming tiresome. Maine matters because we are where the rest of the country will be in 10 years.

Lets recap your position: You are apposed to any restrictions on medicare benefits- even though it will bankrupt the country when baby boomers retire, yet, you also, oppose the idea that a H. C. option be made available to small business people who have paid, via taxes, to help fund: corporate H.C.benefits, gov't employee H.C. benefits, teachers, the elderly, the disabled, medicaid beneficiaries like your son and all of the uninsured who "negotiate" their bills with hospitals.
Like I said , your position is astonishingly hypocritical.

No it is not it based on the government screws up what it touches. We have examples in Social security and medicare and medicaid

 

[misterman]

Really just government boards controlled by HHS with no congressional oversight. If you think this will not lead to universial healthcare you are being deceived.

Wow, you really told me.

 

[cpwill]

There is no government takeover.

It is indeed. Government is asserting all kinds of new powers, both implicit and explicit over the healthcare industry. Government is declaring, for example, that it has the right to force you to purchase a private product (insurance) and punish you if you do not simply for being alive. Government is declaring that you do not have the right to purchase the kind of insurance you feel is best for you, but is rather going to set one-size-fits-all controls over the entire market.

this is less abusive or coercive as a straight single-payer; but it is a takeover nonetheless.

 

[misterman]

Really just government boards controlled by HHS with no congressional oversight. If you think this will not lead to universial healthcare you are being deceived.

There is plenty of congressional oversight.

It is much more than government boards. It is private insurance (unless there's a government option, which would only be an option - nobody would be required to buy it). Not a single person currently with insurance will be required to change it. Not a single person without insurance will be required to get government-run insurance.

Of course it will lead to "universal healthcare" which simply means everyone will be covered. If you think it will lead to a government-run system you are completely misinformed.