So if we add 40 million to health care

[WriterDom]

And we only have 25,000 doctors doesn't that mean that every doctor will have to see an average of 1600 people a year on top of what they already see? Primary care will be worse because they all need one. More doctons? Well, it takes 10 years to make one.

Does anyone how many patients an average primary care doctor sees now?

 

[DiscusDave]

And we only have 25,000 doctors doesn't that mean that every doctor will have to see an average of 1600 people a year on top of what they already see? Primary care will be worse because they all need one. More doctons? Well, it takes 10 years to make one.

Does anyone how many patients an average primary care doctor sees now?

No idea the number they see, but this is the biggest complaint I hear from my dad's cousin who lives in Canada. She said the wait for seeing a doctor for something simple is months long, and the wait to see a doctor about something serious is almost as long.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

And we only have 25,000 doctors doesn't that mean that every doctor will have to see an average of 1600 people a year on top of what they already see? Primary care will be worse because they all need one. More doctons? Well, it takes 10 years to make one.

Does anyone how many patients an average primary care doctor sees now?

I can't even guess with any kind of accuracy, but projecting from the primary care physicians I'm most familiar with (at my mother's clinic)... they have an 8-hour working schedule, with appointments scheduled every 15 minutes, so 32 *appointments* a day x 5 days a week x 50 weeks (assuming two weeks' vacation time) = 8,000 appointments a year. I have *no idea* how many appointments the average *patient* has per year, though, so ...

 

[WriterDom]

I can't even guess with any kind of accuracy, but projecting from the primary care physicians I'm most familiar with (at my mother's clinic)... they have an 8-hour working schedule, with appointments scheduled every 15 minutes, so 32 *appointments* a day x 5 days a week x 50 weeks (assuming two weeks' vacation time) = 8,000 appointments a year. I have *no idea* how many appointments the average *patient* has per year, though, so ...

Old people go twice a year if nothing is wrong. Then it gets worse up until the point they go in a nursing home. I admire people who can do that work because nothing is more depressing to me than a nursing home.

 

[jockdom]

Is it true that in the states half of bankruptcies are due to health care bills?

I wonder how much these health insurance firms are paying for these scaremongering adverts on US tv? And how much theye contributed to the republican party coffers.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Old people go twice a year if nothing is wrong. Then it gets worse up until the point they go in a nursing home. I admire people who can do that work because nothing is more depressing to me than a nursing home.

Quick thought from my perverse mind (not perverted, perverse... different thing entirely, smartasses!): How many "old people" qualify for "nothing is wrong?"

 

[Netzach]

And we only have 25,000 doctors doesn't that mean that every doctor will have to see an average of 1600 people a year on top of what they already see? Primary care will be worse because they all need one. More doctons? Well, it takes 10 years to make one.

Does anyone how many patients an average primary care doctor sees now?

Do you know that the average MD spends 4+ hours a day on insurance claims and paperwork?

 

[WriterDom]

Quick thought from my perverse mind (not perverted, perverse... different thing entirely, smartasses!): How many "old people" qualify for "nothing is wrong?"

My mother walked around the block on her own until she was in her 80s. Then she started getting lost. On the other family side my grandmother was in a nursing home reading a newspaper in the hall at 107.

 

[Netzach]

Is it true that in the states half of bankruptcies are due to health care bills?

I wonder how much these health insurance firms are paying for these scaremongering adverts on US tv? And how much theye contributed to the republican party coffers.

I think it's probably more.

You can't even imagine. They're running scared though. Here's what WD doesn't get, and only about a very loud third of the country doesn't get. And stuff your quinnipac poll that says most people don't want a public option - I don't care. The country is a *lot* further to the left on this than the fundie-blowing set can even imagine.

We can't do what we're doing. What we are doing is economically insupportable for the very businesses that hire people. It's come to that point, where businesses *want* a healthy workforce and want not to be bankrupted by their insurance policies. The only businesses saying "we must not have a public option it's bad for us" are the insurance businesses. Most middle class fiscally conservative business people who have gone from small to medium/large company with 30+ fulltime staff would like to hire another person for what they're paying in yearly increase.

The only people left in love with the status quo are insurance agencies and people of exceptionally high income and people of moderate income who simply aren't sick enough yet or don't know anyone sick.

My rabidly right wing mother has the brain to STFU on this topic.

And until I hear someone tell me what the flying fuck they plan on doing that we're not doing now, rather than just how a public option is going to make Jesus cry, those guys can also STFU. All I know is Waterloo and death to Down's Babies. That's good, keep it up.

 

[WriterDom]

Do you know that the average MD spends 4+ hours a day on insurance claims and paperwork?

You need a medical degree to do that?

 

[WriterDom]

I just worry that SW will need a hip replacement in ten years and he'll be handed an asprin bottle and told he is not worth the cost.

 

[DiscusDave]

Not sure on this, but I bet that doctors wouldn't need to charge as much for simple services if their malpractice insurance wasn't so darn expensive.

 

[Netzach]

My mother walked around the block on her own until she was in her 80s. Then she started getting lost. On the other family side my grandmother was in a nursing home reading a newspaper in the hall at 107.

That's fantastic you have good genes.

My grandmother was doubled over vomiting her own feces from a blockage at 75.

Guess what MY roadmap looks like?

 

[Netzach]

Not sure on this, but I bet that doctors wouldn't need to charge as much for simple services if their malpractice insurance wasn't so darn expensive.

That's one meme out there.

How much would you be happy to walk away with if your father was killed because a surgeon went looking in him for a dropped instrument by ordering an MRI?*

Would 10 grand do it for you?

*this is a real case from the respected Abbot Northwestern hospital.

 

[jockdom]

Our doctors are too busy killing OAP's and turning off Steven Hawkins life support machines!

 

[JMohegan]

The shortage of doctors is a problem of the AMA's own making. More specifically, the AMA lobbying Congress and the latter bowing to the pressure. It was a problem even before insurance reform was on the table for serious discussion.

Click me for details.

The good news is that this problem can be corrected. The bad news is that the fix will take time and money.

 

[JMohegan]

I just worry that SW will need a hip replacement in ten years and he'll be handed an asprin bottle and told he is not worth the cost.

Dude. For god's sake. You really, REALLY need to stop reading Palin's twitter.

 

[Netzach]

I just worry that SW will need a hip replacement in ten years and he'll be handed an asprin bottle and told he is not worth the cost.

Blue Cross? Is that them on the phone?

 

[WriterDom]

That's one meme out there.

How much would you be happy to walk away with if your father was killed because a surgeon went looking in him for a dropped instrument by ordering an MRI?

Would 10 grand do it for you?

The average is 950,000. Why not limit it to 500,000? Would that do it for you?

 

[Netzach]

This is the super ultra mega retarded part of this argument and I mean that in the true 8 year old on the playground sense.

Do you think

they are already

not denying

people care

but it's ok if it's a PRIVATE for profit co?

And

are you nuts?

 

[Netzach]

The average is 950,000. Why not limit it to 500,000? Would that do it for you?

I don't know, my dad isn't alive anymore. Pick your favorite human and tell me if that would work for you OK.

 

[DiscusDave]

That's one meme out there.

How much would you be happy to walk away with if your father was killed because a surgeon went looking in him for a dropped instrument by ordering an MRI?

Would 10 grand do it for you?

To be honest, money wouldn't make up for it. And that's why I personally don't get it. Something went terribly wrong to my loved one, and so I get paid money? I'd feel very weird about spending that money, but that's just me.

Some malpractice suits make sense, and are definitely doctors mistakes or shortcuts that backfire. But some are just plain accidents. I think the insurance is definitely necessary, but I've known 4 people personally get out of med school, and stop going into the medical field because adding the malpractice insurance onto their student loans coming due would have put them irreversibly in the hole. And that's just me with people I know. Think how many more there probably are.

I just personally think that lowering the cost of that would help smaller things like just a normal check up or a sports physical (for all of those children in school sports) cost less. I may be wrong, but that's what I was thinking

 

[Netzach]

To be honest, money wouldn't make up for it. And that's why I personally don't get it. Something went terribly wrong to my loved one, and so I get paid money? I'd feel very weird about spending that money, but that's just me.

Some malpractice suits make sense, and are definitely doctors mistakes or shortcuts that backfire. But some are just plain accidents. I think the insurance is definitely necessary, but I've known 4 people personally get out of med school, and stop going into the medical field because adding the malpractice insurance onto their student loans coming due would have put them irreversibly in the hole. And that's just me with people I know. Think how many more there probably are.

I just personally think that lowering the cost of that would help smaller things like just a normal check up or a sports physical (for all of those children in school sports) cost less. I may be wrong, but that's what I was thinking

It's not a question of making up for it, it's a question of *punitive.* It should pinch the motherfucker who ordered an MRI looking for a scalpel in a man's chest and finding one thus. Because as his next pt, I want him freshly pinched and looking not to repeat the mistake.

And frankly, look what it takes to get someone's license pulled. And how many fuckups have been caught practicing whose licenses HAVE been pulled. There are probably ways to take some of the burden out of malpractice but caps are pretty much leeway for MD's to be fuckups.

It's not a field where "oops, I'm human" cuts it.

If you want that, stick to accounting for Bernie Madoff or something.

 

[WriterDom]

My father died at 62. But his diet was horrible. Good southern cooking but they put a stick of butter in everything and most things are fried. And he smoked from the age of 10.

 

[WriterDom]

I don't know, my dad isn't alive anymore. Pick your favorite human and tell me if that would work for you OK.

I don't know. Is it taxable? Then I might want the 950.