Lying Racist Doctors and Your Obama Care

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Last year, I ordered a CT scan of the chest on a 63-year-old patient whose chest X-ray had revealed a lung nodule. I had no problem getting the test approved by his private insurance company. The radiologist suggested that I repeat the CT scan this year to make sure the nodule hasn’t turned into cancer.

But this year, the same insurance company is denying the test, having clamped down on several elective services while also raising its premiums. This company now has to cover children with pre-existing conditions and can place no lifetime limits on care. It is struggling to preserve its profits as Obamacare kicks in — profits that, to begin with, are only approximately 4 percent of its total revenue.

Next year, my patient will have Medicare. He can’t afford a secondary insurance plan (Medicare Part B covers only 80 percent of most charges), and he doesn’t qualify for Medicaid as his secondary, so he was hoping to join a Medicare Advantage plan — a private insurance plan that seniors can choose to receive, partly at government expense, instead of Medicare. But in 2011, Medicare Advantage is due to be cut $140 billion by the new law, and it is doubtful that the plan he wants will still be available. Harvard Pilgrim, the second-largest insurer in Massachusetts, has just dropped 22,000 patients from its Medicare Advantage plan in anticipation of these cuts. Soon seniors everywhere will have the same problem. In fact, the Medicare actuary estimates that 7 million out of the 11 million people with Medicare Advantage will be set adrift over the next seven years.

One of those patients will likely be my fellow with the lung nodule who needs a follow-up scan.

President Obama clearly hasn’t visited a real doctor’s office recently. If he sat on my office couch, he would immediately discover that real patients are terribly worried about how dysfunctional and expensive all health insurance, public and private, is becoming under the new law of the land. Of course, the problem of spiraling health-care costs and inadequate access to essential services was already happening before, but Obamacare is making it far worse.

My medical office is changing, and not for the better. As I write this, I have a patient waiting in the next room who has to pay cash to see me because his employer’s contribution to his plan has dropped this year, and his deductible has gone up. Many employers are getting ready to dump their employees on the state exchanges in 2014. They are adopting plans that won’t “grandfather in” under the draft regulations of the new law, which mandate low deductibles and low co-pays. I am treating my patient for high blood pressure, which may be due to his worrying over his medical bills. My bill is minor compared to the hundreds of dollars that the laboratory charges him for the routine blood tests his insurance no longer covers.

Next door to this man is a woman complaining about her premiums, which are up 20 percent from last year. She wants to add her 23-year-old son, who has diabetes, to the policy under the new law — but she can’t, because her son has a full-time job and is supposed to get it from his employer. But the employer isn’t offering it, and is prepared to ultimately pay the Obamacare penalty that is supposed to enforce the “mandate” that he provide insurance.

Under the “consumer protections” that just kicked in, private insurers are unable to charge co-pays for preventive services including mammograms, colonoscopies, and vaccines. This sounds good until you consider that when these services are “free,” demand for them will increase, and we doctors are ill equipped to handle such a demand surge. Further, it is unlikely that doctors will receive greater reimbursements to compensate for the lost co-pays — and so they will stop providing these services in droves. Your insurance may pay for your colonoscopy, but you may not be able to find a doctor to perform it.

And things are only going to get worse. Full-throttle Obamacare, which comes into effect in 2014, will promote insurance plans that require little payment from patients out-of-pocket — and thus are easy to overuse. This will remove the brakes from the system. In my doctor’s office of the near future, I expect the waiting room to be clogged with more and more patients even as the government and private insurers limit the tests and treatments I can offer.

Yesterday I saw a patient who just lost his job. He had no insurance, and I saw him for a very small fee. He expects to end up on Medicaid (it will be much easier to qualify under Obamacare), and since I don’t accept it — and more and more doctors are doing likewise — he will likely end up getting his care in the ER. But ERs are already overcrowded, and are not ready to handle more patients.

The president can keep telling Americans that their health care won’t change. But for my patients, it already has.

Marc Siegel, M.D., is an associate professor of medicine at NYU and the medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Medical Center.

YOU DO TOO get to keep your current plan, your current doctor and the premiums are going to go DOWN!!!

This guy should have his Federal "Doktoring" License revoked for trying to make Obama fail. At least Limbaugh only said he "hoped" Obama failed, this MD ain't even TRYING to be a team player! HE could fucking eat the cost of this simple little test out of his outrageous EVIL profits!

Barack and Michelle always worked pro bono for the good of the community!


__________________
We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we're asking young people to do. Don't go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we're encouraging our young people to do that.
Michelle Obama

"I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don't make the kind of naked power grab you are doing."
...
"You know we're going to control the insurance companies."
Joe Biden

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Let me repeat myself.

Back in 1965, when Medicare was created, most folks had zero health insurance. So President Johnson created Medicare and Medicaid and AFDC and all the other entitlements to removes blacks, the elderly, Apalachians, etc. from dependency on charity.

The deal Johnson made was this: Medicare & Medicaid promised to send MDs oodles of paying patients in return for a wholesale price. In the real world if I buy a train load of plywood I get a good discount for the volume I buy. Most places give discounts for big orders. The MDs and private hospitals were delighted, and most counties sold their public hospitals to chains.

But in the 70s most of America started getting health insurance at work, and everyone started using the benefit. It was hypocondriac heaven. Suddenly MDs and hospitals didnt need paying patients.

Today the MDs and hospitals whine about how Medicare and Medicaid fuck them but both programs remain the same as they started, except they pay extra for record keeping and other overhead.

In 1965 the average MD drove a Buick. Today all of them drive Mercedes.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Give me tax-exempt Health Care Accounts and I'll pay for my own...




I think your last sentence there is more opinion than fact.

 

[firespin]

Let me repeat myself.

Back in 1965, when Medicare was created, most folks had zero health insurance. So President Johnson created Medicare and Medicaid and AFDC and all the other entitlements to removes blacks, the elderly, Apalachians, etc. from dependency on charity.

The deal Johnson made was this: Medicare & Medicaid promised to send MDs oodles of paying patients in return for a wholesale price. In the real world if I buy a train load of plywood I get a good discount for the volume I buy. Most places give discounts for big orders. The MDs and private hospitals were delighted, and most counties sold their public hospitals to chains.

But in the 70s most of America started getting health insurance at work, and everyone started using the benefit. It was hypocondriac heaven. Suddenly MDs and hospitals didnt need paying patients.

Today the MDs and hospitals whine about how Medicare and Medicaid fuck them but both programs remain the same as they started, except they pay extra for record keeping and other overhead.

In 1965 the average MD drove a Buick. Today all of them drive Mercedes.

You do realize this is completely unfactual, right?

Blue Cross, Blue Shield, labor unions getting health benefits in the 1940's-1950's ring a bell?

By 1960, 130 million people had health insurance, which is not that different from the private sector number now.

http://eh.net/files/graphics/encyclopedia/thomasson.insurance.health.us.image002.gif

People that wonder what really happened might want to look here: http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/thomasson.insurance.health.us

 

[unregistered]

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Or you begin to cut corners,




OR, as we are increasingly seeing, as the GOVERNMENT, never one to honor a contract (ask my ancestors), decides to save money by adjusting what IT considers to be the wholesale cost, the Doctor begins studying his business model and starts comparing APPLES to PCs on his iPad and decides to actually go for a Mercedes lifestyle instead of an F-150 lifestyle...

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Those insurance programs were also added because they were cheap, labor was scarce, and it sweetened the pot...






Then, somewhere along the way, we acquired an "entitlement" mentality...

The idea that we were getting something for free.

 

[firespin]

I like this quote from 1919:

"Commercial insurance companies did not believe that health was an insurable commodity because of the high potential for adverse selection and moral hazard. They felt that they lacked the information to accurately calculate risks and write premiums accordingly. For example, people in poor health may claim they to be healthy and then sign up for health insurance. A problem with moral hazard may arise if people change their behavior -- perhaps engaging in more risky activities -- after they purchase health insurance. According to The Insurance Monitor, "the opportunities for fraud [in health insurance] upset all statistical calculations.... Health and sickness are vague terms open to endless construction. Death is clearly defined, but to say what shall constitute such loss of health as will justify insurance compensation is no easy task" (July 1919, vol. 67 (7), p. 38)."

Throw in the idea that, unique to health insurance, we want the costs to be independent of the risks, and you get the current mess.

The reason that claims of rationing and death panels resonate even in the absence of specific examples today is that they are essentially inevitable. Eventually we can't pay for every procedure for everybody who wants one. Either they decide, or the insurer decides. If the government is the insurer, the government decides.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

And that's not just firespin saying that...






__________________
"You cap your health care budget, and you make the political and economic choices you need to make to keep affordability within reach."
"And it's important also to make health a human right because the main health determinants are not health care but sanitation, nutrition, housing, social justice, employment, and the like."
"One over-demanded service is prevention: annual physicals, screening tests, and other measures that supposedly help catch diseases early."
Donald Berwick
Death Panel Czar

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You do realize this is completely unfactual, right?

Blue Cross, Blue Shield, labor unions getting health benefits in the 1940's-1950's ring a bell?

By 1960, 130 million people had health insurance, which is not that different from the private sector number now.

http://eh.net/files/graphics/encyclopedia/thomasson.insurance.health.us.image002.gif

People that wonder what really happened might want to look here: http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/thomasson.insurance.health.us

I'm doubtful of the numbers in your article. The population in 1950 was 150 MILLION, and 180 MILLION in 1960. I suspect VA patients, active military, and state patients are included. The numbers dont jive with US CENSUS info. Plus unions often collected health insurance money for workers but didnt cover them. IE, union contracts required employers to pay for health insurance but union rules denied insurance until an employee accrued a base number of work hours in each qualifying period. In a construction union its easy to miss qualification especially if you travel to different locals, and many of us did. Like, I carried a union card from 1972 to 1988 and never qualified for a basic pension cuz I travelled and worked out of my craft several times. I was a sheet metal worker but was loaned out to the boilermakers, iron workers, insulators, etc. The bennies stay in the local.

 

[MeeMie]

Lying Racist Doctors and Your Obama Care

These doctors lie???

http://www.liberalwhoppers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/obama-doctors.jpg

http://www.verumserum.com/media/2009/10/dfa.jpg

http://www.motifake.com/image/demot...ealth-ca-demotivational-poster-1257613189.jpg



These doctors object.

Physicians' Group Holds Rally At US Capitol Protesting Health Care Reform
Doctors and other medical professionals gather to protest against Congress' and President Barack Obama's health care reform.


http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+tjnvAttW7XGl.jpg

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http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+mFvIt5fz8ZTl.jpg

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http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+X2lhn1iNSDkl.jpg

 

[koalabear]

These doctors lie???

http://www.liberalwhoppers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/obama-doctors.jpg

http://www.verumserum.com/media/2009/10/dfa.jpg

http://www.motifake.com/image/demot...ealth-ca-demotivational-poster-1257613189.jpg



These doctors object.

Physicians' Group Holds Rally At US Capitol Protesting Health Care Reform
Doctors and other medical professionals gather to protest against Congress' and President Barack Obama's health care reform.


http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+tjnvAttW7XGl.jpg

http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+OE-nbiizL1el.jpg

http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+7qQEUxq9v4jl.jpg

http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+mFvIt5fz8ZTl.jpg

http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+FdL0cYVob50l.jpg

http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+fsyL8-lvKkwl.jpg

http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Physicians+Group+Holds+Rally+Capitol+Protesting+X2lhn1iNSDkl.jpg

All white supporters, figures.

 

[MeeMie]

All white supporters, figures.

RACIST!!!

 

[Im_Cade]

The doctors hate white people just like obama?

 

[firespin]

I'm doubtful of the numbers in your article. The population in 1950 was 150 MILLION, and 180 MILLION in 1960. I suspect VA patients, active military, and state patients are included. The numbers dont jive with US CENSUS info. Plus unions often collected health insurance money for workers but didnt cover them. IE, union contracts required employers to pay for health insurance but union rules denied insurance until an employee accrued a base number of work hours in each qualifying period. In a construction union its easy to miss qualification especially if you travel to different locals, and many of us did. Like, I carried a union card from 1972 to 1988 and never qualified for a basic pension cuz I travelled and worked out of my craft several times. I was a sheet metal worker but was loaned out to the boilermakers, iron workers, insulators, etc. The bennies stay in the local.

Well yes, but you said that most folks had zero health insurance in the 1960's.

The charts show under 50% of people with insurance in 1950 and 70% of people with insurance in 1960. I agree that 70% number seems high, but it's not obviously wrong.

 

[mercury14]

Marc Siegel, M.D., is an associate professor of medicine at NYU and the medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Medical Center.

YOU DO TOO get to keep your current plan, your current doctor and the premiums are going to go DOWN!!!

This guy should have his Federal "Doktoring" License revoked for trying to make Obama fail. At least Limbaugh only said he "hoped" Obama failed, this MD ain't even TRYING to be a team player! HE could fucking eat the cost of this simple little test out of his outrageous EVIL profits!

Barack and Michelle always worked pro bono for the good of the community!


__________________
We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we're asking young people to do. Don't go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we're encouraging our young people to do that.
Michelle Obama

"I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don't make the kind of naked power grab you are doing."
...
"You know we're going to control the insurance companies."
Joe Biden

Listen bozo, you're pointing out that insurance companies are working with around a 4% profit margin. Then you're claiming that the Republican plan of allowing more insurance company competition between state lines will significantly reduce the cost of insurance.

But wait... With only a 4% profit margin prices cannot drop much at all. I'd love to hear a Repub tell me how this "increased competition" plan would work. Show your maths.

 

[firespin]

Listen bozo, you're pointing out that insurance companies are working with around a 4% profit margin. Then you're claiming that the Republican plan of allowing more insurance company competition between state lines will significantly reduce the cost of insurance.

But wait... With only a 4% profit margin prices cannot drop much at all. I'd love to hear a Repub tell me how this "increased competition" plan would work. Show your maths.

Mr. Wizard,

Health insurance profits aren't what made health care expensive.

It's growth of provider costs, especially hospital / lab services. (Thousand dollar cat scans?)

More competition means more types of plans and more opportunities to get a plan that meets your expected needs, so less cost wasted on what you don't need.

 

[mercury14]

Mr. Wizard,

Health insurance profits aren't what made health care expensive.

It's growth of provider costs, especially hospital / lab services. (Thousand dollar cat scans?)

More competition means more types of plans and more opportunities to get a plan that meets your expected needs, so less cost wasted on what you don't need.

I'm aware of that. Private insurers pulling a profit out of the mix is merely a secondary reason that costs are so high. What I'm saying is that the Republican promise to reduce costs by increasing competition is bogus.

By the way, you realize that in virtually any populated area there are already heaps of insurers and plans, right? And that Aetna, BC, etc are already free to operate in any and all states? And that they do operate in heaps of states already? If Aetna isn't in Vermont it's probably because the market says that it's not a good place for them to try to expand into.

As far as types of plans, there are a tremendous number of those too. Not saying that adding to the number of choices is a bad thing, but employers and individuals already have a nice choice. Unless we're talking about rural Alabama or something, the potential for cost reduction in this area is miniscule.

 

[firespin]

I'm aware of that. Private insurers pulling a profit out of the mix is merely a secondary reason that costs are so high. What I'm saying is that the Republican promise to reduce costs by increasing competition is bogus.

By the way, you realize that in virtually any populated area there are already heaps of insurers and plans, right? And that Aetna, BC, etc are already free to operate in any and all states?

As far as types of plans, there are a tremendous number of those too. Not saying that adding to the number of choices is a bad thing, but employers and individuals already have a nice choice. Unless we're talking about rural Alabama or something, the potential for cost reduction in this area is miniscule.

I should be surprised that you're a moron about health plans given that you're allegedly a medical practitioner, but somehow I'm not. You completely miss the key point.

Today, each state can regulate the health plans offered in that state, specifying e.g. minimum coverages that must be offered. This limits the choices available to people in that state. Why should that be the case?

Here's one analysis of the effect of that; you're free to cite others.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2005/10/the-effect-of-state-regulations-on-health-insurance-premiums-a-preliminary-analysis

 

[mercury14]

I should be surprised that you're a moron about health plans given that you're allegedly a medical practitioner, but somehow I'm not. You completely miss the key point.

Today, each state can regulate the health plans offered in that state, specifying e.g. minimum coverages that must be offered. This limits the choices available to people in that state. Why should that be the case?

Here's one analysis of the effect of that; you're free to cite others.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2005/10/the-effect-of-state-regulations-on-health-insurance-premiums-a-preliminary-analysis

Why do you get your information from right wing propaganda factories such as Heritage?

IMO you should stop complaining about states mandating coverage when your very own Republican party is strongly advocating for several federal mandates on coverage. So much for the GOP being the party of small government and local control, eh?

 

[firespin]

Why do you get your information from right wing propaganda factories such as Heritage?

IMO you should stop complaining about states mandating coverage when your very own Republican party is strongly advocating for several federal mandates on coverage. So much for the GOP being the party of small government and local control, eh?

You're such a douche. If you don't like something, you try to discredit the source without pausing to note that the conclusion is in fact right on point. (When you should be doing a huge face palm for not knowing about state regulations in the first place.)

I think if you enlighten the crowd as to what the GOP mandates are, the difference will become clear. There are mandates that create level playing fields without dramatically increasing costs. Do you even know the difference?

 

[off2bed]

Why does anyone pay attention to Merc?

 

[miles]

Why does anyone pay attention to Merc?

You mean celabrai.

 

[eyer]

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g79/jbravo688/Seanh.gif

Liar?

Racist?

Doctor?

 

[dicknjane]

some medical services have gone down substantially in price over the last 10 years, cosmetic surgery and vision correction. People have to pay for it themselves. Health saving accounts for everybody, and medicaid for those that aren't capable of providing for themselves. Solved.