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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Kudos to LEB for standing up for her patients. Well done baby!
For those of you who are uninsured. ANYTIME you get ANYTHING medical done, you ARE going to be overcharged. Always try to negotiate something. The goal would be to pay what the insurance companies pay for the same procedure. The insurance companies usually don't pay some retainer to the doctors and stuff so it should all be the same to the provider.
If you get an obscene bill that threatens to bankrupt you. Don't pay it until they agree to a negotiated price you can handle. Don't feel bad for a place that wants to charge you $15,000 for a service they provide for $4000 to others with no additional compensation beyond funneling patients to them.
Peace
Karl
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rotten johnny
Social climber
mammoth lakes, ca
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Fattrad.....get me back on that TREAT LIST at kaiser or i'm going to have Pombo cancel your golf date with us ....rj
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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I'm on that "don't treat list" due to your buddy Ahnold balancing the budgets on the teacher's backs ( you'd think he could kick in a hummer or two...) my prescription went from $5 (Kaiser) to $18, at Costco. Think you could talk to your butt boy at der Kaiser about that?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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I will check it out, thanks!
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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A few good points here, and I'm glad to see the clinician's side of things from Lois.
About the only thing this health care bill does correctly is get rid of the pre-existing condition problem. Assuming it passes in more or less the Senate version, after 2013, no medical underwriting will be allowed. That means no denials or rate-ups for pre-existing conditions.
Beyond that, relatively few significant things are getting done. Little cost control. Nothing to affect Big Pharma or malpractice issues. I can only hope that a success on this sucky bill represents a starting point to address some of those other things.
And Apogee is right about GOP lip-service to change. A few of them will admit that the system is broken and needs to be fixed, but when it comes down to it, all they've done is throw up political roadblocks.
A nice quote from another forum:
"If a camel is a horse designed by committee then the health care bill being designed by our politicians in Washington is a retarded platypus."
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apogee
climber
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"Yeah scary to think people are willing to let a bunch of criminals who are all doing back door deals for votes decide whats best for us."
And now, a bunch of those foot & knuckle-dragging Repugs are sitting around smugly saying they 'stopped healthcare reform'- these are the same people, the majority of which, agree that the system is severely broken, and are either currently drawing on Medicare or will be shortly.
Idiots. Every last one of them. Brainless, ignorant, kool-aid guzzling, corporate-droid idiots.
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apogee
climber
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Prove you mean what you say, fattrad. So far, you are as transparent as the rest of 'em.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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is that your prescription from the club card, Locker?
I'm not whining, an increased $13 every ten months isn't that bad, even for an unemployed sod like myself. But you know that that precent increase is driving some fixed income types off the edge.
My point is, why not join the rest of the world and use that as an investment, instead of pimping it?
Bravo! Lois, "from each according to his means, to each according to his needs" - Karl Marx
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Locker, email me your script
yeah, locker. email leb your script!
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dirtbag
climber
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Yeah scary to think people are willing to let a bunch of criminals who are all doing back door deals for votes decide whats best for us.
Yes Silver. THANK GOD we have insurance companies doing that for us instead.
BWAHAHAAHAHA!!!
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apogee
climber
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And THANK GOD they will still be able to, thanks to the footdragging Repugs! Yay!
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whatmeworry2
Mountain climber
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Since someone mentioned Kaiser Permanente, here is their position....
Kaiser Permanente Principles on Health Care Reform
Kaiser Permanente believes that universal access to high-quality, affordable health care coverage is imperative, and we are fully committed to working with policymakers to make that goal a reality. In order to make universal access sustainable, the focus of reform needs to go beyond increased access and financing to reform how care is delivered and paid for. In addition, health reform should address the social, cultural and physical environments that influence health by promoting public health programs, community health services, and workplace efforts to support healthier lifestyles.
Universal Coverage Through Market Reforms
• All Americans should have guaranteed access to secure, affordable health care coverage, with financial subsidies for those in need.
• All individuals should have access to coverage regardless of their health conditions. Such a guarantee requires the gradual elimination of medical underwriting, pre-existing condition limitations, and considerations of health status in determining rates.
• For guaranteed coverage to remain available and affordable to all, risk must be shared broadly across the population. Under a reformed market model, this is best achieved by means of an enforceable individual mandate to obtain coverage.
• Coverage should be sufficiently broad to meet a national minimum standard of medically necessary, evidence-based services that include preventive care, coordinated chronic care management, and protection against the cost of catastrophic illness.
• The burden of financing universal coverage should be credible, sustainable, and shared equitably across a broad range of stakeholders. It should also be sufficient to attract and retain high quality providers by ensuring stable and predictable reimbursement for services.
• All individuals should have a choice of health care providers, plans, and accountable delivery systems in a market in which competition is based on quality and efficiency, with incentives for consumers to choose the most cost-effective plans and/or delivery systems.
• Consumer choice of plans, providers, and delivery systems in the individual and small group markets should be facilitated by an independent entity (an exchange, or purchasing pool) designed to help consumers make their best health care choices.
1
Delivery System Reform Through Payment Reforms
• An affordable, sustainable, high quality health care system depends on a delivery system that lives up to the demands of the Institute of Medicine’s quality goals of safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care.
• Effective reform should promote delivery system integration and accountability through payment incentives that reward care coordination and collaboration among providers, particularly for patients with chronic conditions.
• Provider payment mechanisms should encourage appropriate use of services while rewarding prevention, early detection, and improved chronic disease management.
• Providers should be required and/or given incentives to implement coordinated clinical information technology, including connected electronic medical records and other decision-support tools that promote care coordination and the application of evidence-based medicine.
• Both consumers and delivery systems should be rewarded for engaging patients in the pursuit of healthy lifestyles and self-care.
• Incentives should also be realigned to accelerate workforce goals of promoting primary care and increased use of team-based care.
Community/Public Health and Prevention Reforms
• Health reform should ensure support for community-based and public health efforts that promote wellness and prevention by addressing the social, cultural, and environmental determinants of health.
• Funding for community-based prevention and public health should be increased to reflect the value of these services in alleviating disease and improving the quality of life, and it should be consistent, sustained, and dedicated.
• Improving social equity and eliminating health disparities should be explicit goals of health reform.
• The vital role of public hospitals, community health centers, and other parts of the health care safety net should be sufficiently resourced and closely aligned with the broader health care delivery system.
• Essential clinical preventive services should be covered in all federally supported health plans including Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and any new government subsidized plans.
Source: http://xnet.kp.org/reform/docs/health_reform/kp_reform_principles.pdf
Certainly a bit more nuanced a position than indicated in earlier posts...
In the interest of full disclosure I should note that I am a Kaiser employee.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Nobody cares about post 599
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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The job is for providing medical care to a population of very indigent persons. ..
I have a whole lot of experience providing care in these settings. I am very comfortable with this sort of population and I very much like advocating for the underdog. I have served this population for many years in past employments and find it is a group of people who very much need an advocate otherwise they can very easily fall through the cracks. We all have a collective responsibility to make sure that such does not happen to the less fortunate in our society. Each of us shares that responsibility and we should do whatever any one of us can to help - even if it means simply voting for people who advocate health care reform. Every little bit helps. No support is too insignificant to matter. Remember always, much is expected of he to whom much is given.
holy God Lois. You're talking like a flaming democrat! listen to yourself!
A chill descends on Hell......
;-)
Karl
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apogee
climber
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Lois has been as insistent and consistent on her view of healthcare reform as she has been on her view of bunnies and her apples. While I trust that she has indeed broadened her view of some issues (healthcare reform in particular), it remains to be seen if that spills over into other important domestic issues.
Nonetheless, I am impressed, and maintain hope. Go, Lois, and lead the way for all to follow!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Lois is a caring person, and she clearly has her moments. I don't think she's really thought through the whole republican thing...
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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The govt is already in the equation. ~40% of the people in this country get some or all of their healthcare from the govt. Think Medicare, Medicaid, VA. I've not heard to many seniors wanting to give up their Medicare.
And in point of fact, the GOP pushed thru a big expansion to Medicare not too long ago. That one just happened to also be very beneficial to many of the big insurance companies. But it costs taxpayers alot of money.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Steve is correct about the irresponsible, wild spending Republicans:
Their plan is clearly big government sponsored "Socialism".
The True Cost of the Republican Medicare Part D Bill:
Comptroller General David M. Walker to call it "... probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s."
In their 2009 report to Congress, the Medicare trustees estimate the 10-year cost of Medicare D as high as $1.2 trillion. That figure—just for prescription-drug coverage that people over 65 still have to pay a lot of money for—dwarfs the $848 billion cost of the Senate bill. The Medicare D price tag continues to escalate because the bill explicitly bars the government from using its market power to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers or establishing a formulary with approved medications.
And unlike the Democratic bills, which won't add to the deficit, the bill George W. Bush signed was financed entirely through deficit spending. While Grassley and his colleagues accuse Democrats of harming Medicare through cost cuts, it is their bill that has done the most to hasten Medicare's coming insolvency. Between now and 2083, Medicare D's unfunded obligations amount to $7.2 trillion according to the trustees. Numbers like these prompted former Comptroller General David M. Walker to call it "... probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s."
http://www.slate.com/id/2238098/
The Republicans are destroying this country we all love, they are
driving us in to bankruptcy, just like how Socialism is killing Uganda.
This is generational theft, think of the children, pray for this country.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Lois has been as insistent and consistent on her view of healthcare reform as she has been on her view of bunnies and her apples. While I trust that she has indeed broadened her view of some issues (healthcare reform in particular), it remains to be seen if that spills over into other important domestic issues.
jesus wept.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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"Jesus wept"
bvb, you are a magnificent pagan god! Bless you, repeatedly.
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