Don't waste money on the Elderly

[tt11758]

Government run health care sucks.
It darn near killed my daughter and her son by delaying a doctor visiting her in child birth. The baby was breach and she needed a c-section but the government midwife delayed for two days before calling a surgeon because of her protocols. My son in law sort of jacked the midwife up by the stacking swivel to get her to call a real doctor.
Government run health care is killing her father in law by denying him the by pass surgery he needs because he is now 80. His doctors told him he needed it five years ago and put him on the wait list. Now, he is too old. What a crock.
Where is this gulag you say? England.
After that clusterf%&@ with England's national health care, my daughter told her husband that if he expected to have any more children they were leaving England for the US. They did and I have another grandson and did not almost lose my daughter in the process.
And BHO wants us to accept that crap? Who is he being led by? Dr Mengle? I bet the political class will not be subjected to what we will.

Bill, the political class is NEVER subjected to that which the people who pay the bills are subjected.  Obama is being led by George Soros, moveon.org, Bill Ayers, the european community, etc.........the same people he's ALWAYS been led by.

I firmly believe that the motto of this President should be changed from "yes we can", to "if it ain't broke, give us a shot at it".

This once-great country is going to hell in a handbasket and it royally PISSES ME OFF!!!

Ok, Tom, deep breaths now........................

[tombogan03884]

Simple solution, Breath, relax, Aim, Squeeze, Repeat, 545 times.

[Timothy]

Simple solution, Breath, relax, Aim, Squeeze, Repeat, 545 times.

You forgot the cabinet secretaries and at least a few governors Thomas!

[tombogan03884]

You forgot the cabinet secretaries and at least a few governors Thomas!

Not to mention Judges, State legislators, Mayors, city councilors, Media talking a$$e$ I mean heads, and College Professors

[tt11758]

Simple solution, Breath, relax, Aim, Squeeze, Repeat, 545 times.

I believe the pain would subside slightly with each bang.

[Sponsor]

[Ping]

With government run healthcare I think it would be detrimental to finding quality healthcare professionals. Some of these professionals sacrifice their lives in years of training and college to kep up and be informed and eventually specialize in their respective fields. Competition is good for the whole of society. If everything was on a even playing field it would render the drive towards success and prestige into the ground. Just my two bits.

As for the elderly. I hate seeing my grandmother spend her life savings paying well over $2,000 a month for her assisted living apartment. It seems as some of these places get a kick out of draining the bank accounts fo the elderly. Modern day vampires!!!

[PegLeg45]

With government run healthcare I think it would be detrimental to finding quality healthcare professionals. Some of these professionals sacrifice their lives in years of training and college to kep up and be informed and eventually specialize in their respective fields. Competition is good for the whole of society. If everything was on a even playing field it would render the drive towards success and prestige into the ground. Just my two bits.

As for the elderly. I hate seeing my grandmother spend her life savings paying well over $2,000 a month for her assisted living apartment. It seems as some of these places get a kick out of draining the bank accounts fo the elderly. Modern day vampires!!!

That, sir, is an insult to vampires.   

[Rastus]

So many great posts to lead in on....it wouldn't be fair to quote anything less than all of them.  When the government, and insurance, gets into something and the people are insulated from the pain, the resultant provider is insulated from the complaints.  So, we should all complain when we go to the doctor, hospital, clinic, etc. 

I went from 1989 until 2005 with one stinking weekend when I didn't owe a doctor, hospital, lab or something else medical.  I lost a baby, had two sick boys after that, then my wife ended up on a heart transplant list for about 10 years.  I should have paid something...and I did.  The stinking insurances skated with "reasonable and customary only" payments and I was holding the bag, but I accepted the responsiblity and worked it out. 

I think doctors should be paid, and paid well for good work.  I don't mind paying Mercedes wages for my healthcare...if that's what it takes to keep knotheads out and bring in better qualified people who want to make a better life for themselves, I'm all for it.  HOWEVER, realize that the government has set payments less than what private citizens pay so, if the payment is less than the cost YOU get to make up the difference.  Realizing that, I once asked a doctor if he would split the difference on that part and I'd pay my end at Mercedes wages and the deadbeats bill at Ford wages...he never thought about it that way...done deal. 

So, we have judges that won't work and judge and let these frivolous lawsuits go through...cost of insurance is through the roof and, since doctors get their money from the people they work for, the patients, the cost to the patient goes up....money does not exist in a doctor's pocket by virtue of degree, it comes from his work...or should.  Then the insurance companies do a dodge and get out of paying and make their submissions so complex that doctors hire staff and since doctors get their money from the people they work for, the patients, who pays for this again and again.  Also, doctors aren't the best business minds in the world...a friend of mine's son became a doctor...wanted his group to buy their own MRI...it was only XXXX dollars...what he didn't realize...or think about...is that they had to add to that amount the cost of new facilities and staff to the cost and it had to generate $2500 a week in business for it to break even..thank goodness his dad was an engineer and explained it to him....sometimes you just have to pay for peoples mistakes...but business course requirements would be good for doctors.

Then we have the accountants...MBAs....managers....you know..the ones you never see and since doctors get their money from the people they work for, the patients pay for the overhead....that would be YOU.  I have no doubt that this is where the $10 diaper and the $10 child's Tylenol I got charged for in the 90's came from....so we brought our own and saved a ton.

We can only get out of this if we the people say no to a lot of the charges.  Doctors need nurses, but of course since doctors get their money from the people they work for, the patients, that would be YOU, get to pay for the nurses in the bill also.  Nurses can save you money, by letting the doctor do the high-dollar stuff.

But then....here comes the government.  I've a friend who's wife is a doctor...the bureaucrat says med has to be prescribed or no service was done...she refuses to prescribe medicine when not needed...guess what...government stiffs them for $150k.  Who pays for the government bureacrat....well, since doctors get their money from the people they work for, the patients, that would be YOU. 

Want to know a dirtier secret about the government...your US Government....Congress knows there is more work going on than they have made funds available for under the free giveways...doctors have to provide the service....government uses some entity to refuse charges...doctors have to hassle with the entity (insurance company reasonable and customary bureaucrat) to get paid...in doing so they don't work and generate income.  Since a doctor needs to have income and since doctors get their money from the people they work for, the patients, YOU get to pay more.  IN THIS INSTANCE IT'S A KNOWN SIN BY CONGRESS, DECREE WORK WITHOUT DECREEING THE MONEY...THAT MAKES IT A TAX ON THE PEOPLE WHO PAY THEIR BILLS EITHER DIRECTLY, THROUGH INSURANCE OR BOTH. 

I forgot one other blessing of our government...private practice doctors get the government payments reduced.  If they work for a teaching institution....then they get the full amount plus.  So...there is the carrot leading the doctors to socialism....didn't know that one either, did you?

I JUST CAN'T WAIT FOR THAT SOCIALIZED HEALTH CARE....OH WAIT...IT'S HERE NOW...JUST NOT 100%...WON'T THAT BE A BLESSING WHEN WE ALL HAVE TO HAVE IT.

OH yeah, one other thing...you may not know...elderly can only have two insurances...one government and one other...those cancer policies, etc...make them lawbreakers and/or felons....good thing they don't enforce that law, eh?

OH and I forgot, Bill Clinton set limits on the number of med school students in government supported (that would be all of them, right) colleges and universities.  Supply was made artificially low which creates a demand that is high in comparison and the price goes up...it doesn't matter whether it's socialism, communism or capitalism....it's just the socialist and communist masters get the very good and highly compensated doctors and the peons get the guys who graduated last in their class.

[Timothy]

Then the insurance companies do a dodge and get out of paying and make their submissions so complex that doctors hire staff and since doctors get their money from the people they work for, the patients, who pays for this again and again.

Great post Rastus...I too have been through similar circumstances though not with your terrible loss of a child.

Little story though.  There once was a doctor in RI, who decided that it would be cheaper to deal in cash with her patients than have to hire two people to process the paper work for the office, her payroll, her insurance claims, etc....

She managed to keep a viable practice dealing with her long list of established patients on a cash deal, 40 bucks for any appointment.  No co-pay, no hassles, no paperwork, NO PROBLEMS.  Any lab work was up to the patients to tend too and she would see people, prescribe medicine and do her doctoring the old fashioned way sometimes taking goods rather than cash for services rendered.

It took the insurance companies about one year to put that doctor out of business!  They lobbied against her, refused to  reimburse her patients for the 40 bucks even though it's perfectly legal to process your own paperwork and eventually got her to quit.  Just closed her down and she basically said f*@# you and retired. 

Be proactive as Rastus suggests and be your own advocate in your medical care.  I've got a disabled wife, I have little choice in the matter but we save by reading everything, bills, reimbursements, making deals with the doctors, doing our own research and always questioning everything we don't understand.

I wont buy what the government is selling and I live in the only state where it is LAW that you must have health insurance!