Health Provisions Slipped into Stimulus Package

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single-payer financing is the only way to recapture this wasted money. the potential savings on paperwork, more than $350 billion per year, are enough to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone without paying any more than we already do.

a picture is worth a thousand words......

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Specializes in Mixed Level-1 ICU.
For all those posting the charts...interesting, but I will share something I learned a long time ago....statistics can be meant to show anything the creator wishes. The charts are not useful when we do not have full access to criterion.

BTW, There is a very easy way to stop the escalating costs of healthcare!!!!! Follow Australia's lead! Yep. It's free down there. (1) you cannot sue the doctor or hospital (2) when my DH was married to his ex-W he paid the government of Aus 75% of his income in TAXES. (Now I don't know if that was because he was an American married to an Aussie or whatever....

Canada also pays exhorbitant taxes to fund their system. I have read articles pertaining to the fact that the government dictates the care....old folks don't qualify for certian treatments because they are old. Any Canadian can feel free to correct me.

So what we need is not government medical. We need to prevent everyone from suing the docs and hospitals. THEN the docs, nurses and hospitals will not have to pay ever increasing malpractice insurance. The COST of medical care will return to reasonable. When that happens, healthcare premiums will drop accordingly and make insurance affordable for the masses.

:up::twocents:

Wrong!

Do your homework. It is widely known that malpractice suits add approx. 2% to healthcare costs.

But that's a great right-wing talking point until you actually look at the facts.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

A picture is worth a thousand words......

Yeah, but this is a cartoon!

I'm quite sure an actual photograph of Medicare reimbursement offices would look an awful lot like a photograph of Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

How about language added to the bill that states:

-- Deployment of technology shall not limit the physician in the diagnosis and treatment of individual patients.

-- Deployment of technology shall not limit the Registered Nurses in the performance of functions that are part of the Nursing Process, including full exercise of clinical judgment in assessment, evaluation, planning and implementation of care; nor from acting as patient advocate.

-- Technology is intended to enhance, not degrade medical and nursing skills.

-- The manner in which technology is used shall support patient confidentiality.

Will someone help me word it better?

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http://www.commonwealthfund.org/

I believe that I posted internet links to the sources. All of the information I shared is available from the Commonwealth Fund. Feel free to post any academically sourced information to the contrary that meets academic publication standards.

The KEY is "academic" .....a liberal slant of society. You may not like conservatives, but we can present an equal number of "charts" to dispute everything you said.

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Yeah, but this is a cartoon!

I'm quite sure an actual photograph of Medicare reimbursement offices would look an awful lot like a photograph of Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

BCBS was the bane of my existence! How about EVERY SINGLE CLAIM getting sent off to SUBROGATION in effort not to pay! GEEZ!

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The KEY is "academic" .....a liberal slant of society. You may not like conservatives, but we can present an equal number of "charts" to dispute everything you said.

Wow. Just wow. You are honestly, SERIOUSLY saying that academic research has a "liberal" bias?

Really?

What is 'liberal' about peer reviewed research? Just because it doesn't often agree with your worldview? Is this why stuff like conservapedia exists? I think that is fairly telling.

I'm quite sure an actual photograph of Medicare reimbursement offices would look an awful lot like a photograph of Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

As of yet, you have not provided any evidence for any of these evocative claims.

Is it asking too much to substantiate these kinds of bold claims?

You are making the claim/statement. The burden of proof is on you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof

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Specializes in ED, MICU/TICU, NICU, PICU, LTAC.
i never said that nothing would go wrong with my health, i already have a few problems and have had to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for care. that's a lot compared to most ppl my age. but what i am saying is that i dont want the gov in my life anymore than they have to be. i want to make my own choices about my life, i dont want someone who doesnt have the average joe problems to make decisions about things that are important for me. and about sharing the wealth.....im not talking about not helping anyone, but i dont believe in helping those who dont even try (single mom 14 kids, no job and on welfare!)to do anything for themselves. im sorry thats just the way i feel. i dont believe in denying care to someone who smokes, who is overweight or someone who "caused" their own problems. im not "god" so who am i to deny anyone treatment?

You are completely contradicting yourself here...you don't believe in helping those "who don't even try" (and by this you point the finger at a single mom, several children, with no job/on welfare); I'm assuming you place all women in this predicament under the same blanket? And yet someone who (your quote) "smokes, who is overweight, or someone who 'caused' their own problems" deserves help? :up: Nice one.

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Wrong!

Do your homework. It is widely known that malpractice suits add approx. 2% to healthcare costs.

But that's a great right-wing talking point until you actually look at the facts.

I wonder what percent CEO bonuses and payroll takes up under our for profit health care system? WE NEED TO TAKE THE PROFIT OUT OF HEALTHCARE!!!!

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I wonder what percent CEO bonuses and payroll takes up under our for profit health care system? WE NEED TO TAKE THE PROFIT OUT OF HEALTHCARE!!!!

But then no one will want to innovate!! :rolleyes:

Heh. It hasn't been a problem anywhere else in the world. Unless the US is uniquely incapable of doing things every other country has done, then it would work here too.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

As of yet, you have not provided any evidence for any of these evocative claims.

Is it asking too much to substantiate these kinds of bold claims?

You are making the claim/statement. The burden of proof is on you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof

What? I need to prove the "bold and evocative claim" that a cartoon does not equal a photograph? You're kidding, right!

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What? I need to prove the "bold and evocative claim" that a cartoon does not equal a photograph? You're kidding, right!

Your statement that the offices would look the same implied that medicaid/care would say 'no' just as much as a private insurer. That's a fairly bold claim. If that's not what you meant, I apologize.

The original point stands however. In many of these threads you express great fear and trepidation over any government involvement in health care, and you have made a few unsubstantiated claims.

Making claims about what would theoretically happen in the future, strikes me as a bit disingenuous. As I and many others have said, we already have a working model for a universal system of coverage. (every single other industrialized nation, who, by the way, also manage to live longer than us and enjoy many better qualities of life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778562.html )

I ask again...where do you get the idea that a government run health care system would be so disastrous when every single other industrialized country has managed it except for us? I am honestly curious where this mindset comes from, because even most of the conservatives I meet and speak with now days admit our system is horribly broken, and it's rare for me to get to converse with someone who legitimately thinks the market can solve this problem on its own.

I, like you, do not really trust the people running the show. However, my not trusting them doesn't mean the police system doesn't work. It doesn't mean that unemployment benefits don't still get paid. It doesn't mean our military isn't great. So on and so forth. I don't need to implicitly trust politicians (YEAH RIGHT!!) to believe this system could work, as it does in most other countries. People are crappy and corrupt everywhere. To me, that's not an excuse to drag our feet when millions of our citizens are suffering and dying all in the name of ideology and politics.

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