commando Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 What would yours contain that would trouble them BRB? Right now there is no motivation built into the system that gives the providers (hospitals/Doctors) to drop their prices. If a patient is told they need a heart surgery, they are scared and sign up for wherever their cardiologist tells them too. The insurance company doesn't have any motivation because if they start losing money, they just raise premiums. If the person qualifies, they just get subsidies from the government. The government has forced everyone to have insurance so their customer base just exploded. This system SUCKS!!! We have a wellness program in our company. Within that plan, if an employee needs that heart surgery, the wellness program will look at how much it is going to cost and then find comparable hospitals that will do it for much less. The patient/employee is not forced into using someone they don't want. They can then choose based on the cost. We will totally wave any deductible or co-pay if the employee decides on the lower cost facility. The wellness program also researches the quality of care at the facility so they are not sent to a place that won't do comparable work. Something like this has got to be built into the system for everyone. We have an employee who had a procedure done at an office not physically within the hospital. When they received their bill, the hospital charged them a fee. When asked, the hospital said the doctor who did the procedure had an office within the hospital so they are allowed to charge a fee.....even though the patient never set foot in the hospital. The cost structure and billing is totally screwed up to the point these places can charge whatever they want and get away with it. Our insurance company is trying to get more providers signed onto contracts. What some providers will agree to is to charge insurance customers "medicare plus 100%" So, if a medicare patient would be charged $1000, the insurance patient would get charged $2000. Now, you may scoff at that, but a lot of providers won't do these contracts because they are charging insurance patients sometimes 10-15 times medicare. Hospitals and doctors are NOT going to like being forced to charge less. But, there is no reason why a procedure should cost $80,000 in one place and $15,000 in another without the patient being informed. good luck getting the government involved in that process. Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Well, I told the insurance agent that if the providers don't get on board with being part of the solution, then at some point we will have a single payer plan and they will be forced into it. The insurance agent didn't like that comment either. 1 Link to comment
Fru Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Is it so absurd to say that some things shouldn't be up for the profit motive? Link to comment
schriznoeder Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 "World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017"?! Is Congress being punked? Where's Ashton Kutcher? https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1275/text Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Is it so absurd to say that some things shouldn't be up for the profit motive? OK...but then where do you stop. You are going to require our best and brightest kids to get through school after over 8 hears of post HS education, absolute grueling years of internships and clinicals $300,000 to 500,000 debt ....and they haven't even started studying any specialty yet.....and then you are going to tell them they are going to go into a field where they should just do it based on the goodness in their heart? Link to comment
schriznoeder Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 "World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017"?! Is Congress being punked? Where's Ashton Kutcher? https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1275/text Apparently that's NOT a typo. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) really did name his ACA alternative "World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017". Only in Texas... Link to comment
Fru Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Is it so absurd to say that some things shouldn't be up for the profit motive? OK...but then where do you stop. You are going to require our best and brightest kids to get through school after over 8 hears of post HS education, absolute grueling years of internships and clinicals $300,000 to 500,000 debt ....and they haven't even started studying any specialty yet.....and then you are going to tell them they are going to go into a field where they should just do it based on the goodness in their heart? Well I would argue that Education would also go under that whole "Does this need to be up for the profit motive?" argument. My comment wasn't about forcing our best and brightest kids to become doctors and work for free. It was about the ridiculously inflated cost of health care that isn't seen anywhere else in the developed world. 1 Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Is it so absurd to say that some things shouldn't be up for the profit motive? OK...but then where do you stop. You are going to require our best and brightest kids to get through school after over 8 hears of post HS education, absolute grueling years of internships and clinicals $300,000 to 500,000 debt ....and they haven't even started studying any specialty yet.....and then you are going to tell them they are going to go into a field where they should just do it based on the goodness in their heart? Well I would argue that Education would also go under that whole "Does this need to be up for the profit motive?" argument. My comment wasn't about forcing our best and brightest kids to become doctors and work for free. It was about the ridiculously inflated cost of health care that isn't seen anywhere else in the developed world. I'm not fully disagreeing with you. But, pointing out there are other factors involved. You can't change one part without changing a lot more than what a lot of people think. Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 BRB's got a point. A large problem with our healthcare system is runaway costs for procedures and salaries. IIRC, a big part of the reason CHI stopped accepting BCBS a few years ago in Nebraska was because BCBS called them on their procedure costs in their Omaha area facilities and CHI balked. They couldn't agree to a new contract, and a lot of people lost their regular doctors. But, as he rightly pointed out, the salaries have to be commensurate to the training and debt you have to endure to earn them, and right now they are bloated both ways. I think that a huge step in the right direction would be improving education and making it more affordable, particularly the insane costs of medical professional schools here. But that doesn't seem to be a priority for very many politicians right now. Shame, would've liked to have seen the effect Clinton's tuition program could've had on the issue. Guess we'll just keep waiting and going into eyepopping debt... Link to comment
Making Chimichangas Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 Is it so absurd to say that some things shouldn't be up for the profit motive? OK...but then where do you stop. You are going to require our best and brightest kids to get through school after over 8 hears of post HS education, absolute grueling years of internships and clinicals $300,000 to 500,000 debt ....and they haven't even started studying any specialty yet.....and then you are going to tell them they are going to go into a field where they should just do it based on the goodness in their heart? Sure. Since when are corporations responsible for paying someone a salary they can live on? Oh, you're a doctor and only making 17K annually? You can't make ends meet? Maybe you should have earned a degree that didn't cost so much. Plus, you can always get another job. Or, get a better paying job. It isn't that difficult. P.S. This post is mocking Republicans here, not a serious response to BRB. Link to comment
Making Chimichangas Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 This tweet makes no sense. How can anyone logically blame Obamacare for "failing" when it was working just fine (relatively speaking) and then was repealed? I mean you would have to be an utterly brainless moron to blame the Democrats for a Republican health care plan that they replaced the ACA with and it failed. Link to comment
Moiraine Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 I think he's saying if the GOP plan doesn't go through they will just keep Obamacare in place and let it fail. Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 Is it so absurd to say that some things shouldn't be up for the profit motive? OK...but then where do you stop. You are going to require our best and brightest kids to get through school after over 8 hears of post HS education, absolute grueling years of internships and clinicals $300,000 to 500,000 debt ....and they haven't even started studying any specialty yet.....and then you are going to tell them they are going to go into a field where they should just do it based on the goodness in their heart? Sure. Since when are corporations responsible for paying someone a salary they can live on? Oh, you're a doctor and only making 17K annually? You can't make ends meet? Maybe you should have earned a degree that didn't cost so much. Plus, you can always get another job. Or, get a better paying job. It isn't that difficult. P.S. This post is mocking Republicans here, not a serious response to BRB. Glad you added the PS because I was formulating a response I shouldn't have sent. Link to comment
commando Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 the republicans are in control of everything. if they would rather have americans dying for lack of healthcare that is on them. The blood will be on trumps hands in that case. Link to comment
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