Health care taken over

[jetboatdeath]

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey
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Commentary by Betsy McCaughey

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.
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Nice huh what happened to HIPPA, oh yea i forgot the feds can break the laws... And lets hope your bypass is "cost effective" probbaly wont be if you are over 60 years old...

Ahhhh change .........

 

[Cryozombie]

the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective.

Thats the part that bothers ME. First, no Coordinator of Health IT needs to be looking at my medical records. Those are supposed to be privilged and protected by HIPPA laws. And ok, so appropriate and cost effective?

If my Arm is crushed under a truck, they can attempt to save it and reconstruct it, at great cost or lop it off at a greatly reduced cost.

Hmm, lemme see, who do I want making that treatment call... Me or the Federal Government?

Oh, let's let the government do it for me.

 

[Cryozombie]

Oops, sorry JBD, I missed where you said the HIPPA thing already... my bad.

 

[Phoenix44]

I sure hope none of you have any health insurance, because if you do, your health conditions are already being monitored, and your doctor's decisions aren't just guided they're dictated by for-profit corporations eager to make profit at the expense of your health.

 

[Marginal]

I sure hope none of you have any health insurance, because if you do, your health conditions are already being monitored, and your doctor's decisions aren't just guided they're dictated by for-profit corporations eager to make profit at the expense of your health.

Yes, but when a private company does it, it's for the good of all.

 

[Cryozombie]

I sure hope none of you have any health insurance, because if you do, your health conditions are already being monitored, and your doctor's decisions aren't just guided they're dictated by for-profit corporations eager to make profit at the expense of your health.

While there is a certain amount of truth to this, I also have the choice of Insurance companies, doctors, and even to visit a clinic anonymously and pay out of pocket.

I don't, despite opinions to the contrary, have a choice in governments.

 

[Cryozombie]

Yes, but when a private company does it, it's for the good of all.

When a private company does something you don't like, you can choose to do business with someone else. When a government does something you don't like, you can bend over and take it for as long as it takes to wait out an election, hope the rigged system in place selects someone else, that the new person thinks the same way as you, AND works to change what person A did.

Hmm. Not QUITE the same is it?

 

[CoryKS]

I suspect that the doctors - the good ones, anyway - will find creative ways to get authorization for the care that they feel they need to provide. It's what they do now with the insurance companies.

That said, I would like to see everyone involved in passing this $787 billion abortion hanging from lampposts by their own steaming entrails.

 

[Marginal]

When a private company does something you don't like, you can choose to do business with someone else. When a government does something you don't like, you can bend over and take it for as long as it takes to wait out an election, hope the rigged system in place selects someone else, that the new person thinks the same way as you, AND works to change what person A did.

Hmm. Not QUITE the same is it?

You've been forced to send a letter?

 

[Cryozombie]

You've been forced to send a letter?

Wow, thats amazingly non sequitur and has absolutley nothing to do with the post you quoted.

 

[Marginal]

Wow, thats amazingly non sequitur and has absolutley nothing to do with the post you quoted.

Federal government runs the post office, so I assumed that at some point they must've "bent you over" and forced you to mail a letter.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

The costs to doctors and all hospitals to do this will help break the medical system down once again.

 

[Cryozombie]

Federal government runs the post office, so I assumed that at some point they must've "bent you over" and forced you to mail a letter.

Uh huh. Whats that term you psedo-intellectualls are so fond of tossing about... somthing about a man, made from hay or somesuch...

 

[cdunn]

The actual text of the bill , when read as a piece of coherent English, is very specific of that sections purpose:

(b) Purpose- The National Coordinator shall perform the duties under subsection (c) in a manner consistent with the development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that allows for the electronic use and exchange of information and that--

(2) improves health care quality, reduces medical errors, and advances the delivery of patient-centered medical care;

(3) reduces health care costs resulting from inefficiency, medical errors, inappropriate care, duplicative care, and incomplete information;

(4) provides appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care

(5) ensures the inclusion of meaningful public input in such development of such infrastructure;

(6) improves the coordination of care and information among hospitals, laboratories, physician offices, and other entities through an effective infrastructure for the secure and authorized exchange of health care information;

(7) improves public health activities and facilitates the early identification and rapid response to public health threats and emergencies, including bioterror events and infectious disease outbreaks;


(8) facilitates health and clinical research and health care quality;

Simply put, there is absolutely no grounds for the paranoia on display. There is no administration for the determination of patient care, no government determination of cost effectiveness. This is so that doctors are actually communicating with each other - which, surprisingly, they don't do, even in this day and age. More than four-fifths of doctors in this country keep your medical records in the form of bricks of paper sitting in the office that only get hauled out when you're actually there.

This is for the penicillin allergic traveler that washes up semi-conscious in the emergency room of a hospital from an infection, and gets a shot of penicillin to fight it. This is for the little old lady whose family thinks she has Alzheimer's, but is instead on nine different drugs that impair mental function, prescribed by eight different specialists who never talked to each other. This is for the guy that has six different doctors all writing him a (legitimate) script for oxycontin, filling them at six different pharmacies, so he can resell five of them out his back door.

The utter failure of the American health care system to communicate with itself has the potential to, quite literally, kill us all. This is probably the single BEST thing that could happen to keep you healthy.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Right now there is a half dozen or so decent automated medical records systems. Funny thing is that none of them talk to each other. :erg: Guess what if they all have to automate then many who already have will have to buy the whole thing over so that they are all on the same page. Wow, what a huge cost that will be.

 

[Empty Hands]

Simply put, there is absolutely no grounds for the paranoia on display.

Welcome to political discussions on MartialTalk.

 

[seasoned]

Welcome to political discussions on MartialTalk.

There are just so many ways to talk about punching and kicking, political discussions must be a way to pass the time away until.............

 

[Ramirez]

When a private company does something you don't like, you can choose to do business with someone else. When a government does something you don't like, you can bend over and take it for as long as it takes to wait out an election, hope the rigged system in place selects someone else, that the new person thinks the same way as you, AND works to change what person A did.

Hmm. Not QUITE the same is it?

True, but how much choice do you have with health care? If you belong to an HMO, you just can't pick any doctor you want, if you get health insurance from your employer then you just can't pick any insurance company to deal with.

In any case all the insurance companies belong to a central data base which tracks your underwriting and claims.

I suppose you could pay for everything yourself, but that is a quick way to bankruptcy unless you are exceedingly wealthy.

 

[Phoenix44]

The proposed national healthcare system is simply an extension of Medicare to cover all citizens--it's not a Canadian or French style system where all the doctors work for the government. Medicare is a payment system, not a healthcare provider. So I think the idea of our health care being "taken over" is exaggerated. And as for privacy issues, well, look a little more closely at what you sign when your doctor accepts your corporate insurance before you judge.

Under Medicare, you get to choose any doctor or hospital you want, and you don't need referrals to see a specialist. This is not the case with most for-profit insurers now, where you have to choose from a limited "network" of doctors who have an agreement with the corporation. Because a lot of these insurers pay so little, it is often very difficult to find a doctor in certain specialties (pediatric psychiatry and surgical specialties come to mind).

Medicare requires pre-authorization for very few procedures. Private insurers require pre-authorization for many procedures--some even require authorizations for routine x-rays, labs, or allergy tests.

Medicare doesn't require referrals from a primary care "gate-keeper" in order to see a specialist, as many for-profit insurers do. And the gate-keeper often has a financial incentive not to refer.

Medicare doesn't dictate which medications your doctor can prescribe. Pretty much ALL corporate pharmaceutical plans are very restrictive of their "allowed" drugs, so the physician has little discretion over which drugs to prescribe. (Or more accurately, the doctor could prescribe anything s/he wants, but the patient may not be able to pay for the drugs, because the plan doesn't cover it).

Medicare usually pays a better fee to doctors than private plans, and charges lower co-pays to patients. The reason is fairly obvious: the corporate insurers are for-profit. They have to clear a profit from the health care dollar. Not so for Medicare.

If you ask doctors, many will tell you that Medicare is easier to deal with than corporate insurers. If you submit a "clean" (accurate) electronic claim, you'll get paid in 2-4 weeks.

If you ask the seniors, as long as they don't make the mistake of opting for the corporate "Managed Care" plans, they usually LOVE their Medicare! It's like the "Everything Card."

Medicare is more efficient, cheaper, and less intrusive. I'm watching the proposal closely, but I think hysteria is unwarranted.

 

[CanuckMA]

Phoenix, you've pretty much described the Canadian system. Doctors are not on a gov't salary, they are paid on a fee-for-service basis. A GP referall is usually needed for specialist, but most GPs do so as a matter of course. It's even in their advantage ($) to do so. You show up at their office, ask for a referall and they charge a visit fee.