Drug companies should be required to sell us drugs at the same cost that they sell to Canada.
Doctors should not be allowed to own other testing labs or rehab facilities, X ray machines etc. This will prevent unnecessary testing.
Take Chiropractors off of health insurance. Come on, my vet has more training.
Eliminate the need for referrals from one doctor to another. Why do we have to pay twice to get treated once.
Tort reform works.
Doctors and Hospitals should be required to accept a national fee schedule as well as excess profit laws for health insurers.
Government funding to subsidize education for physicans. Doctors should not be required to accept fee schedule unless we help with their cost to get educated.
I agree with you Matt, It is about cost of healthcare. Not the cost of insurance.
 real tort reform that justly compensates, not rewards, victims of medical malpractice.
 replacing punitive monetary damage awards in medical malpractice lawsuits with disciplinary action imposed by a medical oversight committee.
 authorizing such a committee to impose suspensions, mandatory re-training / re-certification or referral to a criminal court when incarceration is recommended.
 a patient’s right to sign, at their option, a pre-treatment medical liability waiver in exchange for lower cost of treatment.
 limiting plaintiff attorney compensation in medical malpractice lawsuits.
 limiting plaintiff attorney compensation in class action lawsuits.
 eliminating venue shopping in class action lawsuits.
 the right to purchase or sell health insurance across state lines.
 tax credits for individuals who purchase heath insurance (just like employers get now)
 allowing private groups and organizations to offer their members group benefit health insurance (just like employers do now).
I DO NOT support another new massive Federal heath care entitlement. Current legislation making its way through congress would add at least one trillion dollars in new Federal spending.
Scott those ideas make so much sense that they are non-sensible. If we are going to mandate helath care coverage lets do everything possible to control costs. It’s hard to imagine a government program that will come in under budget, provide better coverage and more options than the current options available.
“Current legislation making its way through congress would add at least one trillion dollars in new Federal spending.”
Which is one of the reasons why the dollar’s purchasing power will collapse and there will be hyperinflation. Someone once wrote “all paper currencies (like the dollar) eventually return to their real value-zero.” Let’s see, give a group a monopoly on the creation, management, & distribution of money and chaos, corruption and destruction results. Gee, how surprising!
Oh, I forgot, monopolies are “bad” but we “must” have a monopoly (enforced by violence) on money (and health care, law, and defense, and police, and power generation, and roads, and whatever else the government labels as “in the public interest”) otherwise all life itself will perish in 10 minutes.
That’s O.K.; just follow along with the rest of the sheeple and go watch your five hours of T.V. per day. And don’t forget to vote in the next election! Look how well that’s worked!
When an entire healthcare system becomes so clearly inequitable and overwhelmed (as the American healthcare system has become) it is ultimately the fault of all interested parties involved in the current system to some degree.
In order to finally fix this system, it will require ALL parties involved to implement the following various measures (obviously, the specific definition of many of the words used below will be subject to interpretation and negotiation, but these are the 10 basic “musts” of meaningful healthcare reform and health insurance reform):
1) ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY– Insurance companies must be required to improve on their claim processing efficiencies and reduce administrative costs.
2) “REASONABLE” INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS— Insurance company profits should be limited to be “reasonable and customary”…… just like the insurance companies impose provider payment limits as to what they consider to be reasonable and customary for healthcare services provided.
3) MEDICAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY— Patient’s medical information technology must be significantly improved and facilitated for quick and easy online exchange of patient information between various healthcare providers.
4) MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LIMITATIONS— Medical malpractice awards must be limited to be reasonable and deserving awards (yet not excessive) for obvious cases of medical malpractice. This should result in a reduction of the current prevalent practice of “defensive medicine” as well as a reduction in malpractice insurance premiums that providers must pay.
5) A “PAY FOR RESULTS” SYSTEM—Healthcare providers should be paid for successful results, not simply for services provided. A “Fee for Successful Treatment”—not just a fee for services!
6) UNIVERSAL COVERAGE TO ELIMINATE COST-SHIFTING—Universal health insurance coverage without limiting coverage for pre-existing conditions should be mandated for ALL Americans and LEGAL immigrants. However, since coverage will now be “universal”, then all healthcare providers must henceforth agree to reduce their charges since the current practice of “cost-shifting” will no longer be required. (“Cost-shifting” being defined as the current practice of charging approximately 1/3 more for services provided to those with health insurance simply to cover the costs of caring for those without health insurance). Cost-shifting must be eliminated from the pricing of future services.
7) “REASONABLE” HEALTHCARE PROVIDER PROFITS—Similar to health insurance company profits, the healthcare provider profits should also be limited to being substantial, yet not excessive profits. And the same for the prescription drug industry………reasonable or substantial profits should be allowed, but not excessive profits.
8) CONSUMER COST EDUCATION—“Consumer Driven Health” practices should be implemented so that consumers can learn the true value of shopping and price-comparing for their medical services. (The $10 copay system should never be allowed again since this encouraged both over-utilization and unnecessary utilization of healthcare services).
9) PREMIUM COST CALCULATIONS—Health Insurance premium calculations should vary by simple age categories –i.e. Ages 0-19, 20-39, 40-59, 60-79, 80 and above. Premiums can also vary by region to reflect the widely varying cost of healthcare services by region. An individual’s health status should not impact individual premium costs if continuous coverage is mandated for everyone.
10) HEALTHCARE SYSTEM FINANCING—Universal health insurance costs can be paid for from a combination of current contributors to the healthcare system: employers, employees, county or city hospital district taxes, Medicaid (since no longer required if universal health insurance), Medicare, insurance company taxes, elimination of cost-shifting by healthcare providers, tax-payers, etc.
********************************************************
If we will implement these 10 critical components, then the system may have a decent chance to survive in the long term.
By the way this is the same Grassley that voted FOR end of life counseling in the 2003 Medicare Prescription Part D bill, but then recently said end of life counseling in the current health bill means the government would “pull the plug on grandma.”
He also said AIG executives should follow the Japanese example and commit suicide.
And unfortunately for you and I, Baucus is even more disreputable.
Baucus says a health insurance mandate “is clearly within the constitution.” I would like an exact citation. I read the Constitution; I must have missed that part!
sounds easy but…..
1.) Companies have the incentive to reduce inificiencies since it is harder to make money anywhere else. See 2.)
2.) I love it when people say “reasonable profits” What is a reasonable profit? This industry is the 87th most profitable industry in the coountry. That is aweful with a ROE of less than 4%. They could close shop and invest in t-bills and be better off from a solvency point of view. Since they do not make much money, contrary to public rhetoric, they don’t have much money to invest in point number 1.
3.) Yes it needs to be imporved but I tell you the things they are coming out with suck. Try giving a ptient examination while you are typing on a computer. It does not happen. And you only have 15 minutes to see the patient. End result, working at home for writing notes. And when the system goes down, and they often do, you end up working hours on end to catch up when you are already behind to begin with. The infrastructure is not there yet to make these things happen yet.
4.)Could not agree with you more.
5.)Could not agree with you more, but how do we give incentives for those doctors on the cutting edge of their porfession pushing the boundaries of medicine?
6.)Great idea but who pays for the prexisting coverage? State fund? Yeah that works out well.
7.)What is reasonable?
8.)People will spend 100 a year in oild changes for their car every year without a complaint and yet somehow a deductible or co pay is not reasonable. You want consumers to make smart buying decisions with health care, make them pay for it to the point it makes them think about what they are getting for the money. Everyone should have a deductible.
The individual mandate needs to be strong. Just like car insurance. Without the health in our risk pool, the sick people buy insurance and costs to the insurer are high. If we only required bad drivers to purchase car insurance, car insurance would be incredibly expensive!
Either that or we repeal manditory car insurance laws across the country.
We are going to have a National health care system. We need to get rid of ERISA, and the companion Federal law, we need to sue the hell out of the criminal insurers, who are killing and torturing sick people.
This will happen, the day of abusing and ripping off people is over. The writing is on the wall, people are simply not going to be ripped off one moment longer by these CRIMINAL monsters.
Healthcare is to heal the sick, and should not be the way it currently is.
We pay 40% more for less than any other CIVILIZED country, and this needs to STOP.
Matt Pace, I would a few more.
Drug companies should be required to sell us drugs at the same cost that they sell to Canada.
Doctors should not be allowed to own other testing labs or rehab facilities, X ray machines etc. This will prevent unnecessary testing.
Take Chiropractors off of health insurance. Come on, my vet has more training.
Eliminate the need for referrals from one doctor to another. Why do we have to pay twice to get treated once.
Tort reform works.
Doctors and Hospitals should be required to accept a national fee schedule as well as excess profit laws for health insurers.
Government funding to subsidize education for physicans. Doctors should not be required to accept fee schedule unless we help with their cost to get educated.
I agree with you Matt, It is about cost of healthcare. Not the cost of insurance.
It’s time to stop talking about healthcare reform and start SINGING about it!! See “Healthcare Fighting (King Fu Mix)” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nc1VwJOb9Y
I support;
 real tort reform that justly compensates, not rewards, victims of medical malpractice.
 replacing punitive monetary damage awards in medical malpractice lawsuits with disciplinary action imposed by a medical oversight committee.
 authorizing such a committee to impose suspensions, mandatory re-training / re-certification or referral to a criminal court when incarceration is recommended.
 a patient’s right to sign, at their option, a pre-treatment medical liability waiver in exchange for lower cost of treatment.
 limiting plaintiff attorney compensation in medical malpractice lawsuits.
 limiting plaintiff attorney compensation in class action lawsuits.
 eliminating venue shopping in class action lawsuits.
 the right to purchase or sell health insurance across state lines.
 tax credits for individuals who purchase heath insurance (just like employers get now)
 allowing private groups and organizations to offer their members group benefit health insurance (just like employers do now).
I DO NOT support another new massive Federal heath care entitlement. Current legislation making its way through congress would add at least one trillion dollars in new Federal spending.
The above ideas would cost little to nothing.
Scott those ideas make so much sense that they are non-sensible. If we are going to mandate helath care coverage lets do everything possible to control costs. It’s hard to imagine a government program that will come in under budget, provide better coverage and more options than the current options available.
“Current legislation making its way through congress would add at least one trillion dollars in new Federal spending.”
Which is one of the reasons why the dollar’s purchasing power will collapse and there will be hyperinflation. Someone once wrote “all paper currencies (like the dollar) eventually return to their real value-zero.” Let’s see, give a group a monopoly on the creation, management, & distribution of money and chaos, corruption and destruction results. Gee, how surprising!
Oh, I forgot, monopolies are “bad” but we “must” have a monopoly (enforced by violence) on money (and health care, law, and defense, and police, and power generation, and roads, and whatever else the government labels as “in the public interest”) otherwise all life itself will perish in 10 minutes.
That’s O.K.; just follow along with the rest of the sheeple and go watch your five hours of T.V. per day. And don’t forget to vote in the next election! Look how well that’s worked!
When an entire healthcare system becomes so clearly inequitable and overwhelmed (as the American healthcare system has become) it is ultimately the fault of all interested parties involved in the current system to some degree.
In order to finally fix this system, it will require ALL parties involved to implement the following various measures (obviously, the specific definition of many of the words used below will be subject to interpretation and negotiation, but these are the 10 basic “musts” of meaningful healthcare reform and health insurance reform):
1) ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY– Insurance companies must be required to improve on their claim processing efficiencies and reduce administrative costs.
2) “REASONABLE” INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS— Insurance company profits should be limited to be “reasonable and customary”…… just like the insurance companies impose provider payment limits as to what they consider to be reasonable and customary for healthcare services provided.
3) MEDICAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY— Patient’s medical information technology must be significantly improved and facilitated for quick and easy online exchange of patient information between various healthcare providers.
4) MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LIMITATIONS— Medical malpractice awards must be limited to be reasonable and deserving awards (yet not excessive) for obvious cases of medical malpractice. This should result in a reduction of the current prevalent practice of “defensive medicine” as well as a reduction in malpractice insurance premiums that providers must pay.
5) A “PAY FOR RESULTS” SYSTEM—Healthcare providers should be paid for successful results, not simply for services provided. A “Fee for Successful Treatment”—not just a fee for services!
6) UNIVERSAL COVERAGE TO ELIMINATE COST-SHIFTING—Universal health insurance coverage without limiting coverage for pre-existing conditions should be mandated for ALL Americans and LEGAL immigrants. However, since coverage will now be “universal”, then all healthcare providers must henceforth agree to reduce their charges since the current practice of “cost-shifting” will no longer be required. (“Cost-shifting” being defined as the current practice of charging approximately 1/3 more for services provided to those with health insurance simply to cover the costs of caring for those without health insurance). Cost-shifting must be eliminated from the pricing of future services.
7) “REASONABLE” HEALTHCARE PROVIDER PROFITS—Similar to health insurance company profits, the healthcare provider profits should also be limited to being substantial, yet not excessive profits. And the same for the prescription drug industry………reasonable or substantial profits should be allowed, but not excessive profits.
8) CONSUMER COST EDUCATION—“Consumer Driven Health” practices should be implemented so that consumers can learn the true value of shopping and price-comparing for their medical services. (The $10 copay system should never be allowed again since this encouraged both over-utilization and unnecessary utilization of healthcare services).
9) PREMIUM COST CALCULATIONS—Health Insurance premium calculations should vary by simple age categories –i.e. Ages 0-19, 20-39, 40-59, 60-79, 80 and above. Premiums can also vary by region to reflect the widely varying cost of healthcare services by region. An individual’s health status should not impact individual premium costs if continuous coverage is mandated for everyone.
10) HEALTHCARE SYSTEM FINANCING—Universal health insurance costs can be paid for from a combination of current contributors to the healthcare system: employers, employees, county or city hospital district taxes, Medicaid (since no longer required if universal health insurance), Medicare, insurance company taxes, elimination of cost-shifting by healthcare providers, tax-payers, etc.
********************************************************
If we will implement these 10 critical components, then the system may have a decent chance to survive in the long term.
By the way this is the same Grassley that voted FOR end of life counseling in the 2003 Medicare Prescription Part D bill, but then recently said end of life counseling in the current health bill means the government would “pull the plug on grandma.”
He also said AIG executives should follow the Japanese example and commit suicide.
And unfortunately for you and I, Baucus is even more disreputable.
Baucus says a health insurance mandate “is clearly within the constitution.” I would like an exact citation. I read the Constitution; I must have missed that part!
sounds easy but…..
1.) Companies have the incentive to reduce inificiencies since it is harder to make money anywhere else. See 2.)
2.) I love it when people say “reasonable profits” What is a reasonable profit? This industry is the 87th most profitable industry in the coountry. That is aweful with a ROE of less than 4%. They could close shop and invest in t-bills and be better off from a solvency point of view. Since they do not make much money, contrary to public rhetoric, they don’t have much money to invest in point number 1.
3.) Yes it needs to be imporved but I tell you the things they are coming out with suck. Try giving a ptient examination while you are typing on a computer. It does not happen. And you only have 15 minutes to see the patient. End result, working at home for writing notes. And when the system goes down, and they often do, you end up working hours on end to catch up when you are already behind to begin with. The infrastructure is not there yet to make these things happen yet.
4.)Could not agree with you more.
5.)Could not agree with you more, but how do we give incentives for those doctors on the cutting edge of their porfession pushing the boundaries of medicine?
6.)Great idea but who pays for the prexisting coverage? State fund? Yeah that works out well.
7.)What is reasonable?
8.)People will spend 100 a year in oild changes for their car every year without a complaint and yet somehow a deductible or co pay is not reasonable. You want consumers to make smart buying decisions with health care, make them pay for it to the point it makes them think about what they are getting for the money. Everyone should have a deductible.
9) Adverse selection. way over simplified
10)yeah…..but how much will it cost?
The individual mandate needs to be strong. Just like car insurance. Without the health in our risk pool, the sick people buy insurance and costs to the insurer are high. If we only required bad drivers to purchase car insurance, car insurance would be incredibly expensive!
Either that or we repeal manditory car insurance laws across the country.
We are going to have a National health care system. We need to get rid of ERISA, and the companion Federal law, we need to sue the hell out of the criminal insurers, who are killing and torturing sick people.
This will happen, the day of abusing and ripping off people is over. The writing is on the wall, people are simply not going to be ripped off one moment longer by these CRIMINAL monsters.
Healthcare is to heal the sick, and should not be the way it currently is.
We pay 40% more for less than any other CIVILIZED country, and this needs to STOP.