US doctors call for universal healthcare

[Angelsjunky]

nate will love this excellent article.

“We would have to abolish the insurance companies, there is no way around that,” Himmelstein said. The employees at the private insurance companies would be retrained for other jobs, he explains, and receive job placement assistance. The insurance CEOs, who earn multimillion dollar salaries, would not get comparable job placement, Himmelstein said wryly.

 

[nate]

Lol.  Of course they do, insurance companies require them to at least be competitive in the amount of money they charge.  Although Obama made it a lot easier for them to charge anything they want.

[mtangelsfan]

The return of A.J!!!!!

 

By the way, incredibly misleading title.  

[Make Angels Great Again]

Oh shit.

 

I hope this doesn't become another 50 page thread. Why don't you all just admit i'm right from the start so we can get past this?

[NJHalo]

1 hour ago, nate said:

Lol.  Of course they do, insurance companies require them to at least be competitive in the amount of money they charge.  Although Obama made it a lot easier for them to charge anything they want.

Please explain the part about it being easier for them to charge anything they want. 

This would make my job a lot easier, and would make the doctors I work with a lot richer.

[nate]

Just now, NJHalo said:

Please explain the part about it being easier for them to charge anything they want. 

This would make my job a lot easier, and would make the doctors I work with a lot richer.

All the mandated coverage means that insurance has to cover it so they don't have any leg to stand on when it comes to negotiations.

[AngelsLakersFan]

1 hour ago, Angelsjunky said:

The insurance CEOs, who earn multimillion dollar salaries, would not get comparable job placement, Himmelstein said wryly.

 

Class warfare first, everything else second.

[NJHalo]

10 minutes ago, nate said:

All the mandated coverage means that insurance has to cover it so they don't have any leg to stand on when it comes to negotiations.

That is for specific procedures that make up a small percentage of overall charges, and at rates that are well below par for what they were charging/getting reimbursed prior to ObamaCare. Therefore, to make up the difference, the doctors squeeze more work into smaller windows. This is why more and more providers and insurance companies are bailing on ObamaCare. It was doomed from the start, despite what he or Killery say about it. 

[nate]

Costs are way up across the board.  It isn't just for a few procedures.  It is for procedures, mental health exams, durable medical equipment, RX, etc.

[NJHalo]

Costs, as in provider expenses, are up. Reimbursements are down. 

This is what I do for a living. There is no debating this. 

[Spirit]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is some debating this. 

 

 

 

[NJHalo]

6 minutes ago, Geoff said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is some debating this. 

 

 

 

Shut up and go to your MJ dispensery you hippy.

I'm sorry, I did come off a bit arrogant. There are exceptions, but as a whole....forget it.

We are less than a year away from a melt down of the health insurance business like we saw with mortgage industry last decade.

[AngelsLongBall]

It's a good thing I'm the picture of perfect health!

[nate]

I do health insurance for a living so I have insight into it too.  For exchange plans maybe prices are down and also many providers opt out.  Group and off exchange plans have the same mandates and insurance companies continue to pay out the ass for procedures.

[Blarg]

"More than 2,000 physicians want a single-payer system similar to Canada’s and say the Affordable Care Act didn’t go far enough."  

 

There are more than 920,000 licensed physicians in the US. So your article is basing itself on the opinion of 2% of the medical community. Socialists  at their finest. 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2016 by Blarg

[NJHalo]

2 minutes ago, nate said:

I do health insurance for a living so I have insight into it too.  For exchange plans maybe prices are down and also many providers opt out.  Group and off exchange plans have the same mandates and insurance companies continue to pay out the ass for procedures.

Do you have access to provider costs? What you may see as high reimbursement may bit seem so high when all parts of the picture are taken into account.

[gotbeer]

I think a starting point is.  Stop hedge funds from buying drugs and their patents, then bumping the price by 3000% to cover their costs.

Next stop ambulance chasers from suing every single drug maker and doctor.  It seems like every other commercial on tv is some ambulance chaser suing some drug maker. 

In the world today, with corporations as large as they are.  Suing them or the government for millions of dollars does not teach them any kinds of lessons.  All they do is pass that loss onto the real losers, the people. 

[Make Angels Great Again]

25 minutes ago, Blarg said:

"More than 2,000 physicians want a single-payer system similar to Canada’s and say the Affordable Care Act didn’t go far enough."  

 

There are more than 920,000 licensed physicians in the US. So your article is basing itself on the opinion of 2% of the medical community. Socialists  at their finest. 

 

 

 

Because there's no doubt in your mind the other 98% are completely opposed right?

 

Talk about bias.

[NJHalo]

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

"More than 2,000 physicians want a single-payer system similar to Canada’s and say the Affordable Care Act didn’t go far enough."  

 

There are more than 920,000 licensed physicians in the US. So your article is basing itself on the opinion of 2% of the medical community. Socialists  at their finest. 

 

 

I'm going to guess that a high percentage of that 2000 are doctors that came here from overseas, and are disallusioned by the amount they are making. They probably thought they would get rich like doctors used to.

[NJHalo]

1 hour ago, AngelsLongBall said:

 

Does Mike Trout know you have that picture of him?

[nate]

1 hour ago, NJHalo said:

Do you have access to provider costs? What you may see as high reimbursement may bit seem so high when all parts of the picture are taken into account.

We pay more than twice as much for a standard office visit now than we did five years ago.  That doesn't include whatever procedure codes are included.

[NJHalo]

8 minutes ago, nate said:

We pay more than twice as much for a standard office visit now than we did five years ago.  That doesn't include whatever procedure codes are included.

Which insurance company do you work for? We have seen the opposite, while costs have gone steadily up.

I believe we use 99215 for office visits.

When doing my taxes this year, we figured out we had almost the same gross income as 2008, while handling twice the number of patients. 

Material costs, insurances, salaries, all went up. 

Edited May 20, 2016 by NJHalo

[nate]

I work for a major insurer, we can leave it at that.

Additionally, people are going to the doctor way more than before which also drives prices.  There is a reason why premiums are way up.  Remember that insurers work off a 5% margin.  Most doctors work on a 60+% margin.  Maybe your specific area didn't see an increase but doctors and hospitals are making more money than ever before.

Edited May 20, 2016 by nate

[ten ocho recon scout]

3 minutes ago, nate said:

I work for a major insurer, we can leave it at that.

Additionally, people are going to the doctor way more than before which also drives prices.  There is a reason why premiums are way up.  Remember that insurers work off a 5% margin.  Most doctors work on a 60+% margin.  Maybe your specific area didn't see an increase but doctors and hospitals are making more money than ever before.

Bit of an off topic question, but why are people going to more doctors now? Because of injury or illness, or because more people have coverage?

 

Not asking because it matters flr this thread, just out of curiosity

[NJHalo]

36 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Bit of an off topic question, but why are people going to more doctors now? Because of injury or illness, or because more people have coverage?

 

Not asking because it matters flr this thread, just out of curiosity

Routine office visits and yearly physicals are usually covered at 100% now, so people have less excuses not to go