Hi Viviana, Now that you have baited me into this, lets talk about healthcare ... a topic I have voluntarily immersed myself in the last few months. Thanks for telling me that we have met. So I now know whom I am responding to; and will show 'a lot of mog'.:=)) If I am not mistaken, don't you work in the health-field? So likely you know the issues.
To limit myself I will take only three points you raise and analyze them in detail. VMC: I've never said that the current system is perfect, where many, probably millions, of indigent patients are provided health care which they personally don't pay for but we taxpayers DO pay for instead. I do believe that attempting to force everyone to buy health insurance is the absolutely wrong way to fix the system, particularly since the IRS is in charge of enforcing this. Can you really believe, Dr. Lawrence, that this is a good idea? GL responds: Thank you for telling us the current system needs over-hauling. A healthcare system where 45,000 die every year from lack of insurance and 30,000 die every year from over-treatment cannot be a good system ... in fact it is a bad system for our great country. The IRS is involved becasue the level of govt help to the poor is related to their income. Complaining about IRS involvement in healthcare reform is another right-wing canard and a distraction. You do not want to force everyone to buy insurance? But you also complain "provided health care (to probably millions, of indigent patients) which they personally don't pay for, but we taxpayers DO pay for instead". If all DO NOT contribute to insurance, who and when will people financially contribute to insurance? When they get sick? Do you complain about ALL being forced to buy auto-insurance? Forcing all to insure (a.k.a. individual mandate) was a Republican proposal in 1993 (Senators Hatch and Grassley). Do you have a position other than being against to what others have proposed? --------------- VMC: I stand by my contention that anyone in the US has access to healthcare that they don't have to pay for. No one who lives here will deny this. GL: By law no one irrespective of insurance can be denied emergency healthcare (law signed by Pres. Reagan). Many physicians will refer such patients to the hospital's emergency room. For non-emergency patients, doctors can / will decline patients with no insurance or insurance from a carrier that the doctor does not deal with. VMC: We're off to a good start! I agree with you on both counts. This does not contradict anything I've written. GL responds: We do not agree. In the current system, patients do not get Preventive and Maintenance healthcare for chronic illness which is 70% of all healthcare. Accessing only emergency care is expensive, often futile and is the end-result of a broken system. ------------------ VMC: Here is where I suggest that you read posts in a thread before you jump in! .... So in your second sentence you imply that it's the doctors who are being ripped off by "NO PAY" patients, and then you imply that patients are being ripped off by health care providers. I'm having trouble keeping up with who is ripping off whom. GL responds: After accusing me of insulating myself with my disclaimer about not following this thread, you encourage me to know the issues being presented in the thread.:=)) Yet this will not stop me from explaining this important point about lack of insurance. This is specially important for young adults / college students, who may believe they do not need insurance. Insurance companies have a negotiated payment schedule for the hospital's charges. It may be as low as 30% of their fee. An individual patient does not have that negotiating clout and hence HAS TO PAY 100% of the bill. If the medical bill is too high, the individuals can / do declare bankruptcy. All of this can be avoided by having a powerful insurance intermediary between the patient and the healthcare provider. ---------- Conclusion: Hope the above provides some explanation. I have maintained / written that no bill is perfect, because we do not know how patients, doctors, hospitals and insurers will behave and work around the system. So every year or two Congress will have to visit the subject to close loopholes and regulate abuses that businesses come up with. My apologies for misspelling your name in the prior post. Regards ani mog. GL.
