Re: [Goanet] Offtopic: Fighting a losing battle
Folks, Instead of sticking to Ana Maria's post, jc decides to spew the below: Besides, there are all kinds of (possibly wannabe doutors but couldn't) who spout (even partisan) nonsense about healthcare They are the ones, I submit, who are driving up the complexity and cost of healthcare for the doentes. It is obvious from his above quote, that he does not support the healthcare measure passed by president Obama. That is understandable. However, he has not given one good reason to back his reasoning. Under normal circumstances, I'd let this one pass. Because the above comment is at least partially attributed to me, I am taking the liberty to reproduce it in this thread - where it rightfully belongs - and rip him even more The gentleman from Bahamas, it appears, does not like the idea of having everybody insured in the US. It is clear where his main interests lie - that is, he would be happy for people of his ilk to be able to squeeze every penny out of non insured folks who are grossly overcharged. Let me drill down a bit more to explain this phenomenon with a real life example. After a recent annual checkup, my daughter's pediatrician sent in a bill for $630. Because my family is insured, my insurance company paid in $211 and I had to foot in a copay/deductible of $84. So what happened to the remaining $335 that the doctor charged? Well, they just wrote it off ! But why? It turns out, the insurance company has a deal with the doctor to charge only a mutually agreed rate. So what would be the situation had I been un-insured? Well, I'd have to cough up every penny of the $630 that he originally charged !!! Isn't there something fundamentally wrong with this picture? Had every doctor in the US charged reasonable fees for the services, people would probably not have gone through a middle man for routine care, such as an insurance company. By having the insurance company decide how much the doctor is going to be paid, the doctor is probably sqeezed too. In an ideal situation, people would have to purchase only catastrophic health insurance, which is usually cheaper than regular insurance and pay the full fee to the doctor for routine care - assuming it is somewhere between $300 and $400 - in my example above. BTW, our pediatrician is a very fine gentleman. He is an awesome doctor and we are very happy with him. It is not his fault that he charged $630. Almost every doctor in the US is over charging and then let the insurance company compute the final payments. Which brings us to another good reason to have insurance to rein in the costs! So coming back to my disagreement with jc's point of contention - one of the reasons costs are controlled in the US, is because the insurance companies set a max rate. If people stay un-insured, the doctors have a field time charging whatever comes to their mind ! I challenge jc to revert back with one good example as to why Obamacare is bad for the patients. Jim F New York. Note: I am not one of those wanna be doctors. I could have been whatever I wanted to be. I chose to do what I do and I am extremely happy with my decision. There are many FATORs out there, who became DOUTORs, only because their parents were one or because they happened to come from privileged families. Many others became DOUTORs because of their social standing with the Portuguese in Goa, that allowed them to have a better life than the rest of the masses. Now that the Portuguese are gone, many of these folks fund their children's doutorship by sending them to neighboring places like Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum etc - where they pay their dues and become DOUTORs !!! Why send them to neighboring ghatti regions to become DOUTORs? Of course, they couldn't compete with Goans with higher IQ to get admissions within Goa !!! Please don't give me the crap that every DOUTOR is a genius. Plez !!! - Original Message - From: Jim Fernandes amigo...@att.net To: Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994! goanet@lists.goanet.org Cc: Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 1:25 AM Subject: Re: [Goanet] Offtopic: Fighting a losing battle jc, Only stupid people make a mountain out of a mole hole. Do you understand that it is insignificant to point to a couple of spelling errors when the entire post had some 750+ words? Please refer to your own Konklish first before trying to poke fun at other people's writing skills. Your pathetic response is laughable - it is a common defensive technique used by frogs in the Bahamas when they come out of a 7 day hibernation! ... ...
Re: [Goanet] Offtopic: Fighting a losing battle
The American Medical Association (AMA) has endorsed the new health insurance law in the U.S. Here is information regarding it provided by the AMA for physicians and patients: http://www.ama-assn.org/resources/doc/washington/hsr-booklet.pdf Cheers, Santosh - Original Message - From: Jim Fernandes amigo...@att.net After a recent annual checkup, my daughter's pediatrician sent in a bill for $630. Because my family is insured, my insurance company paid in $211 and I had to foot in a copay/deductible of $84. So what happened to the remaining $335 that the doctor charged? Well, they just wrote it off ! But why? It turns out, the insurance company has a deal with the doctor to charge only a mutually agreed rate. So what would be the situation had I been un-insured? Well, I'd have to cough up every penny of the $630 that he originally charged !!! Isn't there something fundamentally wrong with this picture? Had every doctor in the US charged reasonable fees for the services, people would probably not have gone through a middle man for routine care, such as an insurance company. By having the insurance company decide how much the doctor is going to be paid, the doctor is probably sqeezed too. In an ideal situation, people would have to purchase only catastrophic health insurance, which is usually cheaper than regular insurance and pay the full fee to the doctor for routine care - assuming it is somewhere between $300 and $400 - in my example above.
Re: [Goanet] Offtopic: Fighting a losing battle
jc, Only stupid people make a mountain out of a mole hole. Do you understand that it is insignificant to point to a couple of spelling errors when the entire post had some 750+ words? Please refer to your own Konklish first before trying to poke fun at other people's writing skills. Your pathetic response is laughable - it is a common defensive technique used by frogs in the Bahamas when they come out of a 7 day hibernation! Jim F New York. Note: I have included my previous email once again so that folks can get a second look at your crap and compare it to mine. - Original Message - From: Jose Colaco cola...@gmail.com To: Jim Fernandes amigo...@att.net; Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994! goanet@lists.goanet.org Cc: Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994! goanet@lists.goanet.org Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2013 7:42 PM Subject: Re: [Goanet] Offtopic: Fighting a losing battle On Oct 12, 2013, at 5:34 PM, Jim Fernandes amigo...@att.net wrote: The EMTALA jc is referring to, is not getting money out of thin air. It is coming from federal tax we are all paying into Final Comment on this topic (for now): 1: In English, we were taught Reference to Context. 2: English comprehension might be incomprehensible to some. 3: In a losing battle, some of us might be 'loosing' it. jc - Original Message - From: Jim Fernandes amigo...@att.net To: Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994! goanet@lists.goanet.org Cc: Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2013 5:34 PM Subject: Re: [Goanet] Offtopic: Fighting a losing battle Wow! I am amazed. Looks like jc has been having sleepless nights with the nagging feeling that he missed writing about his below point in his original croak about a spelling mistake in my post dated Oct 4 (Eastern). I thought this debate was over days ago even the Republicans have given up, fighting the original battle ... The EMTALA jc is referring to, is not getting money out of thin air. It is coming from federal tax we are all paying into. This provision is meant to prevent patient dumping with Emergency Medical Conditions (EMC), but it is being misused by people who do not wish to spend money purchasing health insurance. Because EMTALA is in place, it appears that jc is suggesting that we need not purchase health insurance. Am I correctly interpreting what jc is stating below? Anyway, not every hospital in the US have to follow EMTALA regulations. I can point to several people in New York who do not purchase health insurance whatsoever. Some may be having economic reasons, but there are countless more who deliberately DO NOT purchase insurance even when they can afford one. When they have a small Boo-Boo, they just show up at the ER, expecting to get free care. Please visit any of the NYC hospitals and evaluate the patients to see whether they all really have EMCs. I guarantee you 100% of folks with non-EMC conditions, show up at the ER because they expect to get free care. This is causing unnecessary clogging at the ER. These folks could very well directly make an appointment and visit a primary care physician or go to a walk-in clinic, but they wont - of course, that requires the patient to pay for the doctor's visit. So let me summarize my thoughts below: 1. Often times, good medicine tastes awful. My opinion is that Obamacare is good medicine for the runaway medical costs in the US. Over time, I expect the costs to come under control. 2. Obamacare is an affordable option for folks to get covered, who would otherwise be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. It has several good features, but the details are outside the scope of this discussion. 3. The Republicans initially tied their budget approval vote to de-funding Obamacare. Now there is no such talk anymore. So the original reasons for the government shutdown do not exist anymore. Which means the battle is already lost. 4. As a face saving measure for the Republicans, Obama may throw a bone or two in non-Obamacare areas. Republicans are widely expected to chew on the bones and move on. 5. In our old house in Goa (which was some 150 years old), there was no such thing as a guest bathroom. There was only one bathroom. However, I did demolish the whole house and rebuilt it. One of the reasons for the rebuild was that I did not like the bathroom we had in the old house! 6. Looks like jc's email (or his thoughts) got stranded for 7 days due to partial government shutdown in the US. My post originally appeared on GoaNet on Oct 4th Eastern. 7. The US government is unlikely to default on its debt. The biggest losers if that was to happen, would be the Republicans - both politically and financially. 8. Only fools keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to see different outcome! Republicans have been trying their stunts to eliminate Obamacare for some 40 times since its passing - it ain't going to happen. So just move
Re: [Goanet] Offtopic: Fighting a losing battle
On Oct 12, 2013, at 5:34 PM, Jim Fernandes amigo...@att.net wrote: The EMTALA jc is referring to, is not getting money out of thin air. It is coming from federal tax we are all paying into Final Comment on this topic (for now): 1: In English, we were taught Reference to Context. 2: English comprehension might be incomprehensible to some. 3: In a losing battle, some of us might be 'loosing' it. jc
Re: [Goanet] Offtopic: Fighting a losing battle
Wow! I am amazed. Looks like jc has been having sleepless nights with the nagging feeling that he missed writing about his below point in his original croak about a spelling mistake in my post dated Oct 4 (Eastern). I thought this debate was over days ago even the Republicans have given up, fighting the original battle ... The EMTALA jc is referring to, is not getting money out of thin air. It is coming from federal tax we are all paying into. This provision is meant to prevent patient dumping with Emergency Medical Conditions (EMC), but it is being misused by people who do not wish to spend money purchasing health insurance. Because EMTALA is in place, it appears that jc is suggesting that we need not purchase health insurance. Am I correctly interpreting what jc is stating below? Anyway, not every hospital in the US have to follow EMTALA regulations. I can point to several people in New York who do not purchase health insurance whatsoever. Some may be having economic reasons, but there are countless more who deliberately DO NOT purchase insurance even when they can afford one. When they have a small Boo-Boo, they just show up at the ER, expecting to get free care. Please visit any of the NYC hospitals and evaluate the patients to see whether they all really have EMCs. I guarantee you 100% of folks with non-EMC conditions, show up at the ER because they expect to get free care. This is causing unnecessary clogging at the ER. These folks could very well directly make an appointment and visit a primary care physician or go to a walk-in clinic, but they wont - of course, that requires the patient to pay for the doctor's visit. So let me summarize my thoughts below: 1. Often times, good medicine tastes awful. My opinion is that Obamacare is good medicine for the runaway medical costs in the US. Over time, I expect the costs to come under control. 2. Obamacare is an affordable option for folks to get covered, who would otherwise be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. It has several good features, but the details are outside the scope of this discussion. 3. The Republicans initially tied their budget approval vote to de-funding Obamacare. Now there is no such talk anymore. So the original reasons for the government shutdown do not exist anymore. Which means the battle is already lost. 4. As a face saving measure for the Republicans, Obama may throw a bone or two in non-Obamacare areas. Republicans are widely expected to chew on the bones and move on. 5. In our old house in Goa (which was some 150 years old), there was no such thing as a guest bathroom. There was only one bathroom. However, I did demolish the whole house and rebuilt it. One of the reasons for the rebuild was that I did not like the bathroom we had in the old house! 6. Looks like jc's email (or his thoughts) got stranded for 7 days due to partial government shutdown in the US. My post originally appeared on GoaNet on Oct 4th Eastern. 7. The US government is unlikely to default on its debt. The biggest losers if that was to happen, would be the Republicans - both politically and financially. 8. Only fools keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to see different outcome! Republicans have been trying their stunts to eliminate Obamacare for some 40 times since its passing - it ain't going to happen. So just move on Jim F New York. Note: I corrected the spelling mistake in the subject line. From: Jose Colaco cola...@gmail.com To: Jim Fernandes amigo...@att.net; Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994! goanet@lists.goanet.org Cc: Mervyn Lobo mervynal...@yahoo.ca Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 7:28 AM Subject: Re: [Goanet] Offtopic: Fighting a loosing battle On Oct 3, 2013, at 10:52 PM, Jim Fernandes amigo...@att.net wrote: Imagine a healthy 20-something who lacks medical insurance, gets into a serious car accident. He is rushed to a nearby hospital and gets treated. Who does he imagine will pick up his medical expenses? After all, the hospital isn't exactly a charity. COMMENT: on the allegedly losing battle 1: please vide EMTALA (1986). I submit the following: a: financial provisions have been in place and budgeted/paid for .for a pretty long time. b: NO hospital was/is expected to behave as a charity. c: IF there is a problem with the guest bathroom! does it make sense to try rebuild the whole house . even IF one had the funds to do that? d: Perhaps, it does to the Insurance Industry which has been strikingly silent - no doubt, in tandem with Mervyn's line of thinking? jc
