Making Baby Jesus Cry

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
You are on crack, nttawwt. All you are saying is no price regulation. How many industries have price regulation?

Good god, man. Was it a head injury? Was it really an emergency? Employer health insurance seems like it customarily doesn't place the same restrictions on actual emergency stuff b/c they know you have less of a choice (e.g., I am not sure you have to go to in-network hospitals etc.) -- but I'm not in IL and I don't know what kind of plan you have and I'm not sure you have a group policy.

Anyway. No price regulation does not equal no regulation.

If i am a practicing Christian Scientist can I compel my employer to give me a bonus since I will not be using any health insurance?

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by taxwonk
I wasn't trying to minimize what you, or RT, or any of the healthcare or ERISA people on the boards do. I'm just saying that to the extent there is regulation for people not on Medicare, it's not there to help protect their ability to get affordable health care and it doesn't keep the health care industry from raping some people to make for what they get under regulated programs.

I've gone through this exercise with someone earlier this year who had a kidney stone on a Sunday in a hospital where he had no coverage. $8,000.

I'm sympathetic to the individual stories, and I agree that it's a problem. I think that comprehensive coverage is the solution, but I do not know how to get there, but saying that there's no regulation in healthcare is patently ridiculous.

In the same way where you have no bargaining power with the individal physician for setting usual and customary rates, the physician generally has little or to no bargaining power with the insurance companies in setting forth percentages of RBRVS.

BUT, last I checked, healthcare was still a) not a right (except for EMTALA, but you still will have to pay something), and b) part of the capitalist economy. One of those things will have to change in order for there to be meaningful changes in the healthcare arena.

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I've gone through this exercise with someone earlier this year who had a kidney stone on a Sunday in a hospital where he had no coverage. $8,000.

I'm sympathetic to the individual stories, and I agree that it's a problem. I think that comprehensive coverage is the solution, but I do not know how to get there, but saying that there's no regulation in healthcare is patently ridiculous.

In the same way where you have no bargaining power with the individal physician for setting usual and customary rates, the physician generally has little or to no bargaining power with the insurance companies in setting forth percentages of RBRVS.

BUT, last I checked, healthcare was still a) not a right (except for EMTALA, but you still will have to pay something), and b) part of the capitalist economy. One of those things will have to change in order for there to be meaningful changes in the healthcare arena.

Make it fully market based except for the social safety net portion.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
Make it fully market based except for the social safety net portion.

Yeah. That's sure worked.

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
Yeah. That's sure worked.

Where? What country has that system?

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
If i am a practicing Christian Scientist can I compel my employer to give me a bonus since I will not be using any health insurance?

Funny you should ask. My coworker here is at least 60 lbs overweight, and slurps coffee and donuts all day. My company subsidizes memberships at 24Hour Fitness. This guy says he should get a bonus corresponding to the value of the subsidy, since he never uses it. Should I recommend to the GC that he get it? Does the answer change if I get a kickback?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Sexual Harassment Panda
My coworker here is at least 60 lbs overweight, and slurps coffee and donuts all day.

Just for the record, do you feel there is something wrong with this?

[Spanky]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
The answer is rationing care, but that will never receive popular support.

This is America - we don't ration nothing.

Let us review.

From my understanding the biggest drain on county governments is the overuse of the emergency room (actually the biggest drain is the last month of old peoples lives - but there is nothing we can do about that). All the uninsured people go there for any problems they have. Another problem with all these people without health insurance is that they leave problems until they become acute. For a middle class person this means that the big problem not treated in the end wipes them out, they become penniless and the government has to step in and cover the bill. If they had insurance a privated company would have had to cover the bill.

Rational people should have health insurance anyway - instead of buying a new Washing Machine - so we are just geting people to act rationally. So we are helping the marketplace conform more to Mr. Smiths Model.

If every one that has to drive has to buy health insurance then all these people are covered by private companys and they ain't the governments problem. For the people that can't afford health insurance the government pays for a private plan. So if something bad happens it still ain't the governments problem. People that make under $100,000 a year, and don't drive, again the government pays for their private health plan.

The only people the government covers personally are the people that no private company will touch.

It will also be required under every health plan that you get a biannual check up. That way problems can be detected early before they become catastrophic and everyone can get a good tongue lashing from the doctor every two years. People would have to look at pictures of diseased lungs and stuff that Ty would never allow on this board.

Christian Scientists and everyone else would be under the same rules. I don't care what your religion is, if you want to drive you get health insurance. If you don't drive, the government covers you anyway so what have you got to lose. If your kid gets an appendicitis, and you don't take the kid in, and he or she dies. The rest of your children become wards of the state. In addition, if you don't take your kids in for checkups they become wards of the state.

Seems like a perfect solution to me. No ones civil liberties are messed with because we are not forcing you to drive. Private insurance companys will handle most of the insurance and they definitely have an incentive to keep costs down. And right now we take care of everyone that can't get health insurance anyway - or at least eventually we do when they are wiped out and become penniless.

Perfect Plan.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Spanky
This is America - we don't ration nothing.

Let us review.

You have just described an astonishing increase in governmental authority.

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Just for the record, do you feel there is something wrong with this?

No. But he wears a Savage Nation baseball cap to work every day. That I do find offensive.

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Originally posted by Spanky
The rest of your children become wards of the state. In addition, if you don't take your kids in for checkups they become wards of the state.

If this doesn't bring bilmore back I don't know what will.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
There are state and federal oversight agencies. There are state licensure agencies. There's EMTALA. There's HIPAA. There's JACHO. There are IRBs. There are ethics committees. There are requirements for peer review under the HCQA. There's the NPDB. There is Stark I. There is Stark II. There is the anti-remuneration statute. There are IRS rules regarding private inurement. There's the FTC and Justice Department enforcement of antitrust rules. There's the DHHS OIG. There's OHRP. There's the FDA and the DEA.

There is PLENTY of regulation for the average person.

Well, then. Nevermind.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
You have just described an astonishing increase in governmental authority.

As if government is not already intrinsically involved in health care. We all pay for the roads. If you want to use the governments roads you have to be smart about health care. Is that to much to ask?

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Spanky
As if government is not already intrinsically involved in health care. We all pay for the roads. If you want to use the governments roads you have to be smart about health care. Is that to much to ask?

I don't see the two as rationally related, and I doubt the highway patrol wants to be involved in healthcare enforcement.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
I don't see the two as rationally related, and I doubt the highway patrol wants to be involved in healthcare enforcement.

1) Why do they have to be rationally related.

2) And I don't want to have to work everyday. That is why they call it a job. You are paid to do stuff you would normally not do. They have to check for car insurance and registration and a license. Now it is car and health insurace, registration and a license. It is still better than cleaning the sewer system.