<p>Don’t worry, hops, you’re not alone. Very few opponents of reform have any alternative to offer.</p>
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<p>How about you explain how you plan to pay for a single-payor plan?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2012/0312friedman.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2012/0312friedman.pdf</a></p>
<p>Now please tell me how we continue to pay for the current system which is bankrupting American families and businesses, and is a drag on the entire economy.</p>
<p>ETA – I really think that if you’re going to shoot down the ONE solution on the table, you need to have at least a semblance of an alternative.</p>
<p>I see… increased taxes! That’s the answer for sure!</p>
<p>Somehow you missed the savings part.</p>
<p>BTW, you didn’t respond to this:</p>
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<p>“They can’t handle the small population they have now; how do you expect them to take on 300+million?”</p>
<p>Are you kidding? Handling the highest cost population in the nation (those over 65) with a 3% overhead? And having done so for decades? Show me a private company that has done anything even close.</p>
<p>"For example: A physical therapist is required to hold a state license. Then they have a National Provider ID (NPI). Then they ALSO require a separate Medicare license in order to treat a Medicare patient…</p>
<p>Another: They require a therapist to be One-on-One with a patient for 95% of all treatments. That’s really dificult to do especially when Medicare chooses to only pay something like 75% of the bill… They expect that therapist to stand over the patient while a patient does an exercise that they can easily do without direct supervision."</p>
<p>Since I have dealt with these situations through my parents and step-parents, I can tell you that from the consumer end, these are both EXCELLENT regulations. We have seen physical therapists again and again who were unable - indeed untrained - to deal with elderly patients. What Medicare has done is ensure the PT is competent to deal with their clientele (much as private insurers will often require a certification in a specialty not required by the state boards for licensure.)</p>
<p>On the second, payment is a side issue. The regulation is an EXCELLENT one - PTs often overestimate what patients can do by themselves, and through their claims history, Medicare discovered that when this happens, they get stuck paying the bill. This is not a regulation they promulgated lightly, or without claims histories.</p>
<p>“Didn’t I read earlier that insurance was supposed to be for “big things” and not all the little minor things?”</p>
<p>The systems that have worked well in other countries were not those oriented simply toward catastrophic care.</p>
<p>Every time this subject comes up, I ask this question, and I still haven’t been able to find an answer which makes sense.</p>
<p>WHY does healthcare cost more in the U.S. than it does in other developing countries?</p>
<p>I seriously can’t figure it out.</p>
<p>It’s not obesity rates, other countries are getting ridiculously fat, too. It’s not care, based on what I’m hearing anecdotally. What is the difference between my healthcare costs and the costs of someone in another country?</p>
<p>I’m healthy, healthy BMI, never see specialists, etc… so, I’m paying IN, for sure, and not taking out. Most of the people I know are paying IN more than they are taking out. So, why is it so much more expensive?</p>
<p>Is it the insurance companies?</p>
<p>What is it, exactly?</p>
<p>Here’s a link, which I think does NOT answer the question it asks:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/11/why-does-healthcare-cost-so-much.html[/url]”>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/11/why-does-healthcare-cost-so-much.html</a></p>
<p>“WHY does healthcare cost more in the U.S. than it does in other developing countries?”</p>
<p>Start with 20-29% average overhead and profit (only 3% admin. in Medicare). Then there is the extra medical cost of delayed care, where minor problems become major, or intermittent care, where conditions are never resolved. Then there is the overbuilding at the high end of the medical spectrum (resulting in higher profit margins, but inefficient utilization). And then, overarching all, is an entire system oriented toward wringing the most out of patients, the insured, employers, and government. </p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be this way. We choose for it to be this way. It is the American way</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89651916[/url]”>Taiwan Takes Fast Track to Universal Health Care : NPR;
<p>I have been part of a european system and will continue to be for awhile until I get my feet wet in the states. From what I am hearing, it is distressing. I am so sad. We have new teachers coming here from NYC area and their stories are heartbreaking. Why don’t people want to buy into this new system? At least give it a try? Nothing is perfect. But what is happening now in the states from what I am hearing, is heartbreaking. I’ll say it again. Truly for me, that is the way I feel.</p>
<p>People that think they have it all, the money, the good healthcare, who are you? Don’t you realize that all can change on the turn of a screw. I know. I am a breast cancer patient. It can happen to anyone. Anyone. Truly, my ancestors are turning in their graves. I am coming home and I am going to fight to make things fair for all people. As much as I am capable.</p>
<p>Can everybody in this country get cancer care that costs 1 million bucks?</p>
<p>I was having this discussion yesterday and I was told that everybody can get care…nobody is turned away?</p>
<p>What happens if I am worth zero and don’t have health insurance? Will my cancer be treated?</p>
<p>What happens if I am worth 200,000 and I don’t have health insurance? Will my cancer be treated and do I have to spend 200,000 first?</p>
<p>I read that medical costs are the leading caue of bankruptcy in this country?</p>
<p>How does that happen?</p>
<p>Good question, where I live, I have private insurance but with cancer the state picked me up and I NEVER paid a cent. I am five + years out and I still am taking my free meds. When I missed work, the state paid my salary. I pay for that in my taxes. You cannot understand how important that is when you are sick. I am so grateful. I am for people having to pay, setting up a system for that. A state system, a mentality that this is important for all of us. We are in it together. That is what government is.</p>
<p>Overseas…when you say “state”…you are talking about a foreign country as far as Americans are concerned?</p>
<p>I am wondering how it works in the United States…</p>
<p>How do people go bankrupt? Loss of income because they can’t work?</p>
<p>Yes, I am talking about “state” as a tiny country where I now work. Taxes are part of the deal.</p>
<p>Well…taxes are poisonous in the United States.</p>
<p>I do agree with what you are saying, overseas.</p>
<p>dstark, here’s a common bankruptcy scenario: You have insurance through work, maybe pretty good insurance. Then you get sick, a serious illness which entails a lot of time off. You eventually lose your job because of your illness and with it, your insurance. Sure, you have COBRA protection. But if you’ve just lost your job, are you going to be able to pay the premium? Meanwhile, you’re racking up the medical bills to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars – at least until the providers tell you they won’t see you any more. Bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Most of us are one serious illness away from financial ruin.</p>
<p>Do the providers say they won’t take care of you anymore when you are broke?</p>
<p>Is there a way to protect your assets if you get something like cancer?</p>
<p>Sure, providers will cut you off, eventually. Why should they continue to treat you if no one’s going to pay them?</p>
<p>Of course, under single-payer, this wouldn’t be an issue. One of the stupidest things we do is tie insurance to employment rather than citizenship.</p>
<p>When my father got into Cal Berkeley he never knew who paid his tuition. He was poor but a great basketball player. He never paid tuition. Someone else did. I used to think of him when I walked over to the cancer hospital for radiation etc. I never knew who paid the bills, my insurance or the state. I didn’t get any bills to tell me. I just walked over, I was treated, I paid my taxes and I was grateful. I see it as kind of a community thing. I have this card that says the state will treat me until 2099. Kind of cool. I will be lucky to make it to 2040. But you never know.</p>