Author Topic: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles  (Read 8816 times)

GigantorX

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #50 on: June 16, 2009, 07:41:01 AM »
And how will our govt. "reform" Social Security when it has spent all its money on short term ineffective stimulus, shot all of its tax bullets, and issued so much debt that the interest payments take up an even bigger % of the budget?

And 3386 is right, the CBO has already given its recomendations and numbers on these issues. They aren't as bright and rainbow colored as this White House stooges.

Benny B

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #51 on: June 17, 2009, 12:50:09 PM »
Health CEOs for Health Reform
Recently, the Health CEOs for Health Reform (HC4HR) came together to discuss transformative, patient-centered reforms, explain how bold incentives can make health care affordable and how their own experience proves a sustainable, value-based system is achievable.

Meaningful health care reform must make our health delivery system sustainable for families, employers, providers, and governments. The mission of Health CEOs for Health Reform is to demonstrate to the policy community and the American people that health industry leaders are willing to be proactive leaders in calling for transformative reforms of our health system.

The white paper from the event, Realigning U.S. Health Care Incentives to Better Serve Patients and Taxpayers, further details the HC4HR vision and outlines more specific proposals for reform. http://www.newamerica.net/publication...


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Benny B

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #52 on: June 17, 2009, 12:55:21 PM »
Faces of Health Care Reform: Russell Axelson
Like millions of Americans, Russ lost his health insurance when he was laid off from his job. Russ turned to his church to help pay for his medications while he was out of work.

Organizing for America has collected hundreds of thousands of personal health care stories. The grassroots effort is building support in communities across the country for a plan that adheres to President Obamas three principles for reform: lowering costs, preserving patient choice and increasing access to quality care.

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Benny B

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #53 on: June 22, 2009, 11:02:21 AM »
June 22, 2009
Obama Reverts to Campaign Motto for Health Care Agenda
By Jeff Zeleny

President Obama dusted off a campaign slogan on Monday, sharply dismissing those who have expressed skepticism that the nation’s health care system will be overhauled by Congress this year.

“Yes we can,” Mr. Obama said. “We are going to get this done.”

In an appearance in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Mr. Obama praised an agreement reached last week by drug companies to help close a cap in Medicare’s prescription drug coverage. He said the pharmaceutical industry’s pledge to spend $80 billion over the next decade to reduce the cost of drugs would pay for a portion of his health care plan.

“This is a significant breakthrough on the road to health care reform,” Mr. Obama said, “one that will make a difference in the lives of many older Americans.”

The president said the move will help solve the “doughnut hole,” the gap in coverage that requires people to pay the full cost of prescriptions after they surpass $2,700 before the catastrophic coverage of $6,100 kicks in.

“It’s a reform that will make prescription drugs more affordable for millions of seniors and restore a measure of fairness,” Mr. Obama said.

The brief remarks by the president were intended to highlight that AARP, a politically important group of 40 million Americans, endorsed the plan. Before the president spoke, Barry Rand, the chief executive of AARP, vowed to support the health care overhaul moving through Congress.

“This is an early win for reform. It’s a major step forward,” Mr. Rand said. “It is a signal that the process is working and will work.”

The 10-minute ceremony at the White House, which was awash in optimism, opened another critical week as the administration attempts to build consensus in Congress to overhaul the health care system. The key Democratic senators on the issues, Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Max Baucus of Montana, were at the president’s side on Monday.

“Today marks a major step forward, but it will only be meaningful if we complete the journey,” Mr. Obama said, renewing his call for Congress to reach agreement on a health care plan this year.

He closed by addressing critics – not by name – who have suggested that the health care deal won’t be reached this year.

“For those here in Washington who have grown accustomed to sky-is-falling prognosis and the certainties that we cannot get this done,” Mr. Obama said, “I have to repeat – you know, revive – an old saying we had from the campaign: Yes we can. We are going to get this done.
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Benny B

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #54 on: June 22, 2009, 11:03:46 AM »
New York Times/CBS Poll Says 72% Of Americans Support Health Care Reform

    Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind [72%] one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
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Soul Crusher

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #55 on: June 22, 2009, 11:08:03 AM »
New York Times/CBS Poll Says 72% Of Americans Support Health Care Reform

    Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind [72%] one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Look at the weighting of the poll you fool. 

This is going down like the titanic and you know it. 

headhuntersix

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #56 on: June 22, 2009, 11:09:34 AM »
68% of those polled...........VOTED FOR OBAMA. Silly NYT just pack it in already.
L

Benny B

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #57 on: June 22, 2009, 09:39:58 PM »
Faces of Health Care Reform: Cathy
Cathy lives in Apple Valley, MN. A single mother of two, Cathy went back to school to earn her teachers license and has worked for the past three years as a special education and early childhood education teacher. Then, when her school system was hit with budget cuts earlier this month, Cathy lost her job, along with her health insurance.

Organizing for America has collected hundreds of thousands of personal health care stories. The grassroots effort is building support in communities across the country for a plan that adheres to President Obamas three principles for reform: lowering costs, preserving patient choice and increasing access to quality care.

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Soul Crusher

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #58 on: June 23, 2009, 05:37:07 AM »
Cry me a river. 

We can help people who need help without spending another 1.6 trillion of waste fraud and abuse and further destroying the economy.   


shootfighter1

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #59 on: June 23, 2009, 06:37:10 AM »
They majority of people favor healthcare reform, true...that includes me, but the majority of those people probably do not favor nationalized healthcare.
People need to be aware of the cost and limitations of nationalized health care in this country...and the problems with a private + federal system.  Both bad ideas IMO.  The gov could do a lot to help change the industry before considering a takeover.

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #60 on: June 23, 2009, 06:40:01 AM »
Quote
They majority of people favor healthcare reform, true...that includes me, but the majority of those people probably do not favor nationalized healthcare.
People need to be aware of the cost and limitations of nationalized health care in this country...and the problems with a private + federal system.  Both bad ideas IMO.  The gov could do a lot to help change the industry before considering a takeover.

100% correct!

drkaje

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #61 on: June 23, 2009, 10:07:24 AM »
They majority of people favor healthcare reform, true...that includes me, but the majority of those people probably do not favor nationalized healthcare.
People need to be aware of the cost and limitations of nationalized health care in this country...and the problems with a private + federal system.  Both bad ideas IMO.  The gov could do a lot to help change the industry before considering a takeover.

Al Gore could have also voted "yes" on tort reform. :)

shootfighter1

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #62 on: June 23, 2009, 10:16:56 AM »
We cannot have lawsuits that reward lawyers for seeking astronomical judgements.  Insurance companies pass that cost onto health care consumers and the docs and hospitals through malpractice.

Tort reform is important...the only ones against it are lawyers because it decreases the amount of $ they can make for taking the cases.  Having a short judicial case review (like a case screening) prior to any medical lawsuit could be used to throw out frivelous lawsuits.  Then the simple court costs would be assigned to the plaintiff as penalty for wasting the court's time with a bullshit suit that hurts everyone.

We need to save these cases and court time for people who are really harmed medically.

Benny B

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #63 on: June 24, 2009, 03:38:57 PM »
The President meets with governors who helped host the White House's regional health care forums during the spring as reform heads into yet another pivotal period in Congress. June 24, 2009.
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Benny B

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #64 on: July 01, 2009, 10:45:40 PM »
President Obama Holds Online Town Hall on Health Reform
President Obama takes questions submitted through YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter at a town hall in Virginia. July 1, 2009.


After days of taking video questions online, and with massive online discussions unfolding during the event, the President took questions on health reform directly from the public in an online town hall.





For a taste, here's the transcript of the first question:

MS. JARRETT:  I'm going to be in charge.  Thank you very much, Mr. President.

So in my opening remarks, Mr. President, I mentioned that when you released your YouTube video over the weekend, we received literally hundreds of video questions from all across the country.  Your staff looked through all those questions and have selected a cross-section that represents a broad cross-section of the kinds of questions that came up.

I want to emphasize that the President has not seen the questions ahead of time.  (Laughter.)  Absolutely not.

And so we're going to begin with a video question, Mr. President, if you look at the screen.

THE PRESIDENT:  All right.

VIDEO Q   Hi, my name is Steve White.  I'm in Spring Valley, New York.  And my question for the President is:  Why are we considering a health care plan which maintains the private insurance companies with their high overhead costs, instead of a single-payer plan, which would eliminate the high overhead costs, saving the American taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars, while covering everyone in our country?  Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT:  Sure.  Well, it's a terrific question.  I'm not sure if everybody could hear it, but the gist of the question is, why have we not been looking at a single-payer plan as the way to go?

As many of you know, in many countries, most industrialized advanced countries, they have some version of what's called a single-payer plan.  And what that means is essentially that the government is the insurer.  The government may not necessarily hire the doctors or the hospitals -- a lot of those may still be privately operated -- but the government is the insurer for everybody.  And Medicare is actually a single-payer plan that we have in place, but we only have it in place for our older Americans.

Now, in a lot of those countries, a single-payer plan works pretty well and you eliminate, as Scott, I think it was, said, you eliminate private insurers, you don't have the administrative costs and the bureaucracy and so forth.

Here's the problem, is that the way our health care system evolved in the United States, it evolved based on employers providing health insurance to their employees through private insurers.  And so that's still the way that the vast majority of you get your insurance.  And for us to transition completely from an employer-based system of private insurance to a single-payer system could be hugely disruptive.  And my attitude has been that we should be able to find a way to create a uniquely American solution to this problem that controls costs but preserves the innovation that is introduced in part with a free market system.

I think that we can regulate the insurance companies effectively; make sure that they're not playing games with people because of preexisting conditions; that they're not charging wildly different rates to people based on where they live or what their age is; that they're not dropping people for coverage unnecessarily; that we have a public option that's available to provide competition and choice to the American people, and to keep the insurers honest; and that we can provide a system in which we are, over the long term, driving down administrative costs, and making sure that people are getting the best possible care at a lower price.

But I recognize that there are lot of people who are passionate -- they look at France or some of these other systems and they say, well, why can't we just do that?  Well, the answer is, is that this is one-sixth of our economy, and we're not suddenly just going to completely upend the system.  We want to build on what works about the system and fix what's broken about the system.  And that's what I think Congress is committed to doing, and I'm committed to working with them to make it happen. Okay?

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grab an umbrella

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #65 on: July 01, 2009, 11:30:31 PM »
Has Obama started taking random questions from the audience?  Is he still pre selectiing the questions?

Benny B

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #66 on: July 02, 2009, 08:04:21 AM »
Health Care Day of Service - June 27, 2009
On June 27th, tens of thousands of volunteers from across the country took part in thousands of events designed to raise visibility for health care reform in their communities. These health care service projects gave volunteers a chance to make an impact in their own communities and improve the lives of their neighbors in the short term -- and they are just one step forward in the larger fight for long term, comprehensive health care reform.
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Soul Crusher

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #67 on: July 02, 2009, 10:33:39 AM »
Benny, your liar was exposed as a fraud even by Helen Thomas on this issue in his phoney town hall meeting. 

shootfighter1

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #68 on: July 02, 2009, 11:48:06 AM »
I heard Obama specifically say he was not in favor of tort reform.  Not surprising, he's a lawyer and the American Bar Association backed him.  Tort reform would help significantly, another simple law that could be passed that would help control costs...and he ignores it for the purpose of serving his agenda.

As far as tort reform, some people had a problem with capping damages at $250,000.  So, instead of voting it down, they should have worked toward some compromise...like capping the lawyer's pay for a medical malpractice case or raising the cap on damages to $500,000.  These multi-million dollar lawsuits are costing every one of us money (trickle-down) and raises healthcare costs from multiple angles.

Soul Crusher

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #69 on: July 02, 2009, 11:56:06 AM »
I heard Obama specifically say he was not in favor of tort reform.  Not surprising, he's a lawyer and the American Bar Association backed him.  Tort reform would help significantly, another simple law that could be passed that would help control costs...and he ignores it for the purpose of serving his agenda.

As far as tort reform, some people had a problem with capping damages at $250,000.  So, instead of voting it down, they should have worked toward some compromise...like capping the lawyer's pay for a medical malpractice case or raising the cap on damages to $500,000.  These multi-million dollar lawsuits are costing every one of us money (trickle-down) and raises healthcare costs from multiple angles.

Shoot, i dont do med mal, I do construction litigation and claims mostly, but I believe for med mal, there should be an interim mediation or non-binding arbitration process where a person would have to go through before being allowed to sue.  this way, they can get a good idea of their chances at litigation and lawyers would not be as willing to file blindly hoping for a settlement, even of a weak claim.   

shootfighter1

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #70 on: July 02, 2009, 12:46:29 PM »
Exactly, I mentioned that in one of my previous posts too.  These cases need to be pre-screened by an independent arbitrator or judge.  Even with that, I still think there should be a cap on the amount the lawyer should be able to make.  If there's a 3 million dollar case, they lawyer makes 1 million?  Lawyers want big suits because they make a %.  30% or 1/3 is fairly common from what I have heard.  When the case is over a certain amount, there should be a cap to discourage excessive damages awards that cost us all.

Soul Crusher

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #71 on: July 02, 2009, 01:00:45 PM »
Exactly, I mentioned that in one of my previous posts too.  These cases need to be pre-screened by an independent arbitrator or judge.  Even with that, I still think there should be a cap on the amount the lawyer should be able to make.  If there's a 3 million dollar case, they lawyer makes 1 million?  Lawyers want big suits because they make a %.  30% or 1/3 is fairly common from what I have heard.  When the case is over a certain amount, there should be a cap to discourage excessive damages awards that cost us all.

There are horrible med mal cases where the docs screw up.  In those cases, I have a hard time telling someone what they should get or not get.  im thinking of the wrongly amputated limb, the missed cancer diagnosies resulting in death, etc.     

However, I think the bulk of the problems exist in the marginal cases that get decided by a jury not really familiar with the subject matter and get settled for huge money just because the insurance company is afraid of an obscene verdict.   

shootfighter1

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #72 on: July 02, 2009, 01:41:47 PM »
Understood, but we still have to have some kind of cap on damages because of the effect it has on us all.  Insurance just passes that cost to the consumer.  I agree that if a person is a victim of a physician or hospital mistake, they should be compensated accordingly and sometimes no amount of money can make up for their loss...but the awards can't be so big that it has a major trickle down effect.

I agree with you that most of the problem is coming from marginal cases (or practices associated with preventing any kind of lawsuit)...many of which are settled out of court to avoid legal fees and drawn out cases and many of these cases would be thrown out by an arbitrator, as you said.

Soul Crusher

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #73 on: July 02, 2009, 01:44:42 PM »
Understood, but we still have to have some kind of cap on damages because of the effect it has on us all.  Insurance just passes that cost to the consumer.  I agree that if a person is a victim of a physician or hospital mistake, they should be compensated accordingly and sometimes no amount of money can make up for their loss...but the awards can't be so big that it has a major trickle down effect.

I agree with you that most of the problem is coming from marginal cases (or practices associated with preventing any kind of lawsuit)...many of which are settled out of court to avoid legal fees and drawn out cases and many of these cases would be thrown out by an arbitrator, as you said.

I am not part of the plaintiff's bar becaise I dont like what they do.  The med mal bar will never agree to arbitration like we discussed and if you look at the biggest states, run by Dems, nothing is ever going to change. 

I dont see how the F$%^ you c an have universal health care without tort reform. 

Benny B

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Re: Attacking Health Care Costs from All Angles
« Reply #74 on: July 09, 2009, 12:18:07 PM »
Kristen and Adam live in Minneapolis, MN. Kristin has polycystic kidneys, a genetic disease she shares with her father. Because Kristen knew she was predisposed to the illness, she got tested early and took preventative measures like quitting caffeine and decreasing her salt intake to keep her kidneys healthy and mitigate the long term effects of her illness.

At the time of her diagnosis, Kristen had health insurance through her employer. But when she won a prestigious play writing fellowship (which necessitated a move to Minneapolis) it meant she had to give up her insurance. Kristen and Adam tried to buy insurance on the open market, but were rejected because of Kristen's pre-existing condition. "This is never anything Ive had treatment for, never anything I was recommended to have treatment for," she says. Eventually Kristen and Adam applied for insurance through Minnesotas high risk pool, but now they pay $215 each quarter for a plan with a $10,000 deductible. I dont have access to the health care system -- this is only to keep myself and my mother from going bankrupt should anything ever happen to me, Kristen says. Its not health insurance - its a hedge against catastrophe.

Organizing for America has collected hundreds of thousands of personal health care stories. The grassroots effort is building support in communities across the country for a plan that adheres to President Obama's three principles for reform: lowering costs, preserving patient choice and increasing access to quality care.

!