WSJ - "Docs, Hospitals, Insurers Oppose Medicare at 55"

[TomCADem]

Why can't they just come up with the perfect health care system that pleases everyone? C'mon now! :crazy:

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/12/09/docs-hospitals-insurers-oppose-medicare-at-55/

The details of the Senate Dems’ health-care deal won’t be revealed for a few days, until after the CBO crunches the numbers. But the broad outlines are already clear — a move away from a new government-run health plan, coupled with a Medicare expansion that would allow people between 55 and 64 to buy into the program if they can’t find insurance elsewhere.

Medicare typically pays lower rates than private insurance, and big groups representing doctors, hospitals and health-insurance companies are lining up against the Medicare expansion:

Insurers: “This would add millions of new people to a program everyone agrees is going broke,” said a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, according to Kaiser Health News.

Hospitals: “Adding millions of people to at a time when they already severely underfund hospitals is unwise and should be opposed,” the American Hospital Association said in an alert sent to members and quoted by Politico.

Doctors: The AMA said it opposes the expansion because doctors face Medicare pay cuts, and because some patients already struggle to find a doctor who accepts Medicare, the WSJ reports.

[dysfunctional press]

1. what a LEADER would do, is scrap all the bullshit and start fresh with a single-payer system.

maybe someday we'll actually elect one.

[TomCADem]

3. You Would Need A Dictatorship, Not A Democratically Elected Leader

Because a "leader" would still need to deal with Republicans and Conservadems.

Plus, wouldn't hospitals, insurers, teabaggers, etc., oppose that, too?

[dysfunctional press]

6. i never realized that there were so many dictatorships in the world.

fucking canadians...brits...french...etc.

how do they all survive under such tyranny?

[TomCADem]

8. Britain Has A Parliament, No "LEADER" - Your Premise Fails

If I understand your post, we need one person alone to pass health care. A "Leader." Yet, Britain has a parliament. If you want to amend your statement to mean that we need to elect progressive members of Congress to pass health care reform, then I agree with you. But, if you think it is a simple matter of electing some President who will implement single payer all by himself, then that reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of our system of government.

The President cannot implement or pass health care reform unilaterally. Instead, you need Congress, which in the United States is divided into both the House and Senate, which each need to pass the same bill. Now, the President does not have the power to dictate to members of Congress how they should vote.

[dysfunctional press]

10. "If I understand your post..."

you don't.
try again.

[TomCADem]

19. So, You Understand That The President Can't Unilaterally Implement HRC?

I just want to make sure we aren't arguing past each other.

[truedelphi]

15. Wait till you get a chance to visit Scandanavian countries.

Now there is social democracy at its finest, though they are what we call "Communist" when similar policies operate under Fidel, in Cuba

[mucifer]

2. All I know is our non-profit hospice gets better pay from medicare than most

insurance companies. I don't know if it's an IL thing.

[ohheckyeah]

4. Yeah, I just bet the insurers are worried about

medicare going broke. LOL

[uberblonde]

5. Oh!

Then I guess the Republicans should get rid of Medicare if some people can't find doctors who take it. Let them defend that position.

[area51]

7. "...a program everyone agrees is going broke."

Really? How can it be that Medicare is going broke, and running two wars of choice is just fine and dandy and no problem at all? :think:

[dysfunctional press]

11. because of the way that each is funded.

ultimately- we've been living the high life on credit as a nation since raygun slashed the top marginal rate.

[aquart]

9. "If they can't find..." How do they prove that?

How much bloody useless, agonizing effort is going to be required?

I'm hating this fucking sellout crap.

[Goldstein1984]

12. Start over--single payer or nothing

I'm not going to support Democrats who compromise on health care reform. I will support Democrats, win or lose, who stick to their guns. If we get crap we'll be stuck with crap, and there's already way too much crap to deal with. We can always try again next year.

I think we can replace a few Conservadems by taking an all-or-nothing stand and letting them and their Republican regressive brethren take the blame.

[TomCADem]

13. Ironically, Republicans Also Say The Same Thing - Start Over

Yet, I don't see how "starting over" will make Joe Lieberman, Republicans and conservadems suddenly decide to vote for single payer, which is far more expansive than a mere expansion of Medicare. "Start over" is a talking point, not a strategy, that is endorsed by most Republicans like Senator Brownback:

http://www.stjoenews.net/news/2009/dec/10/brownback-slow-down-health-care/

"Nobody knows the cost of the overall program," he said Thursday morning in a conference call with reporters. "Medicare is not currently actuarially sound. ... I fail to see the expansion of Medicare as anything that's going to make that program any more fiscally solvent."

He said the program has generated strong opposition from the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association.

"What they get in Medicare is less than what they get from private insurers," Mr. Brownback said, "and they believe that this will take people from private insurance and put them in Medicare and hurt their reimbursement rates."

The senator said the plan will be bad for Medicare, bad for the economy and a huge expense for all taxpayers. He also lamented the lack of discussion with senators of his minority party.

"You shouldn't be crafting these sorts of bills that affect a sixth of the economy and everybody's health care on the fly in closed-door sessions," he said. "There is a reason why we have a committee process and a regular order of doing things."

Mr. Brownback doubts the plan can clear the Senate by Christmas. He said the chamber should scrap the plan, start from scratch while involving all senators and address individual components of health-care problems.

[Goldstein1984]

14. Just a thought

But the Republicans have already worked their evil. What's left of health care reform, if something amazing doesn't happen, isn't even worth having. It's probably worse than nothing.

Let them start over for their reasons. We'll start over for our reasons. Maybe next time there will be less selling out, and better communication. The Republicans did the most critical damage during the town hall meetings. The process never recovered.

Just a thought.

[Mithreal]

16. They don't speak for all hospitals and doctors, nurses, or even insurers.

Unless they mean medicare at ages newborn, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, and 54 as well and fix the funding and unfair state to state reimbursement rates.

[Vinca]

17. Here's a newsflash for insurers, hospitals and doctors:

more people in Medicare = more money in Medicare. And who the hell cares what insurers think anyway? All they can see is their gold lavatory faucets being replaced with chrome.

[samsingh]

18. how would any leader be able to work with the imbeciles in congress?

a minority in the senate is getting what a majority can't get. leiberman is acting like the treacherous brat and holding everything up.

disgusting.