CHC's are going to triple could they be answer to cost controls or even better than Public Option?

[uponit7771]

CHC = Community Health Clinic, as close to single payer as we've got now...

CHC's are as close to single payer as we've come and according to some details Sanders slipped in at the last hour they're going to more than triple over the next 5 years.

The current national CHC system has 4,000 sites for the whole country. This upgrade makes for a total of 14,000 national sites.

Here's some things I like...
- A minimum of 35 clinics for every Congressional District except where there really is no need. One site for every 25,000 Americans overall -- concentrated to low-service areas.
- 80% of CHC operating funds come from government transfer payments, which is close enough in practice.
- No income restrictions
- Amount of you pay to the doctor is dependent on income
- Dental care
- VHA drug prices

Way more detail here - http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/22/818060/-This-HCR-Bill:-45,000,000-Get-Single-Payer-Vermont-Health-Care

Details from Sanders - http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=30b2a415-4ade-4367-af7d-4c3306e31b58

Find one in your area - http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=30b2a415-4ade-4367-af7d-4c3306e31b58

So from what I've read there are main Centers then satellite centers around cities and rural areas, they'll go from serving 20 million now to 45 million in five years

This is in the final senate bill...

Your take?

TIA

Edit: I checked out one of my local CHC's and it doesn't look too shabby...not a run down underfunded joint. I'm going to visit it for some dental care. I've got a so called "great" insurance plan that keeps denying dental work every time a claim is turned in so I might as well pay out of pocket for it...I'll report back.

[uponit7771]

1. I'm gonna bump this, it looks like a fake with the public option then slip in CHC expansion...

...in the ninth our while KKKons where gone.

I'm going to visit my local CHC....see what this is about

[ClarkUSA]

2. That's a plausible equivalency. I was just saying to someone I know today...

... that he and his wife will be able to get free dental care because of HCR's support and expansion of CHC's.

Thanks for the links and your sane advocacy of HCR's benefits over the past week.

:thumbsup:

[uponit7771]

3. I'm going to visist a CHC for dental care myself, the last 2 times I went for dental care...

...the insurance company refused to pay...might as well see what the out of pocket cost are anyways.

[ClarkUSA]

4. Sounds good. Good luck.

My friend can't afford his COBRA anymore, so HCR came at a perfect time for him and his family.

[county worker]

5. I work for a CHC. A county health clinic, for mental health and other medical health cases.

We can't cover our costs now. We have so many indigent patients that our 16 bed psychiatric hospital loses 2 to 3 million a year.

The rest of the clinic loses money also.

What the patients can't pay comes from sales tax and vehicle license fees and federal and state grants.

Now add to the number of clinics losing money and where will the difference come from?

I think that a lot of DUers are like congress. How do you solve a problem? Pass a law saying the problem doesn't exist!

[uponit7771]

6. Hopefully the 14 billion will help your CHC and build thousands of others...

[county worker]

7. What 14 billion? Where is that money? Where will it come from?

Maybe we all kick in a little every week? How do you pay down a debt, fight wars and come up with 14 billion more? Did you hear anyone telling you real facts about were that money is coming from?

Savings right? You tell yourself evey day, I think I should save a little more money. Do you? No because the cost of living goes up faster then your income.

The only way this will happen is if we middle class are taxed more and more to pay for what we want!

You know that they are going to tax health benefits. That will cause employers to have less and less health care benefits. More people will need the clinics yet the goose that's laying the eggs is losing the ability to lay eggs.

Does anyone ever think this shit through?

[uponit7771]

9. "Where is that money? Where will it come from?", borrow it and pay down the debt like we did in WW2

[dkf]

13. How in the world does the psychiatric hospital lose so much money?

Is it the capital costs, the meds, the doctors, what? I honestly don't get why everything is so expensive even if there are many indigent people.

[tblue]

8. Wouldn't that be sweet if it worked out that way?

Right under the teabaggers' noses!

[jeanpalmer]

10. Yes, this is the answer.

Go with a nationwide CHC system. Expand it to include more than primary care. Fund it properly, using the money they're planning to spend on the mandated insurance system. Should be more than enough. Ultimately, expand it to everyone using general taxes and let the goverment fund the whole thing. The end result would a low cost system that eliminates insurance and all the problems associated with insurance. Completely takes the profit out of health care. That's a big plus because even with single payer the providers are still required to game the system for profit.

Introduce it gradually. Get the teabaggers adjusted to it and using it -- once they use it, they'll never give it up. It's a backdoor way of getting a government run system without going through political turmoil of single payer or public option. Frame it as a way to provide healthcare to the unemployed.

If the mandate bill passes, use the interim between now and 2013/14 to build up the CHC system, and then when 2013 rolls around, abandon the mandated insurance system.

Obviously it would take a lot of work, but this is the path we should follow. Low cost healthcare for all.

[uponit7771]

11. Yeap, cept I don't think they're going to be gradual at all...from 4k to 14k in 5 yrs

...I have 2 in my area I'm going to visit one of them seeing my dental insurance isn't worth a damn

[uponit7771]

12. Bump, chc's are a reason to support this senate bill