Posted on 10/24/2009 8:18:18 AM PDT by Son House
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., center, flanked Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left, and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., discuss "the urgent need for health insurance reform". GRAND RAPIDS — Senior citizens will find it harder to find a doctor who accepts Medicare if Congress does not stop a 21.5 percent cut in payment rates, say physicians and hospitals.
“We might as well start building bigger emergency rooms, because that’s where people will be if they don’t have access to a regular physician,” said Micki Benz, vice president of development for Saint Mary’s Health Care. “In the end, people’s care will suffer, and we will all end up paying more.”
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, failed to get the needed votes Wednesday for legislation she sponsored that would prevent the rate reduction and eliminate the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula.
Lawmakers agree the formula, devised to keep Medicare spending in check, is flawed. But those who opposed Stabenow’s bill say they could not support the almost $250 billion price tag it carries over 10 years. The slash in physician payments is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The annual ritual has been a last-minute scramble to prevent deep cuts, usually settling for a one-year fix instead of reform.
Annual uncertainty
Last year, lawmakers kept a 10.6 percent pay cut from being imposed. But physicians say they need a permanent solution, not the annual uncertainty.
“With a 21 percent cut, you either have to see 21 percent more people to cover the difference or you can’t accept any or as many Medicare patients,” said Dr. Michael Berneking, with Concentra Medical Center. “If you continue to cut, something has to give.”
The impact of a cut will vary depending on how many Medicare patients, most of whom are elderly, a physician serves.
A deteriorating system
Dr. David Blair, president of Advantage Health Physician Network, said Medicare is already a below-average payer to primary care.
He said the planned federal rate cut — along with a 3 percent tax on Medicaid that Michigan lawmakers are considering — will only accelerate the deterioration of primary care practices.
“Fundamental reform is necessary,” Blair said.
“It is estimated 70 percent of U.S. health care spending is around failed chronic disease management.”
Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said people should be concerned about limiting health care access to Medicare beneficiaries. She said it was shortsighted of lawmakers to oppose Stabenow’s bill.
“People without a regular physician die earlier,” Heim said. “We have to move away from a volume-based health-care system to one that’s outcomes and quality based.”
The liberals actually believe that the way you reduce costs is to simply pay less without taking into consideration the doctors’ or hospitals’ expenses.
"We might as well start building bigger emergency rooms, because that's where people will be if they don't have access to a regular physician," said Micki Benz, vice president of development for Saint Mary's Health Care... Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, failed to get the needed votes Wednesday for legislation she sponsored that would prevent the rate reduction and eliminate the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula.
“People without a regular physician die earlier,” Heim said.
This last line sounds like their goal. Get everyone to not have a doctor, die early, less medicare spending, and social security stops. Great plan! /s
This is not good news for western Pennsylvania with our high number of Medicare recipients and ER’s closing up in Aliquippa and the South Side within the past year and Braddock’s closing up this winter.
That about says it all!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Our doctor told my husband that nObama’s health care will be “good for us and good for him”. I was shocked and I am looking for a new doctor. One of his associates used the phrase “the last 8 years”. that told me all I needed to know about her.
They loved dabbling in radical politics and spouting slogans like “the rights of man”, and “Liberty”.
A few years later they either made a one way trip to the guillotine or were in exile.
These Drs represent the same imbecilic mindset those French Aristocrats had.
By 2014, five years from now, 45% of all Medicare expenditures will come from the General Fund. The HI Trust Fund (Medicare Part A) is already cashing in its T-bills to make up the shortfall in expenses versus revenue and by law, 75% of all Medicare Parts B and D expenditures must come from the General Fund. By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older or twice the number today. Medicare is unsustainable.
THESE TURDS WILL SAY ANYTHING!
Lori Heim is a hospitalist on staff at the small community hospital in Laurinburg, NC, where I practice. She has a “Veterans for Obama” sticker on her car, and gave a speech at a recent staff meeting touting Obamacare. The sad thing is that some of the other family practice doctors agree with her, because, apparently, they are being promised that the difference in compensation between primary physicians and specialists will be rectified. Wait until they realize that that goal will be accomplished through raping the specialists rather than increasing the pay to primary care docs.
Then the lawyers destroyed the OB part of their practices.
Regional and small rural hospitals were shut down in favor of concentrating on mega-hospitals, which were arguably of higher quality. This reduced the status of the community physician severely.
The rise of "hospitalists" relieved family phys of their hospital duties. Patients needing admission are now told to "go to the emergency room" to be worked up, and turned over to a strange doctor that works only in and for the hospital.
Trying to have a varied family practice, in general, opens the gen practioner to more liability. They become de facto specialists with no status..the doc who does the nursing homes, the pediatrician of second resort.
The final nail on the coffin is the rise of the professional Physician's Assistant. While a green PA is not much good, one with long-term experience is every bit as good as a family physician. So the FP gets knocked in the head again...
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
In addition, there has been an ever intensified, draconian federal criminal enforcement apparatus seeking to charge, try and convict medical providers at the slightest hint of Medicare billing "fraud," which may involve even unintentional billing errors or errors made by a secretary in the office.
The Medicare program seemed to treat "providers" reasonably well at its outset, but, like any government Ponzi scheme, when the well runs dry, the last ones in are hurt. This year, the outrageous government budget deficits caused in large part by "stimulus" and bailouts, can be used as a convenient excuse to deny Medicare payments even more.
We are already seeing a trend in physicians and other health professionals dropping out of the Medicare program or retiring altogether. Expect this to accelerate sharply with the current doings in Washington. The end result is that folks on Medicare will continue to suffer a significant decrease in physician choices and quality of care.
Most of the good doctors I’ve called, won’t touch Medicare recipients. After this, we’ll only get voodoo doctors from some hell hole other than America.
Great. Now I have to shop around for a new doctor.
Mrs. Prince of Space
Be sure to tell the witch doctor why you’re leaving. Wish her good luck when she makes $5 an hour in the future. Ask if her Fuhrer will be supplying her welfare.
The funny thing is she took herself out of the insurance network....I don't know what the correct terminology is but what it means is I have to pay more to see her because BCBS only pays 60% of the visit. She's also exploring the whole concierge doctor idea where you pay a lump sum (like $1700/year) and can see her as much as you want.
I knew she wasn't happy with the managed care system, which is why she left Mayo, but I don't know why she thinks the government plan is the answer.
If you get the illegals out of the American health care system hospitals and doctors would save enough money to be able to take care of the seniors.
What’s a hospitalists?
For a level 2 office visit (like for the flu etc.) I charge 45.00. I now get 38.25 from Medicare. If the cut went through I would get 30.00. People think physicians get paid alot. Less than a tank of gas.
Yep, I was just saying a 2 income household of $30/hr was a difficult budget for many, and we know inflation is coming as fuel prices rise
I believe they are called internists. They only work in hospitals and do the rounds.
Hey and you will be proud to know that in Michigan our Governor wants to tax all Dr’s 3% of GROSS so that she can get a 3 for one match to help the Dr’s cover medicade. Well the first bitch does not realize that it is our money to begin with and most Dr’s can not afford 3% of gross. My son is an E.R. Doc and will not be taxed but you want to bet if it goes through he will get a reduction in salary. 30 years old when you get through with school internship and residency. 200 K in debt. That is with daddy paying for the undergrad. And the government wants to Screw with you. Oh did I mention that you save lives EVERY DAMN DAY? Or at least make a difference in someone’s life.
Few private family docs make rounds on their own patients anymore. Many of them operate clinics but do not have hospital privileges.
Thank Newt for this in the mid-nineties. While the docs were begging for tort reform, he found better politics into trying to paint them as criminals.
Suggest that she work for the VA and get a taste for what is to come.
Never knew any like that or been any hospitals that did that.
When in the hospital I was never seen by any doctor but my own.
Have had 8 doctors for friends, neighbors, and family over the years and none of them have ever spoken of such a thing.
Just a matter of time.
i can’t imagine decreasing payments to doctors who see medicaire patients. We’re talking for an OB/Gyne follow up, of under $30 dollars, plus all the paper work. No one will see medicaire patients.
(CNSNews.com) – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that individual health insurance mandates included in every health reform bill, which require Americans to have insurance, were “like paying taxes.” Hoyer added that Congress has “broad authority” to force Americans to purchase other things as well, so long as it was trying to promote “the general welfare.”
The CBO, however, has stated that a mandate forcing Americans to buy health insurance would be an “unprecedented form of federal action,” and that the “government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”
At his weekly press briefing, Hoyer was asked where in the Constitution was Congress granted the power to mandate that a person must by a health insurance policy. Hoyer said that, in providing for the general welfare, Congress had “broad authority.” Read more at cnsnews.com ...
MEMO TO STENY The US Constitution was written to restrain the govt.....not empower it to run rampant over the lives of the citizens.
NOTE TO CONSTITUTIONAL "EXPERT" HOYER The 4th Amendment prohibits seizure without warrants: Socialized health care is impossible without seizing private medical records.
LISTEN UP STUPID, ER, I MEAN, STENY POLLING DATA CONFIRMS Pols who support imposing a fee on Americans who don’t sign up for ObamaCare are performing the political equivalent of swallowing a time-release poison capsule.........How ’bout that America? ObamaCare Death Panels working just the opposite way Obama intended.......ridding the country of pols instead of grannies.
ANOTHER GEM FOR THE MARXISTS IN THE WH: "Medicine is the keystone of the arch of the socialist state,” wrote Vladimir Lenin. Once govt gets control of medical care, all the defining, controlling features of socialist govt can be introduced by stealth, one by one.
Propenents of compulsory, government-designed health insurance can't seem to understand why others disagree. Perhaps the public is realizing that these proposals are fundamentally about redistributing health?
Health-care "reform," that is, aims to shift costs and benefits of health insurance from some groups to others. And the losers are turning out to be less docile than politicians had hoped.
All the leading proposals involve massive redistribution from people with healthy lifestyles to those who take more risks. As the CBO explained, "Premiums in the new insurance exchanges would tend to be higher than the average premiums in the current-law individual market.....b/c the new policies would have to cover pre-existing conditions and could not deny coverage to people with high expected costs for health care (Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com
And right to the heart of the matter out of BamaKENNEDY’s own mouth OLD American grandmas to get ‘pills instead of procedures’ to save money.
I think I am getting the Mao admiration now.
Socialist/communist/marxist sure do leave a warm I love you fuzzy feeling.
Redistribution of Health, huh.
Our wealth wasn't enough, eh?
Just in case anyone missed THIS the first go around, here's [a]nother chance.
I mean, really. It's not as if there aren't people sincerely trying to sound the clarion call before it's simply too late.
The 'promote general welfare' clause in Article 1, Section 8, does not mean Congress has the power to make Americans do anything.
He'd have a better argument (/s) if he referred to the Commerce Clause - their favorite fall-back clause. But that 'dog don't hunt' either. Additionally, the last time I looked, the word 'promote' does not mean: compel, force, mandate, or even provide.
Plus like you say, the Constitution is a document that limits the power of the Federal Government. It's not an open ended, 'do anything we want' document for the Legislative branch. If it was we wouldn't need a Supreme Court that rules on the Constitutionality of some of the STOO-PID™ laws that they have passed. And which, have been struck down(1).
(1) Steny Hoyer, please pick up the White Courtesy Phone. It's senator Diane Feinstein.
Death panels???
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/weekinreview/25fink.html?hpw
Worst Case: Choosing Who Survives in a Flu Epidemic
“The CBO, however, has stated that a mandate forcing Americans to buy health insurance would be an “unprecedented form of federal action,” and that the “government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.” “
And......
“ANOTHER GEM FOR THE MARXISTS IN THE WH: “Medicine is the keystone of the arch of the socialist state,” wrote Vladimir Lenin. Once govt gets control of medical care, all the defining, controlling features of socialist govt can be introduced by stealth, one by one. “
There you are! Sheeple, meet the new boss! NOT the same as the old boss........
See Steny Hoyer speak————think “oral bowel cleanser.”
We have read, heard or personally know about MDs, who will retire from medicine if 0b0z0 care becomes a nightmare reality.
In the past couple of weeks my wife, younger relatives and friends have been hearing about liberal/boomer MDs saying they are thinking about retiring to spend more time with their families. Typical liberals, they don’t have the honesty and integrity to speak out against a program will destroy our health care system and their lifelong professions.
Until recently, our area had only 1 Concierge MD. I think that we now have 6, and more younger MDS are heading that way. As a patient, you pay $2500 or more per year, up front to be a patient for with these doctors. Then, you are liable for any other costs and must bill Medicare or your insurance company. If they don’t pay, you/the patien eat the costs.
Quietly, insurance companies and individuals are using medical/dental care in other countries:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-08-22-medical-tourism_N.htm
I can remember this happening with heavy duty dental work post WWII and Korean War. With the depression, WWII, and lack of good dental hygiene knowledge, a lot of adult Americans needed expensive dental work or basically all of their teeth pulled. Many American Dentists took advantage of this bubble and increased their prices to whatever they could charge.
People in the SW rebelled and started going to Mexico for extensive dental work or to have their teeth removed and fitted with dentures. My Mother didn’t need the work, but she helped my Dad and Grandparents to drive to Mexico for the removal of all of their teeth and their new dentures. She drove them back. The work for all three cost less than it would have for one person. The dentists were Americans, who took advantage of this new goldmine for them.
They never had a problem with the work. Another uncle who was more wealthy stayed and endured expensive procedures for about 2 years and had a couple of infections. Finally he and his wife, my aunt went to Mexico and had no problems.
Yeah ;-)
A lot of people in Arizona go to Mexico for expensive dental work.
“A lot of people in Arizona go to Mexico for expensive dental work.”
I know that they still do in Texas and Oklahoma.
“The CBO .. has stated that a mandate forcing Americans to buy health insurance would be an “unprecedented form of federal action,” ... the “government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”That CBO quote is the understatement of our Republic. But they forgot one word, 'Unconstitutional'. If congress can mandate citizens have health insurance coverage to/for the 'general welfare' of the USA -- their current *argument* being pushed by Steny Hoyer -- then they can mandate things like...
Everyone must own a brown Ford FocusThe Everyone Must argument of the Dems and ijit Steny Hoyer falls flat on its face when carried to its 'logical' conclusion of what Congress can Mandate for the "General Welfare" of the USA. So I hope this bill, in any version, is passed and signed into law by Barry asap. As the sooner it becomes 'law', the sooner John Q Citizen can file suit in Federal Court.
Everyone must eat Wheaties for breakfast
Everyone must go to bed by 10:30 pm
Everyone must watch Jay Leno
Everyone must wear purple on Tuesdays
Everyone must wear a Suit on Wednesdays Everyone must have blond hair
Everyone must take public transportation on Fridays
Everyone must have a white colored refrigerator
Everyone must live in a gubmint owned apartment building
or....
Everyone must have NO MORE than two children.
FYI: 'General Welfare' is mentioned in Article 1, Section8 of the Constitution. It reads:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
There's been a few suits that reached SCOTUS on the "General Welfare" clause. In all cases so far its been loosely defined, BUT has always been tied to Congress' power to 'Lay and Collect Taxes' for things like building Post Roads and infrastructure, which provides for the 'General Welfare' of The Nation by their existence. 'General Welfare' has NEVER been tied to individuals or services. And NEVER for mandates.
Article 1, Section 8 Case Law Notations (scroll down)
I'm not a lawyer, but i've played one in court.
Thanks, Liz.
Ping to article and #36.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that individual health insurance mandates included in every health reform bill, which require Americans to have insurance, were “like paying taxes.” Hoyer added that Congress has “broad authority” to force Americans to purchase other things as well, so long as it was trying to promote “the general welfare.”
The CBO, however, has stated that a mandate forcing Americans to buy health insurance would be an “unprecedented form of federal action,” and that the “government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”
Where's the outrage?
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