The problem with health care in the United States is that it is too expensive. When I was a kid in the early ‘60s, on Long Island, a trip to Dr. Canaan was $3.00. If your family earned less money than some othe people, he charged you $2.00. Fifty cents extra was charged for a house call. Now I am not suggesting doctors accept these prices today, but why are their fees so high that medical insurance must cover them? In the old days,my father had blue cross/blue shield for hospitalization which of course would normally entail higher fees, but no one back then used insurance to pay for a doctor visit! About 15 years ago, I asked a doctor why fees were so high, and she said it was because a doctor must pay a fortune in liability insurance since people sue for everything. So, this whole mess can be blamed on excessive greed? To insure people that are already sick is not a good business move, and insurance companies are businesses first and foremost. Of course it seems unfeeling to deny the coverage, but if insurance companies have to carry individuals already ill, won’t the insurance companies eventually go out of business? There has to be other solutions. Lawyers represent clients pro bono, why don’t doctors? Certainly the health care debacle could have been solved if corporate and private interests put their heads together and now it is too late.
Are you kidding me? The answer to your question is...Torts. The dems put in no Tort reform and the doctors are left to drift in the wind.
I’m in the medical malpractice field. The fact that this bill did not address tort reform is a complete joke.
I saw doctors that I know personally campaign vigorously for George Bush because he PROMISED he’d do something about it. It takes a LOT to get a doctor to do this is in what precious spare time they have, but they did.
Then Bush makes one stinky attempt to reform the tort system, met a little push back, and that was it. Now if he had fought for it like he did amnesty, it would have happened.
There will be a SKILLED, AND QUALIFIED physician shortage soon. I believe 1/3 of our experienced specialized docs will retire early but, have no fear, the gov’t will bring them in from places like Shri Lanka and other great medical giants, to fill the void ... for a lot less. This is how BO is going to make insurance affordable.
WE MUST REPEAL THIS GENOCIDICAL AND INFANTICIDICAL BILL !!!