House passes health care bill on 219-212 vote

[ZTA72]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Personally, I'm glad that nearly everyone will now (by 2014) be insured. We already pay for everyone anyway.

I agree with both statements. What is going to be interesting is how this effects the next generation of physicians. My daughters have to choose by May 15 which school they will attend. At least one of their peers, who has been accepted, has chosen not to attend med school because of this legislation. Short sighted on her part? We all need a crystal ball for that one.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Kevin I don't see how this is going to work for us without a public option. How about Stopping hospitals charging $40 for an aspirin or $300 for an xray of my wrist or me having to pay $30 out of pocket with my insurance picking up $70 for a three minute consultation with a Dr. That might lower costs.

You have to understand why hospitals charge $40 for that aspirin and $300 for the xray. It isn't just the pill or the film you are paying for. You are paying for the charge for the actual item, the pharmacist who dispenses the pill, the pharm tech who brings the pills to the floor and the nurse who dispenses the pill to you. For an xray, you get a technical and a professional fee so you get charged for the cost of the room and xray equipment, as well as the xray technologist who performs your procedure. Your professional fee is the actual cost of the radiologist reading your film. Your consulting physician fee of $70 may only cover a physician seeing you for 3 minutes, but they have to actually write a fairly long note that covers a strict number of points about your health and physical exam. To do this, the physician will have to review your entire chart which will take 15 minutes to an hour to perform. This will also include taking a medical risk that goes against a fairly high medical malpractice premium carried by this physician. Trust me, there isn't a physician out there that makes $70 for 3 minutes work.
Also, did you go to the ER? That is the most expensive place you can go for medical care, and where the majority of the uninsured people in this country go for their medical care. The majority don't pay for this care, but this loss is turned around in higher costs to people with insurance and to tax payers.

[ZTA72]

^^^from my thoughts to your keyboard!

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by ZTA72

I agree with both statements. What is going to be interesting is how this effects the next generation of physicians. My daughters have to choose by May 15 which school they will attend. At least one of their peers, who has been accepted, has chosen not to attend med school because of this legislation. Short sighted on her part? We all need a crystal ball for that one.

I think that was shortsighted and hasty on her part. She will probably regret that decision.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by ZTA72

I agree with both statements. What is going to be interesting is how this effects the next generation of physicians. My daughters have to choose by May 15 which school they will attend. At least one of their peers, who has been accepted, has chosen not to attend med school because of this legislation. Short sighted on her part? We all need a crystal ball for that one.

You know, I have heard so many older MDs say they wouldn't recommend anyone go into medicine....when I was going into medical school! It's one of those things. Older physicians see the glass as half empty. They used to be able to do anything the wanted to do without documenting anything. I think that medicine is a very rewarding field and the majority of us are and will remain well paid. In fact, if I was told today that I had to go back and start medical school again today, I'd do it all over again! No questions asked.

I think that people going into medicine need to go into it with their eyes open and need to go for the right reasons. It's no longer a field where you can print money. It should be a calling. I'm here to help people. I should be compensated for being highly educated, but their is no reason that I should have unlimited compesation and no reason I should cheat the system. When I hear people say they will leave medicine because of this new bill, I want to say, "Here's the door!"

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

You know, I have heard so many older MDs say they wouldn't recommend anyone go into medicine....when I was going into medical school! It's one of those things. Older physicians see the glass as half empty. They used to be able to do anything the wanted to do without documenting anything. I think that medicine is a very rewarding field and the majority of us are and will remain well paid. In fact, if I was told today that I had to go back and start medical school again today, I'd do it all over again! No questions asked.

I think that people going into medicine need to go into it with their eyes open and need to go for the right reasons. It's no longer a field where you can print money. It should be a calling. I'm here to help people. I should be compensated for being highly educated, but their is no reason that I should have unlimited compesation and no reason I should cheat the system. When I hear people say they will leave medicine because of this new bill, I want to say, "Here's the door!"

Great post.

The good thing is that I believe the majority of people in the field are there for the reasons that you are there. The people who are running away because of this bill won't be missed.

[PiKA2001]

Hospital for the x-Ray but the $105 consultation was at an urgent care. And I forgot to add that after making me pay a $30 copayment before seeing the Dr, then charging my insurance $70 they sent me a bill for $5.

I understand that healthcare is expensive due to equiptment and personnel costs but I fail to see how insurance reform is going to lower the total cost of healthcare. You'd think the best way to lower the total cost is to cap what the providers can charge you ( i.e. Dentist legally cannot charge more than $300 for a root canal, $70 for a cleaning).

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

This is the problem with me trying to understand what's going on. It seems that some (many on my FB) are only for this because Obama came up with it and some are against it because of Obama. People can't seem to think for themself. I was just looking for an unbiased explanation and no one can seem to give one.

Welp, human explanations are automatically biased because it will either be about how they feel about politics, the president, and/or healthcare. Or biased about how they feel about life, in general.

But, I'm more apathetic toward Obama so I'll have my own biased explanation if I find time to read a good summary of the bill somewhere. Maybe I'll use the cbsnews link.

[AOII Angel]

I just read this on CNN and really like their thoughts:

Here is the link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/2...ex.html?hpt=C1

Dr. Manoj Jain, a Memphis, Tennessee-based infectious disease physician, adjunct assistant professor at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and medical director at Tennessee's Quality Improvement Organizations:
Last week, I saw a 55-year-old truck driver who pleaded with me to discharge him from the hospital even though his face and scalp still bore clear signs of an active staph infection. For a decade he has had recurrent staph infections exacerbated by diabetes -- yet could not afford insulin or a doctor because he lacked medical insurance. Now he begs me to let him leave, so that he will not go bankrupt from his medical bills.
I turn to his wife who says, "I am lucky. I have metastatic breast cancer, and I am covered by Medicare."
One of every 10 patients I see do not have health insurance.
I see the uninsured patients, but then make up for my losses by increasing my charges to all my patients. The cycle continues: Insurers increase premiums, choking small businesses that then drop health coverage for their employees, leading more uninsured to come to my practice.
Not providing insurance is not free; the annual health care expenditure for an uninsured adult is $1,800, according to a Kaiser Foundation study in 2004.
And there is a downside to having nearly 50 million uninsured people in America. I look them in the eye, and I know this for a fact. They will die sooner. In my opinion, lack of health insurance is a chronic illness.
The burden of this disease is most apparent among people between the ages of 54 to 65. A 2004 Health Affairs study found that lack of insurance accounts for 13,000 lives lost per year, making lack of insurance the third leading cause of death for this group, after heart disease and cancer. If we do nothing to address this problem, by 2015 lack of insurance will account for 30,000 deaths annually in just this age group.
In all fairness the present health system provides some care for the uninsured. President Bush was technically accurate when he said in July 2007, "People have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room."
But the distinction between an acute illness -- the kind that sends you to the emergency room -- and chronic disease is artificial. For example, each year, diabetes, a chronic disease, causes 20,000 Americans to go blind, 45,000 Americans to have kidney failure and 45,000 Americans to lose a limb. Lack of health insurance is the same -- a chronic illness causing recurrent acute illnesses.
I want to lean over and shake my uninsured patients and scream, "Be a Rosa Parks. Demand health care as a right -- just as others before you have marched for civil rights and human rights."
The uninsured have become second-class citizens. Nearly 30 million of them, who are the working poor, are unable to afford health insurance, and there is no one to unite them and voice their concerns.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was not silent about people's right to health care. "Of all the forms of inequality," he said, "injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." He was speaking, I believe, of both acute care and chronic care.
Vance Harris, a primary care physician in Redding, California:
The votes have been counted but, in reality, there is no clear winner.
What is clear -- our health care system is terminally ill. Bold leadership is needed to redirect precious resources. Unfortunately bold leadership is just as scarce as precious resources.
There will be no new access to health care if we do not have physicians to provide it. We must reverse the trend that sees thousands of physicians leaving primary care. Bold leadership is needed to get the brightest minds back into one of the most challenging and demanding roles. We need motivated empowered physicians with a passion for health and the ability to care for a whole landscape of disease. We must treat decisively when possible, not just shuffle everyone down the road to a specialist.
Give us five more minutes with patients to deal with a second or even a third problem so they don't access the system twice. Give us five minutes of straight talk about the impact of lifestyle on their health. Without this, I default back to putting out fires and I write another prescription.
We need "Health" Reform not just Sickness Access Reform. We are not a healthy nation. Our indulgent lifestyle of overeating and under exercising is rapidly filling the beds needed for treating disease we can't prevent. This is exactly why we have a "Sickness Care" system. However, having the resources to treat sickness is dependent on true health care.
Our battle cry must be health, not health care reform. Seek out physicians who understand the value of health. Unfortunately, we do not have many of those doctors left. Who is going to take care of us when they are all gone?

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

This is the problem with me trying to understand what's going on. It seems that some (many on my FB) are only for this because Obama came up with it and some are against it because of Obama. People can't seem to think for themself. I was just looking for an unbiased explanation and no one can seem to give one.

I agree with you on this. The funniest thing is that this bill closely resembles what the GOP came up with to counter the plan that the Clintons tried to instititute in the 90s when health care reform came up last time. They thought it was a great idea back then, but it's a horrible idea now

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Hospital for the x-Ray but the $105 consultation was at an urgent care. And I forgot to add that after making me pay a $30 copayment before seeing the Dr, then charging my insurance $70 they sent me a bill for $5.

I understand that healthcare is expensive due to equiptment and personnel costs but I fail to see how insurance reform is going to lower the total cost of healthcare. You'd think the best way to lower the total cost is to cap what the providers can charge you ( i.e. Dentist legally cannot charge more than $300 for a root canal, $70 for a cleaning).

They charge you the $70 for a cleaning but then add on unnecessary xrays and whatever else so then you're walking out the door with $270 less in your pocket. I think more people would get their 6 month cleaning if dentists didn't keep adding on services to rack up the bill. The last time I got mine cleaned they took me over to do xrays and, admittingly, I thought it was an automatic thing because I don't get to the dentist enough. (I keep up with brushing, have never had a cavity, and go whenever I absolutely need to because of how expensive it is) I didn't realize that I could refuse the xray because of course my regular dentist didn't see me (who I've been seeing since I was a young child), but his younger partner did. Funny too because he never mentioned that my wisdom teeth needed to come out, yet our family friend who did an xray for free soon after said "you better get those out like next week". Makes it seem like that xray at the dentist was completely pointless.

Ok that was longer than I expected lol

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Hospital for the x-Ray but the $105 consultation was at an urgent care. And I forgot to add that after making me pay a $30 copayment before seeing the Dr, then charging my insurance $70 they sent me a bill for $5.

I understand that healthcare is expensive due to equiptment and personnel costs but I fail to see how insurance reform is going to lower the total cost of healthcare. You'd think the best way to lower the total cost is to cap what the providers can charge you ( i.e. Dentist legally cannot charge more than $300 for a root canal, $70 for a cleaning).

But think of how much you would have been charged if you had NO coverage.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Hospital for the x-Ray but the $105 consultation was at an urgent care. And I forgot to add that after making me pay a $30 copayment before seeing the Dr, then charging my insurance $70 they sent me a bill for $5.

I understand that healthcare is expensive due to equiptment and personnel costs but I fail to see how insurance reform is going to lower the total cost of healthcare. You'd think the best way to lower the total cost is to cap what the providers can charge you ( i.e. Dentist legally cannot charge more than $300 for a root canal, $70 for a cleaning).

That consultation fee is for the ability to go to an afterhours style urgent care facility and see a doctor. You pay more for that convenience. The doctor doesn't actually get that money. The physician is an employee of that center and gets paid somewhere between $50 and $75 and hour to staff the center depending on the contract. A business runs the center and will shut down, leaving you with no convenient place to see a doctor for your broken wrist, if they cut back on the fee allowable.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

That consultation fee is for the ability to go to an afterhours style urgent care facility and see a doctor. You pay more for that convenience. The doctor doesn't actually get that money. The physician is an employee of that center and gets paid somewhere between $50 and $75 and hour to staff the center depending on the contract. A business runs the center and will shut down, leaving you with no convenient place to see a doctor for your broken wrist, if they cut back on the fee allowable.

Also he went o an urgent care center and not the ER...so he probably spent less time there too.

[ZTA72]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

You know, I have heard so many older MDs say they wouldn't recommend anyone go into medicine"

They (my daughters) have heard it all from family and friends. We (parents) although very biased, haha, are trying to let the girls make their own life choices. I will admit that we nudged them a little in this direction. They been around medicine all their lives. It's not a choice to make without considering all the sacrifices. I don't think any 22 year old can know/predict what their future career will hold.