Mark & Juanita wrote in
m:

Han wrote:

Mark & Juanita wrote in
m:

... snip

I don't think you will ever get it, Mark & Juanita. You are now
paying for their healthcare at emergency room rates. Get them a
living wage job, and have them pay for their own health care.

Your idea that this bill is forcing people to do anything is absurd.
They'll get the choice of insurance and even no insurance. But since
someone needs to pay for emergency care, even if they don't, fine
them if they don't get some coverage. That is choice. And yes, I do
believe that people should pay taxes, and this is indeed another tax
of sorts. I would like individual responsibility, but "they" should
not have to pay triply inflated proces just because they don't work
for Harvard University or GM.


I don't think you are ever going to get this until it smacks you
between
the eyes in the future Han. If the only thing this bill did was
provide means to prevent having indigent care performed through
emergency rooms, the bill wouldn't need over 3000 pages (and that's
not all of the bill, much of that 3000 pages is references to other
federal laws that are amended, modified, or superseded by this
abomination. There are elements of this bill that set up "health care
effectiveness panels" -- in real people terms, these are panels that
are going to decide, by bureaucratic fiat what constitutes
cost-effective treatment and who gets that treatment. It contains
language that dictates many elements of our lives having nothing
directly to do with healthcare. As the costs mount (as they are going
to do, it is ludicrous to think that a system for which taxes start
now and benefits start 4 years later is going to result in next cost
reductions after that first 10 years), those panels are also going
decide how to ration that care and who the privileged classes will be
that get the best care as well as dictating lifestyles based upon
whatever the current health fad is to "keep people healthy for the
good of the system". Given the current rhetoric, it's those nearing
retirement age who are going to be considered expendable when the cost
crunches come.

Right now care is being rationed in many ways that may not seem obvious
to you. One of the great things of current medical practice is that
rather objective studies are conducted that show, for instance, that a
water pill (hydrochlorothiazide) is just as good if not better than
expensive angiotensin receptor blockers (e.g. losartan, Cozaar) to
control blood pressure. Hctz costs me $3.18 for 90 days, Cozaar $60.
Unfortunately I seem to have to take both. Whether your doctor
prescribes one or the other or both is between you and him. But that is
prescribing practice.

So "effectiveness studies" should give you better care (less side
effects) and less costs. Your irrational fear of someone deciding for
you what kind of care you are going to get has warped your mind. Do your
research of what you think you need and have a good talk with someone you
trust, then with your doctor. And, please, do write down your living
will, advance directives or whatever you want to call them.

As I understand it, these bills/laws will tear down the privileged care
walls you are correctly afraid of. Right now, if you don't have money
and insurance (BOTH!!!) you are in danger of getting inferior medical
care. If your doctor and hospital don't have to figure out anymore how
to get the most money out of your illnesses, because the reimbursements
are much easier set, then you will get better care. Note: I am getting
weekly if not more frequently emails about how this or that insurance
company has changed the rules for this or that medication or procedure
(courtesy of the oncology division). More uniformity will be better for
most.

Some people might indeed fall through some crack. That is because much
as it is thought, medicine is NOT an exact science, and mistakes are
still being made. However, with the advent of better diagnostics and
electronic administration, that will improve more and more.

You are right, that these bills are overly complicated. Thank the
lawyers. They are the ones who made the HIPAA act into what it became.
Not the portability of health information that was the original intent,
but a multipage collection of gobbledygook that absolves anyone other
than yourself from making errors.


--
Best regards
Han
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