Comments (17) Jump to Comments Form

1. 

   cdward said, about 1 month ago

   Did you see recent polls that show American support for a public option is growing? I think it was Pew Research.

2. 

   BOB HASTY said, about 1 month ago

   Kent Conrad only wants the worst for us!!!
   He just announced that he would vote “NO” on any bill with a public option!!
   He refuses to poll his constituents, other than the bank and health care lobbies, who have supplied him with cash and free loans.

3. 

   charlie555 said, about 1 month ago

   Can anyone give a reason why we should not REQUIRE all government workers to use the public option should it be passed?

   Like we made rich families bus their kids to poor schools to force the parents to raise the standards of the sub-standard school?

4. 

   William Wilkerson said, about 1 month ago

   @Charlie555 - nope, no reason at all and anyone who proffers one is a RushMonkey or a toadie to the Un-Healthy Care industry who value profits over the well being of this great nation’s citizenry

   @BobHasty - EXCELLENT!… please continue to name names and call out those who serve only their corporate masters and deny true health to “We The People” who [for some reason] elected these stooges

   @cdWard - yep ! the numbers have always supported a public option when the actual people who count are surveyed

   @wtfallnamestaken - choking on that lobbyist money

5. 

   wolfhoundblues1 said, about 1 month ago

   $578 a year. Full coverage. Specialists included.

   $578 a year, not a month like I pay.

6. 

   charlie555 said, about 1 month ago

   A trusted source told me that doctors are paid less to take care of Medicaid patients than for Medicare patients. I can’t verify it online. Is this even possible?

7. 

   Magnaut said, about 1 month ago

   CHARLIE 555. YOU BET. PUT CONGRESS ON MEDICARE!! WE’RE ALL GONNA CHOKE ON THIS PLAN

8. 

   believecommonsense said, about 1 month ago

   charlie, Medicaid is jointly funded by the federal govt and states. Each state determines medicaid eligibility and compensation rates. In general, yes medicaid pays less. In general, physicians are satisfied with Medicare compensation, which is sometimes greater than some private insurance rates.

9. 

   mustbeunique2 said, about 1 month ago

   Paid for by your tax dollar.

10. 

    Magnaut said, about 1 month ago

    believecommonsense. you didn’t get your information on satisfaction from a Doctor…Specialty Doctors accept medicare so that they can preserve continuity from their referring physicians. The fees suck and Medicare makes you jump through hoops to get paid. their coding requirements are Draconian. medicare can audit a medical practice at will. If they (a beaurocrat) feels the Doctor may have been dishonest (Igive you Charlie Rangel and Timothy Geithner and the liar -in-chief for a definition). If one episode is found they ‘estimate’ the number from the practice stats and then multiply by $15,000.00. Its worse than the IRS. I don’t know a single physician who likes Medicare. Congress should be on it.

    GOVERNMENT ISN’T THE SOLUTION THEY ARE THE PROBLEM. O’BAMBI ISN’T THE SOLUTION HE IS THE PROBLEM.

11. 

    Atma said, about 1 month ago

    Name-calling is the resort of scoundrels.

12. 

    d_legendary1 said, about 1 month ago

    @ Magnut- Again with the Regan philosophy of “Government is bad, Greed is good”. When Bush was president everyone including the media said we should stand behind our president or we would be unpatriotic. When this guy got elected all of a sudden we’re supposed to give this guy the middle finger?

    I just watched sicko by Michael Moore and all I gotta say is: OH MY GOD! I knew the problem was bad but I didn’t think it was this bad. I tried to get a new plan but was rejected on account of a pre-existing condition: former smoker. I’m 28 by the way so I’m good for now. But what happens ten years from now when something bad happens to me?

13. 

    believecommonsense said, about 1 month ago

    magnaut, actually I did get my information directly from physicians, many of them. Medicare’s processing is generally faster and less complicated than many private insurers according to AMA studies. I’m sure there are isolated instances of problems.

    I would note, however, that the govt pays a third party administrator to ensure claims are valid and to identify fraudulent claims, something that should be done. Always interesting how righties rail against attempts to legitimately control costs and eliminate fraud and abuse.

    (ET: I just split an infinitive, but I prefer it to not splitting the infinitive in this case.)

    Fraudulent Medicare (and Medicaid) claims is what Columbia/HCA and its former CEO, Rick Scott, were found guilty of and assessed the largest Medicare fraud fine ever awarded, $3.2 billion. Scott is now the founder of “Conservatives for Patient Rights,” one of the sponsors of the anti-health care reform ads broadcast endlessly in recent months.

14. 

    tpenna said, about 1 month ago

    believecommonsense, there is nothing wrong grammatically with splitting infinitives. The so-called “rule” against it is the result of inappropriately borrowing a Latin axiom that an infinitive (which is just one word in Latin) cannot by nature be split.

    So feel free to boldly go! :-)

15. 

    EnglishTeacher said, about 1 month ago

    Pooh!

16. 

    charlie555 said, about 1 month ago

    bcs

    It just astounds me that the government has already taken the right to give some citizens less care than others. Those on Medicare are “more equal” than those on Medicaid?

    I expected this to happen wholesale under national health care, but (naively) assumed it wasn’t already blatantly going on.

17. 

    believecommonsense said, about 1 month ago

    charlie, as I said, Medicaid is mostly controlled by the states, with the federal government contributing financially. This should please conservatives who believe in states’ rights. Therefore, medicaid is unequal throughout the 50 states. In my state, CA, many counties have established clinics where medicaid recipients (and others) can be seen and treated more cost efficiently.

    About five years ago, my private family physician quit his medical practice and went to work exclusively for the county health clinic because he said he got tired of spending so much time with insurance cos. hassles and interference with his medical care of his patients. In this case, medicaid patients got a very good doctor.