If you would remember from the campaigns last year, the $750Billion is over 10 years.Morin’s got it all wrong.Obama was going to CUT Medicare by $750Billion.Romney was supposed to find a way to SAVE $750Billion of Medicare funding.Right? RIGHT!?!?
@ dltroutma – Lie Pro Suction. I LOVE IT!!! Can I use it too?@ mikefive – thank you, that is one of my constant rants. More inspectors/auditors/efficiency experts/enforcers with firm guidelines can save our nation billions, even trillions.If Congress and the Executive will come out of the “shade” and into the light, they might actually see some solutions. As I left my doctor’s office yesterday morning, I saw to pharmaceutical reps talking in the parking lot with their SUV rear doors open and boxes of samples, flyers, and devices. They both looked like spokes models in their finally tailored suits and their flawless features. Not a hair out of place, and definitely NO flab under which an elected official might take shelter.Waste, fraud, and lobbying adds way too much costs to or health system. If you pay a company 1 million + to persuade doctors and politicians, that’s overhead and the cost gets passed to someone…usually, the US, or simply ‘us’.Respectfully,C.
These sorts of strips never show the super high cost of drugs and durable medical devices as budget busters,but they are much more of a problem for the budget.
Durable medical devices should be totally overhauled. Lift chairs, walkers, etc are not so expensive that a patient could not afford to buy them, and a local charity could provide one to a truly indigent. I cost MC about $500 for prosthesis and bras after double mastectomy and they sit on the shelf not used. Why should any bra cost over $100 just because it is covered by MC? But I was a sheep, and went to be fitted, not knowing the exaggerated cost.
AND, to continue, electric “Jazzy” chairs should be owned by the government and rented on a monthly basis, possibly covered by MC, and returned to stock when the recipient passes away. Now the family takes the MC paid chair, and sells it after the user is gone and pockets the money.
True…I’ve found that the folks who lament the loudest about “What Dr.s charge!” are more often than not people who couldn’t find their way to a medical school, much less open the door and survive the education offered w/in.
As a physician I read with amazement the ignorance of some of the posters. Physicians are unable to cure most if not all of the conditions that they see. Think diabetes, hypertension, mental diseases, cancer etc. If you are a patient and have one of these don’t you wish a better therapy were available. Just where do you think these improvements come from? Latest numbers show it costs Big Pharma $1B to develop a major new medication. Forget government, they can fund basic science but have zero success in new medications except warfarin in the 1940s.
And just how is the physician supposed to learn of the existence of a new improved therapy? I know don’t bother you with the facts, your mind is made up.
Want to cut medical expenses? Very, very difficult. I have never once had a patient tell me, don’t give me the best available, it is too expensive for my insurance company. Don’t order all those tests, way to budget breaking.
It is estimated that up to 10% of all medical expenses are due to the practice of defensive medicine. But to change the tort system would require lawyers to give up hundreds of billions of dollars.
Gary, with due respect what you write is by someone not all all familiar with the facts of research. I worked for Big Pharma for 16 years. I developed new medications but would have zero interest or ability to do basic research. conversely, the brilliant basic scientists had no interest in developing new medications and would have been complete and total failures. Different mind sets.
Same as saying baseball players earn more than football players so fire all the baseball players from MLB and replace them with football players. Two totally different skills and interest levels between basic research and applied science.
Your explanation is somewhat paranoid. We had to be efficient, government is paid not to be efficient. There are no middlemen, just different skills.
Your second paragraph is challenging. Check the facts in Europe. They too are going bankrupt. We have far higher life expectancies after a cancer diagnosis or heart disease diagnosis. Our problem is life style, violence, diet and automobiles. Medicine is irrevocably changing here. Fewer primary care physicians and more nurse practitioners and physician aids. Cheaper.
To compare what you are asking for think the post office. A public service. Costs going up and efficiency going down. Private enterprise can always do it better. That is doesn’t just requires more competiton, not less.
I agree with you. The doctor who is treating my mother’s cancer has a separate secretary just for arguing with the insurance companies just so they will pay (even if partially) for such treatments..Now, she has to pay more so that all of the cost is covered by the insurance company.
@trustedmechanicactually the solution is to privatize medicare. That way the waste and fraud would become profits to oligarchs/plutocrats, which the GOP could then praise, and cut taxes on.
Gary: You may have some facts that I know nothing about but when I was at Big Pharma we would not accept one single penny from the government lest they ask to share in our new product discoveries. Do you have data showing government is subsidizing the pharmaceutical companies? To insure we are talking about the same factors, saying the companies may write off research expenses is not a subsidy.
VBTW, you do know that medicare payments are made not by the government but by Blue Cross, Humana Oxford etc? The identical companies that have private plans.
Look at all the scooters chairs they are paying for they just had report that one company collected 100 mill for chairs that people should not have got and look at the tv ads we can send you medicine in the mail at no cost to you or have you be denied SS benefits call our law firm. and to say that the repuse a can are the blame you forget that the dem o rats in congress are richer that them.
Well, you see, Democrats are a group with similar interests, but they still disagree on enough points that Obamacare, nee ‘RomneyCare’, was as much as they were able to agree on in the time that they had.On the other hand, Republicans appear to vote in lockstep, as if they were mindless puppets of a single Overlord. If 100% of the Republican Congressmen can’t agree to vote the same way, they won’t let it come to a vote.
Dtroutma over 11 years ago
Lie pro suction on all those in the industry screwing us over.
Nebulous Premium Member over 11 years ago
If you would remember from the campaigns last year, the $750Billion is over 10 years.Morin’s got it all wrong.Obama was going to CUT Medicare by $750Billion.Romney was supposed to find a way to SAVE $750Billion of Medicare funding.Right? RIGHT!?!?
chazandru over 11 years ago
@ dltroutma – Lie Pro Suction. I LOVE IT!!! Can I use it too?@ mikefive – thank you, that is one of my constant rants. More inspectors/auditors/efficiency experts/enforcers with firm guidelines can save our nation billions, even trillions.If Congress and the Executive will come out of the “shade” and into the light, they might actually see some solutions. As I left my doctor’s office yesterday morning, I saw to pharmaceutical reps talking in the parking lot with their SUV rear doors open and boxes of samples, flyers, and devices. They both looked like spokes models in their finally tailored suits and their flawless features. Not a hair out of place, and definitely NO flab under which an elected official might take shelter.Waste, fraud, and lobbying adds way too much costs to or health system. If you pay a company 1 million + to persuade doctors and politicians, that’s overhead and the cost gets passed to someone…usually, the US, or simply ‘us’.Respectfully,C.
SClark55 Premium Member over 11 years ago
Wow all those insightful buttons on his shirt. How about, Bad legislation to begin with?
wongmama over 11 years ago
These sorts of strips never show the super high cost of drugs and durable medical devices as budget busters,but they are much more of a problem for the budget.
Mythreesons over 11 years ago
Durable medical devices should be totally overhauled. Lift chairs, walkers, etc are not so expensive that a patient could not afford to buy them, and a local charity could provide one to a truly indigent. I cost MC about $500 for prosthesis and bras after double mastectomy and they sit on the shelf not used. Why should any bra cost over $100 just because it is covered by MC? But I was a sheep, and went to be fitted, not knowing the exaggerated cost.
DavidGBA over 11 years ago
One mans waste is another mans scooter? Then there is the fraud!
Mythreesons over 11 years ago
AND, to continue, electric “Jazzy” chairs should be owned by the government and rented on a monthly basis, possibly covered by MC, and returned to stock when the recipient passes away. Now the family takes the MC paid chair, and sells it after the user is gone and pockets the money.
zekedog55 over 11 years ago
True…I’ve found that the folks who lament the loudest about “What Dr.s charge!” are more often than not people who couldn’t find their way to a medical school, much less open the door and survive the education offered w/in.
DavidGBA over 11 years ago
Doesn’t chasing medicare waste and fraud require MORE government employees? :D
Libertarian1 over 11 years ago
As a physician I read with amazement the ignorance of some of the posters. Physicians are unable to cure most if not all of the conditions that they see. Think diabetes, hypertension, mental diseases, cancer etc. If you are a patient and have one of these don’t you wish a better therapy were available. Just where do you think these improvements come from? Latest numbers show it costs Big Pharma $1B to develop a major new medication. Forget government, they can fund basic science but have zero success in new medications except warfarin in the 1940s.
And just how is the physician supposed to learn of the existence of a new improved therapy? I know don’t bother you with the facts, your mind is made up.
Want to cut medical expenses? Very, very difficult. I have never once had a patient tell me, don’t give me the best available, it is too expensive for my insurance company. Don’t order all those tests, way to budget breaking.
It is estimated that up to 10% of all medical expenses are due to the practice of defensive medicine. But to change the tort system would require lawyers to give up hundreds of billions of dollars.
Libertarian1 over 11 years ago
Gary, with due respect what you write is by someone not all all familiar with the facts of research. I worked for Big Pharma for 16 years. I developed new medications but would have zero interest or ability to do basic research. conversely, the brilliant basic scientists had no interest in developing new medications and would have been complete and total failures. Different mind sets.
Same as saying baseball players earn more than football players so fire all the baseball players from MLB and replace them with football players. Two totally different skills and interest levels between basic research and applied science.
Your explanation is somewhat paranoid. We had to be efficient, government is paid not to be efficient. There are no middlemen, just different skills.
Your second paragraph is challenging. Check the facts in Europe. They too are going bankrupt. We have far higher life expectancies after a cancer diagnosis or heart disease diagnosis. Our problem is life style, violence, diet and automobiles. Medicine is irrevocably changing here. Fewer primary care physicians and more nurse practitioners and physician aids. Cheaper.
To compare what you are asking for think the post office. A public service. Costs going up and efficiency going down. Private enterprise can always do it better. That is doesn’t just requires more competiton, not less.
Ketira over 11 years ago
I agree with you. The doctor who is treating my mother’s cancer has a separate secretary just for arguing with the insurance companies just so they will pay (even if partially) for such treatments..Now, she has to pay more so that all of the cost is covered by the insurance company.
dannysixpack over 11 years ago
@trustedmechanicactually the solution is to privatize medicare. That way the waste and fraud would become profits to oligarchs/plutocrats, which the GOP could then praise, and cut taxes on.
Libertarian1 over 11 years ago
Gary: You may have some facts that I know nothing about but when I was at Big Pharma we would not accept one single penny from the government lest they ask to share in our new product discoveries. Do you have data showing government is subsidizing the pharmaceutical companies? To insure we are talking about the same factors, saying the companies may write off research expenses is not a subsidy.
VBTW, you do know that medicare payments are made not by the government but by Blue Cross, Humana Oxford etc? The identical companies that have private plans.
pam Miner over 11 years ago
wow, trusted mechanic, I bet the oligarchs/plutocrats never thought of that. (wink,wink)
rini1946 over 11 years ago
Look at all the scooters chairs they are paying for they just had report that one company collected 100 mill for chairs that people should not have got and look at the tv ads we can send you medicine in the mail at no cost to you or have you be denied SS benefits call our law firm. and to say that the repuse a can are the blame you forget that the dem o rats in congress are richer that them.
Nebulous Premium Member over 11 years ago
Well, you see, Democrats are a group with similar interests, but they still disagree on enough points that Obamacare, nee ‘RomneyCare’, was as much as they were able to agree on in the time that they had.On the other hand, Republicans appear to vote in lockstep, as if they were mindless puppets of a single Overlord. If 100% of the Republican Congressmen can’t agree to vote the same way, they won’t let it come to a vote.