The physicians skeptical about President Obama’s health care reform include Obama’s physician for the 22 years until he became president. “I’m not sure he really understands what we face in primary care,” Chicago internist David Scheiner told Forbes. He also was critical of Obama’s choice of former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be his secretary of Health and Human Services, because she once lobbied for the state’s trial lawyers. “He doesn’t see all the pain, it’s so tragic out here,” Scheiner said. “Obama’s wonderful, but on this one I’m not sure if he’s getting the right input.” Scheiner’s preference isn’t for a free market solution or for leaving the status quo alone but for “Medicare for all,” he said.
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- JimJohnson on Let immigrants run
- writerdog on Open thread 11/23
- Blaidd_Drwg69 on Too many exemptions
- ANTI on Too many exemptions
- SolDevVB on Open thread 11/23
- TomPaine on Too many exemptions
- littlejohn on Let immigrants run
- writerdog on Minority status in Senate; majority approval at home
- Pleefer on Open thread 11/23
- Monkeyhawk on Let immigrants run
8 Comments
So Obama’s previous doctor favors “Medicare for all”?? Why would this be?
A senior citizen in a coffee group I occasionally visit has Medicare plus a Supplemental insurance
policy. He and his wife have been searching for new doctor(s).
He has found that many doctors now won’t take new patients with Medicare coverage. Their excuse is the government requires to much paperwork and red tape.
The basics are Medicare is for people 65 or older. A supplemental insurance policy from major health insurance companies such as Humana or Blue Cross/Blue Shield is also needed. Total cost for both to a senior citizen is some $200 to $300/month.
If doctors don’t accept Medicare, the Supplemental Insurance is also worthless.
Now why would this be a desired alternative to solve the current national health coverage problems for all uninsured families?
“JWink” –
Nothing matches the red tape and paperwork involved with dealing with dozens of for-profit insurance companies.
Under Medicare-for-All, doctors could hire one person to process claims under one system, instead of three, four, or five staffers as my physician currently employs. (As noted, Medicare subscribers pay for their coverage and supplemental. The CON-speak “free healthcare” and “socialized medicine” canards are rhetorical artifacts from from the 1940s. And just as dusty.
Further. Few doctors would have any patients if they rejected all patients.
And CONs tend to ignore for-profit insurance companies who won’t sell any kind of insurance to people with a myriad of pre-existing conditions.
I know a guy who was turned down by Blue Cross because, nearly 20 years ago, he was prescribed an anti-depressant during a pretty messy divorce. He took ‘em for about a week and has used them never again. Denied health coverage at any price.
Further, due to write-offs negotiated by for-profit insurers, all medical costs are artificially inflated to those with no insurance.
It’s perfectly within the current rules for hospitals to charge a patient $5 per aspirin. Plus, if you look at the bill of one who’s been hospitalized you’ll see they charge you $10 a day for that box of Kleenex on the bed stand; $10 a day each day even if no one opens the first box of Kleenex. Same for that ice water pitcher. The pillow. The extra blanket.
For-profit insurance companies force and hospitals take the write-off, but the un-insured patient is charged full price.
This is the polar opposite of that old CONservative platitude: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
America’s system of health care coverage is broken. Health insurance executives still get their Learjets, actuaries commute from the suburbs every day solely to deny coverage, and there are bake sales outside Walmart every weekend to “Help buy Kelsey a Liver Transplant.” (And about a month’s worth of $10-a-day Kleenex.)
Not fixing the current health coverage system would break us all.
“I know a guy who was turned down by Blue Cross because, nearly 20 years ago, he was prescribed an anti-depressant during a pretty messy divorce. He took ‘em for about a week and has used them never again. Denied health coverage at any price.”
————
Baloney.
Double baloney. What idiot would believe this garbage?
We have BC/BS for our employees. As long as they sign within the first 30 days for this coverage there is no way they can be banned.
MH why do you post stuff like this. If you can’t post the truth and have a substantive discussion why throw out krap that makes you look less than informed?
Oko–
MH is right. If you have any kind of “pre-existing condition,” you can’t get your own health insurance except for outrageous prices.
So, yes, if you work for a business, you can probably get health insurance even with a pre-existing condition, thanks to the pool.
But on your own, forget it.
“okobserver” pleas –
“MH why do you post stuff like this. If you can’t post the truth and have a substantive discussion why throw out krap that makes you look less than informed?”
I could ask my friend to let me scan and post his letter from BC/BS explaining exactly why they won’t insure him. But reality doesn’t seem to meld with CONs’ political obsessions against anything to the left of Rush Limbaugh.
You know something, perhaps, about group plans, “okobserver.” But it’s obvious you know nothing about individual coverage.
Or lack thereof.
What are the running odds that Obama’s doc suddenly has a change of heart sometime soon, after he gets an IRS audit notice, Rahmbo visits him during the upcoming break, his personal life gets “investigated” by loyalists & he’s called to “testify” about his new found “faith” in congressional hearings?