No new MediCare patients

[Betsy Ross]

That's what all the doctors in town are saying to me. I have secondary insurance but that doesn't seem to help. This could be the same problem for a public option if the doctors must take a low reimbursement rate for services. Only very new doctors or those hurting for patients (for possibly profession reasons) will take public patients.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

1. That would change. Doctors would have to take public option and

medicare patients if they wanted to stay in business. Most are business people as well as doctors.

You must live in a small town. Most doctors like having Medicare patients in their practice.

[imdjh]

2. Sounds like an organized thing. Call Medicare and see if they can't assign you.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. That's been a problem in Alaska for years.

It's a critical situation here.

[ellenfl]

4. maybe caribou barbie can help. eom

[HughMoran]

5. gun

[AllentownJake]

6. Forgive me I never saw Doctors and Hospitals as good guys in this debate

Just not as assholish as the Insurance companies.

[MH1]

8. Doctors need to make a living, AND

setting up a private practice is HUGELY expensive.

Why do they need a private practice? Why not just work for one of the big clinics?

Think about that for a minute. Who runs the big clinics and how are they run ...

For rural docs especially this is a big problem. And Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates suck. And there are other problems that can result in a doctor not getting paid for a case that they should be paid for.

I know docs who are very frustrated by this problem. They want to serve their patients - they want to be "good guys" - but the system doesn't make it easy. Instead of creating a new system, we should fix and expand the one we have. But that would make too much sense.

[AllentownJake]

10. I didn't say they were all bad

I just got a good laugh at my surgery in February at some of the charges the doctor sent my insurance.

It's all a giant fucking con game. I think most doctors would be happy in the British system, collecting a salary with incentives and never having to worry about this shit. The ones that want to be millionaires prevent that from happening. Like with anything else, they need to take on the assholes in their own profession.

[Sgent]

24. Even Big Clinics are no longer accepting Medicare

A division of Mayo Clinic in Phoenix just opted out of Medicare entirely and fired existing Medicare patients -- letting them stay on as cash pay if they wanted too.

[sharesunited]

7. Whatever happens with health care finance reform, fight and fight for proper funding and scheduling

of Medicare reimbursements.

For heaven's sake, that is the single payer system we already have. Fight for it.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. Why is it that British doctors in their socialized system seem to be content?

That is, if you believe that Michael Moore's interviews in Sicko are representative of their situation. They seem to be making less than half of what average U.S. doctors make but seem to lead a comfortable life. I'd be in favor of the government subsidizing medical school to help out U.S. doctors if they in turn promise to spend a certain number of years in the inner city or in rural areas.

[AllentownJake]

11. Because they get to be doctors

and not small business owners.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. Yes, I think there's a lot to that

I had to visit an emergency room several years ago. I was billed $10,000 for a 4 hour stay and for something that was cured with antibiotics (they insisted on giving me an MRI and other unnecessary tests). While negotiating my bill, I noticed that the hospital billing office took up an entire wing, was enormous, and had dozens of staff and row after row of billing files. The myriad of forms from different insurance companies and the adversarial process hospitals and doctors have to undergo to get paid by insurance companies must involve a major expense. If you eliminated the business management side of healing, I think many doctors would be happier although they may not realize it.

[AllentownJake]

15. Most Western European countries are happier than Americans

The problem is Americans are to dumb to realize that on almost every issue.

When people stop believing in the prosperity gospel of Jesus mixed with capitalism (I have no problem with real Christianity I have a big problem with the US adapted version of it).

[Sgent]

25. The average GP gets paid a lot more

than the average FM doctor in the US (when you look at hours worked).

[Lyric]

28. Because the only people who become doctors over there are people

who want to HELP people. Not people who went to medical school in order to become rich.

We have quite a few lackadaisical physicians here in America that would never have gone to med school if they didn't think it was going to make them rich. Those doctors are in it for the $$$$$. That's why when patients over here find a "good" doctor--the kind we instinctively trust and open up to because we know that he/she genuinely CARES--they will do damned near anything to keep him/her.

[Barack_America]

13. Then they can become boutique doctors or go out of business.

It's really that simple.

[FLDCVADem]

14. Doubtful

There will still be plenty of people with private insurance through employers.

[kestrel91316]

16. For a little while, perhaps. But eventually they will just tell their

employees to go buy under the public option because medical coverage is more than they want to pay in the way of benefits.

Of course, the CEO's and top management will ALWAYS have cadillac policies under their contracts.

[FLDCVADem]

18. Again, I doubt it

IMO, health insurance will always be an excellent way to recruit and keep good employees.

[Barack_America]

27. Even in Canada it still is.

Canada's health program, which began as a public option (as I noted in the other post) covers basic health care for Canadians. Many Canadians have secondary private insurance, supplied by their employers, to help cover things such as prescription drugs. But the national, or provincial system, really, is so strong that there are few doctors who can afford to deny it and make their livings on the "other" stuff not covered by it.

[Barack_America]

26. Canada's national health program began as a public option.

So we do have one example of events unfolding as I described.

[Jcgrey]

17. SSDI

This is off topic and I do apologize. However, I have a general question regarding SSDI and am unable to start a new thread on the subject. I was informed this morning that I have been approved for SSDI benefits. My question is regarding the five month wait period before benefits begin. Will i have to prove all over again at the end of the initial waiting period that I am disabled? Or, will my benefits automatic ly begin once the waiting period has elapsed? I have searched and searched and found no answer to this question. I am new to this whole process and am still very confused.

Thanks.

[Lars39]

20. I found this:

Q. When do disability benefits start?

A. Disability benefits for workers and widows usually cannot begin for 5 months after the established onset of the disability. Therefore, Social Security disability benefits will be paid for the sixth full month after the date the disability began. The 5-month waiting period does not apply to individuals filing as children of workers. Under SSI, disability payments may begin as early as the first full month after the individual applied or became eligible for SSI.

[Jcgrey]

19. kick n/t

[liberalhistorian]

21. Well, then, I hope they're prepared for a substantial reduction

in their income, since most older people on Medicare that I know can't afford health care without it. Period. Talk about cutting off their nose to spite their face.

[RB TexLa]

22. A public option could be used to drive down the costs, once we have doctors taking 70 to 80% less

the private insurers will use that to cut their payments to them. Once everyone has the cuts in place there will be nothing they can do.

We should have been doing this with medicare all along.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

23. That's why they won't take more medicare patients.