The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

[Priceless]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

I am very sure that the "most qualified person to give it" is not from whom a vast majority of people are receiving their medical care from right now. So I doubt that most people will notice any difference in the level of medical care they are receiving. I have no delusions that the doctor I go to is most qualified in anything. If most people think they are seeing the most qualified doctor then they are deluding themselves.

Except me. My surgeon really was the best.

[Rover]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

That's a pretty big stretch you and UNO are making.

Sure you helped pay for the war. And I helped pay for some roads I'll never drive on, or a whole host of other things.

But in each of those instances we are paying for something that is "purchased" for society as a whole. This is an individual insurance policy. It covers only me. And if I'm a single, 65 year old male, I probably don't need maternity coverage.

It would be like the government forces you to buy motorcycle coverage when you don't own a motorcycle. Seems kind of silly, but that's what happens when the government decides that one size fits all for something like insurance coverage.

This is a strange argument. Go to the car insurance company and tell them you refuse to pay for drivers worse than you. They will tell you to get lost. Again, the world doesn't revolve around you people. Yes, you will share the cost of maternity coverage just like others share the cost of your Depends if you are a 65 year old single male. That's what shared risk is all about.

[Priceless]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

But in each of those instances we are paying for something that is "purchased" for society as a whole. This is an individual insurance policy. It covers only me.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means"

Sure, the policy only covers you, but the insurance company covers a whole lot of people. Everyone pays for and receives coverage.

[MattS]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

Matt-true-but at least up to now you did get to be evaluated, diagnosed and treated by a Doctor-who went to medical school and did either an internship or a residency and had to take a board examination to qualify to treat you. That was my point. You are 100% correct-all doctors are not created equal-one graduated number 1 in his class and someone was at the bottom. But at least you got to admit that was more training and experience and quality control than what you are already getting now and far more than you will see in the future. People should research their caregiver-like they would research buying a car-but unfortunately they do not and accept whatever and whoever they are told to see and whoever the powers that be will pay for.

All true enough, except I am unconvinced that there is going to be the huge drop-off in the level of care due to the ACA. Time will tell, but I remain a skeptic. Of course all I want out of my primary care doctor is to prescribe my one maintenance drug, and have enough smarts to refer me to a specialist when necessary. Of course, I am a firm believer that health care starts with what we do to ourselves.

[Priceless]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

This is a strange argument. Go to the car insurance company and tell them you refuse to pay for drivers worse than you. They will tell you to get lost. Again, the world doesn't revolve around you people. Yes, you will share the cost of maternity coverage just like others share the cost of your Depends if you are a 65 year old single male. That's what shared risk is all about.

Maybe if they just charged more for Viagara and and Depends but left the line item for maternity coverage off his bill he'd feel better about it. The cost of the insurance wouldn't change, but his perception might.

[FreshFish]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

Nothing to see here, move along.....

WASHINGTON — A tech firm linked to a campaign-donor crony of President Obama not only got the job to help build the federal health-insurance Web site — but also is getting paid to fix it.

Anthony Welters, a top campaign bundler for Obama and frequent White House guest, is the executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group, which owns the software company now at the center of the ObamaCare Web-site fiasco.

[FreshFish]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

How can someone as intelligent as yourself not realize that living in a society means that you're always going to be paying for stuff that you don't want or use?

That makes no sense, unless you are talking about tax dollars. No one forces me against my will to buy stuff I don't want.....until PPACA, anyway.

[FreshFish]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

Is there such a thing as an individual policy?

Yes....or at least, there used to be, before PPACA.

[DrDemento]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

But can't we make those decisions after meeting the doctor? If the person you're seeing is no good, you don't just say "well this doctor sucks and keeps giving me prostate exams when I went in for a sinus problem, but I'm gonna stick with him". That doesn't make sense. What I will qualify this with is that I live next to a major city so perhaps my choices are plentiful, but geesh when I looked at the Doc Find for the insurance like 500 general practice doctors came up within 10 miles of where I live.

Rover-Just getting a list of doctors is like looking at a list of cars. You really need to do the work to find out who it is you are entrusting the most important thing in your life-YOU. i know lots of very fine physicians. I also know a fairly large number that i would not slice a cabbage for me much less decide about my life. I have friends who are doctors-who I would never go to myself and certainly not refer a patient to. In NJ we are able to go online and research a doctor-find out where and when he went to school, whether he passed or failed his board exams, whether he has a long list of malpractice claims against, lots of stuff. What it does not tell you is whether he is a nice friendly guy(which means little to me) or whether he is an arrogant SOB. For me, the most important information is simply does he know what he is doing? The rest-is is friendly, is he on time, is he caring-i can find out in a face to face in a few moments. I just think your life(and of course by that I mean your healthcare) is just too important to leave decisions to others to make. The trend that we are seeing unfortunately is that the decision as to who you get to see is being made by some non medical person(not even yourself) and is made solely based on what is the cheapest way to go as opposed to the most qualified or the best results.

[DrDemento]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

All true enough, except I am unconvinced that there is going to be the huge drop-off in the level of care due to the ACA. Time will tell, but I remain a skeptic. Of course all I want out of my primary care doctor is to prescribe my one maintenance drug, and have enough smarts to refer me to a specialist when necessary. Of course, I am a firm believer that health care starts with what we do to ourselves.

We are not really in disagreement here. But what you just said is extremely important-you want him to have enough smarts to refer you to someone who also has enough smarts to do what is best for you. How do you know when the triage officer(in this case your GP) indeed has enough smarts? Doctors, and certainly non doctors trying to do the referring would be best served if they admitted when they simply do not know something-but they rarely do that. They will give you a diagnosis and try some sort of treatment for something that they have no clue about. Their misdiagnosis, or mistreatment, or sometimes worse-their delay in sending you to someone who really does know-can be lethal.

[Old Pio]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

If we gave tax breaks for people who haven't been laid in 20 years, would that make you, Opie, Flaggy, etc happy?

What you seem to be too stupid to understand is that you WILL pay for stuff you won't use because we're all in this together. If you don't like it move to North Korea which is the true embodiment of a conservative society. I'm not in any danger of being hijacked by Somali pirates. However, I have no problem with using tax dollars to protect fellow citizens over there who might be in harm's way. Get over yourself already. The world doesn't revolve around you.

Another logical inversion. Amazing.

[Old Pio]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

I was wondering the other day. How many times in 2014 are we going to see a political ad for a republican candidate that include Obama's sound bite "you like your old policy, you get to keep it"?

I'd like just a buck for each time. Even worse, I read this morning that Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu said as recently as August: (paraphrasing) "If I had to vote for it again, I would." Boy, howdy, she's going to be in gumbo up to her lips.

[Old Pio]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

I like it Opie! In fact, lets team up! I'm going to hand out the "Unskewed Polls" Award every week in conjunction with your award. In honor of people like yourself who didn't realize the country was about to soundly defeat Republicans yet again in 2012 because you're all as popular as sh !t. So, to kick us off, lets give you what I'm sure will be the first of many citations as our inaugural Unskewed Polls award winner for this week! Keep on thinking a slow website for a month is going to stop the demographic doom your ideology faces.

I'm trying to recall the number of "arguments" in your quiver. Three? Four? Whatever. It's a very small number. And you keep repeating them like "Rainman," usually when they don't apply to the subject at hand. You're obviously intoxicated with your own "brilliance." Most of the rest of us would rather have a drink.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

That makes no sense, unless you are talking about tax dollars. No one forces me against my will to buy stuff I don't want.....until PPACA, anyway.

Which was upheld by John Roberts of the Supreme Court. Which you don't get either. Too funny.

[Old Pio]

Re: The PPACA - Implementation Phase I

We are not really in disagreement here. But what you just said is extremely important-you want him to have enough smarts to refer you to someone who also has enough smarts to do what is best for you. How do you know when the triage officer(in this case your GP) indeed has enough smarts? Doctors, and certainly non doctors trying to do the referring would be best served if they admitted when they simply do not know something-but they rarely do that. They will give you a diagnosis and try some sort of treatment for something that they have no clue about. Their misdiagnosis, or mistreatment, or sometimes worse-their delay in sending you to someone who really does know-can be lethal.

Dr. Pio used to refer to an "index of suspicion." Nurse practitioners giving flu shots and the like is not quite the same as diagnosis. When you hear someone b*tching that "my doctor charged me $100 and didn't find anything wrong," you're dealing with fairly high level ignorance.