Supreme Court Ruling on Health Care

[PaulinVA]

Proof? Medicare decides what it will pay. Just like any other customer. If a single payer pays more than medicare will pay. They are in fact over paying.

When the Cardiologist, or whom ever, claims to take a loss. They are simply stating that they would like more. Which by the way is a big part of our problem.

ATB

You are wrong, I’m sorry to say.

Medicaid/Medicare reimbursements have no basis in reality.

If the reimbursements are fair, why are so many docs abandoning medicaid patients?

 

[ProVobis]

Obama does whatever his pollsters and political advisers tell him to do.

I heard he was considering changing the individual exchanges to include buying across state lines and is willing to consider medical malpractice reforms. Whether or not this is true, he would be awfully foolish to campaign on the law the way it stands. I’m not voting for him but just saying.

 

[LisaA]

Proof? Medicare decides what it will pay. Just like any other customer. If a single payer pays more than medicare will pay. They are in fact over paying.

When the Cardiologist, or whom ever, claims to take a loss. They are simply stating that they would like more. Which by the way is a big part of our problem.

ATB

Mickey you base this complete fallacy on??? I have been in healthcare finance for 24 years so I’ve seen the days when Medicare paid approximately the same as regular insurance, followed the cuts for “overpriced procedures” to the point where we are now.

How 'bout this actual statistic:

Surgery payment by Medicare 1988 $5181.00
Surgery payment by Medicare 2012 $1785.00

Do you think the doctor is being greedy because he’d like to keep his office open with reimbursements a fraction of what they were twenty years ago? Are you making a fraction of what you made 20 years ago? Don’t know your age but simple inflation would indicate that prices for everything else have increased dramatically…except medical care.

The “skyrocketing costs” are not going to doctors and not to hospitals either but to huge administrative burdens, higher malpractice and insurance rates, various mandates that increase the cost of care.

The reality is that most doctors can help Medicare patients because they were “subsidized” by regular insurance patients. The more that go onto government programs the lower overall reimbursement rates.

Oh and there is Medicaid…even worse. We used to have a pediatric practice. We gave it up when the reimbursement for a $5000 surgery on a newborn went to $701…

I’m not kidding Mickey. People like you who know nothing about what doctors are facing with the dramatic increases in administrative costs (EMR, PQR) malpractice rates and the dramatic DECREASE in reimbursement really muddy the water.

This bill is a disaster for our medical care system. Just hope and pray it’s repealed by Congress or pray you never need a doctor.

Lisa

 

[Jeanne_S]

Mickey you base this complete fallacy on??? I have been in healthcare finance for 24 years so I’ve seen the days when Medicare paid approximately the same as regular insurance, followed the cuts for “overpriced procedures” to the point where we are now.

How 'bout this actual statistic:

Surgery payment by Medicare 1988 $5181.00
Surgery payment by Medicare 2012 $1785.00

Do you think the doctor is being greedy because he’d like to keep his office open with reimbursements a fraction of what they were twenty years ago? Are you making a fraction of what you made 20 years ago? Don’t know your age but simple inflation would indicate that prices for everything else have increased dramatically…except medical care.

The “skyrocketing costs” are not going to doctors and not to hospitals either but to huge administrative burdens, higher malpractice and insurance rates, various mandates that increase the cost of care.

The reality is that most doctors can help Medicare patients because they were “subsidized” by regular insurance patients. The more that go onto government programs the lower overall reimbursement rates.

Oh and there is Medicaid…even worse. We used to have a pediatric practice. We gave it up when the reimbursement for a $5000 surgery on a newborn went to $701…

I’m not kidding Mickey. People like you who know nothing about what doctors are facing with the dramatic increases in administrative costs (EMR, PQR) malpractice rates and the dramatic DECREASE in reimbursement really muddy the water.

This bill is a disaster for our medical care system. Just hope and pray it’s repealed by Congress or pray you never need a doctor.

Lisa

RIGHT ON!

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

Does anybody know if anybody has read the complete law (all over 2000 pages)? I heard it was passed by our legislatures without reading it, and the SCOTUS upheld it without reading it, is this Democracy?

We don’t live a democracy. Heck, we don’t even live in a republic anymore.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

You want the government to rid the country of criminals?

How can I do that the worst ones are actually in the government.

 

[Jeffrey]

nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/they_re_still_lying_about_obamacare_CZx9G63bHeJb4b3zhogQMJ

Who’s criticizing? It was a question. And I’m sure its scary. I’ll google her since u didn’t supply links.

 

[RobbyS]

Mickey you base this complete fallacy on??? I have been in healthcare finance for 24 years so I’ve seen the days when Medicare paid approximately the same as regular insurance, followed the cuts for “overpriced procedures” to the point where we are now.

How 'bout this actual statistic:

Surgery payment by Medicare 1988 $5181.00
Surgery payment by Medicare 2012 $1785.00

Do you think the doctor is being greedy because he’d like to keep his office open with reimbursements a fraction of what they were twenty years ago? Are you making a fraction of what you made 20 years ago? Don’t know your age but simple inflation would indicate that prices for everything else have increased dramatically…except medical care.

The “skyrocketing costs” are not going to doctors and not to hospitals either but to huge administrative burdens, higher malpractice and insurance rates, various mandates that increase the cost of care.

The reality is that most doctors can help Medicare patients because they were “subsidized” by regular insurance patients. The more that go onto government programs the lower overall reimbursement rates.

Oh and there is Medicaid…even worse. We used to have a pediatric practice. We gave it up when the reimbursement for a $5000 surgery on a newborn went to $701…

I’m not kidding Mickey. People like you who know nothing about what doctors are facing with the dramatic increases in administrative costs (EMR, PQR) malpractice rates and the dramatic DECREASE in reimbursement really muddy the water.

This bill is a disaster for our medical care system. Just hope and pray it’s repealed by Congress or pray you never need a doctor.

Lisa

My family doctor, a millions years ago, opposed Medicare for some of the reasons he opposed private insurance: it put a third party between the doctor and the patient. He had a hard enough time just being in partnership with another doctor, a physician who did not mind overcharging his patients. He served as an army doctor in WWII and he saw how government provided medicine worked. He saw how soldiers abused the services they got. He saw the often indifferent treatment soldiers got, how they were as often as not, just a number. And after he returned from the war, he found many more patients waiting at the door because they had money in their hands, and as often as not, what they needed was more than medicine could give them. Further the arrival of antibiotics made people believe that doctors could work miracles and this made them.paradoxically, less likely to take care of themselves.

 

[_Abyssinia]

Five major ObamaCare taxes that will hit your wallet in 2013

While the individual mandate tax gets most of the attention, the ObamaCare law actually contains 20 new or higher taxes on the American people. These taxes are gradually phased in over the years 2010 (with its 10 percent “tanning tax”) to 2018 (when the tax on comprehensive health insurance plans kicks in)

Six months from now, in January 2013, five major ObamaCare taxes will come into force:

1. The ObamaCare Medical Device Manufacturing Tax

This 2.3 percent tax on medical device makers will raise the price of (for example) every pacemaker, prosthetic limb, stent, and operating table. Can you remind us, Mr. President, how taxing medical devices will reduce the cost of health care? The tax is particularly destructive because it is levied on gross sales and even targets companies who haven’t turned a profit yet.

These are often small, scrappy companies with less than 20 employees who pioneer the next generation of life-prolonging devices. In addition to raising the cost of health care, this $20 billion tax over the next ten years will not help the country’s jobs outlook, as the industry employs nearly 400,000 Americans. Several companies have already responded to the looming tax by cutting research and development budgets and laying off workers.

2. The ObamaCare High Medical Bills Tax

This onerous tax provision will hit Americans facing the highest out-of-pocket medical bills. Currently, Americans are allowed to deduct medical expenses on their 1040 form to the extent the costs exceed 7.5 percent of one’s adjusted gross income.

The new ObamaCare provision will raise that threshold to 10 percent, subjecting patients to a higher tax bill. This tax will hit pre-retirement seniors the hardest. Over the next ten years, affected Americans will pony up a minimum total of $15 billion in taxes thanks to this provision.

3. The ObamaCare Flexible Spending Account Cap

The 24 million Americans who have Flexible Spending Accounts will face a new federally imposed $2,500 annual cap. These pre-tax accounts, which currently have no federal limit, are used to purchase everything from contact lenses to children’s braces. With the cost of braces being as high as $7,200, this tax provision will play an unwelcome role in everyday kitchen-table health care decisions.

The cap will also affect families with special-needs children, whose tuition can be covered using FSA funds. Special-needs tuition can cost up to $14,000 per child per year. This cruel tax provision will limit the options available to such families, all so that the federal government can squeeze an additional $13 billion out of taxpayer pockets over the next ten years.

The targeting of FSAs by President Obama and congressional Democrats is no accident. The progressive left has never been fond of the consumer-driven accounts, which serve as a small roadblock in their long-term drive for a one-size-fits-all government health care bureaucracy.

For further proof, note the ObamaCare “medicine cabinet tax” which since 2011 has barred the 13.5 million Americans with Health Savings Accounts from purchasing over-the-counter medicines with pre-tax funds.

4. The ObamaCare Surtax on Investment Income

Under current law, the capital gains tax rate for all Americans rises from 15 to 20 percent in 2013, while the top dividend rate rises from 15 to 39.6 percent. The new ObamaCare surtax takes the top capital gains rate to 23.8 percent and top dividend rate to 43.4 percent. The tax will take a minimum of $123 billion out of taxpayer pockets over the next ten years.

And, last but not least…

5. The ObamaCare Medicare Payroll Tax increase

This tax soaks employers to the tune of $86 billion over the next ten years.

As you can understand, there is a reason why the authors of ObamaCare wrote the law in such a way that the most brutal tax increases take effect conveniently after the 2012 election. It’s the same reason President Obama, congressional Democrats, and the mainstream media conveniently neglect to mention these taxes and prefer that you simply “move on” after the Supreme Court ruling

foxnews.com/opinion/2012/07/05/five-major-obamacare-taxes-that-will-hit-your-wallet-in-2013/#ixzz1zpN2cHN7

 

[Mickey_Finn]

You are wrong, I’m sorry to say.

Medicaid/Medicare reimbursements have no basis in reality.

If the reimbursements are fair, why are so many docs abandoning medicaid patients?

1. What the market will bear.
2. personal choice?

ATB

 

[Mickey_Finn]

How can I do that the worst ones are actually in the government.

How can you want? Thats easy you have an aspiration. The question would be “How can you expect.”

The world, and the people in it, are imperfect. Our duty is the help those who need it, and punish those you deserve it. But, the criminal, and the poor man, will always be with us.

The ACA act has a lot of flaws. Some have been addressed. Others are going through the courst as we speak. But, lets face it. Something needed to be done, The Republicans in their presenet irrational state. Were not about to do anything.

ATB

 

[MichaelTDoyle]

How can you want? Thats easy you have an aspiration. The question would be “How can you expect.”

The world, and the people in it, are imperfect. Our duty is the help those who need it, and punish those you deserve it. But, the criminal, and the poor man, will always be with us.

The ACA act has a lot of flaws. Some have been addressed. Others are going through the courst as we speak. But, lets face it. Something needed to be done, The Republicans in their presenet irrational state. Were not about to do anything.

ATB

Follow the money. Doctor’s will be leaving in droves. The idea that bureaucrats could rush through an overhaul of 1/6th of the economy and make it work is foolishness. We’ve traded** the best healthcare** for mediocre or worse healthcare and rampant bureaucratic cronyism, corruption which follows inevitably on large Utopian schemes.

 

[PaulinVA]

1. What the market will bear.

Well, what we are finding is the market will not bear the low medicare/medicaid reimbursement rates because they are too low.

personal choice?

Yes, the personal choice is that the doctors won’t treat people for less than it costs to treat them.

I am thinking that we need to raise medicare/medicaid reimbursements to incentivize doctors to treat those people who normally get care in the ER. Put clinics in public housing areas. Put the money into treatment and preventive medicine.

 

[stevegravy]

This act is nothing more than a power grab converting one of America’s most prestigious icons the Medical Practitioner, you know the guys and gals who conquered a host of diseases, invented a wrath of prophylactics, and prosthesis devices, into government bureaucrats.

Can you not see it coming the “Brave New World.”

 

[bellasbane]

Justice Roberts did the right thing to uphold the law and this is truly a victory for the American people. Millions of American’s will now benefit from access to affordable health care unless voters are gullible enough to fall for the right-wing propaganda paid for by people like the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson or some shady member of the 1% who want nothing more than to get rid of a populist president. I for one refuse to buy into their propaganda of partial truths aimed at getting average people to vote against their own best interests.

The bottom line is that Obamacare is just Romneycare on a national level. There is no need to speculate about what it will mean to you or to the national economy - the experiment has been done and it is a success. It may not be perfect, but it works. You can read all about what a success it has been for Massachusetts here:

Massachusetts Health Care Law, Staple Of Mitt Romney Legacy, May Hold Good Signs For Obamacare

My personal experience with the health care system in Massachusetts has been phenomenal. Last month, I had a breast cancer scare. It was a stressful two weeks, but during that time I was able to see my doctor, have a mammogram & ultrasound, a core biopsy and two consultations with the surgeon & breast care specialist who was handling my case. The health care I received was top rate, fast, efficient, and compassionate - that is what we have here in Massachusetts. That is what every person in this nation deserves.

I thank God for what my experience has taught me. I don’t have cancer, but I do have greater compassion for those who fight against it every day. I just participated in the American Cancer Association Relay for Life - and it was an incredible experience. So many stories and lives - every one of them precious. I thank God that I live in a state where every person who suffers from cancer or any other health care issue is able to get the same quality of care that I received and are able to live their lives with dignity without the fear that it will bankrupt their family.

Think about that next time you hear someone say the Affordable Health Care law is bad public policy. What do the Republicans propose instead? The individual mandate is a constitutional, conservative solution to the health care crisis that was developed by the Heritage Foundation. The GOP is trashing their own best proposal out of pure malice and hatred for the president. They have nothing better to offer.

 

[SamH]

Justice Roberts did the right thing to uphold the law and this is truly a victory for the American people. Millions of American’s will now benefit from access to affordable health care .

Name one.

 

[stevegravy]

Justice Roberts did the right thing to uphold the law .

Take the blue pill and enjoy your serfdom.

If Roberts had been a bit more humble, he would have ruled on the law with the words that were before him. His ruling would not have been on an invented new meaning of mandate or penalty. All the speculation in the world will not clarify his reason for what he did, only he can speak to us about that, and that would require us to believe him.

As others have pointed out, this novel interpretation now allows congress to tax citizens lack of behavior. It is the final nail in the coffin of a once free people and the beginning of our serfdom. I know if you are reading this, you must think me a crank or a paranoid. I am not either, so my shrink tells me. History shows, that successful freemen were never taken over forcibly, and then gave up their rights in a single fell swoop or cout de gras, but a slow erosion over long period of time.

All the good things you point out in 10 years may be less will include the conversion of the medical profession into government bureaucrats, crippling taxes, medical care rationing to the productive members of society and a large swath of behavior moderating laws by congress with the associated tax for failure to comply.
Enjoy……

 

[PaulinVA]

Justice Roberts did the right thing to uphold the law and this is truly a victory for the American people.

Our system of government, the determination of Constitutionality of a law, does not hinge on whether some people think the law is good for the people.

Millions of American’s will now benefit from access to affordable health care unless voters are gullible enough to fall for the right-wing propaganda paid for by people like the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson or some shady member of the 1% who want nothing more than to get rid of a populist president. I for one refuse to buy into their propaganda of partial truths aimed at getting average people to vote against their own best interests.

No, millions of Americans now are required to have insurance, and it will be subsidized by people like me. Can you believe that a family of four making $91,000 a year will get an insurance subsidy? No, my best interest is not to pay for your health insurance. Not care, but insurance.

The bottom line is that Obamacare is just Romneycare on a national level. There is no need to speculate about what it will mean to you or to the national economy - the experiment has been done and it is a success. It may not be perfect, but it works.

States are not the Federal government. States have powers that allow them to enact this kind of law. The Federal government does not.

Think about that next time you hear someone say the Affordable Health Care law is bad public policy. What do the Republicans propose instead? .

A law can still be bad even if no one has an alternative.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Justice Roberts did the right thing to uphold the law and this is truly a victory for the American people. Millions of American’s will now benefit from access to affordable health care unless voters are gullible enough to fall for the right-wing propaganda paid for by people like the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson or some shady member of the 1% who want nothing more than to get rid of a populist president. I for one refuse to buy into their propaganda of partial truths aimed at getting average people to vote against their own best interests.

The bottom line is that Obamacare is just Romneycare on a national level. There is no need to speculate about what it will mean to you or to the national economy - the experiment has been done and it is a success. It may not be perfect, but it works. You can read all about what a success it has been for Massachusetts here:

Massachusetts Health Care Law, Staple Of Mitt Romney Legacy, May Hold Good Signs For Obamacare

My personal experience with the health care system in Massachusetts has been phenomenal. Last month, I had a breast cancer scare. It was a stressful two weeks, but during that time I was able to see my doctor, have a mammogram & ultrasound, a core biopsy and two consultations with the surgeon & breast care specialist who was handling my case. The health care I received was top rate, fast, efficient, and compassionate - that is what we have here in Massachusetts. That is what every person in this nation deserves.

I thank God for what my experience has taught me. I don’t have cancer, but I do have greater compassion for those who fight against it every day. I just participated in the American Cancer Association Relay for Life - and it was an incredible experience. So many stories and lives - every one of them precious. I thank God that I live in a state where every person who suffers from cancer or any other health care issue is able to get the same quality of care that I received and are able to live their lives with dignity without the fear that it will bankrupt their family.

Think about that next time you hear someone say the Affordable Health Care law is bad public policy. What do the Republicans propose instead? The individual mandate is a constitutional, conservative solution to the health care crisis that was developed by the Heritage Foundation. The GOP is trashing their own best proposal out of pure malice and hatred for the president. They have nothing better to offer.

People like you put me in despair that we will ever return this country to any kind of functionality again.

 

[stevegravy]

People like you put me in despair that we will ever return this country to any kind of functionality again.

Precisely