We can fix this problem with one word," COMPETITION" . Insurance companies profit margin is only 3%. What % does tha banks charge for "Insufficient Funds"? We all need the same insurance and retirement that Congress gets. What a deal. B.O is just a figure head for some very rich people, both here and abroad.
Ross Bunch - 14 years ago
HOW ON EARTH could anybody not go for "Dr. Obama's Magic Health Care Plan?"
Just look at what BIG GOVERNMENT has done for The Post Office Dept., Acorn, Amtrack, GM & Chrysler, Banks, and Opra. SHAME on you ! Let's sing to Him:
Praises be to Obie, for all he's done
Along with Pelosi and Reid
Free healthcare coming, thanks a ton
Now all we gotta do is bleed.
Kenneth Roth - 15 years ago
Your patient with Stage I renal cell carcinoma is over 75 and will probably die of a heart attack in 3 yrs anyway, so you are denied permission to operate and save his life. Let him die of his cancer instead. Ever heard of that? I did-- my last Medicaid patient twenty some yrs ago, the day I left the program, because I refused to let some Dr. totally unaware of anything else about the patient (never examined or saw him) Notwithstanding we were able to intimidate the gov. panel MD to change his mind, ignore the "policy" and allow the procedure allowing the patient to live an additional 13 yrs, no one in their right mind should volunteer to allow govt panels (heard the term "Death Panels") which already existed 20 yrs ago to determine whether he/she gets care. Double talk of Obama and his ilk to the contrary notwithstanding, "Cost effective medical care" is a euphemism for a funeral (see above for only one example). The general population does not readily recognize the "Newspeak" crypto-fascist/bolshevik propaganda being peddled by the "We're from the gov't and we're hear to help you" stay healthy. It should read, "We're from the gov't and we're here to kill you". It is hard, but those of us who really have their patient's well being and individual value as human beings, must get the word out.
D - 15 years ago
SIMPLY PUT...forcing the American people to pay for SOCIALIZED health care is Illegal. Now they want to fine you up to $25,000 or more or go to JAIL if you don't purchase health ins., Since when does the government tell me what I must buy? Not in my country!
Instead of fighting amongst yourselves, why dont you turn and look east to EUROPE. Every country has a health service that benefits the whole population.
It's even better than the 'HEALTHCARE REFORM' proposed by the PRESIDENT. Woe to the politicians that would try to take it away. (perhaps that's why the AAPS are fighting so hard)
The AAPS keeps bandying about the words 'freedom and democracy' They use them as a double edged sword. When it suits them.
Go back to ANCIENT GREECE. DEMOCRACY WORKS WELL WHEN PEOPLE ARE WELL INFORMED. Are the American people well informed? I doubt it. Just the opposite in my observations. People don't get educated , they get trained. Whether it be a Doctor, Plumber or an Indian chief!
Public opinion is formed not by healthy debate, but by the right wing media (fox TV for example) or RADIO EXAMPLES: Bill o'reilly, crazy Glen Beck, limbaugh and numerous others all over America screaming there heads off.
The American people need and deserve healthcare reform. Not the status quo as the AAPS would wish.
A much wider issue that deserves thought (if they are capable) would be for the AAPS to think of the effect of taking the constant anxiety out of peoples lives. They'll have more time to think clearly. Family life would be more enjoyable. Kids would grow up healthier in body and soul. Only then would America be truly the UNITED states of America.
Louis Overs
Leonard Czajka - 15 years ago
so Ms Sykes - what are the numbers for cost per capita and outcome rankings?
And who came up with the numbers?
I looked at the CIA world Factbook but the latest numbers where outdated badly.
SUE - 15 years ago
i would like to tell obama to get out of our lives, leave us alone.
we've had alot of men and women die so that we can be free & safe.
if obama wins everything he is trying to push through their dying was for nothing. obama is trying to take our freedom away from us.
obama should be paying more attention to the war going on instead of health care. give the people who need health care the help and leave the rest of us alone.
Dr. Alex Paduchak - 15 years ago
I'm a Canadian physician, now an American resident, who previously practiced in Ontario, Canada.
I am here and not there because the American system allows the physician to provide the kind of healthcare that is quality oriented without the interference of a government agency that dictates to you what your fees can be and how many patients you can see annually. I'm currently reliving the 1978 Canadian Health Disciplines Act (HDA) brought on by Prime Minister Trudeau who promised free healthcare to the populace which got him elected. Exactly one year after the "one payor system" act went into effect, he transferred all responsibility to the individual provinces (like our states) that were totally unprepared for "the new deal" and scrambled to get organized for the onslaught of Medical claims. Canada then had 10 payors and not the promised "one". Obama has already claimed that he will do the same. The USA will have 50 payor systems - NOT one as promised. We now have that system in place - MEDICAID. Is this another promise broken?
Physicians fees were cut drastically. Medical students who graduated with their degrees were rationed as to the number of licenses granted annually depending on the government's needs - otherwise the "new" doctor drives a taxi until his or her numbers come up within the government's "need for service scheme". Any cash payment for extra service received from the patient penalized the physician $100,000 per claim and mandatory 1 year in jail with forfeiture of your license (10 patients paid you cash for extra time = 10 years in jail). That's how "really" fair the system was and that is what I am seeing on the horizon if Obamacare is allowed to come into effect.
The Canadian healthcare system bankrupted the country in 1988. That is why the federal government had to introduce the GST = Goods and Services Tax in addition to the annual income tax to be able to cover the expenses of the bankruptcy. Now, the country is again approaching implosion due to the cost (and now reduced) of rationed "free healthcare" supplied to Canadians.
Can you imagine waiting 3 months to get an MRI on your brain tumor? It's true! A brain tumor is slow growing and is expected to still be around when your turn comes up at the MRI unit. And then wait 3-8 months for surgical intervention - when your turn comes up in order "to serve the community fairly" and to "spread the wealth". Senator Kennedy would not have qualified for either of these procedures under the Canadian system - and yet, that is exactly what he advocated. What's wrong with this picture?
Oh, by the way, if you're behind on your income tax that you owe to the Feds - no problem, you just don't get paid - because your check comes from the government and they decide when to collect what's owed to them first.
My fellow physician - BEWARE. I laugh at my colleagues who advocate better healthcare at a lower price. These must be physicians (respectfully - ignorant) on hospital staffs who get paid salaries and they have no clue as to what exactly the healthcare environment is all about. Won't they be pleasantly surprised when the hospital lays them off due to inability to afford them.
Pres. Obama claimed that all the doctors and the nurses in the country agreed with him and his Obamacare Health Reform act. Mr. President ... "YOU LIE !"
I am not one of those doctors. Are YOU?
Fix what we have. DO NOT replace it! HANDS OFF MY HEALTHCARE!
Just so that you would know what's out there. There is alot more that Americans don't know about the Canadian system. The American system is the best in the world - that is why everyone comes here for their life-saving surgeries. We as Americans care and provide the quality of life and quality of healthcare that every human deserves.
Let's K E E P I T T H A T W A Y !
Kahryn Serkes - 15 years ago
The Mr Czajika obviously has not the series of "MYthbusters" from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons regarding the US spending on medical care, and our ranking in outcomes. His number are not correct, but have been repeated so frequently from progressive talking points that they keep coming back.
Mr. Smith makes some excellent points about the kind of reforms we do need now --i.e. high deductions available for those who want then -- and the impending collapse of Medicare.
Kathryn Serkes
Director of Policy, AAPS
carrie gray - 15 years ago
HAHAHA!! the ONLY 2 comments are FOR the Reform... and they both made me laugh... Come on now, people, REALIZE what mistake this healthcare idea is.
Leonard Czajka - 15 years ago
What a stupid petition. Medical care in this country is already controlled by insurance companies because they control denials i.e. by not paying claims.
Given that we are by far the most expensive per capita health delivery system in the world and that we are somewhere between 34 and 37 in outcomes, lets make this simple choice:
Do whatever No. 1 in outcomes does and get way better health care for a lot less money
- or -
Do whatever No. 35 in outcomes does and get the same health care for a fifth of the cost.
Or lets just defeat reform and get bad health care for way too much money using the only for profit health care deliver system in the developed world.
Idiots.
CHARLES W, SMITH - 15 years ago
Medicare (A,B & D) MUST be "reformed." By all credible accounts the unfunded liabilities will exceed $100 trillion within the next 50-70 years. We must be a part of the solution, not bystanders (then victims!). Tort/malpractice ins reform MUST head the list. Pay to HCPs needs to become results-based ipo service-based. Reward responsible personal patient behavior. Health ins needs to be mktd across state lines. The true "uninsured" really number about 12MM (NOT 47MM) - they shld be the only ones targeted for coverage under the revised plan. Members of congress shld either be put into the "new" health care structure, or their plan should be the one used to extend coverage to these 12MM uninsured AND the Medicare/ Medicaid-eligible population. Tax laws must be equalized for self-providers as well as employer-providers. Make high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts a part of the new platform. ALL ins plans for the retired must be revised to require their participants to have annual deductibles and monthly co-pays, esp those labeled "Cadillac plans" such as those long in place for retired union workers such as those from the UAW, etc. For all now uninsured brought into the coverage pool (including Medicare-eligible retirees), incentives must be created to increase the number of practicing medical profs. Any solution to the uninsured problem or the problem of Medicare/ Medicaid insolvency MUST NOT result in rationing of care or denial of care for those in the late-in-life years. FYI, I'm a 69 year-old married, retired male, financially self-sufficient and generally healthy except for chronic, osteo arthritis-caused neuromusculsr issues (I'll have my 2nd cervical disc fusion this month; my lumbar stenosis/scoliosis issues are too complex to deal with surgically at this time - I have lower extremity weakness and atrophy but am not in significant chronic pain - fortunately). This year my Medicare A, B, D & G premiums will exceed $4750 AND I'll be in the drug plan coverage gap ("doughnut hole") from August 1st thru the end of the year (which effectively adds another $2500 to my annual costs). So my gov't-provided health care plan (it's NOT "free"!) currently costs me over $7000 a year (over $600 a month). Considering the cost of my past and pending surgeries, I'm truly fortunate to have the coverages I do; in the not-to-distant future I do not want to be told I can't continue to use the excellent specialists I've come to rely on or told I'll have to wait for treatment (or can't have it because I'm "too old").
We can fix this problem with one word," COMPETITION" . Insurance companies profit margin is only 3%. What % does tha banks charge for "Insufficient Funds"? We all need the same insurance and retirement that Congress gets. What a deal. B.O is just a figure head for some very rich people, both here and abroad.
HOW ON EARTH could anybody not go for "Dr. Obama's Magic Health Care Plan?"
Just look at what BIG GOVERNMENT has done for The Post Office Dept., Acorn, Amtrack, GM & Chrysler, Banks, and Opra. SHAME on you ! Let's sing to Him:
Praises be to Obie, for all he's done
Along with Pelosi and Reid
Free healthcare coming, thanks a ton
Now all we gotta do is bleed.
Your patient with Stage I renal cell carcinoma is over 75 and will probably die of a heart attack in 3 yrs anyway, so you are denied permission to operate and save his life. Let him die of his cancer instead. Ever heard of that? I did-- my last Medicaid patient twenty some yrs ago, the day I left the program, because I refused to let some Dr. totally unaware of anything else about the patient (never examined or saw him) Notwithstanding we were able to intimidate the gov. panel MD to change his mind, ignore the "policy" and allow the procedure allowing the patient to live an additional 13 yrs, no one in their right mind should volunteer to allow govt panels (heard the term "Death Panels") which already existed 20 yrs ago to determine whether he/she gets care. Double talk of Obama and his ilk to the contrary notwithstanding, "Cost effective medical care" is a euphemism for a funeral (see above for only one example). The general population does not readily recognize the "Newspeak" crypto-fascist/bolshevik propaganda being peddled by the "We're from the gov't and we're hear to help you" stay healthy. It should read, "We're from the gov't and we're here to kill you". It is hard, but those of us who really have their patient's well being and individual value as human beings, must get the word out.
SIMPLY PUT...forcing the American people to pay for SOCIALIZED health care is Illegal. Now they want to fine you up to $25,000 or more or go to JAIL if you don't purchase health ins., Since when does the government tell me what I must buy? Not in my country!
Instead of fighting amongst yourselves, why dont you turn and look east to EUROPE. Every country has a health service that benefits the whole population.
It's even better than the 'HEALTHCARE REFORM' proposed by the PRESIDENT. Woe to the politicians that would try to take it away. (perhaps that's why the AAPS are fighting so hard)
The AAPS keeps bandying about the words 'freedom and democracy' They use them as a double edged sword. When it suits them.
Go back to ANCIENT GREECE. DEMOCRACY WORKS WELL WHEN PEOPLE ARE WELL INFORMED. Are the American people well informed? I doubt it. Just the opposite in my observations. People don't get educated , they get trained. Whether it be a Doctor, Plumber or an Indian chief!
Public opinion is formed not by healthy debate, but by the right wing media (fox TV for example) or RADIO EXAMPLES: Bill o'reilly, crazy Glen Beck, limbaugh and numerous others all over America screaming there heads off.
The American people need and deserve healthcare reform. Not the status quo as the AAPS would wish.
A much wider issue that deserves thought (if they are capable) would be for the AAPS to think of the effect of taking the constant anxiety out of peoples lives. They'll have more time to think clearly. Family life would be more enjoyable. Kids would grow up healthier in body and soul. Only then would America be truly the UNITED states of America.
Louis Overs
so Ms Sykes - what are the numbers for cost per capita and outcome rankings?
And who came up with the numbers?
I looked at the CIA world Factbook but the latest numbers where outdated badly.
i would like to tell obama to get out of our lives, leave us alone.
we've had alot of men and women die so that we can be free & safe.
if obama wins everything he is trying to push through their dying was for nothing. obama is trying to take our freedom away from us.
obama should be paying more attention to the war going on instead of health care. give the people who need health care the help and leave the rest of us alone.
I'm a Canadian physician, now an American resident, who previously practiced in Ontario, Canada.
I am here and not there because the American system allows the physician to provide the kind of healthcare that is quality oriented without the interference of a government agency that dictates to you what your fees can be and how many patients you can see annually. I'm currently reliving the 1978 Canadian Health Disciplines Act (HDA) brought on by Prime Minister Trudeau who promised free healthcare to the populace which got him elected. Exactly one year after the "one payor system" act went into effect, he transferred all responsibility to the individual provinces (like our states) that were totally unprepared for "the new deal" and scrambled to get organized for the onslaught of Medical claims. Canada then had 10 payors and not the promised "one". Obama has already claimed that he will do the same. The USA will have 50 payor systems - NOT one as promised. We now have that system in place - MEDICAID. Is this another promise broken?
Physicians fees were cut drastically. Medical students who graduated with their degrees were rationed as to the number of licenses granted annually depending on the government's needs - otherwise the "new" doctor drives a taxi until his or her numbers come up within the government's "need for service scheme". Any cash payment for extra service received from the patient penalized the physician $100,000 per claim and mandatory 1 year in jail with forfeiture of your license (10 patients paid you cash for extra time = 10 years in jail). That's how "really" fair the system was and that is what I am seeing on the horizon if Obamacare is allowed to come into effect.
The Canadian healthcare system bankrupted the country in 1988. That is why the federal government had to introduce the GST = Goods and Services Tax in addition to the annual income tax to be able to cover the expenses of the bankruptcy. Now, the country is again approaching implosion due to the cost (and now reduced) of rationed "free healthcare" supplied to Canadians.
Can you imagine waiting 3 months to get an MRI on your brain tumor? It's true! A brain tumor is slow growing and is expected to still be around when your turn comes up at the MRI unit. And then wait 3-8 months for surgical intervention - when your turn comes up in order "to serve the community fairly" and to "spread the wealth". Senator Kennedy would not have qualified for either of these procedures under the Canadian system - and yet, that is exactly what he advocated. What's wrong with this picture?
Oh, by the way, if you're behind on your income tax that you owe to the Feds - no problem, you just don't get paid - because your check comes from the government and they decide when to collect what's owed to them first.
My fellow physician - BEWARE. I laugh at my colleagues who advocate better healthcare at a lower price. These must be physicians (respectfully - ignorant) on hospital staffs who get paid salaries and they have no clue as to what exactly the healthcare environment is all about. Won't they be pleasantly surprised when the hospital lays them off due to inability to afford them.
Pres. Obama claimed that all the doctors and the nurses in the country agreed with him and his Obamacare Health Reform act. Mr. President ... "YOU LIE !"
I am not one of those doctors. Are YOU?
Fix what we have. DO NOT replace it! HANDS OFF MY HEALTHCARE!
Just so that you would know what's out there. There is alot more that Americans don't know about the Canadian system. The American system is the best in the world - that is why everyone comes here for their life-saving surgeries. We as Americans care and provide the quality of life and quality of healthcare that every human deserves.
Let's K E E P I T T H A T W A Y !
The Mr Czajika obviously has not the series of "MYthbusters" from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons regarding the US spending on medical care, and our ranking in outcomes. His number are not correct, but have been repeated so frequently from progressive talking points that they keep coming back.
Mr. Smith makes some excellent points about the kind of reforms we do need now --i.e. high deductions available for those who want then -- and the impending collapse of Medicare.
Kathryn Serkes
Director of Policy, AAPS
HAHAHA!! the ONLY 2 comments are FOR the Reform... and they both made me laugh... Come on now, people, REALIZE what mistake this healthcare idea is.
What a stupid petition. Medical care in this country is already controlled by insurance companies because they control denials i.e. by not paying claims.
Given that we are by far the most expensive per capita health delivery system in the world and that we are somewhere between 34 and 37 in outcomes, lets make this simple choice:
Do whatever No. 1 in outcomes does and get way better health care for a lot less money
- or -
Do whatever No. 35 in outcomes does and get the same health care for a fifth of the cost.
Or lets just defeat reform and get bad health care for way too much money using the only for profit health care deliver system in the developed world.
Idiots.
Medicare (A,B & D) MUST be "reformed." By all credible accounts the unfunded liabilities will exceed $100 trillion within the next 50-70 years. We must be a part of the solution, not bystanders (then victims!). Tort/malpractice ins reform MUST head the list. Pay to HCPs needs to become results-based ipo service-based. Reward responsible personal patient behavior. Health ins needs to be mktd across state lines. The true "uninsured" really number about 12MM (NOT 47MM) - they shld be the only ones targeted for coverage under the revised plan. Members of congress shld either be put into the "new" health care structure, or their plan should be the one used to extend coverage to these 12MM uninsured AND the Medicare/ Medicaid-eligible population. Tax laws must be equalized for self-providers as well as employer-providers. Make high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts a part of the new platform. ALL ins plans for the retired must be revised to require their participants to have annual deductibles and monthly co-pays, esp those labeled "Cadillac plans" such as those long in place for retired union workers such as those from the UAW, etc. For all now uninsured brought into the coverage pool (including Medicare-eligible retirees), incentives must be created to increase the number of practicing medical profs. Any solution to the uninsured problem or the problem of Medicare/ Medicaid insolvency MUST NOT result in rationing of care or denial of care for those in the late-in-life years. FYI, I'm a 69 year-old married, retired male, financially self-sufficient and generally healthy except for chronic, osteo arthritis-caused neuromusculsr issues (I'll have my 2nd cervical disc fusion this month; my lumbar stenosis/scoliosis issues are too complex to deal with surgically at this time - I have lower extremity weakness and atrophy but am not in significant chronic pain - fortunately). This year my Medicare A, B, D & G premiums will exceed $4750 AND I'll be in the drug plan coverage gap ("doughnut hole") from August 1st thru the end of the year (which effectively adds another $2500 to my annual costs). So my gov't-provided health care plan (it's NOT "free"!) currently costs me over $7000 a year (over $600 a month). Considering the cost of my past and pending surgeries, I'm truly fortunate to have the coverages I do; in the not-to-distant future I do not want to be told I can't continue to use the excellent specialists I've come to rely on or told I'll have to wait for treatment (or can't have it because I'm "too old").