Author Topic: Solving the For Profit problem  (Read 9620 times)

cschwab

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Solving the For Profit problem
« on: December 13, 2009, 04:09:21 PM »
I'm not going to hide what I feel is the big cure for health care, the silver bullet, the holy grail: HR676, a bill that I sincerely believe would not only solve most of our problems with health insurance but would take out the for-profit motive of such things as dialysis companies.

I've got more about it on our front pages:  click_for_Silver_Bullet_article

It doesn't look like HR676 is going to become a political reality any time soon, so maybe we should start talking about at least starting a bill that would have the section of the bill which would turn the for-profits into non-profits?

At this stage, I'm just bouncing around the idea but I wanted to see what others thought.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2009, 04:10:57 PM by cschwab »
Proud member of DialysisEthics since 2000

DE responsible for:

*2000 US Senate hearings

*Verified statistics on "Dialysis Facility Compare"

*Doctors have to review charts before they can be reimbursed

*2000 and 2003 Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports on the conditions in dialysis

*2007 - Members of DialysisEthics worked for certification of hemodialysis
technicians in Colorado - bill passed

*1999 to present - nonviolent dismissed patients returned to their
clinics or placed in other clinics or hospitals over the years

Sandman

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Re: Solving the For Profit problem
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2009, 08:30:45 PM »
That article does not explain very much.  Like for example, if that bill were to get passed, what kind of health care would we be able to expect?  If insurance becomes mandatory, what would insurance cost?  What about the cost of medications and out of hospital apparatus?  And so on ans so on.

So many questions and not enough answers.

cschwab

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Re: Solving the For Profit problem
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2009, 03:55:42 PM »
Sandman,

From what I understand, if this bill were to pass we would have a "Medicare for all" single-payer type system and the insurance companies would be eliminated.  We would pay more for taxes, but it would be more than made up for with the elimination of health insurance premiums.

Medicare is actually more efficient at deliverying health care than the private insurance companies.  I'll have to dig up the stats I saw on that.

I can't recall seeing some of the details you are asking about.  But Physicians for a National Health Program does have some answers for a lot of FAQs:
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq

Frontline also put out an excellent program on health care in 5 capitalist countries.  This bill would probably bring about a system most like Taiwan's:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

Sounds like I ought to be adding more to that article.

Thanks for the feedback,
Chris
 
« Last Edit: December 14, 2009, 03:57:59 PM by cschwab »
Proud member of DialysisEthics since 2000

DE responsible for:

*2000 US Senate hearings

*Verified statistics on "Dialysis Facility Compare"

*Doctors have to review charts before they can be reimbursed

*2000 and 2003 Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports on the conditions in dialysis

*2007 - Members of DialysisEthics worked for certification of hemodialysis
technicians in Colorado - bill passed

*1999 to present - nonviolent dismissed patients returned to their
clinics or placed in other clinics or hospitals over the years

angieskidney

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Re: Solving the For Profit problem
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2009, 12:24:32 AM »
From what I understand, if this bill were to pass we would have a "Medicare for all" single-payer type system and the insurance companies would be eliminated.  We would pay more for taxes, but it would be more than made up for with the elimination of health insurance premiums.
 

Hmm... sounds like how Canada is except even though we have that type of system, it actually never did eliminate insurance companies. It just made them cheaper as people are not dependent on them.

cschwab

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Re: Solving the For Profit problem
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2009, 07:49:22 AM »
I guess it is supplemental insurance in Canada?  Anyway, I did find the stats on what the private insurance companies are raking in:

"PNHP Co-founders Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein published this definitive study of the administrative costs of the U.S. health system in the August 21, 2003 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. After analyzing the costs of insurers, employers, doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and home-care agencies in both the U.S. and Canada, they found that administration consumes 31.0 percent of U.S. health spending, double the proportion of Canada (16.7 percent). Average overhead among private U.S. insurers was 11.7 percent, compared with 1.3 percent for Canada
Proud member of DialysisEthics since 2000

DE responsible for:

*2000 US Senate hearings

*Verified statistics on "Dialysis Facility Compare"

*Doctors have to review charts before they can be reimbursed

*2000 and 2003 Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports on the conditions in dialysis

*2007 - Members of DialysisEthics worked for certification of hemodialysis
technicians in Colorado - bill passed

*1999 to present - nonviolent dismissed patients returned to their
clinics or placed in other clinics or hospitals over the years

angieskidney

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Re: Solving the For Profit problem
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2009, 06:49:34 PM »
Oh wow!! Thx for that info!

cschwab

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Re: Solving the For Profit problem
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2009, 07:57:22 AM »
Sandman,

I did do some rewriting on the Silver_Bullet article.  See what you think now!  I definitely did need a better intro to the bill.  I also changed the link I had in the article for health insurance; it now points to a list of links to articles about the evils of private health insurance: Case_against_private_health_insurance.

Chris
« Last Edit: December 19, 2009, 08:07:24 AM by cschwab »
Proud member of DialysisEthics since 2000

DE responsible for:

*2000 US Senate hearings

*Verified statistics on "Dialysis Facility Compare"

*Doctors have to review charts before they can be reimbursed

*2000 and 2003 Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports on the conditions in dialysis

*2007 - Members of DialysisEthics worked for certification of hemodialysis
technicians in Colorado - bill passed

*1999 to present - nonviolent dismissed patients returned to their
clinics or placed in other clinics or hospitals over the years

Sandman

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Re: Solving the For Profit problem
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2009, 11:42:05 AM »
Thanks Chris.