Political Question: What do you suspect will happen...

[Roman Hokie]

... to sleep medicine and the availability of xPAP therapy in the event of nationalized medicine in America.

I am not looking to debate. I'm looking for a genuine round table discussion. If it gets too bad in this thread, we'll have to focus on feline dentistry instead. But for right now, how do we see our interactions with pulmos and DME providers?

[Wolfhound668]

we'll have to focus on feline dentistry instead.

I tawt I pulled a puddy tooth?

[Roman Hokie]

I'm referring to another thread that features LOLCATZ and fine examples of, um, dental hygiene.

Without the carbs.

[Wolfhound668]

I know, the one where they kept changing the subject line.

[Roman Hokie]

Yeah, that's the one. Of course, I'm still new here and haven't adjusted to actually HAVING the ability to edit and delete my posts.

The other forum that I am on does not permit either of those. It causes loss of continuity. And if people screw up relationships, then the forum admin trusts them to fix them on their own. Works rather well, actually.

But, yeah. With a "single insurer" system, what will happen?

[WilsonVilleUSA]

My expectation is that as the Goobermint exercises more control over the insurance companies and limits their ability to adjust premiums while concurrently requiring they provide coverage to more and more folks is that they will start reducing coverage levels or use internal policies to force people to network providers with whom they have arranged back door deals. The trend had already started, I just see it continuing at a possibly faster rate.

Also as they try to limit Medicare/Medicaid costs by further reducing pay outs, I see the allowable amounts for treatment being reduced without the actual costs going down. Additionally more hoops to jump through for pre-authorization and proof of need/necessity. Whether it results in "ratitioning" or not I don't know but I expect longer wait times before being able to see specialists or schedule tests. It is a fact that the more difficult a process becomes, the more people will decide not to bother. This can then become a viscious circle where problems that are not taken care of in the earlier stages require more resources and put a greater load on the system when they get beyound the point of being able to ignore them. Overall, general health will suffer for many folks.

Overall, I am expecting more end user costs, less end user benefits, significant increase in red tape and a generally more difficult process to deal with (not like it was "simple" to start...).

I guess that makes me a "Glass half empty" guy

[Rustyolddude]

In all honesty I think you can expect the standard of care to drop, Medicare, Medicade and the VA health system are all examples, been plenty of frustrated posts here by folks covered under one of those government plans. Frankly when you put one or more layers of bureaucracy between consumer and supplier, the consumer is going to suffer because a good portion of the capital will be consumed to support the bureaucracy. Furthermore, when government agencies are involved, there is traditionally a tremendous amount of oversight & auditing (more costs) involved to keep fraud in check which seldom works as intended.

Case in point, the recent home buyer tax credit program. 1300 inmates including 241 serving live sentences received $9.1 million in tax credits. In addition 87 IRS employees are accused of wrongly taking the tax break. All told, 14,100+ taxpayers wrongly claimed at least $26.7 million in tax credits. http://www.cnbc.com/id/37870056

Now that's just 14,100 people in a fairly small program. With government health care covering MILLONS of people, how many government employees do you think it will take to support that system? How much of the federal budget will their salary's consume? What about the infrastructure; office buildings, computers, data centers etc.? There is no incentive like there is in the private sector to keep costs down to remain competitive. Any competition from the private sector will be quashed by the government subsidized system. There will be no incentive for drug companies to develop new medicines 'IF' the government creates price controls on medications.

It would be far better if the government simply gave individuals and employeers a progressive tax break to cover all their health care costs, in the case of low income folks, a cash credit like the EIC. At least billions of tax dollars wouldn't be going to support a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy and more would be available to the patients.

That's my opinion anyway and I'm far from an expert on anything, especially politics, I just go on my observations.

[DreamStalker]

viewtopic.php?p=487978#p487978

[Roman Hokie]

Thanks, DS. I think you just killed my thread with that one little link.

Yeah, I've heard plenty of gripes about the VA.

[Jettagram]

My two cents worth:
I determine eligibility for Medicaid for just the disabled and elderly. I have been doing public assistance eligibility "since dirt was invented" but just started doing the eligibility for elderly waivers and nursing home clients about a year and a half ago. It has taken that long just to get a handle on the extra steps involved for that population.
My state is making us do training on that portion of Medicaid. They told us it would take 81 hours to complete the online and classroom training. Well, it's taking longer for the online training than they said it would just because of how complex it is.
So, my thought....if it is a nightmare just to determine eligibility the way things are now...I shudder to think what the system would be when it is expanded! Let's just say that the government has a way of taking something that could be simple and manage to turn it into a convoluted, confusing maze of rules and regs.
I know our health care system needs to be fixed, but consider just who is doing the fixing!

[Slinky]

I saw no real cost cutting or cost controls in what I've been able to stumble thru or read about the health care reform. What I did see was the addition of free preventive testing for some disorders (that's a real cost cutter). The addition of those who are currently uninsured (another real cost cutter). Some rather disturbing recommendations against certain preventative tests that were rebuffed at this point (to guage the response by the public) but which will most likely slip into the system as costs continue to spiral. I see costs rising higher and faster than in the recent past. I see discouragement of non-profit medical facilities and insurances and some big fat incentives to for-profits. All hail Wall Street!

[aka fuzzy96]

opinions are like a&&holes - everyone has one and no one wants to hear yours.
too bad here goes:
we(many of us,as we have foriegn forum users too)live in the united states of greed.
while more hoops to jump through and more wait time along with stricter standards seems to be talked about remember this........... doctors do not have to accept insurance payments in part or whole unless contractually bound. Greed drives the american economy so i think you will find more and more practitioners not renewing contracts that limit thier ability to collect . thus if they take insurance they can tack on a co pay. many now are contractually limited to the amout of any copay.

then dont forget the lawyers getting thier hooks into the cash cow. expect to see contracts between the patient and the practitioner. and if ya don't pay they take your house,car or whatever. got a cold? sign here.