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Re: Watch what you wsih for
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Re: Watch what you wsih for -
12-23-2008
, 08:36 PM
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On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:05:34 -0500, "Mike Hunter" mikehunt2@lycos/com> wrote: Besides the shark lawyers, one of the primary reason healthcare costs are so high in the US is BECAUSE of the government! It SETS the Medicare reimbursement rates very high. Any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare patients MUST charge the SET Medicare reimbursement rates TO EVERYBODY or they can be charged with Medicare fraud! The reason the government sets the rates high is to pay the doctors and hospital to provide the so called FREE care to the indigent under the US Hill Burton Act. The government IS the cause NOT the cure. Our local volunteer ambulance corps was shut down by the feds for Medicare fraud. The feds took all of their money and sold all of their equipment and were ready to put the VOLUNTEER leaders in jail, untill a US Senator stepped in and stopped the lunacy. The problem was the Medicare reimbursement rate to the hospital, three miles out of town, was $750 but the corps only charged the VOLUNTEER fireman's insurance company $250! Sounds like BS to me (so surprising coming from Mike.) Hospitals and doctors routinely charge much higher fees to uninsured than to insured patients. So is the discount to the insurance company Medicare fraud? Or are uninsured patients being charged much more than the "very high" Medicare rates? "Mark A" <someone (AT) someone (DOT) com> wrote in message news:L5U3l.11491$dc4.1082 (AT) bignews2 (DOT) bellsouth.net... "Jim Higgins" <gordian238 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote in message news:e0dd6d0d-bc54-4491-8bf5- He never bothered to look at links as to how other governments handle healthcare: I know how they do it, and I didn't even say I am against it. But the fact is that the quality of health care in the US is much higher than other countries if one is willing to pay, and even for the average corporate employee whose company foots 80-100% of the bill. But I don't think we can afford that level of quality anymore. But considering the number of people who get rich in the US health care business, it will hard to change it. Getting the government to pay is not going to help unless we drastically reduce the cost. |
#2
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No and yes  Everything I posted is factual and can be verified if you do a proper search. |
not provide. This is just your trademark "do your own research"
horseshit. This story is just another Mike Hunter lie until you back
it up.
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I could not care less what you choose to believe or not |
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"Gordon McGrew" <gRmEcMgOrVeEw (AT) mindspring (DOT) com> wrote in message news:j533l4hi28b4fubhl7b86fokaqdp15eoio (AT) 4ax (DOT) com... On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:05:34 -0500, "Mike Hunter" mikehunt2@lycos/com> wrote: Besides the shark lawyers, one of the primary reason healthcare costs are so high in the US is BECAUSE of the government! It SETS the Medicare reimbursement rates very high. Any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare patients MUST charge the SET Medicare reimbursement rates TO EVERYBODY or they can be charged with Medicare fraud! The reason the government sets the rates high is to pay the doctors and hospital to provide the so called FREE care to the indigent under the US Hill Burton Act. The government IS the cause NOT the cure. Our local volunteer ambulance corps was shut down by the feds for Medicare fraud. The feds took all of their money and sold all of their equipment and were ready to put the VOLUNTEER leaders in jail, untill a US Senator stepped in and stopped the lunacy. The problem was the Medicare reimbursement rate to the hospital, three miles out of town, was $750 but the corps only charged the VOLUNTEER fireman's insurance company $250! Sounds like BS to me (so surprising coming from Mike.) Hospitals and doctors routinely charge much higher fees to uninsured than to insured patients. So is the discount to the insurance company Medicare fraud? Or are uninsured patients being charged much more than the "very high" Medicare rates? "Mark A" <someone (AT) someone (DOT) com> wrote in message news:L5U3l.11491$dc4.1082 (AT) bignews2 (DOT) bellsouth.net... "Jim Higgins" <gordian238 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote in message news:e0dd6d0d-bc54-4491-8bf5- He never bothered to look at links as to how other governments handle healthcare: I know how they do it, and I didn't even say I am against it. But the fact is that the quality of health care in the US is much higher than other countries if one is willing to pay, and even for the average corporate employee whose company foots 80-100% of the bill. But I don't think we can afford that level of quality anymore. But considering the number of people who get rich in the US health care business, it will hard to change it. Getting the government to pay is not going to help unless we drastically reduce the cost. |
#3
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| Mike Hunter wrote: : Besides the shark lawyers, one of the primary reason healthcare costs are so high in the US is BECAUSE of the government! It SETS the Medicare reimbursement rates very high. Any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare patients MUST charge the SET Medicare reimbursement rates TO EVERYBODY or they can be charged with Medicare fraud! You could be correct if the year was still 1968, but Medicare has operated under cost controls since the mid-1970s, and currently no health payment system, public or private, sets lower reimbursements for hospitals and doctors than Medicare, except possibly some Medicaid programs or Tricare. |
#4
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rantonrave (AT) mail (DOT) com> wrote in message news:7c641a62-8a4f-446c-ba9a-57bf234b1bcc (AT) z27g2000prd (DOT) googlegroups.com... Mike Hunter wrote: : Besides the shark lawyers, one of the primary reason healthcare costs are so high in the US is BECAUSE of the government! It SETS the Medicare reimbursement rates very high. Any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare patients MUST charge the SET Medicare reimbursement rates TO EVERYBODY or they can be charged with Medicare fraud! You could be correct if the year was still 1968, but Medicare has operated under cost controls since the mid-1970s, and currently no health payment system, public or private, sets lower reimbursements for hospitals and doctors than Medicare, except possibly some Medicaid programs or Tricare. That may be your opinion but you are not correct I was recently hospitalized for six days. The Medicare set rate was over $13,000, my HMO settled it for about one third that amount and I paid a $50 co-pay. The doctor(s) bills were also settled for less than half the Medicare rate From what I know of Aetna, Cigna, and Humana reimbursement practices, |
probably confusing the billings with the payments, which often differ
by as much as 4:1.
#5
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The stupidity of the high Medicare rates is, if I were a member of the corps under 65, the corps would NOT charge me or my HMO a dine. Since I am of 65 and they did NOT bill the HMO they would be charged with Medicare fraud. Medicare IS DEFINITELY one of the primary reasons for our high medical care cost in the US and for the reasons stated previously |
Here in the UK we have the NHS which provides the insurance, the
surgeries, the doctors/nurses, and the hospitals all at once. Since the
private companies and the private doctors/hospitals all have to compete
with the basic level of care set by the NHS, their pricing structures
reflect this and private insurance is quite cheap here.
The health service in the USA appears to be a big scam with the
insurers, the HMOs and - yes - the doctors who prescribe all kinds of
wonder drugs for small ailments - all in on it. I'd definitely agree
that a good private hospital will be cleaner and more comfortable than
the average hospital in the UK. But you're paying over the odds for it.
Our hospitals here are not hotel-like in their luxury, and I certainly
won't pretend they're perfect; we might wait a few weeks longer for
surgery, but the population as a whole is generally healthier. It
shouldn't be beyond the gift of the USA, a nation far more powerful and
richer than the UK, to figure this out ?
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