Health care bill

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-2006
Health care bill
283
Thu, 01-22-2009 - 11:16pm

Medicare for all....check it out and contact your legislators encouraging them to support it.

Today, January 22, 2009, the new, improved version of H.R. 676 is introduced to congress with four differences.

It will not be modeled after the Canadian plan. Instead will be similar to a Medicare for All (not socialized medicine, can pick own docs)

It will be administered by Health and Human Services

The plan is for ALL residents. H & HS will define resident.

2 years of salary up to $100K offered to displaced health insurance workers

Transition from profit hospitals to not-for profit hospitals will be accomplished in the private sector over 15 years.

http://pdamerica.org/misc/676%20Fact%20Sheet%20-%20FINAL.pdf < What the plan offers

Get the additional legislators needed to sponsor it right away. Can't wait until mid-session. Write a sentence or two supporting H.R. 676 and send to your congressional district's legislators. Spread the word. Congress.org - Congressional Directory Find and contact your federal, state, and local officials. www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

-----------------------------------------------
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/meet_the_new_health_.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTBYQlQ7yM

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2009
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:12pm

"Cmon....There's no way my 90 yo mom, if she were insured by BCBS rather than by Medicare, would say, "Oh, you won't reject me? You'll just make me pay triple what everyone else pays because my insurance plan does not consider you a preferred provider? How KIND of you doc!""


Ummm, once again evidence please?

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2009
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:13pm

"I am still waiting for the link on the 2/3 assertion. "


The answer was already given.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-2006
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:16pm

<< An insurance company (unlike the authoritarianism of liberal government domination) most certainly does allow you to visit an out-of-network provider, but simply pays less than the fullest amount of a preffered provider.>>

You're right, I did not think about it much....I didn't have to. When you live it every day you don't need to think about it.

Perhaps your plan works like that. Ours BCBS policy does not. Our insurance company pays NOTHING to a doc who is not a preferred provider.

-----------------------------------------------
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/meet_the_new_health_.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTBYQlQ7yM

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-05-2008
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:21pm

Cost of Government Day has nothing to do with countries outside the US paying 2/3rds of their paychecks toward health care costs.


Edit to add:

 

 

Guild Member since 2009

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2009
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:22pm

"Perhaps your plan works like that. Ours BCBS policy does not. Our insurance company pays NOTHING to a doc who is not a preferred provider."


According to BC/BS it is exactly the same as the plans I've used:


http://www.bu.edu/hr/bu_benefits/plans/health/health_ver2_no8882324/bcbs_work.shtml


"Out-of-Network Coverage. When you choose Non-Preferred Providers you must pay a calendar-year deductible for most out-of-network services. The calendar year deductible begins on January 1 and ends on December 31 each year. The deductible is $250 for each member (or $500 for all family members covered under the same membership.) After you have met your deductible, you pay 20 percent co-insurance for most out-of-network covered services. When the money you paid for the 20 percent co-insurance equals $1,0000 (this is the out-of-pocket limit) for a member in a calendar year (or $2,000 for all family members covered under the same membership), benefits for that member (or that family) will be provided in full, based on the allowed charge, for the rest of that calendar year. Bills for covered outpatient services are paid by you and then submitted on claim forms for reimbursement."


A $250 deductable for a year's worth of out of network services for a year and that gets you 80% coverage.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-2006
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:24pm

http://www.phimg.org/V2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6Itemid=18

Single-Payer National Health Insurance

Single-payer national health insurance is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health financing, but delivery of care remains largely private.

Currently, the U.S. health care system is outrageously expensive, yet inadequate. Despite spending more than twice as much as the rest of the industrialized nations ($7,129 per capita), the United States performs poorly in comparison on major health indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality and immunization rates. Moreover, the other advanced nations provide comprehensive coverage to their entire populations, while the U.S. leaves 46 million completely uninsured and millions more inadequately covered.

The reason we spend more and get less than the rest of the world is because we have a patchwork system of for-profit payers. Private insurers necessarily waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments as well as huge profits and exorbitant executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must maintain costly administrative staffs to deal with the bureaucracy. Combined, this needless administration consumes one-third (31 percent) of Americans’ health dollars.

Single-payer financing is the only way to recapture this wasted money. The potential savings on paperwork, more than $350 billion per year, are enough to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone without paying any more than we already do.

Under a single-payer system, all Americans would be covered for all medically necessary services, including: doctor, hospital, long-term care, mental health, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. Patients would regain free choice of doctor and hospital, and doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.

Physicians would be paid fee-for-service according to a negotiated formulary or receive salary from a hospital or nonprofit HMO / group practice. Hospitals would receive a global budget for operating expenses. Health facilities and expensive equipment purchases would be managed by regional health planning boards.

A single-payer system would be financed by eliminating private insurers and recapturing their administrative waste. Modest new taxes would replace premiums and out-of-pocket payments currently paid by individuals and business. Costs would be controlled through negotiated fees, global budgeting and bulk purchasing.

-----------------------------------------------
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/meet_the_new_health_.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTBYQlQ7yM

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-2006
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:28pm

<>

If you think there is only ONE BCBS plan in this nation, you are grossly mistaken. I know what my plan states, and as I said, BCBS will pay NOTHING if we do not use a preferred provider. Our rejected claims prove it.

Are you accusing me of being dishonest?

-----------------------------------------------
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/meet_the_new_health_.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTBYQlQ7yM

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2009
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:33pm

"If you think there is only ONE BCBS plan in this nation, you are grossly mistaken. I know what my plan states, and as I said, BCBS will pay NOTHING if we do not use a preferred provider. Our rejected claims prove it."


I may not have seen every plan, but I've seen a lot of them.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-10-2008
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:41pm

Thankfully it's a bit less flakey outside today, but loads of snowflakes on the ground still and lots of winter left to go :)

Kate

Kate

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-04-2009
In reply to: janetlz
Fri, 01-23-2009 - 8:47pm


 

Pages