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    #46
    The Australian Medicare system costs each taxpayer about 2.5% of their income.
    If you're on some form of welfare, doctors are as good as free and there's a cap on how much you have to pay for medication.
    But, unless you have private health cover, you don't get to see the doctor you want and you get to wait in a long queue for non-emergency treatment. So, instead of MRI next week, MRI in a few months.
    Heart needs a bypass? Wait. Cancer? That'll get you straight in.
    I have private cover, just so I can see the doctor I want to see when I need to see that doctor.
    Private cover plus Medicare still leaves a great big gap.

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      #47
      i say repeal the bill and throw out obama revamp the goverment and go back to the days of the wildwest

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        #48
        So its2much,
        If the current tax code allows 7.5% as a threshold before deduction and the number is raised to 10%, that would be a tax hike. Am I correct? And would that change hurt the less fortunate in our country? I say its time to take our vacations in La Jolla, maybe horseback riding !

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          #49
          I'm a bit of a news junkie and read a few different newspapers online each morning.

          Here's a link to a really balanced article from a reputable newspaper about the challenges and the changes that will take place once the new law takes affect. Nothing political about the article, just the facts.

          http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/...rm-law/1237984

          The only part that threw me a little was the last paragraph, because we MSers are huge users of expensive pharmaceuticals, and in my case I use an expensive device (pump.) We do cost more than the "average" patient and as I've already run into with one insurance company we used to have, if you're "chronic", as in there's no chance of you getting rid of the disease, they limit your PT benefits....so we shall see. Oh, here's the last paragraph.

          "We can't afford to continue to give out expensive pills, perform expensive procedures that have horrible outcomes," he said. "We're paying for things that only benefit pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturing companies and those that provide expensive services."

          Comment


            #50
            Scooter24 wrote:


            2 questions

            What is a IPAP review?

            Why do you bother to spend the $ on medicare if you get all your treatment at the VA? All I haveis Part A which is no charge.
            I am not sure of the exact words for the letters (Army should have taught me better but MS destroyed my cognitive abilities), but it is an Independent Physician Access Panel I think and it is indeed the death panel that we were warned about. They make decisions regarding efficacy and whether treatment is effective or improvement can be achieved.

            With a progressive disease, not sure that we can justify $3,000 a month for my medication, and with chronic kidney failure plus rosacea (affecting my eyes as well) Hashimoto's thyroid, psoriasis and now possible Sjrogen's Syndrome, well I just cannot seem to stop needing medical care.

            I have Medicare to maintain private pay prescriptions and doctor's visits - I was inpatient for blood clots recently, need Infectious Disease and ENT for non-stop sinus infections that even surgery, 2 PICC lines for IV antibiotics, a truckload of oral antibiotics and 6 IVIG infusions, and still always sick.

            I have been diagnosed with Common Variable Immunodeficiency and I just cannot wait the long times to get care at the VA for infections which have been non-stop for 8 years. I have had 4 different private Infectious Disease doctors and am going to Johns Hopkins in September.

            BTW, Johns Hopkins considers MS to be an infectious neurological disease (per their neurology department website). My problems started with a sinus infection in 2005 and I have never gotten better, diagnosed with MS due to falls in 2006.

            The VA has been great for MS, their pain doctor very helpful, and the pulmonary and dermatology doctors are all wonderful. But it took a long time from the problem to the treatment, and when I can wait, I do. I am now waiting to have another renal ultrasound since the 24 hr urine showed more damage. All those darn antibiotics for the infections have damaged my kidneys.

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              #51
              I think there are good parts to the act BUT being employed as soon as this all came up, our premiums went up, our copays went up, and we lost parts of the insurance.

              With that said, the employer also may drop coverage all together and make you go out and get it on your own.

              Also my niece got the same blood tests, two different places. The big well-known hospital charged over $700, the smaller charged less than $200. These were the exact same tests.

              I think that is the bad part of this act, these hospitals etc are going to start charging more, telling you what you need and don't need and taking over what you are going to get. I watched some exec on TV from a hospital say this and it was scary in my opinion to hear someone tell me they will decide, not the dr, not me, what tests I need can be eliminated.

              And if we are forced to take this, then every politician should have to have the exact same coverage they are extending to us.

              I do think there are parts that will be to our benefit, unfortunately I think the insurance companies, the hospitals are going to make sure they make a profit.

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                #52
                JerryD

                I don't think the really need deduct their medical expenses - 7.5% is alot of money to them. Do you think the really needy have other deductions - mortgage, property taxes, etc?

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                  #53
                  The Drug Companies

                  weren't impacted by this law at all. No one is telling them to lower their prices. The big companies (employers) purchase health insurance which lowers the drug costs to their subscribers(employees). The little guy with less rich coverage gets hit with extremely high drug costs even with their insurance.

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                    #54
                    I do wish we could get insurance companies less involved. I heard Dr. Ron Paul (and I am NOT a Ron Paul supporter) talk about how medical costs really started to rise in the 1960s when insurance companies got put in the mix.

                    And get away from employer based insurance. It is true the bigger companies get breaks that others don't. It would help bring pharmaceutical costs down for everyone.

                    I worry for us with MS and the whole "are you worthy" of the cost of your meds question. Not only does the bill have death panels, but now we have birth panels, because you are now covered just by being! Think about that!

                    They want preventative care for women. Does that include the tests that tell you if your child is going to have problems upon birth? Will the 5 person panel then say, hmm, maybe this one better not make it all the way here?

                    We just all have to be so careful because not all people are good, or have good intentions. You never want to give a group power that can't be taken back.

                    It will be interesting to see if 1-we can afford this bill, 2- it really helps who it says it will help, and 3- the scares come true, or not. We all just need to stay informed, and not hide under the covers on this one!
                    Brenda
                    Adversity gives you two choices in life: either let it make you bitter, or let it make you better! I choose the latter.

                    Comment


                      #55
                      Originally posted by its2much View Post
                      I don't think the really need deduct their medical expenses - 7.5% is alot of money to them. Do you think the really needy have other deductions - mortgage, property taxes, etc?
                      Yes, in some cases at least. For example, my husband recently retired in order to take care of me. He's 68, so it wasn't that long until he'd planned to retire anyway.

                      We'll be living off of Social Security, but we still have a monthly mortgage payment to make, plus annual property taxes.

                      Believe me, we're among the "really needy"!

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                        #56
                        [QUOTE=Dandaman;1368646]
                        Please name one program run by the government that is either efficient or affordable?

                        How about Medicare? Lower administrative costs and higher satisfaction than private insurance.

                        I'll tell you what's *not* efficient and affordable: the current system. The US has the most expensive health care in the world (by a lot), leaves tens of millions of people uncovered, and ranks around 30th on a lot of health statistics.

                        Under ACA and the single payer system, if dont have health insurance, the federal government will confiscate your earnings.
                        I dont recall my auto insurance working like that.

                        "Confiscate your earnings"! You have to pay a tiny tax to cover the free care you're getting. Just like the government confiscates your earnings to pay for national defense, whether you want national defense or not.

                        Are you telling me that if you got a citation for not having auto insurance you wouldn't have to pay anything?

                        If all of us spent money from our own pockets on therapies, Im certain these CRAB's would be much cheaper, and LDN'rs would have alot more 'members'. (meaning more nuero's would write the script).

                        Yeah, let's just get rid of insurance.

                        Social Security may be a big clue. The program is broke and there is nothing for my children. Uncle Sam has run out of our money.

                        Republicans want everyone to think this, but it's not true.

                        I would agree changes are needed in heallthcare. The government is not the answer, they are the problem.

                        In this case, the private sector is the problem.

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                          #57
                          [QUOTE=4boysmom;1369393]

                          I worry for us with MS and the whole "are you worthy" of the cost of your meds question. Not only does the bill have death panels, but now we have birth panels, because you are now covered just by being! Think about that!

                          No, the bill does not have death panels. That is a myth, created I think by Sarah Palin. Nothing like it. Nor birth panels.

                          Why is it a bad thing that you are covered by insurance just by being?

                          They want preventative care for women. Does that include the tests that tell you if your child is going to have problems upon birth? Will the 5 person panel then say, hmm, maybe this one better not make it all the way here?

                          There are NO 5-person panels. Or any other number of people. Myth. Or, if you prefer, lie (not by you, just believed by you).

                          You're the first person I've ever heard say that preventive care is a bad thing.

                          Comment


                            #58
                            People really need to lean world history and learn from it.

                            When the US government has work with the private sector to created great national projects the US has had a boom, for example national railroads, national highways, telegraph and phone system, the space program, power grid to farmers and etc.

                            And a large part of the world follows our lead, and those who don’t are not a nice place to live.

                            After creation and the government seeks to maintain the project it leads to stagnation and whole world slowly advance or stagnates.

                            For example the national phone system stagnated from time of creation to the government handed it over to the private sector in the 1980s, the national highways, railroads, and power grid is still stagnating. The space program stagnated from the moon landing to last year when it was given without notice to the private sector in an attempt to give it to Russia on US tax payer’s dime.

                            Another example is the stagnating US public education ( witch the constitution says the government encourage, not control) The US is dropping in world raking not because the US kids are harder to teach, it is because the rest of the world is slowly advancing.

                            I’m not saying republican prefect, far from it. As far as I know not one of them correct B.O. when he was claiming the gulf oil leak was the worst environmental disaster in US history.
                            Or play the Beetles’ song about change

                            So the ACA = Stagnation
                            Give life meaning, live life by the 9 Noble Virtues.

                            Comment


                              #59
                              Howard F
                              Great reply. Facts usually do win out. Hopefully, they will here too.

                              Comment


                                #60
                                Trouble is, there are no facts, only interpretations. And let's not pretend we're constitutional scholars.

                                If you don't see the effects of government creating technologies, drugs and jobs, you're not looking hard enough.

                                And name calling never expressed political theory less eloquently.

                                I will be better off with the ACA, as will many here.

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