Healthcare: Yay or nay.

Discussion in 'Politics and other "Messy" Stuff' started by goaljnky, Sep 4, 2009.

  1. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

    Jun 24, 2009
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    New math!!!!

    Per Senator Reid; if we spend $894 billion dollars we will save $127 billion dollars! :devil:

    Can you feel their hands in your back pocket?
     
  2. Deviant

    Deviant Banned

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    That was quick, last night the price tag was $849 Billion, it seems they tacked nearly $50B to it while I slept.
     
  3. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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    Don't sweat the details of the price tag. They only underestimated the cost of most other federal entitlements by a factor of 10.

    But I'm sure they're completely accurate in their estimates for this one.

    Similar to the accuracy of the claims that the purchase of one $1,049 lawn mower "created or saved' 50 jobs.

    It's the "new math".
     
  4. Deviant

    Deviant Banned

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    It wasn't so much the accuracy of the estimation but the fact that the estimate increased overnight, someone's lobbying the midnight oil (and it's not the oil companies this time).
    And of course a lawn mower created or saved 50 jobs. They are the following:
    1)The guy who assembled the lawn mower
    2)The guy who assembled the engine
    3)the guy who put the engine in the lawn mower
    4)The guy who put the stickers and price-tag on the mower
    5)The Accountant at the lawn mower company who tracked the expenses
    6)The guy who transported the lawn mower to the dealership
    7)The janitor at the dealership
    8)The salesman at the dealership who sold the lawn mower
    9)The person who represented the company that bought the lawn mower
    10) The person who arranged financing on the lawn mower for the company
    11) The person who arranged the government grants to pay off the financing of the lawn mower
    12)The person who transported the lawn mower from the dealership to the companies location
    13)The person who transported the lawn mower from the companies location to the lawn
    14) The gas station attendant who sold the fuel for the lawn mower
    15) The person who transported the fuel from the gas station to the lawn mower in a fuel container
    16) The person who maintains the lawn mower
    17) The person who operates the lawn mower (1st shift)
    18) See above, second shift
    19) See above, third shift
    20) The accountant for the company who ensures all above created/saved jobs with the company are paid in accordance to payroll.
    21-25) The individual bankers who represent the banks the individuals above have accounts with
    26) The protester who advocates against the ritualistic decapitation of grass.
    27-50) Repeat above with manufacture and sales of fuel, fuel container, service parts, and other lawn related devices needed to generate grass for the lawnmower to cut.
     
  5. goaljnky

    goaljnky New Member

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    You forgot a few:

    1. Ad company to advertise the lawn mower
    2. Ad company salesmen
    3. Payroll person at the ad company to calculate the salesmen commission
    4. External payroll company to process the commission and pay appropriate taxes
    5. Investment banker to take the lawnmower company public through an IPO
    6. A broker to sell the new stock to unwitting investors
     
  6. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    But they don't really want to force people into the public option.....right.

    We own and operate our own small business and we CHOOSE to use more of our hard earned money to buy what the reform bill would call a Cadillac healthcare plan, if the Reid bill passes we will have to pay a 5% surcharge (tax) on that policy.......

    Why?
     
  7. goaljnky

    goaljnky New Member

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    Because you are hurting others.
     
  8. Deviant

    Deviant Banned

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    Well, where else is the government going to get the money for their grand plan. I don't think a 5% tax on elective cosmetic surgery will even scratch the surface of this though, no matter how many episodes of Nip/Tuck they watch and take notes from. I'm not sure if this is exactly socialism but it sure is a sneaky way to redistribute the wealth.

    Oh, and I'm living proof that Ugly is a congenital deformity! :D
     
  9. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    Medical Record Portability

    I'll not belabor the point that I do not visit the Dr very often due to cost considerations. However recent events in my life forced me to visit a dentist and then an oral surgeon. I had never been to this dentist before and as an aside will not go back to her. But anyway, I was greeted with 7 different forms to fill out. Many of them asked the same info such as name and address. I chalk that up to poor form design. They also has all of them online as pdf's allowing me to print and fill them out from home. The most annoying bit was that these forms did not allow for me to add my information and send them off to the office so that all was ready when I walked in the door. Instead each had to be printed and written on. Then at the office they spent a good 15 min with me going over them again. Now when one is such pain that one can't eat, sleep or even think straight this just adds to the torture. You would think that there would be a discount for cash too...not at this office.

    After an X-ray and quick look in my mouth they hustled me off to an Oral Surgeon. Why the dentist even took the time to write me prescriptions I have no idea. Not only that but the amounts were laughable. Here I am with a baseball sized abscess in y lower jaw and she give me 3 days worth of antibiotics and 6 Tylenol 3's. At my size that is 3 doses. Why even waste the paper.

    Silly me thinks will share my info with the surgeons office. Ehh, no. However, the surgeon has at least made it to the 21st century and uses a tablet to collect the data. The only paperwork I have to sign is the surgery consent. We chatted a bit while the IV antibiotics were administered and it turns out this office spent a nice chunk of change in creating their own software to track patients in a paperless manner. They have 2 locations and spend a considerable amount on off site storage and redundant backups. But, according to the Dr they spend less for all the hardware and support than what it would cost to physically store all the paper that would be required.

    My point is that with all the technology we now have why are more Doc still married to all that paper, and why can't a common format be negotiated so we a patients can store this info in a portable device we could give to the office to extract the info needed.

    There has to be a considerable cost saving if we could do that.
     
  10. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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    Amen. Key points being "standard format" and "portable device that your own".

    That requires almost no federal or state dollars to make happen. Just a little standards work between the medical and dental application providers (which they already do and most of which is already in place to facilitate communication between their various back-end systems - such as in a hospital).

    And you still own and control your information...
     
  11. goaljnky

    goaljnky New Member

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    I think those are in the works:

    google.com/health

    Microsoft has something similar and there is a third party with the same service. Just came back from a blood test and saw a poster on the lab's wall. Of course I am not all that eager to surrender my medical info to cloud computing.
     
  12. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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    I'm not too excited about the public health info repositories... much more in favor of "me on a memory stick". But no one asked me what I preferred. Typical.
     
  13. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    I can see the some of the pros and cons of each.

    I'm more for the "me on a memory stick" as well.

    However there can be a lot of good when the data is in a giant db. A lot of interesting statistics can be gleaned and maybe our health dollars could be more focused.
     
  14. lotsie

    lotsie Club Coordinator

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    "Me on a memory stick" would be great. I do think though that so many folks have no access, or are compucker illiterate/distrustful, that a paper system would probably still have to be in place.

    Mark
     
  15. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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    As for "no access" - you pay the first doc where you get it $5, they give you your data on the standard encrypted stick, and you're done. You never need a computer yourself.

    As for distrustful... that's not slowing them down currently on the bills I'm distrustful of... don't see why they'd let that start impacting policy now.... just put people in prison if they don't get the memory stick. That's what they plan to do for insurance...
     
  16. lotsie

    lotsie Club Coordinator

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    The access part makes sense, never thought of that.

    The whole prison thing will be a very bad idea:idea:. Instead of just letting people not have insurance, and let them pay as they need care, we will all end up paying their room and board, and their health care costs:eek:ut:

    Mark
     
  17. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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  18. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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  19. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    SPOT ON!!


    The Senate and the Congress should be made to sit in a room without phones or computers and read the dang thing until they have finished.... Anyone falling asleep should not be allowed to vote on it.:eek:

    Worst legislation ever conceived...
     

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