referrals? we have to get referrals for things with the va. my prescriptions are screwed up cause i have an unusual need and the system cancels my script. if my dr wants to up my dose beyond a certain amt then he has to get special permission from a committee. ive had to do this for 2 diff meds.

also they dont cover everything. if i have a heart attack or stroke and i have to go to a regular hosp cause the va hosp is 30 to 60 mins away depending on traffic then they can refuse to pay the whole bill. there are lots of times i miss my old private insurance.

Knowing you can get whatever life-saving care you need, including beyond what you could ever pay, whether you purchase health ins. or not.

Is your username a play on Leo Sayer? If so A+.

no my name is based off an old nemesis. well i have been on multiple sides of this equation.
i would say my experience with both gov and private i would prefer private.
i get great care once i get to the dr's and rn's but the rest of the system is pretty bad. i can't see people being happy with all the inefficient stuff.

Do you know who Leo Sayer is?

Yeah I mean no one is arguing good private-sector insurance isn't more convenient. But if you have nothing like 50 million Americans or whatever - having some kind of insurance is a lot better. Also our system spends about twice per capita on health care for less coverage.

personally i think the best system is the hsa's. buy a high deductible ins policy then stick money aside to cover the deductible. unlike traditional insurance you are not paying for something lots of folks never use. say you spent 250 a mth and didnt go to dr 1 time all year u just wasted 3k. but under hsa u probably wudda saved lets just say half that into an acct that earns interest. that way ppl wont go to the dr for colds (less stress on system) and later in life when they need it they will have plenty of cash to help with expenses. if i had the money i would self insure everything i could including homeowners.
yes hes one bad mo hummer

This is what I do fwiw. the high-deductible policy also covers all proactive visits (i.e. yearly physical, mammograms, prostate exams, vaccinations, etc) 100% with no copay.

Won't premiums rise under Obamcare now that the demand has increased. People who did not have insurance will not get it instead of paying a fine and people who could not afford insurance will now be covered. That means it costs more to go to the doctor and buy health insurance.

It depends how you create Obamacare in detail, if you cope the system that is common in most european countrys you get more for lower costs.

When has the U.S. govt ever been able to do anything for less money?

Medicare sets costs and runs cheaper than private insurance.

There can be free market incentives towards a single payer system. There are multiple markets at work here and one of them is the risk market. Risk adverse individuals can gain from trading risk with other individuals. It might be such a thing the best outcome is for everyone to be in a single risk pool.

That's because medicare doesn't pay for itself. You guys are subsidizes us seniors. $99.50 a month premiums.

A single payer system is not a free market. It's price controls.

Actually, your statement is incredibly false. I have been in the insurance business for 23 years. Medicare is extremely expensive and filled with fraud and waste. This is why you see Advantage Plans so prevalent, because they are cheaper and more efficient.

It is actually cheaper for the Govt. to pay a private plan to provide services to an individual than to provide those services itself. The numbers bear this out. Only a politician or a blind partisan will tell you that a Govt. run plan can be as efficient or cost effective as a private plan.

Medicare is run cheaper because they only have like 3% overhead as opposed to 30%+ for private insurance. This is also why every other advanced country only spends about half what we do per capita on medical care.

I have no interest in establishing a single payer system. I do however think the risk market may tend towards a single risk pool.

The Paradox of Medicare Overhead

When we add the $90B in fraud, the overhead is more like 15-17%.

Over $500B in expenditures. At $1,200 per person, doesn't it required over 400 million seniors paying into the system?

Where does that link say $90 billion in fraud? How does this $90 billion in fraud effect the overhead?

How do you explain the evidence already posted in this thread about the amount of service delivered for each per person cost?

According to ABC news there can be as much as $90B in medicare fraud a year.

Fraud is part is overhead.

http://mercatus.org/publication/spen...nt-budget-2030


And you want govt to provide more healthcare?

Umm no, just no.



From Health Economist Austin Frakt

Yawn - this has been done. Why do you believe the US wouldn't follow the path that every other UHC country has in terms of spending on healthcare? What makes you different?

As for your fraud link - I'm not going to watch a video. Either link to a real informed article or just admit you were pulling an argument out of your bum.

Where is the option for being for it at the state level and against it at the federal level?

Just a little anecdotal evidence on how the people have to wait based on my latest wait times in a big metropolis ( rome ).

I scheduled an X-ray HD computed tomography today, and got an appointment for the 20 feb. The cost will be 36€.

The total sums up to: 2 hours of waiting for the general doctor, 2 days for an x-ray, 1 hour for a specialist, 2 hours again for a general doctor, 23 days for HDCT scan.

Total spent: 36€ x 3. The only negative side is that if you can't move, my closest hospital had the next HDCT during may. Fortunately I can, and just making 4km more saves me months.

Diane Sawyer introduced the report. It was a segment out of 20/20.