Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Seed Discussion Forum

Anyone for Socialized Medicine?

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GregFL:
expanding the medicare system to cover all also eliminates the redistributive nature of the program anyway, which again, takes money from workers and gives it to the elderly, whether they need it or not.  This is patently unfair to workers who not only pay the medicare premiums for the elderly, but also pay the shortages at hospitals by "overbilling practices" (which would make you or I end up in prison).


Please don't confuse my position on this with my position on social security.

SHH:
To put alot of the blame on doctors for the way the system works is unfair and I will tell you why I say this. My cousin, who is my age, (41), is an ob/gyn in Florida. He co-owns his practice along with 2 other doctors in the town where he lives, (small town of about 20,000). Their ob/gyn practice is the only one for about 70 miles. They work round the clock almost, delivering babies and seeing patients in the office and in the hospital. He doesnt ever get home to his family until after 9pm or sometimes later if he is the one on call that week. He also doesnt make a ton of money. His malpractice insurance premium is over 100,000 dollars a year. He has been going to hearings and petitioning the insurance commissioner in Florida to change how things are being done there because so many doctors in rural areas are having to either move to bigger cities or go out of business totally due to the high cost of insurance. They are so overworked because all the other ob/gyn's have moved away or quit in their area. To say that all doctors make a ton of money on their patients is a generalization and maybe true in los angeles or new york, but in small town america....doctors are moving away and leaving their patients to drive 40,50, even 60 miles for basic care. Its far from glamorous to be a doctor in small town america, and far from making the doctors wealthy.

P.S. I am not sure what cities you all live in, but in my particular city, they have some of the best medical care in the state, and I have never had to wait more than 30 min for my appt. Maybe Im just lucky???? I do think it depends on where youre living as to what kinds of services and their quality.

GregFL:
We just had an OBGyn near my town settle with Medicaid for 1/2 million dollars. He was double dipping, so to speak.

YOu have to blame the doctors.  Every doctor in my town lives like royality behind gated communities.  Most of them live in a community that my best friend lives in.  Their houses are absolutely palatial, and their teenage kids driver Beemers and Corvettes.

Maybe it is different in small time USA, but I am in a community of 150,000, which is small, and these Doctors are banking.

In Tampa, I saw an Orthopeadic 10 years ago.  I went back about a 2 years ago and they had built an entire self contained hospital, these 6 doctors that have a practice.  At the time I was going to get a procedure where they inject a pain killer into your neck,and BCBS approved 1000.  My brother in law had it done for 1100.  They wanted me to sign a paper that I would pay everything BCBS didn't approve.  I had to push them to give me a price, and when they finally did it was over 3000 grand.  I walked out.  A less astute "buyer" would have gotten shafted big time.

This type of practice is so common it is sickening.

SHH:
Well maybe its like that in your town, but I can assure you my cousin lives like the rest of us. He has a nice house, but its under 350,000. He drives an SUV and a minivan, has 2 kids, and when they had the 2nd child and ran out of room they added on instead of buying a bigger house. He lives on a 1/2 acre lot, no gated community, and until they added on it was just a 3 bedroom 2 bath house with a family room on the back. He does have a pool, but so do 1/2 the people in Florida. My point was, not ALL doctors double dip, cheat their patients, make them wait hours, and live like kings. Maybe in your exclusive community, but definately not in North Central Florida.

GregFL:
I live in Central Florida, and I don't live in the community I was referencing.

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