Impeding changes to our Health Care system

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Well once the bill is passed, in whatever form it will be it allows for no clause for a pre-existing condition. So if I have a heart attack, and a week later get health insurance, they have to cover my heart conditon. Maybe not the inital bill, because I would be responsible for that first week, but since I have no income they would just have to write off the costs. But after that I should be good to go. Pay the fine, since I don't have health insurance, buy insurance, don't have enough to pay for it because I don't have a job, get the government to pay for it. Good to go!

And if you have a job or investment income or any wealth and chose to not have health insurance and suffer an accident or injury or require immediate major surgery for a heart attack, as Bruce's brother would potentially face, you are financial responsible for those medical costs....it could be only a $couple hundred for broken bone or $tens of thousands for major surgery.

[xoxoxoBruce]

You're making a lot of assumptions.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

You're making a lot of assumptions.

I dont like using personal examples, but if he or anyone, even if not working, has income from commercial buildings or investment income, one cannot simply write off the medical bill as an indigent.

[xoxoxoBruce]

No no, that was directed at Merc. You snuck in between while I was taking a piss. Prostrate trumps all.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

No no, that was directed at Merc. You snuck in between while I was taking a piss. Prostrate trumps all.

Trump's prostrate would be covered if he develops problems after deciding to drop his insurance.

[xoxoxoBruce]

[Shawnee123]

Your signature line is stellar, Bruce.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

You're making a lot of assumptions.

What would prevent anyone from doing that who previously did not have health insurance?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Well once the bill is passed, in whatever form it will be it allows for no clause for a pre-existing condition. So if I have a heart attack, and a week later get health insurance, they have to cover my heart conditon.

First, you're assuming your cow orkers would be interested in saving your life.

Maybe not the inital bill, because I would be responsible for that first week, but since I have no income they would just have to write off the costs.

No they don't, being in the hospital for a week is not, "not working", besides there is a matter of assets.

But after that I should be good to go.

You're assuming you'll be able to buy health insurance like a case of beer, with no delay, no waiting period.

Pay the fine, since I don't have health insurance, buy insurance, don't have enough to pay for it because I don't have a job, get the government to pay for it. Good to go!

Assets man, assets, plus income earned previously in the year with those fat contracts. If the poor people can get insurance without paying for it, why the fuck would they not have insurance? duh.
It's the people that can afford it that have to make a choice, get to gamble. But that's a narrow band between, free to the poor, and we'll wipe you out with an emergency.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

First, you're assuming your cow orkers would be interested in saving your life.

No they don't, being in the hospital for a week is not, "not working", besides there is a matter of assets.
You're assuming you'll be able to buy health insurance like a case of beer, with no delay, no waiting period. Assets man, assets, plus income earned previously in the year with those fat contracts. If the poor people can get insurance without paying for it, why the fuck would they not have insurance? duh.
It's the people that can afford it that have to make a choice, get to gamble. But that's a narrow band between, free to the poor, and we'll wipe you out with an emergency.

I think the person with assets could get away with sheltering them if he did it prior to getting sick, your right, it would be a chance, but I do think it could be done. My example was of the guy who had none or minimal to begin with. Those are the people who are hurt the most by a catastrophic event.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Generally people having a heart attack call the ambulance rather than their lawyer. Then there's the car crash, where they don't call at all. Risky, too risky in my brother's case. Being a national director for the SCCA, he travels a lot, which make it ever riskier. For some it might work out, but I suspect there are very few in that perfect position to play that game, and certainly nobody with a family should.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

For some it might work out, but I suspect there are very few in that perfect position to play that game, and certainly nobody with a family should.

I agree.

I have a few friends who have created a personal company, owned entirely by their spouse. All the legal paperwork says she owns the company. She stays at home, the other person works, the spouse pays a salary to the other one. Every thing goes through the company. The working person owns very little on paper. In fact they pay very little in personal tax because of all of it going through the company. The house, cars, furniture, everything is owned by the company.

Other people have moved assets into revokable trusts, everything is owned by the trust.

Clever people.

I personally would not be so trusting. And the older you get the more you need to keep some health insurance around.

[xoxoxoBruce]

What was that movie with Broderick Crawford and Judy Holliday, where he hid everything in her name, and she gave him an enema? Now that's risky.

[jinx]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

You're assuming you'll be able to buy health insurance like a case of beer, with no delay, no waiting period.

How long will it take? Takes 1/2 hour to get car insurance.

And where does the CAT fund come into play.

[TheMercenary]

And there you have it.... as I stated numerous times. The push back begins.

Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government’s largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman. The decision, which Yardley called a two-year pilot project, won’t affect other Mayo facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

Obama in June cited the nonprofit Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for offering “the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm.” Mayo’s move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday.

“Many physicians have said, ‘I simply cannot afford to keep taking care of Medicare patients,’” said Heim, a family doctor who practices in Laurinburg, North Carolina. “If you truly know your business costs and you are losing money, it doesn’t make sense to do more of it.”

continues:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aHoYSI84VdL0