Republican SecDef: Obama is analytical, deliberate and intellectually curious

[one...two...tree 2,762]

8 minute video of Glen Beck? Come on, Bill....just state names of presidential advisers who are former members of the Weather Underground. You don't need Glen Beck to provide the list.

And are you also suggesting the Obama has too many advisers (Czars)?

It's like a termite infested house. The more you poke around, the more stuff begins to crumble.

Glenn Beck is my hero!

You didn't have to tell me that, my Right Wing, Conspiracy Theorist friend. You'd rather use conjecture and hearsay than actually back up your claims with facts.

I guess you have no shame in spreading lies. Too bad that habit wasn't corrected at an earlier age.

[Peikko 1,575]

Lone Ranger 0 - Bat Guano 1.

Back to Kindergarten you go Bill.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

8 minute video of Glen Beck? Come on, Bill....just state names of presidential advisers who are former members of the Weather Underground. You don't need Glen Beck to provide the list.

And are you also suggesting the Obama has too many advisers (Czars)?

It's like a termite infested house. The more you poke around, the more stuff begins to crumble.

Glenn Beck is my hero!

You didn't have to tell me that, my Right Wing, Conspiracy Theorist friend. You'd rather use conjecture and hearsay than actually back up your claims with facts.

I guess you have no shame in spreading lies. Too bad that habit wasn't corrected at an earlier age.

When you stop posting stuff from ThinkProgress.org, then you might approach moral highground. Your Messiah is in the Whitehouse. You have to give lattitude to the loyal opposition.

Edited September 28, 2009 by Lone Ranger

[rebeccajo 14]

You are laughable to call Stabenow (from my state) a blue-dog. Perhaps you got it from your googled list, but you need to verify sites you make reference to. Stabenow is no moderate. Baucus is a moderate? Are you dreaming? He's the one who introduced the bill in congress for the socialized medicine. My gosh, your list is bogus.

Could we please stop calling the proposed bill "Socialized Medicine"?

Definition of Socialized medicine

Socialized medicine: A system of health care in which all health personnel and health facilities, including doctors and hospitals, work for the government and draw salaries from the government. Doctors in the US Veterans Administration and the Armed Services are paid this way. And the Veterans and US military hospitals are also supported this way. Examples also exist in Great Britain and Spain.

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=25521

Medical and hospital services for the members of a class or population administered by an organized group (as a state agency) and paid for from funds obtained usually by assessments, philanthropy, or taxation.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/...alized+medicine

I'm still wondering where all the conservatives are in Obama's cabinet.

The same place all the liberals were in the cabinet of the last administration.

[lostinblue 1,989]

How many doctors will there be in this country after this new health bill becomes law. Say 20 years out in time. Just ask your family doctor if he could live on a medicare fee scale.

"Doctors have complained for years that Medicare rates haven't kept pace with costs, such as new technology and the added paperwork required by insurance companies. The formula for determining reimbursement rates has basically been unchanged since Medicare was created in the 1960s, said Gondo.

Medicare reimburses doctors for about 46 percent of their fees while private insurance pays from 60 to 65 percent, said Dr. Timothy Melhorn, medical director at Cornerstone Medical Clinic, which is owned by Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital.

Medical practices incurred a 7 percent increase in operating costs in 2005, but Medicare reimbursed doctors less than half that amount, according to the Medical Group Management Association, which advocates for medical practice managers.

The association calculates that if Congress doesn't act to provide more funding, physicians will be paid at a rate lower than in 1999 while their costs have jumped 43 percent since that time. "

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2008/...dicare-meltdown

[one...two...tree 2,762]

How many doctors will there be in this country after this new health bill becomes law. Say 20 years out in time. Just ask your family doctor if he could live on a medicare fee scale.

Do you have a medical HMO or PPO plan?

[rebeccajo 14]

How many doctors will there be in this country after this new health bill becomes law. Say 20 years out in time. Just ask your family doctor if he could live on a medicare fee scale.

"Doctors have complained for years that Medicare rates haven't kept pace with costs, such as new technology and the added paperwork required by insurance companies. The formula for determining reimbursement rates has basically been unchanged since Medicare was created in the 1960s, said Gondo.

Medicare reimburses doctors for about 46 percent of their fees while private insurance pays from 60 to 65 percent, said Dr. Timothy Melhorn, medical director at Cornerstone Medical Clinic, which is owned by Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital.

Medical practices incurred a 7 percent increase in operating costs in 2005, but Medicare reimbursed doctors less than half that amount, according to the Medical Group Management Association, which advocates for medical practice managers.

The association calculates that if Congress doesn't act to provide more funding, physicians will be paid at a rate lower than in 1999 while their costs have jumped 43 percent since that time. "

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2008/...dicare-meltdown

Medicare fees might not have gone up, but the costs to a facility for processing Medicare claims are also far lower than processing insurance claims. Payment is faster too.

The argument above is incongruous because it takes a program like Medicare and tosses it into the entire mix of increased expenses for physicians. I guarantee you that Medicare administration has not increased those expenses in any comparative way to the costs of administrating insurance claims.

[Ling Ling 22]

How many doctors will there be in this country after this new health bill becomes law. Say 20 years out in time. Just ask your family doctor if he could live on a medicare fee scale.

"Doctors have complained for years that Medicare rates haven't kept pace with costs, such as new technology and the added paperwork required by insurance companies. The formula for determining reimbursement rates has basically been unchanged since Medicare was created in the 1960s, said Gondo.

Medicare reimburses doctors for about 46 percent of their fees while private insurance pays from 60 to 65 percent, said Dr. Timothy Melhorn, medical director at Cornerstone Medical Clinic, which is owned by Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital.

Medical practices incurred a 7 percent increase in operating costs in 2005, but Medicare reimbursed doctors less than half that amount, according to the Medical Group Management Association, which advocates for medical practice managers.

The association calculates that if Congress doesn't act to provide more funding, physicians will be paid at a rate lower than in 1999 while their costs have jumped 43 percent since that time. "

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2008/...dicare-meltdown

Are you saying that all the doctors will leave the US if there's a healthcare reform?

In my opinion, education cost too much in the US, doctors are paid too much in the US, and healthcare cost too much in the US.

If we had more affordable education, we'd probably have more doctors (with less educational debt).

I'd really like to see a day when doctors and teachers have similar salaries. I'm tired of living in a country full of stupid and sick people.

I can't believe people are more interested in saving the millionaire doctors and billionaire insurance companies, rather than having healthy family, friends, neighbors and employees. No matter how much money YOU make, or how great YOUR insurance plan is, there are still a great number of people who can't afford health insurance.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Blue Shield HMO paid only $3,000 for my knee surgery even though the initial bill from the doctor was about $26,000. I seriously doubt that many doctors are able to collect 100% on their patients when most Americans who do have insurance are under some kind of HMO.

[rebeccajo 14]

35,000 doctors in Great Britain tried to stop the NHS six months before it was to go full service because they were afraid they'd loose money.

In the US the doctors don't have to worry about campaigning against a national program because they've got the neo-cons drinking all the insurance company Kool-Aid and doing the ranting for them.

Everybody's always afraid of a little change. FFS people, if you don't have change you don't have progress.

Blue Shield HMO paid only $3,000 for my knee surgery even though the initial bill from the doctor was about $26,000. I seriously doubt that many doctors are able to collect 100% on their patients when most Americans who do have insurance are under some kind of HMO.

Your doctor jacks up his bill so he/she can afford to accept what the insurance company will pay him/her.

THAT'S been going on for decades.

Edited September 28, 2009 by rebeccajo

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Blue Shield HMO paid only $3,000 for my knee surgery even though the initial bill from the doctor was about $26,000. I seriously doubt that many doctors are able to collect 100% on their patients when most Americans who do have insurance are under some kind of HMO.

Your doctors jacks up his bill so he/she can afford to accept what the insurance company will pay him/her.

THAT'S been going on for decades.

...which makes the argument that doctors really have bargaining power when it comes to what they can collect from private insurance irrelevant. The insurance companies are the ones who've got the bargaining power under our current health care system.

Edited September 28, 2009 by Col. 'Bat' Guano

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Blue Shield HMO paid only $3,000 for my knee surgery even though the initial bill from the doctor was about $26,000. I seriously doubt that many doctors are able to collect 100% on their patients when most Americans who do have insurance are under some kind of HMO.

Your doctors jacks up his bill so he/she can afford to accept what the insurance company will pay him/her.

THAT'S been going on for decades.

...which makes the argument that doctors really have bargaining power when it comes to what they can collect from private insurance irrelevant. The insurance companies are the ones who've got the bargaining power under our current health care system.

Sorta. Out of a dozen or so, "approved" hand specialists in the area, only one would finally accept the terms of my wife's workman's compensation carrier to fix her thumb. That took like 2 months before that finally happened. Personally, I think they should just nationalize the whole thing, and fire 90 percent of the paper pushers. The hoops we had to go through for a simple cortisone shot was ridiculous, and I am sure, ended up costing the insurance company, more money in the long run.

By comparison, Kaiser is a breeze, compared to the workman's compensation system in California.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Blue Shield HMO paid only $3,000 for my knee surgery even though the initial bill from the doctor was about $26,000. I seriously doubt that many doctors are able to collect 100% on their patients when most Americans who do have insurance are under some kind of HMO.

Your doctors jacks up his bill so he/she can afford to accept what the insurance company will pay him/her.

THAT'S been going on for decades.

...which makes the argument that doctors really have bargaining power when it comes to what they can collect from private insurance irrelevant. The insurance companies are the ones who've got the bargaining power under our current health care system.

Sorta. Out of a dozen or so, "approved" hand specialists in the area, only one would finally accept the terms of my wife's workman's compensation carrier to fix her thumb. That took like 2 months before that finally happened. Personally, I think they should just nationalize the whole thing, and fire 90 percent of the paper pushers. The hoops we had to go through for a simple cortisone shot was ridiculous, and I am sure, ended up costing the insurance company, more money in the long run.

By comparison, Kaiser is a breeze, compared to the workman's compensation system in California.

If it's worker's comp - that would be your wife's employers insurance, correct?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Blue Shield HMO paid only $3,000 for my knee surgery even though the initial bill from the doctor was about $26,000. I seriously doubt that many doctors are able to collect 100% on their patients when most Americans who do have insurance are under some kind of HMO.

Your doctors jacks up his bill so he/she can afford to accept what the insurance company will pay him/her.

THAT'S been going on for decades.

...which makes the argument that doctors really have bargaining power when it comes to what they can collect from private insurance irrelevant. The insurance companies are the ones who've got the bargaining power under our current health care system.

Sorta. Out of a dozen or so, "approved" hand specialists in the area, only one would finally accept the terms of my wife's workman's compensation carrier to fix her thumb. That took like 2 months before that finally happened. Personally, I think they should just nationalize the whole thing, and fire 90 percent of the paper pushers. The hoops we had to go through for a simple cortisone shot was ridiculous, and I am sure, ended up costing the insurance company, more money in the long run.

By comparison, Kaiser is a breeze, compared to the workman's compensation system in California.

If it's worker's comp - that would be your wife's employers insurance, correct?

Correct. The employer pays for the workman's comp carrier, which is in effect an insurance company. I have never dealt with anything but HMO's (or cash), and this was my first experience in a long time dealing with a third party carrier. It sucked big bananas. I hold no torch for insurance companies, as much as I deal with them through my work/bussiness all the time, and each one is it's own perculiar subspecies.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Correct. The employer pays for the workman's comp carrier, which is in effect an insurance company. I have never dealt with anything but HMO's (or cash), and this was my first experience in a long time dealing with a third party carrier. It sucked big bananas. I hold no torch for insurance companies, as much as I deal with them through my work/bussiness all the time, and each one is it's own perculiar subspecies.

Well, I think that worker's comp is whole animal by itself where liability comes into play. They're looking out for the best interest of the employer, not the employee.