I was at a doctor's office and asked if single-payer....

health insurance would be better considering the paperwork they were doing. The women behind the counter said almost in unison, "Oh, government--no way. Just look at what happened down in New Orleans!"

"Well, FEMA was very efficient in past years. They screwed up because of the incompetent people who were appointed to run it," I said.

They said nothing after that. I think I challenged their belief system and it seems they had adopted the right wing mantras. I thought that people who face the patchwork of insurance coverages and have to handle a maze of paperwork would want to change things but apparently not.

They know they're overcharging. They know they're on a gravy train from the insurance companies & the government. They don't want that to end. Single payer puts them back into the role of public servant, removing them from the ranks of the over-compensated professionals.

How can it take 90 minutes to put some pills in a bottle and print a label?

There is a trade school in Denver for medical billing coding.

are sick of the current system. As for the people who were doing the paperwork, of course they don't favor single-payer--one of them would lose their job!

He favors Universal Healthcare. He thinks insurance companies are all crooks and hates dealing with them.

Figure that one out.

Like having to deal with the truth on a daily basis.

the road... When people can't afford to go to Dr's office for the basic treatment, they won't have job!

going to be about health care in America? I thought I heard this would be happy if it was true.thx

and CHIPS? Do they think they are as bad as FEMA, (all government programs) or do they perform like the private insurers do?

I'll bet that, other than the fact that the government programs pay less, something that can be remedied with appropriate funding, they can't say that the private insurers are easier to work with. They can't or they are lying.

are FOR an NHS, as long as it's not run like the UK's, but more like Canada, or some of the other Western European countries.

with multiple payers if they all had to be non-profits.

What a comedian you are!

I have no idea why. He also considers Medicare the most efficiently run insurance program around. He says they know down to the penny what doctors should be charging for a procedure and pay accordingly.

without any restrictions, including number of visits, pre-approval for tests, paperwork, etc. They set the fee and then leave us the hell alone. People and their doctors decide upon care, amount and type, based on what medical science has to offer.

coverage although the Canadian system is pretty close. Doctors in each provincial sector and Canadian Medicare agree to the fees and other points of health care on a regular basis. I thought it was yearly, but I am not sure. Would these be satisfactory to you? I noticed with Medicare there is a bit of a waste with your system.

For example, a couple of months ago I fell and banged up my elbow on concrete pretty good without breaking any bones. Since it was in the middle of the night I washed, disinfected and bandaged it as best I could and went to bed. The next morning I had a raging blood poisoning type of infection, dripping pus and so I went to the nearest urgent care.

Urgent care, took an X-Ray, examined it, rebandaged it and then said I needed to go to the emergency room because they couldn't locate an orthopedist to see me. So I went to the emergency roon, got some antibiotics, was rebandaged and told I didn't need an orthopedist but to see my regular doctor for follow up care.

Now shouldn't have urgent care sent me directly to emergency if they couldn't deal with it? It seemed like such a waste of money there and no one cared because it was paid for.

immediately. Here, in order to remain on hospital staff, each doctor has to take ER call in rotation, each specialty always covered, and respond in less than 30 minutes. It is awful what you went through, you could have died. I have been a doctor over 28 years, and it used to be that private insurance paid whatever we charged, we decided the charges, and we treated the rest, about 30% of people, for free. Then certain people decided that medicine was a great business and they wanted a piece of it. Managed care is about people making money who do not do the work.

I so agree with you there. Instead of the health care providers getting the compensation they deserve for their work, it goes to the executive officers and the shareholders. I'm all for cutting out the middle man in this instance.

Have you seen this website? http://www.pnhp.org/

They have one of the best plans I have seen for a universal, single-payer health plan. I wish we had this.

and the differences in costs based on where you go, what insure you have, and if they patient is being billed directly is sick. If I ran a store and decided to sell a radio for $100 if you're paying with Amex, $125 if you're paying in cash, $150 for Visa and $200 for checks I would be out of business. Yet the medical profession can get away with that at every level in the process. If you're sick or want to get regular check-ups to stay on top of your health you don't have other options. That's one of the main reasons I am for a single payer system.

edited because I forgot a word

She and I had babies within 6 weeks of each other. We went to the same OB/GYN. I had insurance and she didn't.

She was still paying off the bill with a $2000 outstanding balance when she got pg again. The docs office told her that if she went ahead and paid the balance within 2 months, they would lower it to $1000.

I was glad that she got a better deal b/c she is my sister in law, but PISSED at the same time.

.....It described a doctor's office that had only one or two people in the office + nurse. At the end of the week, the person in the office took a disk to the main office and handed it in. NO PAPERWORK!

This was several years ago. But my doctor's office has 6 or 8 women doing paperwork, and 2 scheduling appointments. And an OCEAN OF PAPERWORK. Not to mention what it cost to employ all those people.

unless things have changed, the cost of employing those people other than the RN and specialized technicians wasn't very much, which is why I got out of the medical billing field.