… and it’s certainly better than what Congress is likely to produce.

Most things (from the private sector) are.

We desperately need term limits in Congress. Ted Kennedy is the poster child for why.

Old Country Boy on July 28, 2009 at 8:53 PM

Forgot to add that above. I’d also like to add that allowing these docs to be sued out of practice raises insurance premiums for other doctors and of course that cost gets passed onto the patient. Therefore higher healthcare costs.

The problem gets exacerbated when the controlling group gets a God complex and won’t be questioned.

Ya because anybody promoted by the federal government to watch over all doctors won’t get that complex will they.

If there is an incompetant doctor, then let him be sued out of practice. He sure won’t be removed from practice by his “peers.”

I don’t know about other states but, here in Colorado if a doctor screws up he has a peer review done by the state and if he royally screwed up they can take his license. The peers that review the case come from around the state to review the case. So, you don’t get docs from only one hospital or metroplitan area. You get rural and city docs reviewing the case.

How about we establish a system of objective law,

With our moral-less population?

…repeal all the “man is his brother’s keeper” laws, and then allow anyone to come into this country?

No and heck no.

Maybe there should be a medical collegate board to do the same thing, but in a soft manner. Someone should question the need for popular (read easy, lucrative) treatments. However, if a case can be easily made for a treatment in an individual circumstance, then let it go forward. The problem gets exacerbated when the controlling group gets a God complex and won’t be questioned. Even our judicial system recognizes this by having an appelate system.

I think the ultimate problem is the propensity to litigate when something goes wrong. Don’t blame this on the lawyers. Blame it on the gutless and brainless few that should have had their guts and brains replaced when they were in treatment. Shit happens. Don’t blame the ambulance chasers when they make money off it. If there is an incompetant doctor, then let him be sued out of practice. He sure won’t be removed from practice by his “peers.”

I don’t want one size fits all be it from a board of doctors, lawyer, or politicians. I was able to be somewhat quickly diagnosed with my rare blood disease because I was able to have frank discussions with my doctor and she was not held back by a board telling her to treat me for other things first. It ran in my family and I had a good idea what was going on. My sister was a whole other case. Her husband is in the military and her doctor simply wouldn’t or couldn’t listen. They treated her for ovarian cysts first. Then gave her a completely uneccessary hystorectamy. Leaving in the Ovaries. The entire time she kept telling them test me for porphyria, it runs in my family. Nope, can’t do that simple 24 hour urine collection. Well, nothing they did fixed anything. So, they finally broke down and tested her. Guess what, she was positive for the porphyria. Doctors are already held to a standard of practice. This needs to be left at the state level and the feds need to keep out of it. If they start getting involved we will only have more and more people with stories like my sister’s.

A Few Highlights of the Healthcare Bill
This gives the government absolute power over your healthcare and how your healthcare dollars are spent (on other people).
Is this what you really want?
Be careful what you wish for.
Before you answer see pages 170, 195, 425 and 429

• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The “Health Choices Commissioner” will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participat e in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No “judicial review” is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
• Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL America n financial and personal records.
• Page 203: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” Yes, it really says that.
• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected.”
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors’ time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
• Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
• Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
• Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on “community” input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.
• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
• Page 354: Government will restri ct enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
• Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient’s health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.
Wow! Talk about political paybacks.
And these are just the highlights. Prepare for absolute government power over your healthcare.

This is scary sh!t.

I have a three part plan for health care reform:
1. Pull out a copy of the Constitution.
2. Find the place where government is allowed.
3. Remove government from every area not authorized by the Constitution.

DrMagnolias on July 28, 2009 at 5:27 PM

I like it! Zero based governance. Let the feds petition to even continue the FAA or the FCC. Will make ‘em realize they work for the people and not vice-versa.

Electronic medical record set back your office expenses about 50-70,000 dollars for set up.

Depends on the system. If you’re talking about the “granulated data” programs that the government and insurance companies would like to institute in order to do data mining, this estimate is low by about half, for a one-doctor office.

If it’s a ‘hybrid’ program that just allows paper charts to be digitized, a single doc office can do that for about 10 grand.

The problem is, the government has not told us what type qualifies for the ‘significant use’ clause in current legislation, in order to be recognized as a legitimate system.

As it stands, that lack of information is a major roadblock to doctors interested in implementing electronic records.

doodleduh on July 28, 2009 at 5:35 PM

The Constitution was not written for technology, but for human nature. It is a blueprint for our system of government, based on an understanding of how humans function and what is most efficient. The more local, the more politicians are answerable to their constituents. Regarding the number of states, I have no idea where you get the idea that the United States was limited in size by the Constitution.

What about allowing for familes to purchase policies across state lines.

I am all for this, but what is stopping this from happening today? The Federal government? State GOvernments? I tried to Google for an answer an it did not come back on the intial responses.

I’m reading ‘wiser federal spending’ and wishing it said ‘less federal spending’. Better yet, ‘no federal spending’.

Vashta.Nerada on July 28, 2009 at 4:40 PM

Exactly.

I have a three part plan for health care reform:
1. Pull out a copy of the Constitution.
2. Find the place where government is allowed.
3. Remove government from every area not authorized by the Constitution.

Not the best idea. After all, that would get government out of every state except the original 13 and it would get them out of every technology invented since the Constitution was written.

Then, I assume you are not complaining about the high cost of medical care.

Sporty1946 on July 28, 2009 at 4:58 PM

Not at all. I strongly beleive in federalism. The federal goverment should not dictate state tort laws. States should make tort laws, as many states have, for state courts. Federal laws should protect tort cases in federal courts.

You would have thought that we were proposing child molestation by the way we were opposed.

The problem with verifications is ONLY the correct people get health care.

Imagine if you had electronic records and someone came in to get their tonsils out, three times?

Tort Reform and Deport Illegal Aliens.

DONE!

How about we establish a system of objective law, repeal all the “man is his brother’s keeper” laws, and then allow anyone to come into this country?

Better economy without having to pay for illegal’s benefits. Win-Win!

Then there will be a happy press-corps, much joy about the great One (no not Levin) fighting the good fight against the Evil Drs and Insurance Companies who have strangled and, yes, Oppressed America for so long.

And then they will be able to fight for Cap/Tax and every other fruitcake idea they’ve had for 30 years, and which will just manage to give them 51% of they voters dependent on them for their jobs and maybe even lives.

Tort Reform and Deport Illegal Aliens.

DONE!

SDarchitect on July 28, 2009 at 4:51 PM

And get the government out of healthcare.