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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: aladin who wrote (194604)	1/28/2007 10:51:29 PM
From: skinowski	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794015

You deride HMO's It's not that I deride them... it's that after working with them for all these years I simply know that they are full of sht. You talk about rationing care - this happens to be the alpha and omega of how HMO's "save" money. The only way they can "save" money is by creating barriers to access to medical care. Many different ways - by demanding the so-called "referrals"... pre-authorizations"... "pre-cerifications".... for consultations, tests and procedures, and, last but not least, by covering generic medications and using high co-payments for brand names - and, in many cases, simply not covering them at all. Typically, for their efforts they get to keep 20-25% of the medicare (taxpayer) funding - to cover their internal costs and to keep as profit. As I mentioned above, the Feds run the "regular" medicare with a 5% total overhead. Lindy likes Kaiser, and I can understand that. i heard many positive things about that outfit. However, a huge company - a near monopoly like that - will inevitably begin to acquire some "quasi-governmental" characteristics. They are different from most HMO's. No, sir, I am not an admirer of HMO's. Even Hillary Clinton could have - and should have - done better for this nation. You .... approve of single payer Socialization* John, I am sorry, but you make me repeat myself. I would vote against socialized medicine - but for political reasons. I simply do not trust politicians with the $2 trillion of health care dollars. That's too much money - and power. They'll end up doing mischief.