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

To: skinowski who wrote (194608)	1/29/2007 11:15:20 AM
From: aladin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794015

You talk about rationing care - this happens to be the alpha and omega of how HMO's "save" money. And how single payer systems do it as well. The argument on paperwork and back office expenses is specious. Medicare doesn't provide care - they just do re-imbursements - similar to UHC, Aetna or MetLife. HMO's like Harvard Health Plan or Kaiser provide care and employ the Doctors. Are all HMO's this good? Hell no! - there are many such as the ones you mention that are mere finacial entities that exist on the same premise of single payer systems -> rationing care. In today's multi-provider environment we have choices and we have separate Government oversight(when things work). Put it all in the Government and you can kiss oversight good bye (I am glad you agree on that). Now some folks who have choices - choose an HMO without examining it - and sometimes it is cheaper because of the rationing. I really don't get people complaining about the rationing when they chose the plan. In Canada the medicine is cheaper, but typically is not even available if its new and expensive. My late wife's (experimental) chemo treatment gave her several extra years. It was made by a British company, but was only available in the US until recently. 4 years later Canada started covering it, the British system still doesn't (too expensive). Also in Canada - you don't get to a specialist without a referral - and there are very few of them. Wait times for heart surgery is measured in weeks, for non-emergency orthopedics its in months. Like all purchases - caveat emptor.