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

To: skinowski who wrote (308974)	6/8/2009 3:12:39 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793623

I am leery about the Government doing well much of anything lately. The SS plan as originally designed was never supposed to be something that people actually retired on...As I understood it, it was to take just a little of people's paychecks over the years, so that people had a bit of extra savings. We all know now that the various Congresses over the years used it as a way to buy votes, so they increased the amounts deducted from the paychecks, and increased the amounts of payout to that end.. I still don't know if all government workers are in the system now or not, nor how much they collect from SS vs. how much and for how long money was contributed. The biggest scandal of SS is the numbers of "other non-working people" who are getting benefits...i.e. every person who is granted "refugee" status qualifies....etc etc etc. Then we have Medicare. Again, in the beginning, small amount from a person's paycheck, and an equal amount from the person's employer, which was sent to DC to pay for the insurance. In the mid 80's, a much larger percentage from both the worker (7.65) and the employer (7.65) was taken totaling 15% each paycheck. This was to have taken care of the increases for most of the 21st century. BUT again Congress in their greed for votes and power increased the numbers of people who could use Medicare so that today we are again in a huge mess. As you and I have discussed, I have nothing good to say about the term "Observational Admit" and what it means to the patient. One of the biggest causes of the high bills for the patients is the cost of every drug itemized, and coded as if each pill or injection was "self administered".... Plus a room charge that is HUGE, but includes all sorts of things not specified unless the patient requests an itemized bill for EACH section of the bill. Now mind you, the patient can't bring their own meds in, but the hospital can and does charge hundreds of dollars for just these items alone. Even on the "Admit" term, I notice the amounts of some of the hospital charges that are billed are extremely high. Then Medicare pays a portion (what...maybe 1/3 to maybe 1/2) of the billed item, and since I carry a supplemental insurance in addition, that insurance paid a little bit more of whatever charges....The REST of the money that was billed is NOT owed by the patient, the bill says.... It seems to me that the hospital makes the items billed EXTREMELY high, Medicare pays a portion, and the other ins a bit.... Is the cost truly the cost the hospital states it is??? Or is that a "paper thing".....Who makes these rules? Is it Congress? Or is there a National Audit Team? There really are so many things we all need to know before we have another Government program shoved down our throats...so to speak. Interesting too, is that I've never had a Doc charge a ridiculously high bill.... It would be interesting to see how the Hospital bills and Lab bills and Pharmacy bills are really charged all over the country.