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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (10123)	10/5/2009 1:18:53 PM
From: Lane3	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

I've posted previously about my exercise in trying to avoid entering Medicare. I reported here that certain problematic provisions were no longer in force. It seems I may have been mistaken. I just found this piece from folks who should know. "Also, the right of patients to privately contract with physicians to ensure they have the medical care they want, without penalty—regardless of what the government pays—must be recognized and protected. Today, if a doctor wants to bill a patient for additional payment over the Medicare reimbursement, he has to withdraw from Medicare entirely for two years. A patient who agrees with this arrangement can't receive any Medicare money for that service, either." "Dr. Palmisano, president of the American Medical Association from 2003-2004, is spokesman for the Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights, a group of more than 10,000 physicians. Drs. Plested and Johnson were presidents of the American Medical Association from 2006-2007 and 1996-1997 respectively." online.wsj.com It has been my understanding that doctors may no make private agreements with Medicare patients for greater reimbursement. Now I'm not so sure. The reason I find that concerning is that, while I don't care for any sort of single payer construct, I can differentiate between one that allows the patient to go outside the system or to make additional payments either out of pocket or via supplemental insurance and one that disallows them. If Medicare still disallows the freedom to supplement, then the probability increases that somewhere down the road ObamaCare might do the same thing. Not encouraging.

To: Lane3 who wrote (10123)	10/5/2009 1:36:36 PM
From: Lane3	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Some actual data. From CBO. I seem to recall an earlier comment about professionals losing purchasing power of late. That would not seem to be so.

To: Lane3 who wrote (10123)	10/5/2009 1:54:54 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

What is the basis for an 8 year framework? That was the origin of the discussion... frankly that was last week and I don't remember the context.