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

To: Sdgla who wrote (15806)	3/31/2010 3:40:03 PM
From: RetiredNow	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

Yes, I agree to a certain extent. We all know that what this bill was mostly about was getting closer to universal access to health care. 32 million more Americans will get access. That's morally a good thing. Along the way, they have decided to pay for it with increased taxes and some cost savings. Those are the facts. If the CBO is to be believed, and I believe them over GOP claims, then this bill will also help slow down premium increases. We'll let history be the judge of whether that actually happens or not. I think if we are really serious about cutting costs and decreasing premiums, then we have to move to high deductible plans to share costs with consumers and we have to clamp down on runaway drug costs and unnecessary treatment. I'll give you an example. My son had a skin condition a few weeks back, so he went to our primary care physician. The doctor looked at his hand and said that he needed to go to a skin specialist. Then I got a bill in the mail for $150. He didn't do a damn thing to solve the problem. It was a wasted visit. My son should have gone directly to a skin specialist. In the past, I wouldn't have cared, because my insurance covered all of this miscellaneous type of stuff. So I tolerated all sorts of unnecessary bills. Now, however, I have to pay the first $3,000 of bills, before my insurance kicks in at 100%. So I've made it clear to my family that whatever their condition, they need to go directly to the specialist, forget the primary care physician. We're actively trying to skip the unnecessary care bills. So the lesson learned here is that this simple change in plan has created the motivation for me to scrutinize and cut back on unnecessary care. That is the type of thing we need to do for the masses and it would lead to dramatic savings, although it would probably eat into doctor profits.