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

To: skinowski who wrote (505888)	9/1/2012 10:30:06 PM
From: LindyBill	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794033

Like anything else, the medical business is a "maze" that the participants learn to run. Our system is set up to pay better if you are in an HMO environment. I suspect that it would have gone this way in a free enterprise environment, but we will never know now. My point is that we have more old people and we need more Doctors per capita. Instead, we have less. Is our medical cost up because it is now controlled by large Corps? Of course. They have the people to lobby the Government to get them to pay more for procedures, etc. It's such a mess now that I look upon the future of medical care as almost hopeless.

To: skinowski who wrote (505888)	9/2/2012 6:33:58 AM
From: SmoothSail	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 794033

Medicine changed to a great extent, from private to corporate, and most doctors are now employees -- so, how come the costs are skyrocketing? Just one small example: Recently, my doctor, of several years, changed over to a concierge practice. He held a series of meetings at a local hotel serving coffee and refreshments. There was a staff of "experts" who had flown in from New York to help explain the process. All that was required was a direct payment of $2K annually (in addition to whatever insurance premium or Medicare premium you were already paying). Two months after that meeting I received several phone calls asking if I was sure I didn't want to participate, after stating in writing that I wasn't interested in the program. The program gave participants direct contact with the doctor 24/7 with a direct phone number to his cell phone and next day appointments. Other patients, who either chose not to participate or couldn't afford the additional expense, would still be his patients, but would have to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment and weren't always guaranteed they could see him - physician's assistants and nurse practitioners had already been hired to help with the rest of us. At LB's rec, I joined Kaiser - regretting to have to give up one of the best doctors I've ever known.