With Obama & Clinton health care, what will stops dr's from raising their prices knowing the gov't has to pay?

Doctors compete for patient referrals by entering into national contracts with insurers that cap their rates for given services. The government already uses many of these contracts for different group policies. So yes, their rates would be capped, but only because of a contract they voluntarily signed, just as it is now. Very little would change from a professional billing standpoint.

They will regulate prices and then doctors will no longer be a on the high-paid profession list. So they'll go private or move where they can make money to pay off all their med school bills. It will just destroy the medical industry, while robbing the majority of us even *further* in taxes on something we'll probably rarely use while there will be HUUUUGE lines for the hospital becuase all the poor people with colds will be taking advantage of the system... I have a friend in Germany, where they already have a healthcare system like this, and he says it sucks.

IF YOU had spent years getting a PhD and then the government TELLS you that your ability to make a really good living is being taken away, WHAT would YOU do ?? Probably the same thing that a lot of medical professional would do ... change careers !!! With that kind of education, WHO wants to be told that your income is limited and you have to SEE a hundred people a day and you cannot provide quality care because you are rushed???

Because there will be set guidelines in which they can't rape the patients! This is a real smart idea,Just look at canada, the healthcare is good and everyone can afford their drugs!! we got people that need drugs here and can't get them cause they don't have 1. good insurance and 2. don't have the money!! But don't worry for those who don't have a job, I'll provide them with the best of care! That makes sense don't it!!

Good points...here is my take, and I worked in health ins. for years...we need tort reform. We need our docs. and others to know that they will not be sued for no reason, and if they are, they will not have to cover their own legal fees, like they do it in the united kingdom. Dr.s are so concerned about being sued that they have huge huge malpractice ins. bills, and they order up tests, that are extremely costly, just to cover their butts...and really who can blame them.

I recently went to a dr. begrudgingly because I have a 15k deductible on my plan and still pay over 300 a month...anyway...I had stomache pains...lots of cramping and the like....he took a listen to my abdoman and ordered up a colonoscopy...a 2500 $ test, after 2 min. of diagnosis...never suggested trying anything first...they can not dr. any more, this because they are too afraid of being sued,,,,this because nobody, in the last many years has been in a postion to elect our justices other than LAWYERS....it burns my but!!! Let's really try to change....how about someone who is not a lawyer for pres....they are the original good ole boy network and they love hillary and they love obama.....they HATE McCain....that is why I don't.

Where do you get the notion that "the rich" are those making over a quarter mil? Pols NEVER define the "rich" and when they do, they always CHANGE the definition when the legislation finally gets written. Remember the AMT? That was for "the rich" and affected like 150 individuals in the '70s--now MILLIONS of folks who live paycheck to paycheck pay it.

Doctors get the short end of the stick in pay, my dear and are NOT the cause of high prices. INSURANCE companies which neither Hillary nor Obama are reforming in any meaningful way (they say they'll trim costs: HOW?) are the problem. IF we would demand that contract and antitrust laws be enforced, we'd see costs come down.

When 75% of the people who declare bankruptcy over medical bills ARE INSURED, then insurance is CLEARLY not the answer.

"Aldrich’s situation is "asinine" but increasingly common, said Dr. Deborah Thorne of Ohio University. Thorne, co-author of a widely quoted 2005 study that found medical bills contributed to nearly half of the 1.5 million personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year, said that ratio has likely worsened since the data was gathered.

...

Like Aldrich, Thorne said, three-quarters of the individuals in the study who declared bankruptcy because of health problems were insured. "

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201807/

Linda Peeno, MD testified that SHE had often denied treatment JUST to save the insurance company money http://www.thenationalcoalition.org/DrPeenotestimo...

Furthermore:

"the vast majority of health insurance policies are through for-profit stock companies. They are in the process of “shedding lives” as some term it when “undesirable” customers are lost through various means, including raising premiums and co-pays and decreasing benefits (Britt, “Health insurers getting bigger cut of medical dollars,” 15 October 2004, investors.com). That same Investors Business Daily article from 2004 noted the example of Anthem, another insurance company. They said the top five executives (not just the CEO) received an average of an 817 percent increase in compensation between 2000 and 2003. The CEO, for example, had his compensation go from $2.5 million to $25 million during that time period. About $21 million of that was in stock payouts, the article noted.

A 2006 article, “U.S. Health Insurance: More Market Domination, More CEO Compensation”

(hcrenewal.blogspot.com) notes that in 56 percent of 294 metropolitan areas one insurer “controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting." In addition to having the most enrollees, they also are the biggest purchasers of health care and set the price and coverage terms. “’The results is double-digit premium increases from 2001 and 2004—peaking with a 13.9 percent jump in 2003—soaring well above inflation and wages increases.’" Where is all that money going? The article quotes a Wall Street Journal article looking at the compensation of the CEO of UnitedHealth Group. His salary and bonus is $8 million annually. He has benefits such as the use of a private jet. He has stock-option fortunes worth $1.6 billion."

--Save America, Save the World by Cassandra Nathan pp. 127-128

"Insurance Companies Robbing Patients

Robbing patients to pay CEOs leads to unprecedented medical insurance corporation greed.

Thursday, January 3, 2008 8:52 AM

By: Michael Arnold Glueck & Robert J. Cihak, The Medicine Men"

http://www.newsmax.com/medicine_men/medical_insura...

No, the pols are yapping and NOT reforming in ANY meaningful way.

Sensible plan if you want to see something that would work:

QUALITY, ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE health care for all.

That means preventative care (physical with follow up). Real medication (no Medicare "donut holes" the really ill are ripped off again.) No bogus ridiculously low "caps" on needed medical procedures. No abuse of the ER. No paying for the silly with the sniffles to go to the doc for free. No more bankruptcies over medical bills. I want THIS plan that ends abuse of the taxpayer, takes the burden off employers, provides price transparency, and ends the rip-off of the US taxpayer at the hands of greedy insurance CEOs (which has been repeatedly documented).

http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.html

Read the PDF, not the blurb, for the bulk of the plan. Book is searchable on Amazon.com

Cassandra Nathan's Save America, Save the World

They need to implement something similar to my current PPO plan that I get at work. They set UCR limits on everything. I had some lab work recently where the lab charged $178 for routine blood analysis (cholesterol, enzymes, etc.). Since the lab was on the PPO network, my insurance company only allowed for 41.75 to be charged to me. Insurance paid $33.40, and I only had to pay $8.35.

If you go to the two largest medicals centers in The USA... in NYC and Houston... you will see many Middle Eastern doctors/surgeons as well as Canadian and UK... and they are in the US for the very reason you have posted. No doctor wants to work for the government, and for good reason.

They'll put price fixing in place, the good doctors will go to countries that pay better and we'll gets what's left.

That is what communism does to a market.

Mr. Obama healthcare policy will be so affordable that everyone won't have to pay so much. For example, I have to pay $80 to go to the dentist because I'm in college and I don't have insurance. Hillary Clintons policy will require everyone to have her healthcare plan and per the debate in Austin, wages will be garnished if you don't.

In a recent pole in Texas, 87% support Obama's plan and not Hillary's.