Big Brother and your Health Care

[kipper]

I think our tax money should go to big oil and countries that dont like us.

[pmclemore]

Originally Posted by SmokelessJoe

Maybe some dispassionate, non-political observations from an outsider can qualify?

We Canadians look down across the border and can hardly believe the ceaseless arguements regarding medical care that go on amongst you.

I saw it first hand when I spent 173 days in America with the Argosy this winter.

We've had a single payer universal health care system in this country for 49 years. Every other advanced western democracy in the world has something similar, except for our close neighbors, who are still fighting over it.

Meanwhile, NO Canadian, not a single person, is without health insurance.

The per-capita cost of medical care in the USA is DOUBLE what ours is and ALL of our outcomes are better than yours: life expectency, live child births, on and on....

You really need to get your act together.

Health care in Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sergei

I knew there was a reason that all the rich americans went to Canada when they needed to have something done. Oh, wait. It's the other way around.

Please.

Pat

[r carl]

Originally Posted by kipper

I think our tax money should go to big oil and countries that dont like us.

I thought it was...

[Zigidachs]

Originally Posted by SmokelessJoe

Maybe some dispassionate, non-political observations from an outsider can qualify?

We Canadians look down across the border and can hardly believe the ceaseless arguements regarding medical care that go on amongst you.

I saw it first hand when I spent 173 days in America with the Argosy this winter.

We've had a single payer universal health care system in this country for 49 years. Every other advanced western democracy in the world has something similar, except for our close neighbors, who are still fighting over it.

Meanwhile, NO Canadian, not a single person, is without health insurance.

The per-capita cost of medical care in the USA is DOUBLE what ours is and ALL of our outcomes are better than yours: life expectency, live child births, on and on....

You really need to get your act together.

Health care in Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sergei

My challenge to a single payer system resides in the diagnosis and cure rates for various cancers. The diagnoses and cure rates of numerous cancers are several fold higher in the USA than either Canada or England. These are indisputable facts. I am a physician ( Ob/Gyn) and a cancer survivor.

I also challenge the broad sweeping comment about better outcomes in Canada for all diagnoses. (If the Canadian system is so perfect why did so many people travel to Portland, Or. for health care? ) In the US, if you require surgery you don't have to wait for months as so often happens in Canada. We have more MRI machines in the US per capita than in Canada. ETC!!!

I have also served in the US Army, and even though proud of my service, I am acutely aware of the inherent problems with THAT particular brand of socialized medicine.

This is obviously a hot button for me, because like my peers, we have dedicated our lives to the service of patients, regardless of reimbursement--often none whatsoever.

In the last year of my practice before retirement, the reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid, and Tri-Care ( military) were so paultry that I couldn't even meet overhead expenses for most of the year.

Unfortunately this trend will continue and there will be fewer and fewer physicians to provide healthcare. In the year 2000 we knew that there would be a 50% shortfall of specialists in the next 20 years ( 2020). Because government reimbursements are so meager, too few medical school graduates are entering Internal Medicine as an example....those are the docs who take care of us over 60!!!!! --Geriatric medicine!

The concept of a universal health care system sounds appealing, but the reality falls woefully short of expectations.

I would love to spend time with whomever over a cold frosty one, and discuss this further. I have many stories to relate, and cautions to provide.

Be well, be safe, and be happy. God Bless Zigi

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by SilverCottage

I didn't realize there even was an off-topic forum. Carry on guys.

There's also a "Pet Forum", I got chastised for putting up photos of our dog there, until I pointed out where we were...

[Goal15]

I thought about adding my two cents worth to this discussion but it just makes my head hurt. Anybody making house calls? zigi?

[MrAgent007]

Originally Posted by purman

Here is the short version of what the Government is doing to healthcare and your medical records


With in a year if a doctor wants to see medicare / medicaid they have to buy in to a govt program which requires ALL the patients charts (not just medicare / medicaid) to be uploaded to a govt server so any doctor can see the persons chart. (or anyone with access)

There is also an incentive for the doctors to do this over a 3 year period. $45,000. Where is all this money going to come from for all the doctors who go into the program? yep, taxes...

So lets take our small county say with 25 doctors +. thats well over a million dollars just for our county... We are talking Billions of dollars here folks.

But there is a catch! over the three year period it gets harder to comply with what the government wants and if you don't you have to pay the money back... Yep big surprise there...


If you don't get in the program you can't see medicaid / medicare patients. Which is 30-60% of family and internal medicine doctors practices.

So they bribe and penalize doctors to get them in the program..

So what does this mean to you. The Government now has access to your medical records. ( and hackers) since we know how stuff never gets hacked.

So If a doctor miss diagnoses you, puts it in your record, then up loads it, It's there forever. ooppss sorry your a drug seeker because you where confused when you came in. Yes this does happen...

Do you really want your medical records online? I know I don't. We still don't know what we are going to do as a family practice.

Hopefully when people get wind of it, it will change. Not many doctors even understand what is coming, so the public has no idea.. Now you do..

Hello, I do not have a very high IQ so it takes me two or three reads to understand things. Someone please tell me how this subject relates at all to Airstreams? Thank you!

[TBRich]

This is not going to end well, even if it is on an "off topic" forum. I thought that when I read the initial post — and already it's happening. It's simply not possible to talk about this hot-button issue without taking a political stance. Political stances is not what this forum is about. It's certainly not why I am here. 'Nough said.

[DKB_SATX]

For the US vs Canada question... per the World Health Organization, in 2009 the life expectancy in Canada was 81 years; in the USA, 79 years. The CIA's numbers for 2011 are more or less in agreement, also putting Canadian life expectancy at just over 81 years but putting US life expectancy just over 78.

WHO life expectancy stats

CIA life expectancy rankings


The CIA puts the US infant mortality rate at 6.06 per thousand live births, and Canada quite a bit better at 4.97 deaths per thousand live births.

CIA infant mortality rankings

Overall statistics never tell the entire picture and there are shortcomings to both systems. Before we all get our knickers in a twist about single-payer, though, let's keep in mind that no one in government made a serious call for a single-payer system, the proposal that had them screaming "Socialism!" was a proposal to create a nationwide group for people to join so they could afford to buy health insurance from insurance companies.

[MrAgent007]

Originally Posted by DKB_SATX

For the US vs Canada question... per the World Health Organization, in 2009 the life expectancy in Canada was 81 years; in the USA, 79 years. The CIA's numbers for 2011 are more or less in agreement, also putting Canadian life expectancy at just over 81 years but putting US life expectancy just over 78.

WHO life expectancy stats

CIA life expectancy rankings


The CIA puts the US infant mortality rate at 6.06 per thousand live births, and Canada quite a bit better at 4.97 deaths per thousand live births.

CIA infant mortality rankings

Overall statistics never tell the entire picture and there are shortcomings to both systems. Before we all get our knickers in a twist about single-payer, though, let's keep in mind that no one in government made a serious call for a single-payer system, the proposal that had them screaming "Socialism!" was a proposal to create a nationwide group for people to join so they could afford to buy health insurance from insurance companies.

This is great! I subscribe and read the Airstream Knowledge Sharing Forums and get to read the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly from the CDC at the same time. Thank you.

[CanoeStream]

Originally Posted by overlander63

There's also a "Pet Forum", I got chastised for putting up photos of our dog there, until I pointed out where we were...

Right.

Originally Posted by BAB BMRZ

Canoe Stream you have stated: "Jason has made a fairly non-political statement."

Does this mean, if I were to take exception to any of Jason's statements, I will be dumped?

I opined that Jason spoke to issues that did not display overt opinions aimed at personalities, political office holders, party platforms (within reason) or oppositional matters. That's my opinion but experience as a mod suggests that only a narrow path of posting on this specific matter will survive the day. There are ample other opportunities for discussion of this matter elsewhere on the interwebs.

Originally Posted by aftermath

Mr Canoe,

You ask us to respond with "non-political" comments to a thread that is, by its very nature a political statement. Comments about "big brother", government regulations and taxes makes this a troll.

Yes, 'big brother' as a title has a negative connotation in my experience. I'm not aiming to mold opinions here -- just pointing out that this thread cannot go far along an opinionated road before site management will say, "Take it elsewhere."

I cannot control this discussion nor suggest a specific path to resolution here at AIR. Solving disparities as a society requires more middle ground than we often see from commentators & overtly opinionated news sources.

[Airtandem]

The BIG question was; how does this apply to AIRSTREAMING? A number of us are retired and travel from place to place. If something medical should happen while traveling, there had better be a member doctor there to treat you; otherwise the $ is on you.
The part about Medical Records happened to me. I had my annual check-up on the 7 of Jan. Guess what I had been doing? Holiday eating and sitting around watching the tele; my blood sugar was elevated and there was a history of diabetes in the family. Bing, I'm a diabetic.This is now on my record. I had to go to diabetic classes, monitor my sugars, and go to follow-up classes. Had I NOT gone, any ilness that was tied to diabetes would NOT be covered by Medicare. Today, just about every illness is related to diabetes. Oh, my blood sugar runs about 80-110. Just one lab value did this. Yes, Big Brother IS watching.

[purman]

I put it up as info only. Sure I have my opinion on it. But it was mostly to let people know what is coming. Whether you agree with it or not, I'm not to concerned just that you know that it's coming

[njloco]

purman, I for one, THANK YOU. Information is always good for it gives us the ability to make good decisions in the near future, if you get my non political point.

[Hueytownalss]

We have both sides of the issue here, and I'm still not saying anything!!

[Hueytownalss]

Sorry, can't resist. I only want, on the internet, what I put up, NOT what someone else puts up. And I should NEVER have to "OPT OUT" of anything. It should be, that I CHOOSE to "OPT IN" to something, rather than HAVE to opt out!!!

[rkuhns956]

Well guys, I can tell you, I make a good living getting doctors complaint on this issue. I'm not sure why you only go $45,000.00. Many of the practices I work for file under the Medicaid section and have been (or will be) receiving a total of $61,000 (I know it was $20,000 this year, with the rest paid out over the next 2 if they qualified by June 30th). From the technical end (me the computer guy), nothing has changed (except the government has placed more requirements for the doctors. The computer software (eClinicalworks is what I have been working with) is still the same. If there was a fear of hackers, it has been there for the past 5 years.

[Jim Clark]

Originally Posted by MrAgent007

This is great! I subscribe and read the Airstream Knowledge Sharing Forums and get to read the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly from the CDC at the same time. Thank you.

I share your excitement and I am so glad I don't have to go look for the information on the CDC site, It is hard to express how lucky I feel that I was saved this trouble by finding it out here.

I now feel I have to make a list of things I should post here so others will know what is coming into their life in the future, I know they would never figure it without my help and inside information.

Thanks for Sharing

[rkuhns956]

I was thinking about my last post and I don't think I worded it correctly to be understood. So I would like to take another crack at it.

If your doctor carries an electronic tablet with them, when they see you, your doctor is already using an EMR (electronic medical records) or EHR (electronic health records) program. The programs (at least eClinicalWorks) has only changed in the fact at it now forces doctors to document things that should have been in the first place (like if you are a smoker or not). Things they should have been tracking to know risks and to look for and test these risks in the future.

If there was a fear of miss handling of your information, well it been there for some time (I set up my first EMR 5 years ago). Sorry, there is nothing new to worry about.

[Gene]

When you treat health care as a commodity rather than a universal human right you get health care in the US with treatment costing twice as much for poorer outcomes compared to other industrialized nations.

Gene