How many DU'ers would be willing to pay their docs directly...

[Bread and Circus]

if it meant bringing health care costs down?

Docs could reduce their prices on office visits almost in half
if they could get rid of all the overhead needed to bill
insurance.

Would you be willing to pay for your doctor/pediatrician/internist
if it meant cutting costs down for you and for society?

I know it's a big if, but suspend disbelief and play along.

[maddezmom]

1. yes, I would

cutting out the middle man, usually means costs savings.

[Bread and Circus]

3. Yeah, I posted this in response to this thread....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1404431

[Kanary]

9. And what would you have those of us without $$$ do????

[maddezmom]

19. how are you paying now?

I'd prefer universal health care for all, but I think paying dr's directly is an option we should consider if it lowers the cost.

[Kanary]

26. I ask again... what do you propose for all those without $$$ ?

Just suck it up and suffer?

It's really interesting how Dems, who used to consider poor folk, seem to have wiped it all from their minds.

Kanary

[kiahzero]

2. Does this include drugs for procedures?

If so, hell no - my drugs are somewhere on the order of $8,000 every 8 weeks for an IV infusion.

[Bread and Circus]

4. Nope, just doctor visits....

[bloom]

5. 15-20 years ago I paid $15-20

to take my kids to the Doctor.

Now I'm lucky if the co-pay is that little (office visit total bill $100-$200).


argh.

[ACK]

6. No ...we have to have a real choice ... universal healthcare

Its not enough to reduce costs which is still important.

We have to insure the uninsured. You ever see a kid with walking pnuemonia come into an ER never seen a doctor for it before and all because the family had no insurance. Its all crack.

The thing that makes no sense at all is that it would actually be good for corporate America outside the Insurance/pharma business.

I mean you have to work in a big corp to understand this stuff but they dump loads of money on dealing with insurance and providers and HR and systems that track all this crap.

Its amazing the amount of money they spend every year and then turn around I know and suck right out of the employee paycheck.

Universal healthcare is good for the uninsured, good for the insured and good for business.

+

[Bread and Circus]

7. I started a poll for that too....it is an option.

[TOhioLiberal]

8. Yes I would...

...in fact I already do. No medical coverage :cry:

[Zan_of_Texas]

25. Well, me too, sort of.

I have medical coverage that starts after I spend $2700 in a year. Plus, no coverage on vision or dental at all. Dental is where I spend the bucks.

So, my individual insurance, for which I pay nearly $6000 a year (and I am healthy without ever having spent a day in a hospital), has given me exactly zero benefit.

As a self-employed person, I pay full freight on insurance, plus full retail price at the doctor's.

Hog-tying the pharmaceutical companies, and completely getting rid of health insurance would drop health care costs dramatically.

[blondeatlast]

10. Universal, single-payer is the only way.

I've been treated in Canada, and it was a breeze compared to here (I have had insulin-dependent diabetes since age 7).

Two sites everyone who responds ought to check out:

http://www.nofreelunch.org/

http://www.physiciansproposal.org/

[Bread and Circus]

13. I'm actually part of PNHP

[Kanary]

32. Good news. I have some questions

How many drs would you say are now more seriously interested in a drastic change?

Do you see many drs investigating what PNHP is about?

What do you think it would take for more drs to endorse this kind of change?

Kanary, burning with curiosity....... :)

[lcordero]

11. I've never had a good experience with a doctor

I have a living will that explicitly states "no life support".
Should I ever be able to have the choice in between bleeding to death out in the middle of the street or getting in an ambulance, I will pick bleeding to death out in the middle of the street.

[Kanary]

I must admit that I'm pretty much in agreement with you

However, thanks to a friend, I finally found an eye dr who is not only human, but actually possesses compassion, and has made my life much easier with this whole eye injury thing.

Otherwise, a pox on all their houses. :)

Kanary

[salib]

12. Misguided poll

Physician costs have little to do with effort, let alone that spent on insurance, etc. It is based upon what the market will bear. That is why when you see the costs that a hospital and/or physician charges is reduced SUBSTANTIALLY when you get the bill from the insurance. The "negotiated rate" is only valid if it was negotiated. And please do not go down the route that we could all just negotiate lower rates with our doctors. Does not work. It only goes up for something that has infinite value for the patient, that is their health or even whether they live or die.

I.E.: We have to have a comprehensive healthcare policy and system for the U.S., or it is caveat emptor, only with our lives and health.

[Bread and Circus]

17. No, that's not true....I know from first hand experience what...

physician prices are based on.

And believe me, primary care docs only get a percentage of
a percentage of what they bill right now.

And yes, I have experience with doctors trying to do exactly
what I propose. Doing house calls for cash etc....

I know many docs wish they could just bill patients and
forget insurance. They can't make the leap of faith because
they fear they would starve.

Right now, if my patients paid me $35 to $75 per office
visit, I would make more. The problem is, they just want to
have "a copay". So, in order to bill the rest to insurance,
I have to have a $50,000 computer system, multiple staff members,
reams of paperwork, just to bill the insurance and the government
and satisfy their requirements. That's nothing compared to the
overhead on the other end. And it all gets billed to you.

[salib]

23. I am sorry, but first hand experience

Tells me that no one needs a 50K computer system to perform medicine in today's market. But, again, that is a red herring! If it is necessary to group together to reduce such costs, then that is what it takes. However, $35 a visit would give you about $400 a day, at best, as income, not profit. Assume the usual cost of shared staff, supplies, insurance, etc., that is about $200/day. Thus, < $60k a year. Respectable, but not nearly enough to pay off those medical school loans.

So, get real. It is one thing to say that you are not getting all the money in the heathcare system, and another to say that it can be "affordable" by simply negotiating with one's local physician. This is a fool's debate. Let's get back to reality.

[guitar man]

14. I have no problem with that IF..

...companies would be willing to RAISE WAGES to realistic levels of pay. With what companies are willing to pay most of the rank and file,there is no way in hell to make it realistic for the majority.

[Cleita]

16. Excuse me but people who are able to work don't really need

health insurance except for routine care and of course if they have an accident. Sick people, who are too sick to work, or can't for other reasons like being blinded or crippled by a progressive disease, are the ones who need health care.

When a family has to go through a cancer crisis, where the breadwinner can't work anymore, then this point is really driven home.

[Kanary]

28. As usual, Cleita, you're right

But this won't be considered by most people, nor will they consider those who simply don't have the $$$.

As long as they are taken care of in the moment, and can go to the mall, then all is well.

Kanary

[Cleita]

15. Other.

Your system is the one I grew up with. Health insurance, like Blue Cross, was a luxury. Many families couldn't afford to pay doctors for their children and many of my classmates died over the years I was a child from curable diseases because they got health care too late. Whopping cough, spinal meningitis, polio and typhoid took its toll.

I almost died of a ruptured appendix because my mother wouldn't take me to a doctor for what she thought was a stomach ache. When I started throwing up green bile she took me to the doctor. I barely made it. She had to sell our car to pay for the surgery and hospital. The only vaccines I ever got were for smallpox and diptheria, which the public health did in our school.

Most of us who got measles, mumps, chicken pox and other childhood diseases didn't get anti-biotics to treat them, only aspirin to lower the fever. I can't imagine why a doctor would want this system.

We need a system like Canada's to fix this. I can't imagine why doctors fight it because then sick people would get the treatment they need and the caregivers would be paid what they deserve for it.

[Bread and Circus]

18. No, you didn't grow up with the system I propose...

because even though you didn't have insurance, doctors
generally are intertwined with it. We have to inflate our
prices even though the insurance company doesn't pay full price.
However, the folks without insurance do pay full price. That's
wrong. However, right now, it's against the law for me to
charge you less than what I charge Medicare or BCBS. Go figure,
but it's true.

[Cleita]

21. My point was having access.

Working families with children and no access to health care, like Medicaid or health insurance or HMO, like it was for us back then, have to make a decision or diagnosis if you will whether they can afford to pay for care if it's only a case of flu that can be rode out or could it be peritonitis like in my case.

Kids die for that. Also, a family that has no insurance, but doesn't qualify for Medicaid will react the same way. The Canadian who posted about having two ambulances arrive for an emergency is right. We should have this too.

[seemslikeadream]

20. I already pay my doctor directly, have for 20 years

He is our family doctor. He has taken care of my four children through thick and thin. We have no insurance never had any, never could afford it. He had to stop delivering babies before my last was born, his insurance was too high!

[Skittles]

22. are you talking about just office visits, checkups?

gawd I would not want their surgery bills but the regular stuff - like I've got a lingering cold or I need a checkup - heck yes.

[ConcernedCanuk]

24. One operation can be worth an inexpensive house

.
.
.

I hate to think if I had to pay for my tonsillectomy, my appendectomy my two hernia operations and an ulnar nerve transposition.

These operations alone would have kept me poorer than I am now, actually, I may not have HAD all the operations I needed if I had to pay for them

As for ongoing care for the poorer elderly . .

Not feasible at all

Of course, I AM used to free health care since birth,

so I do have a biased opinion.

Let them sneak it out of my paycheck and taxes,

that's fine with me.

[Van Helsing]

27. Absolutely not.

How are us poor people supposed to pay if we have no money?????

[Cleita]

29. Amazing how quickly your poll got freeped.

I've seen this over and over for many years. Anytime someone puts up a poll about universal health care, at first 90% are in favor of it, then suddenly it gets pulled down swiftly to below 50% These corporate health care people are viciously efficient.

[Hamlette]

30. "almost in half"?????

you don't have your facts right.

Insurance definately sucks dollars out of the health care costs in the US but they are closer to 10-15% than 50%.

[eridani]

31. Doctor visits are not that large a percent of overall costs

Big ticket items--getting expensively sick--are. Most people will never get expensively sick. 15% of the population in any age group accounts for 85% of the costs.

Private insurance is an abomination that seeks to keep that 15% out of their profitable risk pools. It defeats the entire purpose of spreading risk.

UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE NOW!