health insurance bill

[brin]

BAD!!!! For me, my HSA cut in half(amount I can contribute), Can't roll leftover money into retirement account, tax increase, and down the line, waiting to see a doctor. This is the short list.

Exactly right...with 30 Million more folks getting insurance and not enough doctors...look for long waits for an appointment and then long book reading waits in the reception room at the doctors office. Look for rationing as well !

 

[ultrarunner]

Must be region specific. I have four nurses in my immediate family and they could all easily change jobs in this area, and son's girlfriend took a job specifically because it paid her student loans. Local hospitals are building huge additions. Local university and colleges are expanding nursing programs. However it shakes out about who pays, the medical professions will be a growth industry. Death, taxes and needing medical care.....all certainties.

Chuck

I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area... we are flooded with resumes and have no openings...

The only ER in the city of San Leandro is set to close and lots of union nurses have been sending out resumes...

A new hospital being built in the nearby town of Castro Valley will be smaller than the hospital it is replacing... the 50 year old hospital doesn't meet earthquake standards... the new facility is costing a little more than 1 million dollars per bed...

Kaiser, a private HMO is still expanding...

We have several nurses in their 60's that have put retirement on hold... why give up a job at the top of your profession in these uncertain times?

The San Leandro Hospital has come right out and said it is not a problem of too few patients... the problem is that 60% treated do not pay...

It could very well be a regional thing... for many years... we hired nurses from New Mexico, Arizona, Missouri, Ohio, etc... at the time they could easily double their wages by working here.

Acuity for those with means... either private pay or insurance has fallen dramatically... medicare reimbursements have also fallen at a time of rising costs... a case might have a hard cost of $1900 and the reimbursement is $1100.

Also, the overall cost of providing care continues to escalate... everything from forced retirement of perfectly good Diesel Generators and Steam Boilers to a doubling, just about across the board of regulatory fees... everything from storm water run-off to the air quality management district... The city now charges a hazmat fee for each Oxygen, Nitrogen and Nitrous Oxide Cylinder on site... We are certainly getting squeezed on all sides.

Wages have been frozen for the last 3 years and all employer contributions to retirement stopped 5 years ago... we are small in size... typically 500 cases per month with excellent patient satisfaction indexes.

I think I would have tried harder to pursue a career in law enforcement if I had it to do over again... many of the 12 from my high school class are already retired... some with 180k pensions... I never would have imagined...

 

[Bird]

I think I would have tried harder to pursue a career in law enforcement if I had it to do over again... many of the 12 from my high school class are already retired... some with 180k pensions... I never would have imagined...

Yep, California, New York, and New Jersey that may be true, but not in this part of the world.

 

[Chuck52]

Nurses here start at about $20/hr and max out at maybe $30/hour, not counting the specialists. My wife is coming up on 60 pretty soon and would love to retire, mainly because she stays the same size and her patients keep getting bigger. I'd prefer her to wait until we get everything completely paid off, but we could swing it anyway...it's probably much cheaper to live here in the middle of Mizzery than anywhere in CA.

I've already said just about everything I care to about health care in the thread that just got closed for going political.

Chuck

 

[Lineman North Florida]

There are truly those that are working and or retired Americans that need a hand with healthcare this day and age, but anytime you take from those who will work and give to those who won't is not right and I don't like it.

 

[ultrarunner]

In answer to the original post... I think it is too early to know how things will shake out.

The plan has multi-year phase in and those in Health Care are taking things on a day to day basis... at least that is how it is in my little corner of California...

 

[inveresk]

Canada has the second worst health care in the world as far as high costs go. Guess who is dead last in that regard?

Canada's per capita spending on health is about half that of the USA. In fact we're 10th for spending but 30th in the World Health Organization's ranking for quality of health care - not great value for money but by no means the worst. France is first in the health care ranking and are 4th highest spenders. USA tops the spending league but is only 37th in the health care ranking. Italy appears to get the best value for money, being 2nd in the league table but only 11th highest spenders.

(WHO's ranking of health care systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

 

[ultrarunner]

Canada's per capita spending on health is about half that of the USA. In fact we're 10th for spending but 30th in the World Health Organization's ranking for quality of health care - not great value for money but by no means the worst. France is first in the health care ranking and are 4th highest spenders. USA tops the spending league but is only 37th in the health care ranking. Italy appears to get the best value for money, being 2nd in the league table but only 11th highest spenders.

(WHO's ranking of health care systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Don't forget that a lot of America's Health Care Dollars go to the legal profession... either pro-actively or by litigation.

The few foreign doctors I know that practice outside the US don't have to contend with Malpractice the way we do here in America.

Another, although smaller examply of waste occurs every month when we donate "Expired" supplies to other countries... the cost is significant.

Our former Chief of Staff was a Military Doctor before civilian life... he often commented that the military does not have near the problem with expiration dates because many medical items for military use do not have expiration dates.

You would think it would be simple to just not by so much... problem is many of the items come only in case lot quantities and may never be used at all... some are only kept on the crash cart in the event of a specific medical emergency that in 19 years, I have yet to witness.

 

[powerpace]

I have spent many hours in the ER treating people with the same problems week after week. Don't abuse the ER by going there for a cold aches and pains and other nonemergent situations. It's called a "Emergency Room" for a reason not a convenience room for when you have time to go in after a hard day on the four wheeler. One of the favorite questions asked and always gets a smile from the nurse is, "So you have had this problem for three days so what is different that you need to come into the hospital now? Most times the response will be "I was too busy".
Most of the problems seen in the ER are not emergency situations and can easily be handled by common sense "short supply of that" or a call to their Doctor.
The Wife still works in an ER and on the side teaches Advanced Emergency Medicine courses for medical providers and nurses at the college level. Nothing changes except management trying to cut costs. The first place they cut is experienced personel.
Hospitals are mandated to treat anyone who comes through the door pay or no pay.

 

[LostInTheWoods]

I have spent many hours in the ER treating people with the same problems week after week. Don't abuse the ER by going there for a cold aches and pains and other nonemergent situations. It's called a "Emergency Room" for a reason not a convenience room for when you have time to go in after a hard day on the four wheeler. One of the favorite questions asked and always gets a smile from the nurse is, "So you have had this problem for three days so what is different that you need to come into the hospital now?
Hospitals are mandated to treat anyone who comes through the door pay or no pay.

If I remember correctly, there's in the neighborhood of 34 million folks that are going to be newly insured (whether they like it or not, because it appears the government is going to punish those who'd chose to not have it).

With large areas of this country having a provider shortage, where do you think they're going to end up?