90% of all health care cost in US due to preventable illnesses

[Cruella]

Unless we can get a majority of conservatives into both the House and Senate come 2014, you can kiss quality healthcare goodbye. It's a done deal, foregone conclusion. We are not Britain or Canada. WE HAVE 310 MILLION PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY. (that we know of).

Insurance companies will not be able to provide affordable healthcare and cover everything required in Obamacare. Also, it's going to be a heck of a lot cheaper for employers to pay the fine and let their employees go onto the Government run insurance exchanges. At least until they belly up and the Government will have to take them over. Doctors will no longer be able to run privately owned practices and those that don't leave the profession will have to become a government employee in a government run hospital/clinic. The medical profession as we know it, will be dead, attracting fewer and fewer people. We'll probably have to import them from third world countries.

Of course anyone working in or for the now nationalized Obamacare system will be ran by the Unions, just like our public schools are.

Oh, and of course, the elities like Obama and his cronies will still get superior care, regardless of what we the peasants will get.

 

[PLC1]

Unless we can get a majority of conservatives into both the House and Senate come 2014,

That's like saying "unless we can get a majority of whooping cranes in the chicken pen". It's not going to happen. Conservatives are an endangered species in Washington.

 

[Cruella]

It's not going to happen. Conservatives are an endangered species in Washington.

Yeah?..... they were in 2010 too.

But you're right...they are endangered in DC right now. Now that the Liar-In-Chief and his media cohorts have made them public enemy No. 1.

 

[dogtowner]

Yeah?..... they were in 2010 too.

But you're right...they are endangered in DC right now. Now that the Liar-In-Chief and his media cohorts have made them public enemy No. 1.

at this stage only a government collapse will signal a significant shift in political direction.

and if these guys are right, thats years down the road.

 

[dogtowner]

So much could be done to lower health care costs with equal quality results. I have observed the health care system in several Asian countries.

lets see

1. A modest sized city may have 10 hospitals. One is equipped with MRI, Cat Scan .. most modern equipment. Other hospitals only have an X-ray machine, some are not much more than a large emergency room offering advanced first aid. Depending on your illness or injury, you go to a facility that meets your needs and no more. Thus payments are much lower.

Only works if the docs are willing to learn to diagnose sans lawyer mandated testing. Med schools stopped teaching that decades ago.

2. If medicine is needed, the doctors prescribe the cheapest medicine that will do the job. Newly developed, expensive drugs are seldom prescribed unless absolutely necessary.

Imagine the savings if pharma stops kicking back to prescribing docs ! Imagine the horror of docs losing that revenue stream ! (same applies to various labs etc.)

3. Doctors give talk to you about choices. I broke my leg near my knee and the doctor said we could just put on a cast for a month. Or, he could operate and try to repair ligaments using metal stitches. Finally I could go to a big city where the doctors have laparoscopic surgery and I would walk in a few days. Since my sports days are over, I chose the cast -- for less than $500.

They can and will but ONLY for patients who ask.

4. Doctor assisted suicide. A patient who is ill with a disease that cannot be cured and every day is another day of suffering should be given an option to have a doctor help him with suicide. Note I said option, not death panels. Why keep a patient alive who will never again have a day without pain?

Already do this to a large degree. They just refer to it differently. Bigger problem is the families rather than the patients.

Those are just some of many changes that could be made, but in our society it is highly unlikely they ever will be.

Understatement....

 

[Hobo1]

That's like saying "unless we can get a majority of whooping cranes in the chicken pen". It's not going to happen. Conservatives are an endangered species in Washington.

I have a theory that the programs Obama has pushed and the program he will continue to push appeal to a fairly small group of people. Only 15% of our population is Hispanic, yet the people who will benefit from a liberal immigration policy are all over the MSM - that's where the new story is. People like me who simply oppose the idea are not making a big show. But there is a still a lot of people who hate the idea. But that not is enough to make the news (but I'm still angry).

Another example is guns. Kids with Obama saying we've got to regulate guns better and all the mothers and kids who show up in Washington. They get the news coverage because of the sympathy value. The head of the NRA shows up and the news shows him as a member of the mafia - the devil re-incarnated. Yet, again, I think a large majority of he people feel the 2nd Amendment meant what it says - and don't want it messed with.

Compound that with other issues (health care, rising taxes, unemployment, etc.) and in 1214/16 we will have a minority of people who remember the good things Obama did - and a ton of people who are tired of all this messing with our freedoms. You don't hear about this group now - but someday there will be a major blowback against the liberals who think that the government is the answer to all problems. Then we will see Republicans in the House and Senate.

 

[PLC1]

I have a theory that the programs Obama has pushed and the program he will continue to push appeal to a fairly small group of people. Only 15% of our population is Hispanic, yet the people who will benefit from a liberal immigration policy are all over the MSM - that's where the new story is. People like me who simply oppose the idea are not making a big show. But there is a still a lot of people who hate the idea. But that not is enough to make the news (but I'm still angry).

The people who actually benefit from a liberal immigration policy are the ones who profit from having a cheap labor supply, not the Hispanics.

But, yes, there is a lot of hype just now about how we need a "path to citizenship" and so on. I suppose we must have forgotten the result of the amnesty program attempted back in the '80s, which was a dramatic increase in illegal immigration.

Another example is guns. Kids with Obama saying we've got to regulate guns better and all the mothers and kids who show up in Washington. They get the news coverage because of the sympathy value. The head of the NRA shows up and the news shows him as a member of the mafia - the devil re-incarnated. Yet, again, I think a large majority of he people feel the 2nd Amendment meant what it says - and don't want it messed with.

Interpretation of the Second Amendment is difficult and sticky to say the least. What are "arms"? Aren't they already "infringed"? Do we really want just anyone having any sort of weapon?

And the current controversy over gun control and proposals to outlaw scary looking guns is simply the result of people running in circles and saying "do something, anything!" after the rash of shootings. None of the proposals will do anything to end the shootings, but the government has to look like it is doing something when it actually is not.

Compound that with other issues (health care, rising taxes, unemployment, etc.) and in 1214/16 we will have a minority of people who remember the good things Obama did - and a ton of people who are tired of all this messing with our freedoms. You don't hear about this group now - but someday there will be a major blowback against the liberals who think that the government is the answer to all problems. Then we will see Republicans in the House and Senate.

Don't count on it. Americans seem to not mind losing freedom for the illusion of security.

and the real conservatives, the fiscal conservatives, the people who believe that the purpose of government is to protect our rights and that the Tenth Amendment means what it says, they're as rare as whooping cranes in Washington DC.

 

[Cruella]

Big brother to log your drinking habits and waist size as GPs are forced to hand over confidential records

• Data includes weight, cholesterol, BMI, family health history and pulse rate
• Doctors will be forced to reveal alcohol consumption and smoking status Privacy campaigners described it as 'biggest data grab in NHS history'
• Part of new Health Service programme called Everyone Counts
• Officials insisted data will be anonymous and deleted after analysis

Diagnosis of everything from cancer to heart disease to mental illness would be covered. Family doctors will have to pass on dates of birth, postcodes and NHS numbers.
Officials insisted the personal information would be made anonymous and deleted after analysis.

 

[dogtowner]

Big brother to log your drinking habits and waist size as GPs are forced to hand over confidential records

• Data includes weight, cholesterol, BMI, family health history and pulse rate
• Doctors will be forced to reveal alcohol consumption and smoking status Privacy campaigners described it as 'biggest data grab in NHS history'
• Part of new Health Service programme called Everyone Counts
• Officials insisted data will be anonymous and deleted after analysis

Diagnosis of everything from cancer to heart disease to mental illness would be covered. Family doctors will have to pass on dates of birth, postcodes and NHS numbers.
Officials insisted the personal information would be made anonymous and deleted after analysis.

go to your GP and tell him that you do not authorize this. its an opt out not an opt in. they are relying on ignorance and apathy.

 

[Hobo1]

I have made a special effort on the internet to use a bunch of different names. PLus, I go to great pains to keep everything private (no Facebook, etc). I suppose I must do the same thing for a program like this - although most of that information is already kept in hospital computer files.

With cloud computing, etc, gathering a complete data base about your life is becoming more and more prevalent. I am pretty sure every bit of private information will be available in some Homeland Security computer database. We're almost at the point where Big Brother will be a reality - and I am afraid we cannot stop it.

It turns my guts to think about it.

 

[PLC1]

Big brother to log your drinking habits and waist size as GPs are forced to hand over confidential records

• Data includes weight, cholesterol, BMI, family health history and pulse rate
• Doctors will be forced to reveal alcohol consumption and smoking status Privacy campaigners described it as 'biggest data grab in NHS history'
• Part of new Health Service programme called Everyone Counts
• Officials insisted data will be anonymous and deleted after analysis

Diagnosis of everything from cancer to heart disease to mental illness would be covered. Family doctors will have to pass on dates of birth, postcodes and NHS numbers.
Officials insisted the personal information would be made anonymous and deleted after analysis.

Does this mean a report stating that the average BMI of all patients in this facility is 24.2, or does it mean that the BMI of Joe The Patient is 24.2? It seems to me that there is a vast difference between the two.

 

[Lagboltz]

I have made a special effort on the internet to use a bunch of different names. PLus, I go to great pains to keep everything private (no Facebook, etc). I suppose I must do the same thing for a program like this - although most of that information is already kept in hospital computer files.

With cloud computing, etc, gathering a complete data base about your life is becoming more and more prevalent. I am pretty sure every bit of private information will be available in some Homeland Security computer database. We're almost at the point where Big Brother will be a reality - and I am afraid we cannot stop it.

It turns my guts to think about it.

You are doing the right thing. This short 2 1/2 minute video may not look relevant at first, but stick with it to the end. It is very frightening.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/F7pYHN9iC9I?rel=0

 

[dogtowner]

Does this mean a report stating that the average BMI of all patients in this facility is 24.2, or does it mean that the BMI of Joe The Patient is 24.2? It seems to me that there is a vast difference between the two.

they want YOUR BMI etc. is there any reason to think they will fail to keep it all ? if all they wanted was statistical data it could be reported by practice, not patient.

so much for doctor / patient confidentiality

 

[PLC1]

they want YOUR BMI etc. is there any reason to think they will fail to keep it all ? if all they wanted was statistical data it could be reported by practice, not patient.

so much for doctor / patient confidentiality

No kidding. That's a gross violation of HIPA laws.

 

[dogtowner]

No kidding. That's a gross violation of HIPA laws.

May want to read those laws.
Its illegal to let patient data slip to UNAUTHORIZED parties.
Uncle Sam isnt necessarily unauthorized.

I find it a gross violation of hundreds of years of law and precedent regarding confidentiality.