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Medical Costs Bankrupt Patients; It's the Computer's Fault
nbauman writes "Don't get cancer until 2015. The Obama health reform is supposed to limit out-of-pocket costs to $12,700. But the Obama Administration has delayed its implementation until 2015. The insurance companies told them that their computers weren't able to add up all their customers' out-of-pocket costs to see whether they had reached the limit. For some common diseases, such as cancer or heart failure, treatment can cost over $100,000, and patients will be responsible for the balance. Tell me, Slashdot, how difficult would it be to rewrite an insurance billing system to aggregate a policyholder's out-of-pocket costs? 'A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said: "We knew this was an important issue. We had to balance the interests of consumers with the concerns of health plan sponsors and carriers, which told us that their computer systems were not set up to aggregate all of a person's out-of-pocket costs. They asked for more time to comply."'"
The rollout is being delayed until after the 2014 congressional elections. The problem is political, not technical.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
It's just another example of bought and paid for politicians sucking the dick of corporations. The famous words "of the people, by the people, for the people" are such a sick joke if you look at the USA government. Coming from a country that covers 100% of such common procedures, I just can't imagine how people can live like that. And Americans still think they have the most superior country in the world. America! Fuck Yeah! Please stop spreading your ideas of freedom to the world and try spreading those ideas at home instead.
5) This is an improvement over the decisions about life or death being about share prices and executive bonuses. I don't want it to even remotely cross the mind of anyone with a say in my health care that they might possibly make more money if they leave me sick.
6) Having someone in the family get a very nasty, expensive disease no longer ends in bankruptcy. Which means the rest of us continue to pay for it, but the afflicted family isn't ruined. As we live longer and eat more crap, this begins to affect almost everyone.
7) We quit talking about health care as though it should be less important than police or roads or a standing army - things we already care enough about to devote tax dollars to.
just do away with insurance companies and switch to single payer. We all need health care to live and stuff. What we don't need is a middle man that adds no value between us and our doctors.
Face it, health 'insurance' made since when the only thing a doctor could do was a) amputate and b) give out aspirin. It didn't matter that they only did a few big things that were mostly comfort before you died. Now we want to _use_ insurance. Insurance can't be profitable if we're all going to use it. The entire _point_ of insurance is that most of us aren't going to use it.
It's like hurricane insurance in Florida. Good luck buying it.
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It's not such a great idea to remove personal accountability.
You get cancer, it's your responsibility. Can't pay the bills? Then don't get cancer.
You get crippled by a drunk driver who speeds off and is never caught? It's your responsibility. Can't pay the bills? Then don't get hit by a drunk driver.
Leg blown off in a terrorist attack? It's your responsibility. Can't pay the bills? Then don't go to spots that terrorists want to blow up.
Oh, that happened to you? So sorry, here's a bailout because you had personal accountability. Enjoy your long life!
I love the "personal accountability" line. It's simply a nice way of saying "not my problem - fuck you".
they don't get to decide. Doctors do. It's single PAYER, not single INSURER. It doesn't work the way you're thinking in Europe, Canada, Germany or any of the other single payer systems where people are entitled (whoops used a bad word) to health care. The only purpose of the gov't is to pay doctors. And they can be well paid and still provide great service.
:).
But far be it from me to let a little thing like facts and the failures of the US healthcare system get in thy way of irrational fear mongering perpetuated by a multi-billion dollar insurance industry. Viva la death panels (well, the private ones anyway)
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BTW, what was this basic "human right" again? I can't seem to place it from what you're saying. You've just been yacking about "socialized health care".
Question: Do you believe that someone without insurance, or who otherwise has no ability to pay, who is suffering from an acute medical emergency, should be turned away from a hospital emergency room and left to die on the sidewalk?
If the answer is "Yes," then you're some kind of barbarian, and we're done here.
If the answer is "No," then I've got some even worse news for you: we already have "socialized medicine." The patient will, in fact, be treated, and you and I will, in fact, pick up the tab. It just costs us several times more than it would in any other civilized nation on Earth, because unlike those nations, we insist on kidding ourselves.