Yes and you guys would have let the financial world collaspe. Do us a favor it you thnk we are Communist or socialistsm please do not sure medicare or take your social security check. Walk your uneducated talk radio nonsense that polarizes our country. We have better things to do than you 15% of the far right think. The majority of Americans are pragmatic and want common sense and compromise. Try not compromising in your marriages and find yourself divorced.

I had a copy of this letter two weeks ago in my email also.

William, wait a minute all along I have been reading on these vines that it was that damn Bush that pushed the 700 billion TARP through, and now you are saying it was the dems.

bush pushed through tarp 1 .....which was the correct course of action . you can argue they did not due what they said they would do ......but you cant second guess when the house was on fire. bush should get credit for standing up against his party and pushing it through.

the stimulus money clearly worked ......my proof is the state budgets . states are mandated by law to balance budgets . they would have to slash JOBS to get in order . if your a teacher , fireman, policeman , or any state employee ....you should send flowers to the white house ....they probably saved your job.

No TORT REFORM will mean a bumper crop of Lawyers.

Has any one seen this Political cartoon?

A petite ….older …women…no-nonsense type… …in appropriate attire....... has griped a raging bull( named Obama-Congress)… by the tail and braces her feet against the back of the bull thighs…..

As she lifts the bulls’ tail.....…to examine-the-situation,

She yells…..”WHERE’S THE TORT REFORM”…….

Yes, now as late as it is (Obama didn't want to reveal this), a doctor shortage is inevitable. How can the Medical Schools pump out the finest doctors in a few years to take care of Supply and Demand.

This whole idea of Medical Reform goes much further than free health care. Your private insurance is deciding to keep it will double if one decides to stay with their own present plan.. Health care will be mediocre or a low end fix. How will the doctor or specialists fit you into their busy schedule during the day for emergency care?

What about all the paper work that will have to be put through, especially for those who cannot afford to pay their medical bills? Will the doctors get reimbursed?

What about the Emergency room? Less patients, less waiting. No, it will get larger, because the people who abuse the system of ER will be making more frequent visits. What do they care about how much it costs---it's free. Free to them.

Medical care and the excellence of getting good health care such as Sen. Ted Kennedy, and all the Congress people, will not be up for choice to you. You will have Socialized medicine, waiting months for a problem, even if it is castastrophic.

How many patients can a doctor see in one day?. I see Physician's Assistants becoming the doctor, taking many of the patients on themselves. Giving medical treatment, authorized to write prescriptions---will the doctor ever return a personal phone call to the patient re: the diagnosis or treatment?

Illegal immigrants will surely be included in the system. Do you believe Pres. Obama when he tells you to believe him---Hah, he lost our trust many months ago--he never released his grades from Harvard, nor did he release his Birth Certificate as to exactly where he was born. Trust and credibility is earned.

Can we also not release our Birth Certificates under this new Health Care Plan?

So many questions, no answers. The majority have already made up their own intelligent minds.

Health Care Reform, excellent health care from our doctors is not possible.

Who shall live and who shall die. There won't be a doctor around to take care of the dying person. If you are young and don't have medical problems, this person will live.

Not enough doctors. Anyone who can project this Bill knows full well it will be a disaster, because Obama himself hasn't thought it through to the end.

John-385319

1-What does the government "owe" you, be specific and tells us why?

2-Who exactly do you think should pay for these handouts and why?

The government owes us for 8 years of rules and regs being slanted towards the rich. For allowing things to get as bad as it is because they wanted to make sure their friends the multibillionaires got a break. The government owes us for providing our sons (like mine) for fighting and sacrificing themselves for an illegal war who's only purpose was to make a few rich people richer. The government owes us for letting a lot of things slide like clean water (see this morning's article) and other pollution measures.

Who do i think should pay for it? well perhaps we should start with the people that made oodles and oodles of money off of what they should have paid under the previous administration. Then let's take a look at the people making big money while paying the people who work for them, wages so low they can't afford health insurance. Unlike the conservatives who think there needs to be a class of poor people which they can look down upon, i believe anyone working 35+ hours a week should get paid enough to put a roof over their head, food on the table and receive healthcare. If the employer can't make it by paying their busboys a decent wage, either they'll need to do it themselves or rethink their business plan.

They need to put tariffs on incoming products. If we can't afford to make the stuff here, maybe we don't need it as bad as we think we do.

A good idea to get more doctors for Health Care Reform, is to send them through a 2 year program from a Community College. This would be the fastest way to get the supply of doctors we'll need.

The Reform Bill doesn't talk about the Excellence of Medical doctors and Specialists. It's going to be like a "Jack in the Box" (Fast food restaurant) Clinic and Hospital.

If the doctors or doctors prefer to take their well-to-do patients first, leaving the people who have Free Health Care last, they will be fined big time.

How much mal practice insurance will the doctors need? It is atrociously expensive now. Mal Practice insurance will take much of their income. Health Reform means a salary for a doctor. Like Canada, right now, doctors make about $100,000 per year.

What's the incentive to be in the Medical Field?. None. One would make more money in sales.

While we're looking for the 'Bush' era letter, I'd like to see a copy of the health care bill. You know the one, that has abortions paid for and free health care for illegals? The whole bill is full of lies, liberial adgenda medical formats, and most of all. A trillion dollar plus addition to the national debt that is now 12 Trillion, the most of any of all the presidents before Obama combined. If this is such a good plan, why is Reid and Waxman so far behind in polling in their own states.

does the average right-wing nut bag even realize THIS is what "fair and balanced" looks like???

this is MSN and not Fox News. i'm STILL looking for that balance over there at GOP headquarters (Faux News).

LMAO.

There is a reason why there is pre med and medical school, eight plus years. There are no short cuts. Then there is what is called continuing education. Future shortage of doctors and nurses....I think so.

So what this article ADMITS is that we have been right all along- the healthcare reform will mean shortages of doctors, therefore longer waits to see a doctor. But that doesn't matter to the left, only giving MY pay to others in order to provide wht I will still have to earn for not only me and mine, but for everyone else. GO FRIGGING EARN IT YOURSELVES, YOU LAZY PAIN IN THE NECKS!! I EARNED MINE, GO EARN YOURS.

Just wait in a few years after Obama care it won't just be a doctor shortage, your dog will have a better chance of getting a CT scan or an MRI scan. Be careful what you wish for .

A dr shortage is a dr shortage whether there's a health plan or not. Which part of that do people not understand? Rich, middle class, poor makes no difference. Insurance, no insurance, makes no difference. When you need a dr, you need him/her.

The problem is right now, it's OK to turn away the people we deem unworthy (those with jobs that don't insure nor pay well). Once you put the guy that cleans the bathrooms at the rest stop and the loan officer at a bank on the same level of competition for care, only then does there become a shortage.

Before the bills in Congress had been put online, I did some research for a paper about Obama's proposals for health care reform. Here are some links of reports I used about Mass. Health care reform that show some of what happened there: more ER visits, longer waits, doctors getting out of primary care, and exhorbitant costs:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97620520

http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/7777.pdf

And here is an update as of Sept. 1, 2009 showing the problems in Massachusetts:

http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7976.pdf

http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/7777-02.pdf (despite a mainly glowing report, read page 2 carefully!)

This isn't about Liberal, Conservative, Democrat, Republican, whatever. It's simple math. If you make health care more available for 46 million people, you're going to need more people to take care of them, and not all of them will really need to see a doctor.

People don't just show up in emergency rooms for serious illnesses. Colds, sprains, minor cuts, and general aches and pains that used to be treated at home are already bringing people in demanding to see doctors. Do you really expect to see the new wave abuse the process less than the ones who already Do?

We need more doctors or more qualified triage level practitioners with the authority to send the non-sick home for orange juice and bedrest.

I can be a little dense. I don't understand you here, your language is unclear to me. I don't know about spam e-mail, but I was always under the impression that as long as one cited the source or author it wasn't copyright infringement. Also, how is providing a link copyright infringement? I always thought that was simply sharing information.

This can't possibly be true because Obama promised no rationing of health care.

There must be some mistake in the author's reasoning. LOL

I wonder how many young people will want to become doctors in the future, since it takes most of a decade, and huge debt, to make it through. Then, when they finally have worked their way up to making a good living (which will take far longer because the Federal Government will cut reimbursements rates), Obama will tax away most of it because they'll be considered "rich".

Why should it cost a huge amount of debt to become a doctor? And certainly Obama isn't going to tax away ALL of their hard earned money. They will still be wealthy I am sure.

Obama will leave the presidency, make millions on his books deals, speeches, etc., and have the royal healthcare that former presidents take with them forever. So, while he will be living the high life, we'll be stuck with higher taxes for and poorer quality of service just so he can say he passed reform, er I mean redistribution. I live next door to a young doctor, he is going into sports medicine, wants no part of primary care because he currently has over 200 grand in med school debt alone. How many others are out there like him. And if the Physicians Asst's. take over more care, then watch the lawsuits mount. It's a bounty for the lawyers. You know, the guys that Obama doesn't want touched through Tort Reform. All the existing waste and corruption should be addressed before we implement any real legislation. Fix what's broken. I'd like to see you run your car without changing a flat tire, how far can you go? Same thing.

John: more bull@!$%#!!!!

Oi vey! The 50-day or 100-day waiting period is to get to specialists. And you usually have to see a specialist because you have something a little more serious than you thought at first. And that usually happens because most people put off going to a doctor for regular "maintenance" because it costs so much.

You can go into any clinic or hospital and see a doctor that same day, or even set up an appointment for a day or two later.

Of course, the long waiting period is very convincing since as a whole, the US population is quite dense and doesn't even thin kabout the fact they can see a doctor for a check up any time they feel like it.

The entire country has backward/outdated medical equipment and needs the older nurses to run the junk/antiques. I've seen old, IV pumps from 30 yrs ago, they can't hold a charge. I've seen old equipment that doctors are trained to use in surgery cause that's what the rest of the country runs it's hospitals with if it has any usable equipment. No one can find the user's guide. I want my doc to be a top of the class Democrat. Gawd, I'd rather die than a Republican MD take care of me, lordy, lordy.

I want to go to my doctor's doctor!

There is a system to prove legality, it's used when necessary, just not enforced.

Well, have any of you tried to get accepted as a new patient to any doctor recently? Maybe you should just call and ask if a doctor is accepting any new patients. Our daughter had pnuemonia last year and the doctor who treated her at the hospital said he'd take her as a new patient but when she called his office to make a followup appointment she had a heck of a time getting any sort of appointment and got told he wasn't taking any new patients!

SpoxLogic: did you actually read the article?? It says flat out "primary care doctor". That is not a specialist. That is your every day, I have a cold, I need a physical, my kid needs shots doctor. Please, before you argue, know what you arguing against.

Again, SpoxLogic: Yeah, you can go to the hospital if you need to see a doctor NOW; it's called the emergency room, and it's people that think like you that have caused the cost of health care to shoot up. "Oh no, I have a splinter, I better got to the ER". Give me a break.

And I am glad that you can just call your doctor up for a check up and see them in the next day or two. For me, I have to call my doctor and make an appointment for sometime in the next few weeks, maybe next month, especially for a routine check up. If I'm sick, I'm lucky to get in during the current week. And for the people whose health care I am responsible for (at work), it is the same. But, I guess I can always take my family and my clients to the ER for the routine stuff. What does the "E" stand for?? Does anybody remember??

SpoxLogic,

Mass Medical Society report Apr 2009.

'We've seen that insurance doesn't guarantee access to care when you have severe shortages of physicians. Difficulty in finding a primary care physician and long waits for appointments are common problems. This gap between reputation and reality in Mass health care is real,..."

Well there Bernie, I hate to break it to you but John just might have the right of it. When you have logic like this:

A raft of ideas has been proposed to ease that pressure — from boosting loan repayment programs for medical students studying primary care...

(that might actually help a little which is why I don't think they would follow that course. But this next zippy little plan is the one that really got me...)

... to narrowing the salary gap between primary care doctors and specialists like brain surgeons and cardiologists.

Lets see here what'll this do...? It can take up to an additional 8 years and/or $500,000 or better of formal schooling (depending on the specialty). So, if your brain surgeon is making closer to what a general practitioner is, what is their incentive again for going through all of that training, and spending all of that additional money on an education? There won't be one genius. There will be fewer surgeons, cardiologists, neurologists, and even radiologists, (and lots of other 'ologists' that I can't think of right now.)

Which translates to your G.P. effectively being forced into the position of saying: 'Well I know you need a heart transplant/cancer surgery/hip replacement/whatever it is I need to send you to a specialist for; but golly gee whiz that'll be at least a two year wait, and you'll have to travel two states away. Good luck with that. Sorry about your life, but there's nothing I can do.'

However, there will still be a market for specialists who cater to those who can afford it out of pocket.

Not to mention, that Medicaid/medicare fleeces hospitals like nobody's business. A medicaid claim only covers about forty percent of every exam, and the hospital eats the rest. So let's expand the government program that already has hospitals teetering on the brink. Hospitals will close. Period. If they have a choice, fewer Dr.'s will even accept the 'public option' because they take it in the teeth every time a gov. insured comes through. Oh wait. That is already happening.

So ah... Yeah... Dual health care; one for the wealthy and the train wreck for the rest of us.

C'mon people...the solution is easy peasy. Obama and the Dems will pass a law forcing the best/brightest HS or college grads into med school, followed by a life of servitude to the Imperial US government. Those that 'chose' NOT to follow the imperial government's plan will be taxed at a riduculously high rate to the extent that they are basically forced into poverty (parallelling the state mandated health plan)...or, in lieu of taxation, perhaps they'll just be jailed for defying the Imperial government's dictate...Hello, mother Russia!!!

Morgan, you're assuming all medical students are equal.

1. How many go on to being a heart surgeon because they don't have the personality to be a GP, they are better with people who are anesthetized?
2. How many people go on to be a heart surgeon because they simply love the science in it?
3. How many people go on to be a heart surgeon because there's big bucks in it.

My guess is #3 far outweighs the first 2 reasons. So why not make the playing field more even either by reducing the cost or increasing the pay?

Did you also read that the Nurse practitioners are taking over more of the duties. I for one do not like that. For colds and things like okay but when it comes to my diabetes or Graves I want my doctor to take care of that and as far as writing scripts well that is also the doctors duty. This whole reform has become come a pile of turds and nobody knows which way to go except to get it passed and get it passed now. Nobody listens, nobody wants to listen. As always just my opinion.

How do we reduce the deaths of 100,000 Americans whose deaths are caused or influenced by infections picked up in hospitals? That is more than double the number of people killed in car crashes, five times the number killed in homicides, 20 times the total number of our armed forces killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"In April, a Wall Street Journal story suggested that blood clots following surgery or illness, the leading cause of preventable hospital deaths in the U.S., may kill nearly 200,000 patients per year" How do we prevent these hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by minor medical mistakes?

So what this article ADMITS is that we have been right all along- the healthcare reform will mean shortages of doctors, therefore longer waits to see a doctor. But that doesn't matter to the left, only giving MY pay to others in order to provide wht I will still have to earn for not only me and mine, but for everyone else. GO FRIGGING EARN IT YOURSELVES, YOU LAZY PAIN IN THE NECKS!! I EARNED MINE, GO EARN YOURS.

Granny-

Without the payoff incentive people won't go into the specialized fields nearly as much.

1. There are other fields that potential surgeons could go into (a.k.a Don't Need Great People Skills Kind of Fields) that would pay as much as a G.P. with less school and less headache. If you take away the financial incentive they will find other endeavors to devote themselves to.

2. Sure some do, but not as many as one might think. Besides, as above there are other science fields that these bright minds may be drawn to that would offer them more financially than they would get having to pay off those extra student loans with on a General Practitioner pay scale.

3. Most of them. Without the payoff incentive people won't go into the specialized medical fields nearly as much. We will lose a good chunk of them to other endeavors. That's my point, and you've kind of reiterated it here, which leaves me a little confused. Either I'm not getting you or I wasn't clear.

They aren't talking about boosting pay scale for G.P's. They are talking about reducing the pay scale for specialized medicine. This idea has been kicked around like a soccer ball ever since this health reform push started, and it's making the Doc's at our hospital nervous as h***.

"It's like giving everyone free bus passes, but there are only two buses,"

No problem here - Obama said there would not be rationing of care - he promised, so it must be so. LOL

PS - While some specialists make $300,000 a year, they have to pay malpractice insurance premiums of $200,000 per year. Tort Reform, anyone???

SpoxLogic "Oi vey! The 50-day or 100-day waiting period is to get to specialists."

The article said "In a 2008 survey of physicians, the Massachusetts Medical Society found the average wait time to see an adult primary care doctor was 50 days, with some doctors reporting wait times for new patients of up to 100 days."

A "primary care doctor" is NOT a specialist.

This is apparently a real problem in Canada's program. Is that what we want?

There will be Doctor Shortages and so there will still be the same number of people without treatment only Obama wants to pick on the older and sicker among us and have them just take "a pain pill" which is just what he told the woman who's mom had needed a pace maker at 100--is now a healthy 105. He wouldn't have anything subjective in the decision about her health care like that she was healthy and happy and lively and "spunky" and wanted to live. No, he said to the woman that at 100 he would have to go by the usual and maybe she should have just taken the "pain pill and drift off."

How dare he!

My mom is also a healthy 92 year old who tends her own home, fixes her own meals, drives her car very well, manages a business and is just past president of her Golden Kiwanis club where she, among other things, has helped in raising money for books for the Head Start kids and goes, with others, quite a distance on her own to read to and with these little kids. She has a good head on her shoulders and is just finishing up some complex taxes including a couple of trusts, a business, the sale of one of her apartment buildings etc. She has good genes--one of her aunts lived to 111--oldest woman in US at that time, with a mom that lived to 94, whose sister lived to 92 and whose Brother is still doing very well thank you at 94. They say her own grandmother danced an Irish Jig at her own 90th birthday party.

There has to be some subjectivity in any plan--not just saying "you are 80 or 90 or 95 or 100 so take a pill and drift away as Obama would wish. Look for that interview with the woman on You Tube. It made chills run down my spine.

There has been a shortage of Doctors and Nurses for at least 18 yrs. We are bringing nurses here from the Philippines and other countries, wouldn't you think they would be paying attention to this before they make this huge mistake?

I knew it, I knew it...this knocks the duck right out of the pond..however, there are many physician assistants and electronic data systems out there, that can expedite matters..with highly a motivated ORGANIZATIONAL concept, we can have a leading edge on third world Countries on H/C systems..the pathway may appear to be long, but if a straight path is created..the distance can be overcome easily..it's like this; communication to possible remedy, then or onto appointment with doctor, then channeled on to specific needs, to specific doctors etc..on and on..of course Emergency treatments are always a different scenario..I'm very leery about the H/C reform, due to the greed of of it all..I'm very concerned about the poor/ common Americans financial budgets..I feel that it is going to be extremely hard on those who cannot afford the Forced demands..for those that have lucrative funds, no problem..Americans, including myself are financially strapped..I don't want no hand outs, I don't have a tin cup..if I did, I would give it to someone who wants it..I like most, many would be happy to work for my needs..I do not want general or social assistance....

I see that the State controlled media is now confirming that illegals are included in the healthcare bill, the 50 million number provided by the census bureau includes ILLEGAL ALIENS!

Well, duh!

get used to it. Health Care Reform will pass. I'm not saying what the bill will look like but it will pass. Everyone that knows anything knows the current system is not sustainable. I have heard many Republican legislators say exactly that - not sustainable.

It should have been done decades ago. If the insurance companies wouldn't have stalled for all these years (buying congress and lobbying) it would have probably be more palatable. But NO, everyone in power let politics and money stand in their way.

It is our fault for not being informed voters and electing the politicians instead of some one who cared about what was best for America. Be informed, which means study many sources of information and determine objectively which you think is best. It is hard and constant work that few want to do. No we have to watch the ball game, have a BBQ, or play golf, or go shopping. We have let our lives get so hectic and full of pressure we don't have time(rat race). Slowdown, realize what is important. If we don't take the time to become informed and vote, we shoot ourselves in the foot. Many in power are counting on the fact that we are uniformed.

If you did not vote in the last election SHUT UP.
Kick the lobbyist out
Election reform
Campaign reform

Obama's first promise

No lobbyist except the ones he wants

#1 LIAR

clatech

Do you really need to say everything three times before you feel you have made your point?

I got it the first time!

I would be more worried if your moniker was caltech! Hopefully, there is no relation!

What are you proposing, we simply forget these fifty million people hoping they will either go away of die?

It is an issue which left unattended will only become further compounded so it's not the time to hide our heads in the sad and hope it will all blow over.

Failure to address it can mean faster spread of contagious disease just to bring to your attention one reason we need deal with now!

Yhere are not fifty million people with out health care, that is a lie too, if you take off the illegals there is only about thirty and most of them are people who could have it and choose to but a new car instead. Then there are the young people who think they are never going to need.it I pay out the butt for my ins. but I wouldnt trade it for what the commies are offering.

Thank you Susan-

"Commies" is pretty much hitting the nail on the head. After the Obama "World Apology tour" now we have to deal with "Big Brother" sticking his fingers in every aspect of our lives. A little "reform" would be great, start with flushing all the frivolous lawsuits- fining attorneys that are draining insurance companies would contribute a great deal there- or making laws that imprison or fine the attorneys filing bogus claims- now theres "change "you can believe in.

"Overnight" healthcare?????? Are you kidding? Presidents (DEMOCRATIC ONES, OF COURSE, SINCE REPUBLICANS CARE ABOUT NOTHING EXCEPT MAKING SURE EVERYONE HAS A GUN TO PROTECT THEMSELVES), have been trying to get national healthcare for sixty years. A-hole Republicans and their insane fear-mongoring tactics hypnotize their pathetically stupid constituents into trashing it and beating it down. IT WON'T HAPPEN THIS TIME, YOU A-HOLES.

If any of you on here have guns and love them so much, you're right...you personally don't deserve healthcare....why don't you take your guns and shoot yourselves in the mouth with them and FINALLY SHUT THE HELL UP.

"50M new patients - expect doctor shortages" is another government-media codependent-partnership citizen-prompting to manage citizen expectations, both to lower existing expectations and create some new paradigms through this unsubtle spin. The "50M new patients" is straightforward - when the healthcare scheme that the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans do NOT want is FORCED, THUG-STYLE on them, this will obviously clog the system with both current legal citizens without healthcare AND the illegals that the cynical politicians will transform into "legals" overnight through amnesty. The second part "expect doctor shortages" is a recognition that current US-trained doctors of any real talent and sufficient assets will quickly run for the exit door and do something else, rather than work punishingly long hours, for low pay, with diminished prestige and all that after long medical training with the same features. It is a recognition that as doctors become mere cogs in the government wheel with little or no control over their own destinies, and little different in recognition and reward than other government functionaries assuming far lower-risk and far less stressful jobs, far fewer US youth will be drawn to the profession to begin with. But most of all it is an advance disclaimer of the entire bad system that is being pushed through and a warning as well: In the short term, there will be higher prices for lesser access and fewer services, as is true anytime the government enters a field. In the longer term, this will be the rationale to bring in foreign medical doctors to the US, which will be an expedient way to change the rules and conditions of US healthcare delivery forever.

I pay out the butt for my ins. but I wouldnt trade it for what the commies are offering.

Good, because you deserve exactly the insurance that you have.

It's the people with heath care who end up going bankrupt because they get dropped or the copays for cancer, neuro surgery etc are just beyond what the average blue collar worker or secretary/office worker can afford.

Ben, you are paying for the CEO to get his average yearly salary of $11.9 million and for the stock holders' profits, not for good health care. An as soon as you get sick or lose your job, you're SOL.

...And to listen to the Democraps there isn't going to be a rationing of services or a long waiting periods to get heath care!!!!! People wakeup!!!!! It is socialized Medicine, just repackaged with a different name!!!!!

Actually there will be no problem with waiting or backlogs because of the lack of doctors.

We'll just do it the Canadian way, with the Wait Times Reduction Fund:

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/qual/acces/wait-attente/index-eng.php

Then we'll see the amazing results that the "Fund" produces:

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/transformation/wait_times/providers/wt_pro_mn.html

We need free healthcare for all, right now. We also need free food. Free shelter....

We do have the best medical system, to a certain degree, (it's sporadic). we go to other countries to do surgery and "resupply" them with our unused equipment they just sold us and can't use. We call it medical waste.

Don't want my doc in the accelerated program like they do for nurses. Help!

We need free healthcare for all, right now. We also need free food. Free shelter....

Not to worry. If things stay on the same course, we will all also have Free Jobs, where every penny we otherwise would have made will go to pay for all the programs we want. Your food allowance will arrive in a box every Monday... sans McDonalds, of course.

Patients with Castatrophic or possilbe heart disease (heart attack) will wait many months for their first appointment.

This is true in Canada. I know, we have many family and friends who come to the US first for the best and fastest treatment, if one has the money.

And they are finally admitting "outloud" that Obama's health care nightmare is flawed...wow, what a surprise.

Believer:

Personally, it's looking like a failure--who wants to be told what kind of health care we want or who we should see. I always think of the marvelous choices my friends/family has had for treatment of Breast Cancer, especially the women who have a high risk genetic disposition.. So many have lived with the miracles of modern medicine. Not possible with the Health Reform Bill. A woman will be told what kind of choices and treatments she will have. Not right and not fair. The same for men who have enormous choices for Prostate Cancer living long beyond the years of survival.

Who wants a Colonoscopy? Not many are going to choose this procedure. It is a must after the age of 50. We'll be paying for the people who do not ever go to the doctor at all.

What's wrong with our current Health Care?

Money is falling from the tree for Obama--the bank enormous with Trillions of dollars already spent.

We live near the Canadian Border. Folks literally spill over here into the US to get care they can't get for any price (though they pay enormous taxes to provide for it). One recently begged--"Don't go to Socialized Medicine--then where will we go to keep from dying of our bloated system?"

At our office a man's daughter-in-law lives in Canada. She has breast cancer metastasized to her brain--she couldn't get treatment for months then was told she had to move to another city where they could treat her and now she is blind and has little chance of sight or life. She has a baby and several small children. This is criminal!

Stop Obama NOW!

On May 232, 2009 Barak Obama said "We are out of money."

Who will pay for Obamacare? He keeps lying and saying it can be paid for by effiency in current programs. Have you ever seen an efficient government program?

Please, those of us who have worked hard and sacrificed for health care for all in our families do not feel it is fair to put all those freeloaders who haven't worked a day in their lives on this care.

Healthcare is to be earned--not given out willy nilly unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Juno: Your comments are real and very serious.

We have had first hand experience with our Canadian family and friends coming over the Border to the US for fast medical treatment.. They know we have the best Health Care in the World, because of the many choices of doctors and treatments using the latest hi tech medical tests

One person was having a heart attack, and the doctor told him he couldn't see him for many months. His son, also a doctor immediately rushed him here to the States. Yes, death can occur if the problem isn't recognized immediately..

With the new Health Care Reform Bill it will be very difficult to get a MRI. Very few will exist, because of the enormous cost of the test, and the digital scanner itself.. How is this Health Care going to pay for these types of tests?

We, I agree, are going to have to pay for the people who are not motivated to work, nor pay for their fair share, already living off government programs.

Immigrants and their children will also receive free health care. The children of Illegal Immigrants, are considered US citizens if they are born in the United States. That makes up a huge amount of people.

. The doctors (not all) are mediocre. They only have Primary Physicians for most patients. Seeing a Specialist is for the very well-to-do there. It is a privilege most Canadians cannot affor.

Because of this night mare we already have hospices contacting the elderly should something happen come here and die we will comfort you. I knew this would happen with this health care plan what a shame we had the best that needs some tweeking now we are trying to condem our elderly to death.

You are right Canada is a mess they come to the usa for life threatening health care. People are left maimed and crippled with unset broken bones. People die having heart attacks in crowded hospital waiting room we have it made here we have a few people who need help this can be fixed without destroying our system.

We want to choose not have those choices made for us!

Our best doctors will leave!

Waiting lines in Canada are a million people long to see a specailist a million people long for surgery.

I am apauled at the stupity of this administration.

You know, the silly argument about the "terrible" Canadian health care system has been proven false many times. Actually, it's Americans who bus up North of the Border to get cheap medication.

USA # 37th in the world in health care treatment.

USA-- 1st in health care cost.

Yeah, we got an awesome system----- if your rich!

The Doctor shortage is just another "boogy man" scare tactic. The private sector has already established Minute Clinics in almost every drug store and Wal Mart in America. These are staffed by nurses and/or nurse practitioners that diagnose runny noses, scrapes and bruises, administer flu shots, etc.

The AMA is screaming bloody murder that these clinics will drain patients from primary care Drs. and we will have practices closing all over the country. It takes two additional years of school for a nurse to become a nurse practitioner vs. 12 for a Physician. Therefore, in 2012 this "boogy man" can be put back under the Republicans bed.

Wellness care doesn't require an M.D. and can prevent, or mitigate, most of the everyday problems people face. The obese, chain smoking, saturated fat sucking, precription drug addicts will be the only ones who need a primary care Dr. to manage them through their slow and agonizing death.

The rare but legitimate health problems that are not self induced can be handled by specialists as they are now.

All my Doctors most are from Harvard a couple from Yale........said if Obamacare is approved they will retire, that right there my friends is about 7 Highly Educated Specialists, that will be or not be replaced by some inexperienced college kid........

We need more nurse practitioners and physician assistants and we should forgive the loans for doctors who agree to go into general practice and increase medicare and medicaid payments to them and lower the one for specialists.

There are plenty of educated people to replace your Harvard and yale guys, dead head, and there would be more if we really supported higher education instead of stupid college sports.

And Helmet Breaker, all the doc I know hate the profit driven insurance system that makes educated doctors beg some clerk in a high rise office for permission to treat a patient

Deadhead says "All my Doctors most are from Harvard a couple from Yale........said if Obamacare is approved they will retire,..." Good, let your elitist, specialist doctor friends retire. Good riddance. They'll just open an elitist specialist care home visit practice for their elitist friends who are willing to pay through the nose for their services. The only thing they are afraid of is that their salaries will be reduced.

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Actually you are so very wrong, I wish I still had the link.........early this year they surveyed 10,000 doctors across America, I think it was in the" Medical Journal "........this is before Obamacare.....60% of the 10,000 Doctors said they are tired of being a doctor, insurance companies setting prices, insurance companies slow or no pay, too many patients, not enough doctors to go around now, poor attitude within the nursing staff, pharmacutical companies always bugging them to push their drug, patients attitudes.....I would continue , but you know everything.......

Why is Canada's healthcare system being argued and compared here? Obama's proposal does not not establish a single payer system, like in Canada. The government option is not the same thing as universal coverage.

John: more bull@!$%#!!

Bernie: You sound like a democrat. The same lies over and over again.

Helmetbreaker - also a fact in this matter is that doctors pay huge malpractice liability insurance premiums which do drive up what they have to charge and the patients don't seem to know this. Plus, here's a fact that most people don't realize. While doctors have to pay to keep their licenses valid they also have to pay to retire their licenses by the year.

Bernie - before you yell that bs....I know this for a fact as I have a retired doctor in my family who is paying yearly to keep their license retired! I also saw the insurance premium bills and they can NEVER EVER drop that insurance because they might get sued after they are retired too.

Sorry, Scare tactics and fear mongering do not work. There are enough physicians in America, now so why will there not be if this healthcare reform goes through. We are tired of everyone throwing up roadblocks to scare people. I go to an internist and will continue to go to her, until I die. Get real!

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN3143203520080331

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half of U.S. doctors now favor switching to a national health care plan and fewer than a third oppose the idea, according to a survey published on Monday.

http://www.pnhp.org/

Physicians for a National Health Program is a single issue organization advocating a universal, comprehensive single-payer national health program. PNHP has more than 17,000 members and chapters across the United States.

From the site- The U.S. already rations care. Rationing in U.S. health care is based on income: if you can afford care, you get it; if you can’t, you don’t. A recent study by the prestigious Institute of Medicine found that 18,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have health insurance. Many more skip treatments that their insurance company refuses to cover. That’s rationing. Other countries do not ration in this way.

Sounds like many doctors already support Universal health care.,..

Young people should seriously consider becoming nurse practitioners.

My Doctor is quiting as is the guy who just did my husband's surgery, my two uncles who are Dr.'s and a friend who is a neurosurgeon.

They simply will not put up with Socialized Medicine. Dr. Shortage? A huge % of our Dr.'s are in this age group and will naturally retire soon anyway and the young guys? Well my son saw this coming and went into Dentistry instead of MD type medicine. The best and brightest won't work for a salary without motivation to make money as well as serve the public.

Doug--but a "nurse practitioner" is still not a Doctor. My friend and niece are in this profession and they are great for routine things especially with women and children, but not for the more weighty matters. Not that they aren't the brightest, they are, but their training is not commensurate with an MD.

Good call Doug! PRN's can do a whole host of things. You don't need a DO or a MD to remove a toenail, stitch someone up, remove planters warts, take care of diaper rash, and countless other things. Let the Dr.s specialize.

Nurse Practitioners ----If you "really, really, REALLY" look at what a General Physician (GP) does---there isn't that much difference between them. They both will send you off to a specialist if they can't treat you in their office.

John you are right I have talked to several doctors and some have said they will leave others have said they will retier. The wants of the unions to dominate our country have come above the needs of our country. The selfishness and stupidity never end they will vote in any criminal, clown, cheat to destroy the freedome we enjoy.

On the Flip side this might be good for the new doctors...........Just think there will be only 300 doctors left in america to help 300 million people, They could charge $5000 an hour........I am changing careers......../sarcasm/

A practice in Atlanta does not take insurance because the insurance company insisted they use a sub standard lab for test so the doc said screw you to the insurance jerks. When will you realize it is the insurance companies, HMOs, Bill Frisk greed that ruined medical care.

Obama only wants an option for people who want it. As the cost of insurance premiums continues to escalate, more employers WILL DROP coverage. THey have already reduced coverage by increasing deductible and co-pays and dropping eye and dental. You have ABSOLUTELY NO protection against your employer deciding to cancel your coverage.

Late 50s early 60s - it's time for them to retire anyway. They've managed to accumulate plenty during their productive years and now find themselves in the enviable position of actually being able to retire in relative luxury - unlike the rest of us who must continue to work as we age and experience worsening health. Typical - all for one and everyone for themselves attitudes.

Agreed...I thought we were trying to create more jobs? Presently, university's turn many qualified applicants for med. school away. One of my neighbors ended up going out of the country to attend med. school. Another had to wait an additional year to get accepted into med. school. So enlarge the programs... educate more doctors... create more jobs...a win-win situation, right? Maybe look at college tuition and why education is so expensive and unaffordable for some, while were at it...if there aren't enough willing applicants who are able to afford med. school, we still have a problem. Higher Education Institutions, like Medical Centers and Hospitals , should not be profit centered...they are human services that should cover costs but not be driven by profits.

The AMA needs to unlock the doors they and other med groups have used to keep a hold on the number of Doctors to keep supply tight and the amount of money one can make up!

Fund medical schools and open enrollment to even 5% more per school across the board and it will amaze. The UW for example only admist 50 students per year! Why not 55? They won't really even need more money to do this though they will cry that they do. Just one more kid in each class doesn't mean they need more rooms or more professors.

More Doctors are needed with our without the dread Obamascare!

Juno perfict word for this program Obamascare. It isnt a factory to press out doctors that couldnt make the cut in the first place while we chase out our best. Why dont you just go live in oregon or mass where people are afraid to go to the doctor (people carry cards that say dont euthinize me) that is if they can even get to see one. Canada has been at this a long time if they cant make it work and now want public insurance why are we even trying this failed health care other countries are trying to get rid of?

I want a recount and this time dead people and illegals dont count.

The problem with your answer "churn out more" is they can't. There are not enough educators qualified to teach The new round of Dr's and nurses coming up through the ranks.

I have had plenty of friends who want to go to nursing school only to be told that there is a 2 year wait to get into the program. Because there are not enough instructors to teach. The older instructors are retiring or dying off and their replacements decide to stay in the field practicing because they make more money.

WOW, there is always a Republican roadblock to improving our current system.

We can't educate more practitioners because the existing ones are retiring, we can't sustain the current crop because they can't honor their Hypocratic oath if they don't get their way on money and an extravegent lifestyle and their political views are paramount over their sworn goal to heal the sick.

Perhaps we should just outsource this problem and get the Canadians to educate medical personnel and have them travel around the U.S. holding health fairs like they do in other 3rd world contries.

If people in this country can pay $42 million dollars for some college drop out to run around a field carrying or throwing then we have the health care system we deserve. This country values sports more than it values education.

There already is a "shortage", but, if we bring our medical troops home, bing, solved.

The largest US Marine Air Base in the world does not have a ER after normal working hours or holidays.......... Due to the Doctor and RN shortages....... And it is going to get worse..........

NOTHING BHO has done is going to increase the numbers of Doctors. Threats of higher taxes, more regulations & paper work, and lower Medicare & Medicaid reimbursements. These will cause so many more people to apply.. Ha! Ha!

What you will see is more PC Nurses, prescribing medications at Walmart.......

Ya think? For goodness sake people have been saying this since this whole obamacare was started.
How do you have enough doctors, nurses, PAs or hospitals to care for 40 million more people..
Its INSANITY!

And will someone PLEASE tell Pres Obama that its NOT just republicans who dont want this new health plan ...its mostly people who just THINK!...We want health care reform but this plan just doesnt meet the requirements its asking for...

You cant get blood from a stone....you cant just make enough doctors for 40 million more people..you cant believe in change if you know it just cant work like this.

OK, Bridget...then I am waiting to hear your solutions...to bring down exorbitant medical care costs, reduce ever increasing, outrageous insurance rates, protect citizens from being dropped from policies, protect citizens from being denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions, keep premiums affordable to all Americans, put an end to the higher medical costs we all absorb from Emergency room sick visits by the uninsured, allow doctors to the ability to do what they went into medicine for...treat patients according to their doctor/patient decisions and not insurance company demands, make sure that no doctor has to tell a patient, "I cannot give you the medical care that I have available to treat your illness, because you cannot pay for it", and "Without medical insurance, I cannot get approval to order the necessary medical testing for you...unless you can pay the thousands of dollars in cash at time of service". In other words, please tell us how we should fix this system that medical insurance companies have played a big part in breaking, as to solve all the problems it presents at this time.

Silly...I didnt say we dont need reform...we DO need reform...but you cant possibly put millions of people on the system with not enough medical staff to take care of them.
TORT reform is a must...think of the suit cases against doctors & nurses with millions more people able to sue them? Malpractice would skyrocket...even when the doctors win the cases their malpractice NOW is astronomical...Pre-existing conditions is a must and ALL people should have to pay INTO the system, even those on government subsidies, if they choose public option....they should pay something towards all this FREE care. Maybe they might stop having so many fatherless pregnancies? I'm sick of hearing young girls having more babies to increase their subsidy checks because 4 or 5 kids have 4 or 5 different fathers and NONE of them can be found.. Tax payers CANNOT foot this bill ...nor can the medical professionals...ILLEGALS are breaking the law & should get their medical attention in clinics funded by charities or maybe Mexico or whatever country their legal in, UNLESS its a life or death emergency...ERs have become their nose bleed clinics and thats a SHAM!
NO ONE in this country is turned down for medical emergencies so dont tell me doctors wont treat them..
Rules & Regulations HAVE to be given to insurance companies & Pharm companies so they cannot just drop patients...REFORM is needed but it has to be GOOD reform...not what public option now has to offer..we would strangle ourselves unless changes are made...

AND Medicare & Medicaid FRAUD has to be eliminated FIRST...before any health plan can be devised.

Bridget--But Medicare and Medicaid Fraud is exactly a symptom of the problem with government run medical systems do not work. If they can't manage these two programs that are about to collapse under their own weight, how do we think that this type of fraud won't be "same game second verse--a little bit larger and a whole lot worse?"

http://washingtonindependent.com/55535/tort-reform-unlikely-to-cut-health-care-costs

Please read Bridget - Let me give you a clue what is covered

Studies Show Malpractice Awards Are Not Big Driver of Skyrocketing Costs

I actually agree with the illegal part - its a good thing illegals are not covered in the bill.

How would you go about dealing with "fatherless pregnancies" Increase the abortion rate? Not a great idea- increase sex ed? We have been down that road and the right will throw a hissy fit. I wish we could solve it too- but getting into peoples sexual rights gets sticky quick.

As far as fraud the most common perpetrators of healthcare insurance fraud are health care providers. I can attest to this- I have worked in health care all my life, nursing homes understaff and bill medicaid regardless of the care they are actually providing.

Doctors in nursing homes bill patients for a vist -when all they really do is come to the nursing home, read the charts on the 30 patients they have and never even SEE the patient before writing orders.

http://www.pharmacychoice.com/news/article.cfm?Article_ID=421093 6/26/09 - New Analysis Examines Fraud in Both Private and Public Health Insurance Markets

Fraud happens in Private and Public health insurance.. Medicaid seems to have a VERY high rate, if they could revamp and get to rates of private insurance - we would have HUGE savings.

http://www.insurancefraud.org/stats.htm

Unless the everify is passed there is no way of telling who is or who is not an illegal that wont happen untill november. We will see in that event I still do not want the failure of the world killing and maiming the people of my country.

everify would do alot to cut our costs along with tort and auditing.

Who would want to become a Dr. in this day and time????

The people who average $200,000.00 in primary care and $400,000.00 in specialties, that's who numb nuts.

The insanity is that they get paid for piece work like a factory worker rather than for healing a patient. More visits, more tests, more monitoring, more$$$$$$$$$$$ vs. using best practices to heal.

Here, here! Because of greedy Americans sueing for everything that does not go perfectly right, many unnecessary tests are ordered and completed. This is called CYA, and if America would wake up and see that doctors are people too, they are not miracle workers, and they do the best they can to help their patients, maybe some of the costs would go down. Doctors are not taking medicaid and medicare any more. Why do we think they would take any other government medical coverage?? Maybe if we can find a way to reduce the waste that happens every day, from unnecessary tests to fraud and corruption, America can get back on it's feet!! And the first step is getting a president that doesn't see everything as "Republican" or "Democrat" but sees things as Right and Wrong, and chooses to do what is right!

Obama only said he would open the door to discuss tort reform. He won't. Trial lawyers and unions put him in.

Remember 12 people, (we call them a jury in the big city) listened to a case presented by Big Insurance company lawyers with huge salaries as well as a patients attorney who will only get paid if he can prove gross negligence. These 12 people decided to award damages for malpractice. What is the problem here?? The patients lawyer or the gross negligence that spawned the suit??

Tort reform won't work until the AMA cleans out the 15% of Doctors who cause 80% of the malpractice suits. Strip away the licences of these hacks and mistakes will drop along with malpractice insurance. At any time, some 12% of American physicians are in an AMA mandated program for substance abuse. Is your surgeon one of them?? You'll never find out because that info. is secret.

"Physician heal thyself".

Where do you get that more and more tests are preformed? I have seen the opposite. Simple x-rays that could have detected lung cancer are not ordered. A urine test that could have picked up an infection was not done but the doctor at the clinic was ready to have my daughter admitted to the hospital. It seems if the practice just bought a bone density machine, every patient needs a bone density test. If they have their own MRI, everyone needs and MRI, if they are a surgeon, everyone need surgery, but simple tests and simple cures are overlooked.

As for tort reform, all professions, including lawyers, need oversight from the outside. For too long the foxes have been guarding the hen house.

J Bolton - that's because no one can get the attention of their physician in order to receive a proper diagnosis.

If you can answer your own question, without a crystal ball, then you must be psychic. Dont think you know all the possible cards at play, anymore than I do.

how many of those bright people actually paid for their entire college bill by themselves?

Working for the government isn't intrinsically terrible. I wouldn't turn down Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, say! A lot of doctors think a single payer plan would actually benefit them in a business sense compared with dealing with insurance companies as they do now. As for medical school, they could easily shorten the length of time it takes without sacrificing quality if they simply stopped requiring a bachelors degree as an entry requirements. Most other advanced nations have no such requirement. It really serves no purpose. The only specific prerequisites for med school are one year each of the following courses: biology, chemistry, physics, organic chemistry and calculus. Students could easily get those courses out of the way in one or two years of undergraduate work, thus being able to finish two years early while saving thousands of dollars.

itgranny

None of them, they all got goverment grants from my $60K a year I pay in income taxes every year....that half of them don't pay back....And I don't have any kids, and have never received any child tax credits, or anything,.......... just take more from me , because I worked harder than the rest..........

I am so tired of the people who have decent health care telling the rest of us why we can't have it.  Bighorn, I can assume that you get decent affordable health care from your employer, or you make enough to cover the $1500 per month to pay for health insurance out of your own pocket.  The rest of us are faced with the prospect of having to pay 25% to 50% of our net income out of pocket for crappy health care provided by foreign doctors or PA's NOW!  Not after the reforms but today, every single day.  You want the rest of us to think that our current health care system is the best in the world.  Bull.  Our system is rated between 33 at 50 in the only meaningful measure, which is keeping people well, in the industrialized world.  Your assumptions are right out of the Physician/Insurance/Pharmaceutical playbook, and it is just and nutty as some of the other lies that have been circulated on this issue.

America just doesn't have the time or the money to humor you any more.  The status quo is just not an option.  And while some tort reform is certainly justified, protecting hospitals and doctors from their incompetence is a guarantee of poorer quality not better medicine or lower costs.

JK--I do have great health insurance because I work hard and have earned it. It would be good to let people pool to get the same rates as big businesses. Other than that i say it is not a right to health care--that is a privilege that costs money. Get to work and earn it.

juno, all of those people in this country you assume do not have the right to health care, their taxes should not be used for government grants to further medical procedures, treatments or clinics which will aid your selfish ilk.

Not only is it a right but a necessity as early detection and treatment of many contagious conditions keeps them from being spread to the rest of the individuals in this country. Are you so short sighted as to not be able to fathom that aspect of this issue? Are you asking for the return of the plague or maybe wide spread Ebola Virus.

Seems obvious your one of those minimal annual wage earners that hope to identify with what they believe to be the wealthy.

Puleeze we do have free health care in this country no one pays for health care on unemployment or on welfare who are you trying to kid? You know it because you get it.

SandyShores - "no one pays for health care on unemployment" - REALLY ???!!! If you are unemployed, health care is the first thing to go. COBRA is way tooooooooo expensive for someone who doesn't have a job and is drawing unemployment. People on welfare received Medicaid and that is different from Medicare. Medicare is for senior citizens. Medicaid takes care of the poor's sicknesses. When people say medicare is breaking the bank, I think they mean medicaid.

Really- SandyShores

Puleeze we do have free health care in this country no one pays for health care on unemployment or on welfare who are you trying to kid? You know it because you get it.

My husband is on unemployment, and we havent had health care the entire time he has been laid off- we could have had cobra for $6000 - but paying for our housing seemed more important. What are you talking about?!

In order to get medicaid you have to be poor- like dirt poor- no assests, no income, nothing! To pay our bills I have taken a job doing private duty care in health care that does not even OFFER insurance. And- before you make judments about my family - my husband and I are college educated, drive 10 year old cars, and no flat screen tv or I-phone either.

We were trying to save to buy a house- now if one of us gets sick, we will be looking at going bankrupt.

You are full of bull...

I am so tired of the people who have decent health care telling the rest of us why we can't have it. Bighorn, I can assume that you get decent affordable health care from your employer, or you make enough to cover the $1500 per month to pay for health insurance out of your own pocket

$1500 a month for health care?? That's $18000 a year!!! Why pay for insurance when you can use a fraction of that cost and just pay your damn doctor bill?!?! I DO have insurance through my work, but it is not great and it sure as hell isn't cheap! I'm still paying my doctor bills from having my son almost 3 years ago!!! And that was WITH my wonderful insurance.

The government run healthcare systems that are in place now do not do that great of a job. Obama is talking about taking money out of Medicaid to reduce the costs. Why don't we repair the systems that are in place now, and then work on ways to shift things so that more people have insurance. Some of my clients have three different kinds of insurance to try and pay their medical bills. One of them is usually Medicare, but because that covers so little, they have a supplemental insurance and an HMO on top of that!! That is ridiculous!! Medicare and Medicaid don't have enough money as it is. To withdraw some of their funding could be devistating to our older population. I do agree that everyone should have the right to insurance, but making health insurance mandatory is not the way to go. I have had insurance for years, and I have used it once, for my prenatal care and delivery of my youngest child. I would rather have the money that I have spent on insurance in my pocket than going to the insurance company.

Then your doctor should retire. Change is coming. He can embrace it or not. At least he has a job. At this point, the rest of us think he should be grateful to have income.

One of the reasons doctors retire early, malpractice insurance rates! Just like your health insurance premium, it goes up (4x the rate yours does) whether they use it or not! Rather than pass the costs on, and having finally paid their college bills and set up a retirement nest egg, they retire!

Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I saw a doctor with a lot of grey hair, it must have been something like 10 years ago.

JK--not only will our doctors retire. The young will NOT choose to go into medicine. Current doctors in our area won't even accept medicare patients. They will NOT accept this new program of Obamacare. they will just quit. I would!

juno,

Private insurance uses the Medicare reimbursement rates as their guide to pay Doctors so refusing Medicare patients is pretty stupid.

You would give up your current job at the Jiffy Lube for a $200,000.00 medical practice in a heartbeat, if you had gotten past the 6th grade.

DB 755213 - we should all be so fortunate as to have accumulated sufficient wealth that we could retire early too. Doctors are lucky they can afford to retire early simply because they don't like change and are tired of their line of work or are afraid they might make less in the future. We all feel like that but most of us haven't been able to save enough money throughout our working lives to take that option. If we had had the chance to save all those insurance premiums instead of spending them at insurance companies, we might also be rich now. How arrogant.

LMAO Marine Vet. Juno thinks that if a Doctor doesn't like what he sees he's going to be a Walmart greeter or better yet, move off to where they have a better system of socialized medicine than the one Obama is trying to dream up. I think you are dead nuts on with the Jiffy Lube job.

Oh goodie-

great encouragement, work more get less. just be thankful you have a job...Im sorry, I dont bust my A$$ to pay for someone who doesnt.

Sure ya do Jim. You pay FICA, Fed income tax, Medicare and perhaps some state income tax. Then you pay 40 cents tax on a gallon of gas, real estate taxes, tolls, all kinds of taxes and you get very little of it back.

I couldn't agree more! Finally ~ someone who is ACTUALLY giving this some thought, as well as a few ideas on how to handle the situation. Hope that the government actually reads this post and takes some great advise!

Joe mota we will see what happens in november that is if this administration passes everify without it there will be no way to know who is and who isnt legal.

Spcialists go to the same schooling gps go through and then some that is what makes them specialists so let me get this right they have to go through more schooling to get paid less. What a crock no wonder so many will leave or retire.

I can see it now medical vacations of course the democrats in office just got new jets so it wont be their worry now will it?

If a G.P. is only making $100,000.00 he needs a few business classes at the community college.

An HMO will pay him $2,000.00 per patient, for as many as 5,000 patients ages 21 to 60, even if they never see him. If he does see each of them it is 16 patients a day, far below the 30 most Doctors see currently and he can still bill for all the tests he wants. If he refuses to refer his patients to specialists, the HMO will pay him a $200.00 per patient bonus at the end of the year.

In other words, if your Dr. is broke, he is lazy and stupid. I wouldn't want to be treated by a stupid Doctor.

Marine Vet-891165

You make a good point about the wrong with the system.......why don't the GP's you refer to, just install cattle chutes and herd them through........Because that is why my Specialists are quitting if Obamacare is approved.......right now, my doc's complain they bill $300 and the insurance pays them $50.....so they have to double or triple their work load to maintain a living.....so on several occaisions my doc's who I see quarterly for a couple of years now, forgets who I am........they truly are overworked and with the Insurance companies ditacting what they will setttle for, the doctors have had enough........and I don't blame them......

And if I should run across one of those herd them through for the money doctors you refer too, I will report them..........

So how could health care get any worse than it already is ?

They have problems getting teachers too. They are underpaid as well. Instead of teaching they go into other areas so that they can afford to feed their families.

That's because teachers are paid based on their years of service and hours of education, not on their performance or ability to produce results. In my district, there is only a $7,000 increase in salary from a beginning teacher to one that has been there for decades. Yes, teachers are underpaid and the crappy ones make the same as the best ones. This is due to unions and gov't. interference. If education was privatized, we would have much better schools and teachers would not be earning such paltry salaries for the amount of education that they possess and the job that they perform. Not many want to enter the education field because of these issues and restrictions. Sound familiar?

I think home schooling will be the way of the future to many teachers suck and people are sick of the unions hold on their wallets.

And nurses. There's a shortgage there too.

Physicians do pay out well over 10k a month for Malpractice Insurance. It's rape really. It holds them over the coals while they and hospitals scramble and do things against their character and ethics in order to cover all those procedures insurance, charity and the government doesn't. It’s a broken system and it’s falling down on the shoulders of Doctors, Nurses, Specialist, Hospital Admins, EMT's and Firefighters. They can't fix the system for Nation and it’s despicable for the Nation to dump it on them. These good people twist and turn trying to catch those who are falling through the cracks like water through a sieve. It’s the Nations responsibility to act on this crisis like adults using reason and compassion. Fixing the problem will save the nation money, save lives and save face in front of the Civilized World.

John I may be mistaken but I remember Obama recommending caps on the amount Insurance Companies can charge a physician. As you pointed out...it’s an unfair premium. They just charge these guys what they want and increase their profits.

Once capped, the insurance company will drop out. They are only passing the costs and profits on to you. Once the bottom line turns red, off goes the lights to the business. With no tort reform, that won't take long. Then the government will say, the business is bankrupt, we cannot have this big a business to fail, so we have to take it over!.

No one is ever in business to lose money, except the government.

tort is the answer the problem is to many ambulance chasers are in this administration. Vote the crap out of office. Lets get what we really need everify and tort reform. Then we can talk about what adjustments have to be made in our audited programs.

I fail to see why anyone has a problem with scrapping the medical system now in place (which makes people at the top rich but is otherwise a miserable failure) and putting in something better. Shortgage of doctors ha - there is already a shortage of primary care (general practitioner) doctors because 85% of med school students ELECT to become specialists - that's where all the big bucks are. They don't want to make less money, they want to make more. Other doctors are simply quitting because their medmal ins is so high (i.e. OB-GYNs - childbirth, etc.). Nice for them then. Luckily they've made plenty of money during their career and can afford to simply walk away. Clearly, they didn't care about being a physician but merely the money and prestige that came with that degree. Since everyone is now a specialist, getting any sort of diagnosis is a nightmare - unless of course you walk into an emergency room with a sword sticking out of your side (i.e. your ailment is patently obvious even to non-trained medical personnel). You just get passed around from specialist to specialist until you maybe happen to luck up and find yourself in the medical field that fits your illness. That rarely happens, however. If you look closely at the health industry, you will be able to clearly see that it's all about money at every single level.

That is why we need a government option. This is capitalism at it's best. The doctors have to accept the fees or not get the patients and the insurance companies make billions instead of paying the doctors.

Karen, Since there is no healthcare reform, blame your problems on the pvt. healthcare insurance companies. Doctors and healthcare providers are the ones that agree to abide by the rules and regulations that they give them when they become a provider with that insurance company. It is very simple, they can not take insurance anymore and do everything private pay. But the problem is, none of the patients can afford that. You are in the catch 22 but don't bame the government, as they have done nothing yet.

You are both missing the point. The doctors are struggling PRECISELY because of the burdens of dealing with insurance bureaucracy. This WILL NOT change regardless of who is making the payment - a private insurance company or the government. There is a reason why so many doctors are no longer accepting new medicare patients or refusing to accept Medicare at all.

It IS the government who created this mess in the first place when they pushed for employers to provide healthcare coverage. People should have medical insurance for catastophic illnesses, unforseen surgeries etc. NOT for day to day routine medical care. It is not unreasonable to expect people to pay out of pocket for such care. It IS however, unreasonable to insist that the government should take care of everybody - at taxpayer expense.

don't tell these Palin lovers the truth...they can't handle the truth....they only deal in sensationalist lies.

I am a retired RN after being in healthcare for over 30 yrs. The reason that you have nurse practitioners and physician assistants is Doctors find that they do not have to see all these patients, but they still get a portion of the money made off them. Personally I would rather see a Physicians assistant many times. If they have questions or aren't sure what to do, they seek the Doctor and ask. Truthfully they do all the work, and the Doctors get most of the money. I have no problem with seeing either of them.

Lynn, if Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants think that they do "all" the work, and the Doctor gets all the money, then they should rethink their position, and GO TO Medical School.

People make "choices" with their career decisions. For you to make such a broad statement that "they (NPs and PAs) do all the work and the doctors make all the money," is a very broad statement, with no foundation. Again, these people CHOSE to be NPs and PAs. As a matter of fact, my Internal Medicine doctor (who I've gone to for more than 17 years) was a Med Tech; she worked in the Lab. And, she decided to go BACK and put herself through Medical School.

If NPs and PAs feel they're being put upon by "the doctors" making ALL the money, then they too, can go back, and go to Medical School.

I've seen a couple of Nurse Practitioners before for my annual checkup. Thought they were great. But, that was for preventative care. I also wouldn't mind seeing an NP or PA if I had a common illness.

However, when I'm sick with something that is not common, I want to see "a doctor."