[pastor1189]

If doctors and hospitals would no longer take Medicare patients.
Would there be enough younger patients, to fill in the gap of all the senior citizens. And the doctors would still make the same amount of money?

[Fr_Chuck]

I doubt anyone really knows. There are more and more doctors who will not take some of the managed care plans, many not taking medicare or medicaid any longer.

So I guess the ones who are curently are stopping are stll making enough money

[pastor1189]

Very interesting chuck thanks

[Fr_Chuck]

Before my adventure here, the medical supply company I worked for, stopped doing medicaid, and all but one of the medicare managed care programs, because they did not pay enough for the services we provided.

They said they could not provide the service for that little of money.

[pastor1189]

Wow. And Obama wants to ask the Medicare Advantage Plans to give doctors and hospital less money, and that isn't even the Medicare payment part?

[pastor1189]

Before my adventure here, the medical supply company I worked for, stopped doing medicaid, and all but one of the medicare managed care programs, because they did not pay enough for the services we provided.

They said they could not provide the service for that little of money.

Wow. And Obama wants to ask the Medicare Advantage Plans to give doctors and hospital less money, and that isn't even the Medicare payment part?

[J_9]

Doctors and hospitals already get very little money from Medicare/Medicaid. They have to follow very stringent rules to get paid at all.

Personal story... my mother needs bilateral knee replacement, she is elderly and on Medicaid. She has to have the surgery before Obamacare is in effect or she won't be able to afford it at all.

[pastor1189]

I wonder when that is going to go in effect . Will be terrible

[J_9]

The hospital I work at is not looking forward to it and most of the doctors I work for will only be taking private insurance once it begins.

[pastor1189]

Wow that will be something. 90% of my doctor patients are elderly on Medicare
And Advantage Plans in his waiting room. I wonder when it will go into effect?

[joypulv]

Health care in the US will be changing constantly for the rest of most of our lifetimes.
What it all boils down to is the fairly new belief (by most people) that health care is a right, but few people want to pay the ever increasing costs in a society that also feels that doctors must always be right, notice everything, miss nothing. Medicare will indeed be broke in the not too distant future. We old people will be 'top heavy' and the younguns' will be overburdened with taxes taking care of us.
Whatever happens, you can be sure that 'we the people' will be paying for it, because we are already, in various forms. Every single person who walks into an ER and gets treated and can't pay is being covered by all the rest of the country, somehow, even if it's a Pell Grant or Medicaid or some gov't funds, we all pay. I've been one of those people at times of my life. I'm not looking down on the ones with no insurance and no money.

[pastor1189]

Very Profound Opinion. Great

[NeedKarma]

I'm happy I live in Canada.

[joypulv]

My mother lived to be 87 and my father 92. Both had TONS of Medicare expense in the last years of their lives, and both fought the doctors and hospitals at some point and went home and died at home, 5 years apart. And they weren't even extraordinarily sick. They had drugs poured down their throats like candy in a funnel, they were poked, prodded, tubed, and tested. They would see one doctor for 5 minutes who would refer them to another doctor for the stupidest reasons. They were just OLD and running down. It finally dawned on each of them that the whole industry is out of hand, in a culture where we think we are supposed to be kept alive until we can't be anymore, even if we haven't been 'alive' for a long, long time.

How do I try to give back? I don't run to a doctor with every fever, hangnail, cough, or tummy ache. I don't blame doctors who miss a diagnosis. I try to encourage other people to educate themselves about their bodies and health. I'm not particularly healthy nor do I really try to be, but I'm not trying to live forever.

To answer the original question, will there be enough young people? No.

Whose fault is all this expectation and blame? Everybody, our whole society. Even our religions. Our belief that our gov't should pay for everything while not realizing that that gov't is us, and is paid by us to give money back to us, and where will that money come from when we can't pay for it in bad times? Medicare is us. The IRS is us. It's all us.

[pastor1189]

Wonderful oratory

[NeedKarma]

And they weren't even extraordinarily sick. They had drugs poured down their throats like candy in a funnel, they were poked, prodded, tubed, and tested. They would see one doctor for 5 minutes who would refer them to another doctor for the stupidest reasons.

That's the profit-motive hard at work.

[pastor1189]

Friend had a heart stent closed off 5 times. They finally gave up and treated with medication.
Had 8 different surgeons working on the same stent over the years Also expensive PET scans that showed no blockages. Medicare

[joypulv]

We need death with dignity, a respect and understanding of death, and laws allowing easier death (not easy in our lawsuit happy society). We had it for eons, but then children weren't close to parents, moved away, and felt guilty if a parent got sick. So they demanded that doctors do whatever it took to keep them alive, all in a selfish attempt to keep themselves from feeling guilty. Even when the parent signed advanced directives! Guilt is part of it anyway. The rest is the feeling that quantity (long life) is better than quality.
So we are an aging population, soaking up Medicare dollars like sponges. Anyone under 40 doesn't stand a chance. And all we do is fight, Republican against Democrat, about which way to solve the mess, making it political instead of a national emergency.