@Cycloptichorn,
Cycloptichorn wrote:
sstainba wrote:
Cycloptichorn wrote:
We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I am not swayed by their threats of quitting their jobs, not in the slightest. This is what Chicken Little ALWAYS does when it looks like things aren't going his way... no matter who the chicken is.
Cycloptichorn
I don't understand how you can say that. Saying "I'll worry about it later" is incredibly irresponsible. At that point, it may very well be too late, especially given how long it takes to get anything through our governmental system. This isn't a "Chicken Little" scenario. The cuts to medicaid and medicare aren't a perceived threat, they are actually happening. The laws have been on the books for years and each year, just before the cuts were to go through, Congress would issue a stay to prevent them. If they are allowed to go through, there won't be a bridge left to cross.
Sorry, but I simply do not believe the situation is as dire as you are presenting it here. People in every industry will always claim that cutting any money at all out of their system will mean disaster; it is in people's nature to exaggerate in order to protect themselves.
The idea that doctors will quit practicing en masse if this bill passes is a farce. There's no evidence that such a thing will happen at all.
Cycloptichorn
There are examples in articles all over the place where physicians are explaining the same thing. Medicaid/Medicare already pay poor reimbursements. I've provided a few articles with physicians talking about how they can't afford to accept the programs any longer. I didn't say they will quit practicing. As I've pointed out, as well as have the articles posted, they would likely just not accept governmental insurance programs. And there is evidence - the articles I've posted. It's just not the evidence you want. You only believe large statistical studies, but those are not the end-all-be-all. While there may not be a large survey yet (that we know of), that lack of evidence doesn't preclude it from happening.
There's actually more evidence too... specialty hospitals. Have you ever wondered why in the past few years there has been a giant increase in the number of "cardiac hospitals" or "spine hospitals" ? It's to skirt Medicaid and Medicare. EMTALA requires that any ED treat all patients to stabilize them, regardless of their ability to pay. Hospitals lose money like crazy because of this. They write most of that off at the end of the year. However, these specialty hospitals won't have an ED, or they'll have one with very, VERY few beds. That means they don't have to treat the random guy off the street. They also advertise like crazy - so the guy who just went to the county hospital (with insurance) can say "I want to be transferred to XXXX". Of course, that specialty hospital will only accept the transfers with private insurance. This allows them to skim the "good" patients off the top and ends up hurting the government funded hospitals even more because they lose the revenue from those patients which help compensate for the homeless guy admitted every week.
It seem pretty logical, I don't understand why you are so against the idea. You are talking about drastically cutting into the money people earn and you think they'll just accept it?
Have you ever actually spoken to a physician (other than when you were ill) ? Have you spoken to any about the state of the medical industry?
