New Obamacare provision in effect today

[Riot]

Originally Posted by sham

Anyone who supports this new provision has not thought it through. I just lived and continue to live this new Medicare requirement. My wife 65yo and a Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) patient had her aortic valve replaced a couple weeks ago. This Medicare mandate was the subject that several doctors and nurses were talking about. When the government makes mandates (usually with good intentions) there are always unintended consequences. The new mandate could cost more money than it saves because hospitals would rather see you die in the hospital than go home and then be readmitted later.

No, this does not apply to a deteriorating, terminal patient. This does not apply to normal hospitalization times for an aortic valve replacement - it's when hospitals kick patients out early, against common medical practices. This only affects what is currently bounce-backs for a few conditions, that is common for only hospitals that don't "do it right" on treatment in the first place.

Achieving normal hospitalization times (and yes, those are documented and we all know it) for regular procedures is the aim of this - times are not being increased. Hospitals that constantly press for early discharge, before the "usual" hospitalization time, will be affected.

Thus, hospital stays will last longer for serious illnesses, AND the real problem with extended stays is that the longer one is in a hospital, the greater the chance of contracting a serious staff infection or some other illness. The other end of the problem is that hospitals will be reluctant to readmit a previously treated patient even if the patient becomes dangerously ill. This is a serious consequence for CHF patients because numerous hospital stays is the norm for them.

This provision does not affect patients with ongoing serious conditions.

Please - read the few conditions the mandate affects.

Other than that, how are you and your wife enjoying your increased Medicare benefits and drug savings due the law?

[Riot]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

the doctor-patient relationship is secondary to the government's word.

What's next?

I guess you are unawares that right now, the doctor-patient relationship is secondary to the private insurance companies word on how many days they will pay for hospitalization, and what treatments they will cover?

You are unawares that 100% of your allowable (meaning paid for) medical treatment for a conditions is dictated by private insurance company actuaries, not by what your doctor might choose to do?

Yes, the treatments for common conditions are dictated by insurance companies, not your doctor.

That patients are often sent home a day early by private insurance companies trying to save money, causing "bounce back" of some of those patients because she wasn't ready to go home yet, and the insurance company was mandating an early discharge for profit?

Yes, the government preventing that "bounce back" for the patients it pays for - Medicare patients - is a good thing.

Medicare provides better care for patients, at a vastly decreased cost, than private insurance companies do.

Those with private insurance will have to take their chances.

Why this country doesn't have single-payer, like other first world countries, is due simply to the fact that too much of our congress is owned by private insurance companies.

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Riot

Two years, this law has been around, and still the factual ignorance of it's provisions is stunning.

Less than 1% of businesses will eventually have to pay fines, and those will be businesses over 50 employees, who can afford to provide health insurance but choose not to.

You know, where it would be cheaper for them to provide the health insurance than pay a fine?



Except the law makes insurance less expensive and money-saving for them.

You actually BELIEVE that? Please. There are very few laws that lower costs of anything. They almost always raise costs by placing requirements on the product itself or the way of doing business. Because, guess what - the businesses always want to maximize profits and ipso facto are already putting a premium on efficiency - unlike the government with regard to its own affairs.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by joeydb

You actually BELIEVE that? Please.

It's not religion. It's not "belief". It's the law. It's reality. It is right there in black and white. It is precisely what is written, and what the CBO and other independent examination has found.

There are very few laws that lower costs of anything.

Except for, like, Obamacare, that just actually lowered the cost of drugs for Medicare patients in the donut hole by $600 a year.

Or the way Medicare-Medicaid delivers better healthcare for nearly half the cost of private insurance.

Meanwhile, in the land of pretend imaginary Muslim-Kenyan-Socialist fear, keep railing against those imaginary fears and the pretend Obama they keep feeding you, to make you "believe" the alternate reality that enables you to be used as a pawn.

Vote for the guys that destroyed the middle class and took away your future over the past 50 years. Because the black guy in the White House is trying to give it back to you, and they can't have that - it takes money out of their hands not to privatize your Social Security and Medicare for their profit.

Why do you think so many Republican state governments have abandoned pensions ("union busting those freeloading teachers and cops and firemen) and gone to private 401K's? It gives Wall Street a cut of your retirement money and skims profit.

Why do Republicans want Medicare and Social Security privatized? To give Wall Street a cut of the last remaining huge government cash stack that exists and skim profit.

Why do Republicans and Mitt Romney want to increase the defense budget even though we are getting out of war? There are huge private profits to be made in defense contracting, and they don't want that to go way because wars are over.

Why do Republicans want schools privatized? Because there is profit to be skimmed of the top.

Reagan famously started training citizens to believe this crap, with his "government is the problem, not the solution" lie. Then, they told you that the wealth would "trickle down" to you, and you believed it.

Then, over the past 50 years, the profiteers have stolen all the money in the US, eliminating the middle class and putting 47% of Americans at or near poverty.

LOOK! A black Muslim Kenyan Socialist to fear! Why is 47% of the country at or near poverty? .... Um ... it's because the black guy and those Dems give away food stamps to pretend welfare queens! Yeah, that's it! Don't look at us!" Elect Romney-Ryan and Republicans! We are the "job creators" that "help" the economy (unless you look at our actual performance record of raising taxes and causing deficits and economic grief over the past 50 years as we have tried to privatize the country)

Believing that "government can't do anything right and is wasteful" is just a lie, told to drain cash out of the citizens hands and into private hands that can profit off that cash.

"Don't elect your fellow citizens to supervise your stack of group cash (taxes) - let this private company look out for your group interests. We can do it better, and for cheaper cost"

Yeah, right. That's a disproven lie.

Mitt Romney, with his "business experience" of going into a company, borrowing and mortgaging all he can on it's assets, stripping out that new-found cash for his profit, then leaving the company to survive or die on it's own in debt is exactly the perfect Republican candidate. That is exactly what the GOP has done to America over the past 50 years, and what they want to continue to do with the last remaining cash stack, your Medicare and Social Security, defense and schools.

And this is exactly what jms wrote about here http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48571