Quote:
Originally posted by john70t
Why doesn't Medicare have enough money for reimbursment? Why?
-Is it the national debt due to invading the wrong country? -- UM, no. Medicare reimbursements have been falling for decades.
-Is it the diversion of educational funds (that could train a multitude more doctors) into the pockets of porkbelly monopolies? --Um, no. The problem isn't a lack of doctors. The problem is that no matter how many doctors you train, none of them want to work for peanuts. At least not any that you would want operating on YOUR grandma.
-Is it the cost and outrageously draining system of training advanced medical personell that creates a closed and elitest grouping of those who succeed? -- Um, no. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this, would you rather have an easier method of training so that the doctor who cuts YOUR belly open doesn't know his arse from a spleen?
-Is it the inconsistent tracking and correction of bad medical personell by the AMA creates a feding frenzy for medical tort suits? --Um, no. Poor tracking of physicians is not the reason behind the current tort nightmare. The reason is unrestrained, unethical ambulance chasing lawyers who throw any piece of ***** lawsuit up against the wall because they know it costs the insurance company less to settle than to fight even a frivolous lawsuit.
-Is the legal system? The insurance system? Is it by design? -- Um, no. I guess the legal system is addressed in the section above but malpractice insurance has little to do with medicare reimbursement rates, except for the fact that they factor into the physicians overhead, but that is the same whether you accept medicare or private insurance. The medicare rate is still much less.
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If you really want to know what the problem is, it's pretty simple. Medicare is trying to pay for care for a boom of elderly patients. Modern medicine can keep people alive for longer now, which means they suck up more health care dollars through their lives. Not only that, but medicine in America is pretty high tech these days and granny (and her family) sure don't want to be told that they can't have that new MRI that might diagnose her problem because medicare doesn't want to pay for it.
So, we have more patients, living longer and requiring increasingly expensive health care.
See? Simple.