How many jobs depend on the Detroit Three?

Huge lawsuit payouts for punative dammage awards are essentially extreme
taxes on pharma companies. You don't have large punative dammage awards
in other countries. Only in the US.

The cost of liability insurance for pharma companies must be factored
into the price of the drugs they sell in the US.

The cost of doing business in other countries is cheaper vs the US, so
the pharma companies can earn profits in those countries even if they
sell their products at a lower price.

 

I was not discussing a government run plan, simply private insurance
carriers.
It is neither a half truth nor a lie,and is certainly not dishonest.

This happens routinely here.

 

Except the discussion here is comparing the two. So we're not
interested in the sound of one hand clapping.

 

Ya, so .... ?

?

Private insurers -> try to deny claims

Public insurers -> do not even employ claims agents or perform
pre-approval for treatments

How's that for "comparing the two" ?

 

Never had my insurance try to deny a claim, nor has anyone I know. Two
of the insurance companies I deal with send me paperwork every 6 months
to ask if I have any claims to report, even minor ones.

BULL. My FIL has a hell of a time every year with his SS, Medicaid and
the doctors because the drugs that his wife are on are expensive. He has
to take her in for evaluations every 6 months to see if they will pay
for her treatments.

 

Really? I have an HMO, they negotiate with hospitals and drug companies to
LOWER the prices, I need to pay. Generally abound half the Medicare
reimbursement rates. In addition the HMO covers things that are NOT
covered by Medicare. I have never been denied coverage for anything by my
HMO. The premium I pay, for the extra coverage and lower prices, the HMO
provides has been ZERO for the past three years. Where do you get your
erroneous opinion, from Jay Leno?

 

Only for emergency conditions. Not things like non-emergency surgery,
dialysis, etc.

 

No, you're wrong. Look at the past couple of years of Consumer
Reports -- they've investigated this.

Seldom are.

Except Canada spends a lot less, and everybody is covered.

 

You are wrong! When one chooses a healthcare provider, the things that are
covered are listed by the provider. If the plan one choose, denies a
coverage listed , one has recourse.

 

Pot, meet kettle. Try running a spell-check, or grammar check,
Mike...Unless you did get to grade "seventy", which bassed on your post's,
is possible.

 

BULLSHIT. They will treat you for ANYTHING in the ER. Maybe you should
actually go and see, not just pulling it out of your ass. I am an EMT
and work with a fire department and an ambulance. The ER will take
ANYTHING. They do sometimes prioritize based on actual injury, but on a
slow day anything goes.

Talk to any ambulance or care provider and they will tell you some of
the crap they see.
How about this one, person slips and falls. Has some swelling on the arm
and localized pain. Straight to the ER.
12 year old kid with a SLIGHT fever, Straight to the ER.
52 year old kidney patient needs dialysis but couldn't get to the
doctors. Into the ER with them.
Been out drinking and have a sour stomach, head to the ER.
and here's one that happens a LOT. Patient has a Dr. appointment but no
car or bus. Call the ambulance and get taken to the ER, Then they walk
in and say "Oh I feel much better now, Goodbye" Then they walk around
the side of the building to their Doctors.

 

The ER will take

It might be that way, but it shouldnt be that way. Many hospitals are
privately
owned and live or die by the viability of their income.

 

Yep that old reality of existence versus the dreams of the idealist.

Kind of like the only folks on welfare should be those who actually need
it, not just anyone who applies and cries.

ANY hospital that accepts any federal or state funding has to treat
whoever comes in.
Talk to the administrators some time and see how much money they have
to write off the books as unpaid bills yearly. One of our local
hospitals averages $5,000.00 a month in unpaid bills that they cannot
collect, so they just write it off the books as charitable care.

Read some of the medical journals and you will also discover that there
are a LOT of doctors leaving the field of medicine because of the
current laws and insurance costs.

 

My personal physician told me that years ago when I first started using his
services,
he was against universal health care. Now, he says that he and many other
doctors
would be glad to see it come. They get a lot of insurance cases where the
company
wont pay. It is driving them broke.

 

No they will not. Only for emergencies. They will not do things like
dialysis (until your condition turns into an emergency).

No ER is going to provide non-emergency services.

Sure, after the condition has worsened into an emergency.

The only legal obligation:

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 requires
that all patients presenting to an emergency facility, regardless of
ability to pay, need to be screened for an emergency condition. If an
emergency condition is found, the patient must be treated and
stabilized before being transferred to another facility. 42 U.S. Code
§ 1395dd.

 

My one son-in-law, an eminent cardiologist practicing in Wisconsin, closed
his practice at age fifty and started teaching when malpractice insurance
for a carpologist when up to $163,000 annually

 

Sorry - but it's SOP in the community I live in. It's routine for
doctors to have you go to the emergency room for treatment of routine
kinds of stuff. I don't know how it came to be that way, but it's true.

 

It is true that cashiers are not taught how to make change anymore. The
correct way is to count up from the total price to the amount tendered. The
cashier should count the change to themselves first, then to the customer.
When the transaction is treated as a math problem, mistakes are made.


Steve R.

 

Happens all the time. I see it daily.

NOPE. Non-Emergency care happens all the time.

Some states have maintained that any time a patient is able to schedule
an appointment — as opposed to showing up at an emergency room — the
condition would not be considered an emergency. Others, including New
York, have defined an emergency as any condition that could become an
emergency or lead to death without treatment.

And the term "Emergency Condition" has been defined in New York (and
many other states as well) as ANY condition that could become an
emergency or lead to death without treatment.

"There are clearly situations that we consider emergencies where we need
to give people chemotherapy,” Richard F. Daines, the New York State
health commissioner, said in an interview late yesterday. “To say they
don’t qualify is self-defeating in that those situations will eventually
become emergencies.”

From http://www.citidex.com/2525.htm
Medical Emergency Care

For life threatening medical crisis: The hospitals listed below have
outstanding emergency treatment facilities (often referred to as
"emergency rooms" for treatment of trauma, heart, stroke and other major
medical crises. They are staffed with specialists in emergency medicine
and have immediate access to the latest technology and operating rooms.
For true medical emergencies, they communicate via radio with the
transporting ambulance and literally meet you at the door.

Waiting and the principle of "triage":
Emergency rooms are not the place to go for minor medical problems or
non life-threatening medical conditions (colds, flu, sprains) which can
be better treated in a doctor's office or ambulatory walk-in care center.

Otherwise, you are likely to wait for hours before speaking to a
doctor because emergency rooms treat patients strictly on the triage
principle of "medical urgency". The "admitting staff" quickly evaluates
the seriousness of your medical problem. Life-threatening conditions and
immediate medical crises (mother in labor, unconscious patient, serious
bleed, heart attacks, etc. ) are given the highest priority, then
patients in serious pain (e.g. broken bones), and last the patient who
needs medicine for their cold.

Notice that last line.

The problem with EMTALA is that it does NOT define what an emergency
condition is. It was originally written to prevent hospitals from
refusing illegal immigrants and uninsured people treatment. The problem
is that MANY of those same people have taken hospitals to court based on
what THEY interpreted an "Emergency" to be. And they WON. Now many of
the states have laws stating that ALL people who enter the ER be
treated, regardless of the reason.

Part of the definitions of Article 30 of the Emergency Services Law in NY

1. "Emergency medical care" means the initial management, treatment, and
transfer of suddenly ill or injured patients.

3. "Emergency patient" means any patient making an unscheduled visit to
a hospital emergency facility for emergency medical care.

Being in this field I KNOW the laws and what happens if we break them in
NY. The federal Law is just that FEDERAL. The thing is that States can
enact tougher laws if they wish as long as those laws don't violate the
Federal one. NY has done that as have many other states.

 

Not surprising. The insurance costs and the costs of all the continuing
education is a HUGE dollar amount.