The AMA — well after 100 years of hisory, we’d never have seen this one coming.
The American Medical Association has made clear that it will oppose efforts to link Medicare payments to higher-quality healthcare services unless Congress and Medicare permanently halt steadily declining payments to doctors.
Categories: Uncategorized
AMA Playing Politics with Patient Safety
[… AMA’s position is akin to airlines refusing to replace unsafe aircraft, unless Congress offers subsidies …]
http://www.healthvoices.com/blog/hippocrates/2005/12/08/ama_playing_politics_with_patient_safety
Matthew – wanna see how good the HSA is as a tax dodge? Senator McCain and Senator Kennedy tried to stop the MSA expansion and lost. I asked McCain last night, “Was there any particular reason that you joined with Senator Kennedy (D-MA) to limit MSA enrollments to only 1 million participants?” McCain replied, “No, no particular reason.” I called PamStar and she said, “McCain is not smart enough to be the leader of the free world.”
America’s best tax dodge: http://www.cbpp.org/6-12-01health.htm
Castro thinks Jeb is Fat:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2368182005
NCPA LIES and says Jeb has not given FL state employees the HSA option:
http://www.ncpa.org/newdpd/dpdarticle.php?article_id=2619
Des Moines Register wants Manditory HSAs, ha ha.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051208/OPINION01/51207019/1035/OPINION
Individual insurance charges more for fat people and so will employee plans and government plans in the future.
Fat people are becoming as popular as smokers.
At least with individual insurance people are only underwritten at time of application. Employees will be underwritten every year.
That’s why employer-based insurance will soon be gone.
Eric, health insurers here already won’t approve bariatric surgeries on people unless and until they get their weight or BMI down to a level that decreases their risk from surgery. There are other obligations the patients must meet as well. I can’t say I disagree with the Brits here. They’re willing to make tough, if unpopular, decisions, moreso than we are. That applies to end-of-life issues as well. Over time, our system (or lack thereof) has unintentionally created a culture that says you should get as much medical care as you want. All rights, no responsibilities. That’s nice, as long as someone is willing and able to pay for it. But as medical cost trends outpace wage growth, that becomes less possible for the patient/member/employee. Medical cost trends now also outpace growth of income for employers, so they can’t afford it either. Now we’re at the point where we have to start saying “no” to someone somewhere. The Brits have decided that some cases look like throwing good money after bad. We’ll reach that point too, hopefully sooner than later.
Hey, you all know that the brits are skinny…and that you can’t get a hip implant there anyway. Although given Man Utd’s recent exit from the Euro Champions league, perhaps some of their players should be put to the front of the queue.
Eric, sure the Brits cut fat people from the herd and won’t give them health care.
Future of Medicare and US Employees: If you smoke or are over-weight you will pay more for insurance.
Employers all over America have already started with medical underwriting. These employees were lied to by the Liberals. “Medical underwriting will never get to you if you are an employee”, yea right.
Tony Snow said, “What about me, I have cancer?”
My take is a bit different. More like: physicians can be expected oppose “this” proposal. It’s a one-time-opposition-per-proposal approach.
Physicians, the nation needs your leadership. Look what we’re getting without it.
Matthew- no, the AMA (of which I am not a member), opposes linking fee cuts to THIS proposal since there is little evidence that it will improve the quality of care delivered.
If the cuts go ahead, access to care will be diminished. Please reference gasoline price controls of eras gone-by.
P.S. still no comment from you about the severe limiting of knee and hip replacements to people with a BMI of >30 (1/2 of all adults give or take) in several health districts in the UK.