Seniors: Get well soon... or else

[Patriot]

Health or money... which is it?  As Obamacare begins to take hold, seniors get the short end of the stick  If you're in the hospital, be sure you're fixed before you go home or your hospital might not like you too much.  And be sure to get sign your End of Life counseling paperwork.  Now, imagine to whom these added costs will be passed.  You guessed it:  everybody else.


Medicare fines over hospitals' readmitted patients
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Oct 1, 4:27 AM EDT
Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) -- If you or an elderly relative have been hospitalized recently and noticed extra attention when the time came to be discharged, there's more to it than good customer service.

As of Monday, Medicare will start fining hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge due to complications. The penalties are part of a broader push under President Barack Obama's health care law to improve quality while also trying to save taxpayers money.

About two-thirds of the hospitals serving Medicare patients, or some 2,200 facilities, will be hit with penalties averaging around $125,000 per facility this coming year, according to government estimates.

Full story: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MEDICARE_PENALTIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-30-05-02-01

[Warph]

Since 1982 hospitals have been forced by Medicare regulations to discharge many patients too early.  Therefore it is not surprising that some have to be readmitted.  Now this grotesquerie has come full circle.  The hospitals and their staffs are to be blamed for the consequences of early discharge.

Also... If you believe that one payer system is going to improve the quality of healthcare in this country... think again.  

1. Rationing is rampant: No hip or knee replacements unless you are unable to walk...never  
mind the pain that patients suffer.  Remember Obuma's speech about his own grandmother... Just give her a pain pill... when talking about her... Shame... Shame.

2. No tonsillectomy unless the child is so infected that he/she is unable to breathe.

3. No cataract surgery until the last minute regardless of age or when it's so bad that they are no longer able to see.

4. No more open heart surgery, by-pass, as elective.  

5. Give everyone a Zanax and send them home.

6. Must wait for hours for an appointment.

7. Can see your cardiologist, if you find one, on a first come basis, and maybe lucky yearly.

8. As rural hospitals are no longer to compete, they will be closed.  

9.  MRI, X-Rays equipments have to be shared by several hospitals, You have an appointment and someone comes in as an emergency, you may have to wait another 6 months because you go back in line, and you wait...period.

10. While you are in the hospital, when you are finally admitted, hope that you have a family member or friend who is able to come and feed you, and change you, because staffing is cut in half.

11. A lack of qualified, specialized doctors.  Be better off going to a vet.


Free is good and it will continue for those members of congress... they will keep their Cadillac Plans.  One prime example: Gaby Giffords.  While I feel for her, she was allowed to receive 3 times as much care as the poor young man totally disabled in a car accident and had to be discharged early regardless because he does not have her plan.

The population of the US is how many times as France, Germany, ect.  The "number one" system, France.... cannot find surgeons to perform appendectomies.... so they started a trial... antibiotics vs. appendectomy.  Lots of dead patients.... trial stopped.  So the implementation of this ObumaNightmare will ruin Medicare as we know it.  

We hear everyday... those Republicans want to kill Medicare... Obuma Lies... Lies... Medicare as we know it has already been killed by democrats when they passed the ObumaNightmare.  They, and their cronies will continue with their big insurances' and are laughing at the taxpayers.  So, if you think that "socialized medicine" would be good, you have no idea.  

Please see the new rations that are being implemented in Britain...
http://www.rightwingnews.com/health/socialized-medicine-healthcare-rationing-in-britain/

....then you can speak out.  I know, because I have seen how "socialized medicine" works in these countries and believe me, YOU have no idea.


.....Warph

[Warph]

Two Liberal Whoppers on Medicare
Heritage Foundation - Morning Bell
10-2-12

A debate that has been fought largely over the airwaves is about to go head-to-head. Medicare reform is a huge part of that debate, and the left—bolstered by the media—has been promoting two huge falsehoods on the issue.

Several proposals from conservatives and liberals for Medicare reform, including The Heritage Foundation's Saving the American Dream proposal, are based on a financing model called "premium support." What that means: Medicare has a premium cost, just as other health insurance does. When the government makes a contribution (sometimes referred to as a "defined contribution") toward paying your premium, that is called premium support. The difference with reform is that the government would no longer dictate to seniors which Medicare plan they would have to use. The government would still support the premium, but the seniors would have the option to choose from a variety of plans tailored to their needs, including traditional Medicare.

The concept is already working in several areas of Medicare, including Medicare Advantage plans and the prescription drug benefit program. Program savings in the drug program have been spectacular, and in Medicare Advantage and the drug program premiums have been stable. Patient satisfaction is very high in both programs.

But two whoppers are still circulating—let's put them to rest once and for all.

1. "Vouchercare"
Vice President Joe Biden has described the Medicare reform proposal championed by Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) and others as "Vouchercare." Heritage expert Robert Moffit dispatches this claim with zero ambiguity:

There is no major Medicare reform proposal, including the Ryan proposal, that would issue future senior citizens a voucher (a certificate or coupon or a check for a fixed dollar amount) and then force them to fend for themselves — on their own – in negotiating with health-insurance companies...It's all scary nonsense.

Under the left's definition of "vouchers," the existing Medicare drug benefit program is a voucher. Under the left's definition of "vouchers," the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program is a voucher. And under the left's definition of "vouchers," Obamacare's insurance exchanges will be funded by vouchers in 2014.

This simply isn't what we think of as a "voucher." An example of a true voucher plan? The food stamp program. People are given vouchers, which they take to the store and use to buy something. Medicare reform proposals do not work this way.

Moffit plainly lays out the features of a premium support plan:

It would provide direct payment from the government to a health plan of a person's choice, including traditional Medicare, if that was the patient's choice.

Health plans, including employer-based retiree plans, would have to meet government standards, including benefit standards of the traditional Medicare program, plus new and much-needed protections against the costs of catastrophic illness.

Plans would be offered like the Medicare Part D program, governed by existing Medicare insurance rules, meaning people could not be legally denied coverage or dropped merely because they are sick.

Low-income Americans would be specially protected from unforeseen out-of-pocket cost hikes.

All enrollees would benefit from an improved risk adjustment among plans in the competitive market to guarantee continuity of patient care and health-plan stability.

Use of the word "voucher," with the accompanying mental picture of confused seniors wandering around with coupons in their hands, is merely a rhetorical scare tactic. It has no basis in fact.

2. The $6,400 Question

You've likely heard that reforming Medicare would cost seniors $6,400 out of pocket. This charge is based on a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis relating to an outdated version of Ryan's budget proposal. This figure is meaningless and misleading for two reasons. Not only has Ryan's proposal changed significantly since then, but the CBO has also admitted that its estimates would be limited—because it cannot account for the effects of competition on prices.

As Heritage's Rea Hederman reports, "CBO director Douglas Elmendorf has publicly acknowledged that his agency does not have the methodological tools to accurately model Medicare premium-support plans and the impact of market competition."

The most recent academic analysis indicates that introducing premium support into Medicare could save 9 percent in annual costs. In addition to reducing Medicare spending across the board, the more important effect would be the competition between plans—giving people options for their coverage plans and saving individuals money.

[Patriot]

And yet a substantial number of citizens (including seniors) are cast to vote for Obama (and other 'govt is the answer' progressives).  Go figure.  Ignorance must truly be bliss.