Obamacare – The Killing of Seniors has begun

[Guest]

Recently Medicare reimbursements for a number of procedures have been severely curtailed. My sister-in-law’s husband has a condition call Myasthenia Gravis. His case is severe and requires a blood cleansing treatment called plasmapheresis. The University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City has provided this treatment. The staff of the Medical Center has advised him that they can no longer afford to continue to provide these treatments at the reduced Medicare reimbursement rates.

These reductions in Medicare reimbursements are necessitated by the $500,000,000,000 cut in Medicare benefits needed to pay for the providing of medical care to the 30 million uninsured people in The United States.

John is not a wealthy man who can pay for these treatments out of pocket. The message to him from the Obama administration is, “Go home and die.” And he will die within no more than a year and probably within six months.

[Guest]

I thought those reductions were suspended.

[Guest]

And he will die within no more than a year and probably within six months.[/QUOTE] That is sad. Hope U and the rest of he family will be able to contribute so he will get the appropriate medical care.

[Guest]

Recently Medicare reimbursements for a number of procedures have been severely curtailed. My sister-in-law’s husband has a condition call Myasthenia Gravis. His case is severe and requires a blood cleansing treatment called plasmapheresis. The University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City has provided this treatment. The staff of the Medical Center has advised him that they can no longer afford to continue to provide these treatments at the reduced Medicare reimbursement rates.

These reductions in Medicare reimbursements are necessitated by the $500,000,000,000 cut in Medicare benefits needed to pay for the providing of medical care to the 30 million uninsured people in The United States.

John is not a wealthy man who can pay for these treatments out of pocket. The message to him from the Obama administration is, “Go home and die.” And he will die within no more than a year and probably within six months.

you that there would not even be a Medicare program if it were up to the Republicans. Just so you know, the Democrats pushed a bill through congress last week postponing the Medicare reimbursement reductions.

[Guest]

That was for physicians, not procedures. The radiologist fee is not the primary cost of an MRI or PET scan. Would you care to call my sister-in-law and tell her that the Democrats have saved the day and that when her husband dies she can be assured that you are supporting Obama?

[Guest]

The only reality is that very pitiful sliver of life called partisan politics. Where there is no room for reality or the reality of consequences to real people with real issues of survival being threatened by the almighty health care reform.
It simply means tragedy has not hit close enough to home.
As has been said many, many, MANY times on this forum and in most estimates of the future costs of Obamacare....there will be a reductions of services and treatments and personal costs...quality of life-wise as well as $$$ wise.

Just do the simple math.....no increase in the medical infrastructure + no increase in the medical facilities + no increase in the number of doctors/surgeons/specialists/et al + adding millions into the system (who knows the right number between 15 and 50 million...pick one you like) + no specific funding for the increase of participants + no specific plan to reduce medicare and pharmaceutical fraud and corruption = reduction in services and increased personal cost to even try to maintain what one has today.

The best medical care, coverage, service and cost we will ever see is what we have TODAY. Enjoy it's provisions while they last.

Just what is so %*&%%$**$# difficult with understanding the above??? For the un-involved the words flow so easily!!!!

btk

[Guest]

Recently Medicare reimbursements for a number of procedures have been severely curtailed. My sister-in-law’s husband has a condition call Myasthenia Gravis. His case is severe and requires a blood cleansing treatment called plasmapheresis. The University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City has provided this treatment. The staff of the Medical Center has advised him that they can no longer afford to continue to provide these treatments at the reduced Medicare reimbursement rates.

These reductions in Medicare reimbursements are necessitated by the $500,000,000,000 cut in Medicare benefits needed to pay for the providing of medical care to the 30 million uninsured people in The United States.

John is not a wealthy man who can pay for these treatments out of pocket. The message to him from the Obama administration is, “Go home and die.” And he will die within no more than a year and probably within six months.

Actually this statement is NOT true....The message to him from the Obama administration is, “Go home and die.”

Look at what you said...The staff of the Medical Center has advised him that they can no longer afford to continue to provide these treatments at the reduced Medicare reimbursement rates. The hospital said they would no longer do this treatment at that price. Its business. You understand business, making money etc......I see it here all the time. The Tea Party is all about reducing the deficit but to do that social programs, like Medicare, will have to be cut. Its all well and good until these decisions hit to close to home and then comes the outrage.

You also failed to mention that other treatments are available for this condition. Has he tried any of these? In addition most hospitals have some type of financial help.....My hospital had a discount program for people paying out of pocket...has your family looked into any of these options. There are multiple hospitals in the Kansas City area all of them do this procedure have you all looked into any of those?

Perhaps helping your family in the search might be time better spent than railing against ObamaCare.

My final point is again look at what you said:

These reductions in Medicare reimbursements are necessitated by the $500,000,000,000 cut in Medicare benefits needed to pay for the providing of medical care to the 30 million uninsured people in The United States. So in your mind its ok to have 30 million people in the US uninsured as long as you all get what you need...including from another post "boner medication".

I do hope you and your family can come up with something to help John. I suggest the first step would be to talk to the financial office at the hospital.

[Guest]

Just look at what Billethekid wrote about "Obamacare". He said there was no specific plan in it to prevent Medicare fraud and abuse. I have no idea what political party he belongs to - if any - but look at Columbia/HCA hospital consortium.

Columbia/HCA paid over 1 Billion dollars in fines for Medicare fraud. Rick Scott, their CEO, knew nothing of this fraud. Floridians elected Scott to be their governor. He was endorsed by the Tea Party.

Yes, Democrats were responsible for passing Medicare as well as Social Security. They were railed against by Republicans for these entitlement programs. I sure do not see any Republicans saying they will give up their "entitlements" nor do I want to hear any arguements about it.

[Guest]

Just look at what Billethekid wrote about "Obamacare". He said there was no specific plan in it to prevent Medicare fraud and abuse. I have no idea what political party he belongs to - if any - but look at Columbia/HCA hospital consortium.

Columbia/HCA paid over 1 Billion dollars in fines for Medicare fraud. Rick Scott, their CEO, knew nothing of this fraud. Floridians elected Scott to be their governor. He was endorsed by the Tea Party.

Yes, Democrats were responsible for passing Medicare as well as Social Security. They were railed against by Republicans for these entitlement programs. I sure do not see any Republicans saying they will give up their "entitlements" nor do I want to hear any arguements about it.

for whom the original poster voted for Governor?

[Guest]

Recently Medicare reimbursements for a number of procedures have been severely curtailed. My sister-in-law’s husband has a condition call Myasthenia Gravis. His case is severe and requires a blood cleansing treatment called plasmapheresis. The University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City has provided this treatment. The staff of the Medical Center has advised him that they can no longer afford to continue to provide these treatments at the reduced Medicare reimbursement rates.

These reductions in Medicare reimbursements are necessitated by the $500,000,000,000 cut in Medicare benefits needed to pay for the providing of medical care to the 30 million uninsured people in The United States.

John is not a wealthy man who can pay for these treatments out of pocket. The message to him from the Obama administration is, “Go home and die.” And he will die within no more than a year and probably within six months.

This discussion leaves me shocked and nearly speechless. I'm disgusted at the attitudes of some of the posters. What the he** is wrong with you people? Yeah, well, just forget about somebody who worked their entire life and had money taken out of their paychecks every week. Their don't have that long to live anyway. As long as the government keeps taking to give to somebody else and we can pat ourselves on the back that we rammed it through whether you like it or not. That is all that matters.

I'm sorry BBQMan for my rant, but most of all what is happening in your family right now. May God bless you and yours this New Year.

[Guest]

I doubt it but can be sure you are working on a way. It would never have occurred to me that this was a business decision. Your enlightened views are most informative.

Other treatments! Why didn’t this occur to me? My sister-in-law and me must be stupid, or so you think and say; John has been to every major facility in Central Missouri, St Louis and Kansas City and has received every treatment available to stop the progress of this disease. You might have known that if you had bothered to look up the disease and this treatment before lecturing me you would have known that plasmapheresis is the treatment of last, not first resort.

Asking for financial assistance is, of course, something that would never have occurred to them or me. How dumb of us! You seem to believe that it takes someone with your superior intellect to come up with this idea.

Yes, we need to set priorities for medical treatments in the United States. The Obama administration is developing them in secret rather than the light of day. There are many difficult questions to be answered, but from your post I can assume that you know all the questions and the answers to them as well, at least in your humble opinion.

[Guest]

I doubt it but can be sure you are working on a way. It would never have occurred to me that this was a business decision. Your enlightened views are most informative.

Other treatments! Why didn’t this occur to me? My sister-in-law and me must be stupid, or so you think and say; John has been to every major facility in Central Missouri, St Louis and Kansas City and has received every treatment available to stop the progress of this disease. You might have known that if you had bothered to look up the disease and this treatment before lecturing me you would have known that plasmapheresis is the treatment of last, not first resort.

Asking for financial assistance is, of course, something that would never have occurred to them or me. How dumb of us! You seem to believe that it takes someone with your superior intellect to come up with this idea.

Yes, we need to set priorities for medical treatments in the United States. The Obama administration is developing them in secret rather than the light of day. There are many difficult questions to be answered, but from your post I can assume that you know all the questions and the answers to them as well, at least in your humble opinion.

I am sorry that you didn't appreciate any of my suggestions....I was attempting to be helpful. But you are not mad about that you, are mad that I spoke the truth regarding the decision the University of Kansas Medical Center made. To them the amount of money Medicare is willing to pay for these treatments apparently does not cover their costs. If they cannot cover their costs then they will go out of business. They not I made that decision.....I bear no ill will to you or your family.

You say that we need to set priorities for medical treatments....and I would agree with that....but as we saw in a previous thread we all want what is wrong with us or our family covered. No I don't think I have all the answers but I really do know my way around hospitals as I have worked in them for more than 40 years and still do.

Once again I bear no ill will to you or your family...I hope things will work out.

[Guest]

The best medical care, coverage, service and cost we will ever see is what we have TODAY. Enjoy it's provisions while they last.


Spoken like a man who never got dumped from his health insurance carrier for getting sick.

...or someone who never wonders why, in this country, the same procedures are 5-10X more expensive than they are in that "third world backwater" known as Canada (personal experience here).


...or who never questioned why insurance companies have hiked their rates FAR in excess of inflation for decades now and doesn't understand that the corporation lives to service it's SHAREHOLDERS.

...or who never worked for a hospital and saw the squeeze said companies put on them. [Explain to me how Blue Cross justifies a CUT in it's rates to Beth Israel Hospital while simultaneously hiking it's premiums as they did when I worked at BIH]

Our "system" is broken. The only ones not complaining are the ones who's ox hasn't been gored yet.

[Guest]

Regarding "The hospital said they would no longer do this treatment at that price. Its business"......

That also means the hospital has operating and employee costs they must cover responsibly. Are union and other employees willing to take pay cuts or be eliminated so the hospital can stay solvent with the reduced incomes? I don't think so . . . .

[Guest]

have to do with my comment, the current system, good, bad or indifferent is the best and lowest cost we have going forward.

Your attempt to dilute the intentions of the quote you presented from my post by making arbitrary character pigeon holes and then present them as arguments is very amusing (remaining polite about it).

btk

[Guest]

Well, Billy, you never answered regarding election of Rick Scott as governor of Florida. He, as you remember, was the CEO of Columbia/HCA. Columbia/HCA paid a record $1 Billion fine for Medicare fraud and Scott knew nothing about it.

You had said something regarding "Obamacare" said nothing about Medicare fraud oversight.

Hate to be cold-hearted but whose ox got gored?

[Guest]

Regarding "The hospital said they would no longer do this treatment at that price. Its business"......

That also means the hospital has operating and employee costs they must cover responsibly. Are union and other employees willing to take pay cuts or be eliminated so the hospital can stay solvent with the reduced incomes? I don't think so . . . .

Have you checked to make sure that unions are in play here?

Also you should not forget that while the car companies got bailed out the union agreed to big give backs. While banks and Wall street were bailed out and.....they also gave up their bonuses. NOT