Health care: Shriner hospitals in trouble

[The Yosemite Bear]

hehe,

which is funny since I'm an "intrest-based" union rep, I want things to work, and understand that it helps everyone management and worker when things are working smoothly. As apposed to the more frequent "class war" union reps. Which get interesting when I sit in on meetings, and say: Well the actual law says this!, the Management interpreation of that ruling says onething, the union interpretation says something else, however management has won their arguement in the labour management committee (Two managers 1 union Rep tribunal), whilst the union has won the arguement in Federal Court. Which makes everyone present wonder which side I'm really on.

Oh yeah, and Union benifits ROCK, at least compared to being stuck fending for your self in the current shark infested health care waters.

now, the part about being treated differently by hospitals that shep cited, well yes, I can attest to one time my insurance was charged $200 for a fuckin Fingerstick, to check my BSL during an exam. Of the $200 I was responsible for $70. I looked at the nurse and said "So THAT's why you refused to just download my reader."

[Broomstick]

What happens is that the cost gets passed on to someone else, I think the SOP right now for Hospitals who deal with ER cases of the obviously uninsured -- gang members coming in with gunshot wounds etc -- is that they charge it off to medicare/medicaid, or to the State government. I'm not exactly sure on this, someone else can do a better job of digging through the mass that is our medical system than me.

No they don't. It's bad debt. They CAN'T "charge it off" on Medicaid or Medicare, those program simply don't cover the uninsured at all - if they did, those people couldn't be called uninsured. State government picking up the tab? Don't be silly - sure the state might issue grants to hospitals to help keep them running but no one picks up the tab for the uninsured as you seem to think happens. Yeah, the government does help fund hospitals but it's nowhere near the cost of running mandated programs and it sure as hell isn't through Medicaid or Medicare, it's through other grants and funding that can be cut with much less screaming from the sheeple.

Hospitals MUST treat people with life-threatening conditions regardless of ability to pay - and if the patient can't pay, the hospital simple eats the cost. That simple.

The cost gets passed on to everyone else in the form of higher prices for hospital treatment. In order to compensate for the bad debt, and because they can't increase Medicaid or Medicare payments, the raise the rates on the insured. All those people whining about how "unfair" it would be to go to a tax-supported single-payer system where the healthy subsidize the sick and the wealthy subsidize the poor? They are already doing that - but with a shitload of middle men in a shell-game approach which is why it's so fucking expensive!

It frustrates the hell out of me that people just assume the government somehow magically picks up the tab for this sort of thing. It doesn't. That's why I keep saying people have no idea how big the holes in the safety net are.

[Ekiqa]

cosmetic dentistry; medically necessary dentistry is covered by the government)

I think all the government pays for dentistry is tooth pulling. Nothing else. Hygenists, cavities, wisdom teeth extraction are all out of pocket expenses, or private insurance.

[Darth Wong]

cosmetic dentistry; medically necessary dentistry is covered by the government)

I think all the government pays for dentistry is tooth pulling. Nothing else. Hygenists, cavities, wisdom teeth extraction are all out of pocket expenses, or private insurance.

My university study partner had extensive jaw surgery to correct his bite, paid for by the government. It's all a matter of whether it's considered cosmetic or not. But yeah, the government is not too inclined to pay for dental, since most dental work is just for personal appearance. Even losing a tooth is not what one would term a medical crisis, and the system has to be geared toward the area of most critical need.

[FireNexus]

Even private dental insurance barely pays for anything, so it's unsurprising that a government program wouldn't.

[TimothyC]

Silly, but honest question:

Often when I hear about the good response times in Canada for getting a doctor's appointment, I hear the phrase "I got in to see A doctor". How often is that ones regular doctor? As an individual in the US, I like the Canadian system more and more the more I hear about it.

[Stark]

I use the same doctor all the time (GP, anyway). He's the most popular at the medical centre I use, so I often need to wait an extra day (because the old dears in the neighbourhood like his rugged Indian charm) but I can just say 'yeah whoever' and get an appointment same-day if I want.

[Imperial Overlord]

Silly, but honest question:

Often when I hear about the good response times in Canada for getting a doctor's appointment, I hear the phrase "I got in to see A doctor". How often is that ones regular doctor? As an individual in the US, I like the Canadian system more and more the more I hear about it.

For something routine I can see my family doctor within a few days. I can get an appointment even faster if I'm willing to go with one of the two doctors he shares a practice with and one of them is free sooner.

[The Yosemite Bear]

I just wonder if healthcare were to be reformed, what would the unions fight with management over?

[TimothyC]

For something routine I can see my family doctor within a few days. I can get an appointment even faster if I'm willing to go with one of the two doctors he shares a practice with and one of them is free sooner.

I use the same doctor all the time (GP, anyway). He's the most popular at the medical centre I use, so I often need to wait an extra day (because the old dears in the neighbourhood like his rugged Indian charm) but I can just say 'yeah whoever' and get an appointment same-day if I want.

Thank you both for the responses. It sounds a lot like the system that I currently have here in the US (which in this case is a good thing - being able to have one doc that you go and see for 90%+ of the time).

[Stark]

I don't have any ongoing medical issues, so I don't really see any benefit of seeing the same GP all the time. With professionals (like dentists, psychiatrists, etc) I see the benefit, and this is quite different in the public system here (although I can still get my wisdom teeth removed for free if I wait ~3 months - the wait is due to it not actually being necessary).

[TimothyC]

I don't have any ongoing medical issues, so I don't really see any benefit of seeing the same GP all the time. With professionals (like dentists, psychiatrists, etc) I see the benefit, and this is quite different in the public system here (although I can still get my wisdom teeth removed for free if I wait ~3 months - the wait is due to it not actually being necessary).

I do have some chronic health issues, so seeing the same doc all the time (4+ times a year, every year, for the past twenty years) is a big plus.

[Darth Wong]

With two kids, I've been to the doctor a lot. It's always my regular family doctor. He's a really cool guy actually; he was an electrical engineer before he went to med school and became a doctor.

[aerius]

I just wonder if healthcare were to be reformed, what would the unions fight with management over?

The big one will be pensions. Followed by pay, job security, seniority rights, paid vacations/sick days, working hours, and a bunch of other stuff. But the big 3 are pensions, pay, and job security, my union already has more than enough of all 3 but it's always crying for more. And by always I mean every single fucking day.

[tim31]

With two kids, I've been to the doctor a lot. It's always my regular family doctor. He's a really cool guy actually; he was an electrical engineer before he went to med school and became a doctor.

That's certainly the long road! And I(and every other parent on the board) can appreciate the sentiment of going to the doctor frequently with kids. Both of my children have undergone surgery requiring a GA, which we had anticipated and gotten private health cover for. In the case of our boy, it was expected that he would be born with the same eye condition as his mother had; we weren't prepared to be pissing about on waiting lists for non-essential surgery while our son went blind in one eye, so the work was done privately. Didn't cost an extra cent; the health fund covered it all. Daughter's ear op a year later though... Fuck.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Paid vacations are an area the US really needs to improve in--mandatory 30 days paid vacation a year + 15 days of paid sick leave for anyone who's been employed for 1 year or longer, regardless of their time status, should be a feature of American employment law, with up to a further 15 days of unpaid leave that can be used either for vacation or illness also mandated, with up to a further 15 days of unpaid furlough in the case of documented serious illness, all of which should let the person continue to accrue seniority. And if the person doesn't take some of their paid leave, they get the equivalent in pay as a bonus at the end of the year. Maternity leave should be 250 days paid in full. If that was implemented along with universal healthcare, the US would be worth living in again, and I'd actually have no problem with our current work hours a week / overtime requirements were such a system in place. This country as it is has horrible stress levels and very high levels of mental illness which are almost certainly tied to the way employees are currently forced to work relentlessly without break.

[The Yosemite Bear]

One of my friends recently got demoted because of complications from an injury, that they deliberatly agggrivated....s