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    LJ909Ibn Safir
    3/08/19 1:17am

    They also need to look into preventing healthcare facilities from charging for services they didn’t ask for. Example: I went to the urgent care for an irregular heartbeat. They ran an EKG on me and saw the irregularity and told me they would be calling the ambulance to take me to the er. I told them I felt fine, that wasn’t needed and I can drive myself. I was told that under their guidelines, anything dealing with heat, head or skin they have to call for an ambulance. I insisted again 2 more times that I felt fine and I could drive myself. They still called and ended up taking me to the er. A few weeks later I ended up with a bill in the mail for $1,780 for an ambulance I didn’t want or ask for.

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      b1gdon5LJ909
      3/08/19 2:30am

      FYI, they are not the police and at anytime you can walk out of the clinic.  That said, I don't think driving yourself to the ER with a heart condition is a very responsible action.  In your situation, the right thing to do is have someone (family, friend, Uber) drive you to the hospital if you are willing to take the risk of not having access to EMTs and ambulance equipment to save the rather high cost of ambulance transport.

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      LJ909b1gdon5
      3/08/19 2:44am

      Yea that goes without saying. But the problem lies in being billed for something I didn’t ask for nor need. I don’t have a heart condition for one, and I later found out they told the paramedics I was having chest pains when I wasn’t. I told them I felt fine multiple times, I was just having an irregular heartbeat. It was less about my well being and more about them covering their ass liability wise, but somehow I end up with the bill.

      This is like walking into a restaurant to eat, and someone telling you to try a dish, you try it, and then you get a bill saying you have to pay for it, all the while being told “well you picked up the fork and tried it right?”

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    I'mSofaKingSickofWonderBreadIbn Safir
    3/08/19 7:51am

    Industry officials, who note the hurdles to be cleared before the proposal’s enaction, point out that price transparency could push insurers to demand discounts given to rivals while doctors lower negotiated rates to lure patients away from high-priced physicians.

    Didn’t these assholes (insurance shills and other GOP types) swear that the reason it was good not to have universal healthcare was to get the medical and insurance industries to start lowering prices to compete, making everything better for consumers (we’re not patients, we’re all just customers in their eyes)?

    Now that there might be some actual competition forcing the lowering of prices, these assholes are crying foul??? Capitalism is fucking bullshit, but like the law, the government, and the economy in general, it’ll never change to help the average person because this is a country for, of, and by rich motherfuckers who have more money than they could ever even try to waste on purpose.

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    King BeauregardIbn Safir
    3/09/19 3:27am

    Okay, I’m astonished to say this, but: if Trump actually does this, he will be doing more to straighten out our medical system than all the proponents of single payer put together.

    I sure as hell don’t trust Trump’s motives; however, it turns out that he’s absolutely right that the big problem with our medical system is the prices medical providers charge. Insurance companies may collect a profit, but the ACA caps their profits, and structures things such that they don’t profit unless they actually pay medical claims. But our doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and so forth charge vastly more than anywhere else in the developed world, and we don’t do anything about that.

    Of the countries whose health care systems we admire, not all of them practice single payer. But one thing they all do, is regulate the hell out of their medical providers, to make sure that they follow acceptable practices and charge acceptable rates. That’s the one thing that seems to be absolutely necessary ... and it’s the one thing progressives are balking at doing.

    And it’s not even all greed on the medical providers’ part; decades of zero oversight have led to an industry that is needlessly bloated and poorly structured.  It’s like suburban sprawl but applied to a segment of the economy.  So for example, if you’re a doctor, you’ll have to repay student loans and pick up malpractice insurance ... and you’ll need to charge enough to cover all that.  So it’s not just about capping prices, it’s also about restructuring things so that medical providers can operate less expensively.  In Denmark, you don’t sue doctors over malpractice, rather you appeal to a public agency for compensation; if we adopted a system like that, doctors could charge less.  That’s what I mean about restructuring ... and that sort of thing is completely beyond what Medicare For All can promise to do.

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    Volante3192Ibn Safir
    3/07/19 11:34pm

    If hospitals and insurers hate it, it’s got to be a good idea.

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    The SovereignIbn Safir
    3/08/19 1:14am

    That’s going to be a pain in the ass. Glad I’m not in that project.

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