Quote:
Originally Posted by Fulcrum525
Can't wait to hear what else they said. Did your economy speaker chime in on this yet?
|
Tune into Jim Vicevich, he's on 1080 until noon. A couple points they just discussed,
Re: Pre-existing conditions- Pre-existing conditions will technically be covered, assuming they buy into the High Risk Pool (at least until 2014). If the medical expenses are higher than the income, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (who apparently is going to be very busy with passage of this bill) SHALL make adjustments to make up the deficit. How else do they do this without refusing applications? The government is just going to take the place of the insurance companies, except without the oversight. Medicare currently has a higher refusal rate per procedure than the insurance companies.
Re: Rationing: The Medicare Advisory Board (15 members appointed by the President) will be required to project Medicare expenses yearly. If the amount exceeds the projected amount per capita, the Secretary SHALL reduce those expenses unless Congress intervenes. They will not ration per se, but they can determine which medications will be approved for use or reduce Medicare payments to the doctors (who in many cases are already only getting reimbursed $0.60 per dollar of service rendered from Medicare).
We will be hearing from the other Jim (the economic consultant) at our June meeting in Seattle and again in Phoenix in October. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out over the coming months. Most of the hype from both sides should tone down by that point and we'll be able to see what the actual effects might be.
03-22-2010, 09:47 AM
Hybrid Mode
