You Be The Judge: The healthcare debate on single-payer you haven't heard

[davidmesaaz]

Any Single payer/Medicare advocate answer this question for me. If Medicare is more efficient than the private sector then as more seniors move from the private sector to government run medicare shouldn't the cost of health care decrease?

[DrChristineAdams]

@davidmesaaz Seniors are the most expensive group. Costs do not decrease for sick people. Medicare is more transparent than private insurers because it is accountable to taxpayers. We don't know if private insurers are efficient because they are not transparent. We do know that if they can't profit from a subscriber, that subscriber is dumped onto the public so taxpayers, doctors, hospitals, & patients in effect subsidize private, for-profit health insurance.

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams If its accountable to taxpayers and is more transparent why did it lose 48 billion dollars in waste and abuse by the GAO 4x the amount of profits that the 10 largest Health insurance companies make. Also the American Medical Association has for more than 3 decades prevented the public from knowing how much money individual doctors receive from medicare How is that more transparent?

For all your claims there is little evidence that government is more transparent than the market

[DrChristineAdams]

@davidmesaaz Medicare fee schedule for doctors is available for public viewing at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website cms.gov go to physician fee schedule. You need the HCPCS codes which are also public. Private health plans prohibit publication of what they pay doctors claiming it is proprietary and not public information. Read GAO report on Medicare waste or fraud gao.gov (new.items/d10844t.pdf). Figures are different than stated above.

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams That is not true... Key facts about a Medicare database analyzed by The Wall Street Journal

811,785

Number of care providers

1,674,766

Number of beneficiaries

0

Number of providers identified by name

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams The medicare fees was not the question the names of doctors and how much each doctor receives is not public... Read The Hill... Bipartisan Senate duo wants Medicare to make payments to doctors public - 03/02/11 05:30 PM ET

[DrChristineAdams]

@davidmesaaz Not sure what purpose it serves to have individual providers' % of income from Medicare payments be made public - plus who would pay for such an expensive accounting, especially from inpatient services with so many different procedures/providers? Please explain how this individual level of detail would be worth the cost of data collection vs. just having the fee schedules for procedures made public. Wouldn't taxpayers end up footing the bill for this?

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams You have the wrong GAO fraud file there was a new one. gao.gov/new.items/d11430t.pdf And yes it is correct....

[DrChristineAdams]

@davidmesaaz This report explained the difficulty of determining what was waste, fraud and abuse and how this is not a clear cut, simple determination. For-profit health plans do not publish how much waste, fraud abuse is in their systems. They routinely deny legitimate claims without review making providers file again adding to costs of health care. Again, their waste is not transparent so there is not a reliable way to determine how efficient they are. High profit does not equal efficiency.

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams Your dodging the question... Of course its difficult to determine but the concluded that 1 dollar in 10 is wasted or 48 billion dollars. That does not even account for the waste and abuse in Medicare Part D. Despite the evidence you continually make claims that are not supported by the evidence. Also medicare is not transparent so to back up claim X (less wasteful) with claim Y (more transparent) doesn't cut it.

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams If I were to design a system Singapore would be a great place to start. It spends a paltry 1.5% of GDP on health care. Compare that to 5-7% of GDP in Europe. Prices markets are at the center of the system that drive costs down instead of the current reimbursement model which drives prices up. Why because if they bill medicare for less than their competitors they lose money because their competitors will still charge at higher rates.

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams Your ignoring several facts.. Medicare ignores legitimate claims... Medicare denies more claims than any other insurance provider. What you want me to believe is that a sngle payer monopoly is more efficient than a competitive market. (fyi the current health care system is not a competitive market..)

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams You have the wrong GAO fraud file there was a new one. gao.gov/new.items/d11430t.pdf And yes it is correct.... Comments please?

[DrChristineAdams]

@davidmesaaz Everyone favors ending waste, fraud. What are you proposing? Ending Medicare? It funds most training costs for future doctors, pays for much hospital equipment & pays for our sickest Americans. What's your alternative proporsal? Let people die? The private market won’t take them without Medicare + 14% payments. Where will the money come from to train future doctors? Waste, fraud is a huge problem with military contractors. Do we end our military or just work on better oversight?

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams "Fraud is a huge problem with military contractors" Your right because we have a Single payer military system our military has a monopoly on defense Given the poor track record on defense spending converting another industry to a single payer monopoly will create the same results which we both agree is more waste and abuse K-12 schools are single payer monopolies we fund schools but our Universities have a voucher system which fund students.

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams few are calling for the end of medicare but given medicare finances the best way to eliminate medicare is to do nothing. We need to reform the way we provide the public goods of health care for the elderly & vulnerable but not end the program all together. The best way to eliminate abuse is let patients decide where to spend their money through vouchers. Individuals should decide what is best for them not government planning boards or defined benefit insurance plans.

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams In a voucher system if doctors provided better care at lower cost they would be rewarded with more customers and therefore more profits. More profits leads to another question of yours how do you train more doctors? You don't improve a business by eliminating the profit motive and rewarding all doctors equally The best will leave the profession the worst will stay and the smartest will never enter into the profession Vouchers allow patients to determine where the money is spent

[davidmesaaz]

I find it a bid odd that you picked Medicare as an example of the same organization whose actual costs were 10 times larger than estimated. They had 48 Billion dollars of waste and abuse which is 4x the profits of the 10 largest health insurance companies at 15 billion. This is the same organization that due to reimbursement rules if a company charges less to medicare they lose money because their competitors still charge the higher rates. Therefore prices never go down they only go up.

[DrChristineAdams]

@davidmesaaz Medicare funds the sickest people: seniors & disabled; It funds most medical residencies; it funds much of the durable medical equipment in hospitals. Private insurance does not pay for any of those. With Medicare Advantage, once seniors are not profitable to the insurer, they are dumped into traditional Medicare. Profits should be for the health care providers and facilities who do the actual work not a third party that adds no value to health care.

[Ephisus]

You don't have a right to anything that you would need someone else to provide.

[DrChristineAdams]

@Ephisus : That's why we should have a national health care system - everyone pays into the system & then gets the care they need - no free rides. Society pools its funds to support services/commodities/instituti­ons that we could not afford as individuals: interstate system, public schools, agricultural supports to ensure an adequate food supply., etc. With your logic, you should not see even see a doctor that you didn't pay to educate or drive on roads you didn't pay to build.

[Ephisus]

@DrChristineAdams

You have a right to contract for goods or services. Saying that you have a "right" to the good or service is to also say that you don't need to contract for them.

You do not have a right to someone else's service to you.

[Ephisus]

@DrChristineAdams Nothing to add, huh? You smack of someone who has thought for all of five minutes about this issue.

[studentofsmith]

@DrChristineAdams "everyone pays into the system & then gets the care they need "

Progressive income taxes make it a wealth transfer scheme, not a "pooling" of funds. It's basically an inefficient form of welfare.

"public schools"

There is no earthly reason education cannot be provided by the free market. Let's at least move to a voucher system like they have in Sweden.

"agricultural supports to ensure an adequate food supply"

Most foods do quite nicely without any such subsidy.

[Healthcareforallweho]

Single payer is the end game. We'll get there eventually because our health insurance markets are incapable of controlling costs. But we'll give them one last shot with Obamacare. I'm tired of wasting my money on private insurance companies. I'd much rather my money go health care than private insurance bureaucracy.

[davidmesaaz]

A single payer health care system will be as good for the poor as our single payer public schools and as costs effective as our single payer department of Defense. Britains National Health Service had increased by 60 percent under the Labour government, its output had decreased by 4 percent The UK has more health care bureacrats than actual doctors and nurses... I don't see how any one can say that is the model of efficiency.

[jamspooge86]

yeah in order to get profits its natural for companies to cut or deny people from being treated.. put that in your pipe and smoke it. receive better overall care than us?! bahaha what a joke.. tell that to the 40 million Americans who can't afford to purchase healthcare insurance not to mention when they do get a policy they will get fucked around by the company.

[davidmesaaz]

Medicare denies more claims than any other insurance provider... Put that in your pipe and smoke it....

Many Americans can afford to purchase health care but they choose not to. The 40 million Americans that you site the majority are uninsured for less than 6 months. The rest are either young and like myself choose not to get health insurance. Just a tiny fraction of americans need health insurance but can't afford it.

[SickMouth]

@davidmesaaz In other words, you deny that the U.S. is in any healthcare crisis.

[davidmesaaz]

@SickMouth No I don't deny that the health care in this country is in crisis. What I do disagree with is the source of the problem. 40-50% of all health care dollars come from the federal government. It is the government that is exploding costs not the insurance companies... Don't believe me then explain to me why the same insurance companies have higher costs in states (CA MA NY) with higher regulations.

[jamspooge86]

and according to the Congressional Budget Office Medicare will remain solvent until 2020...

[davidmesaaz]

The predicted deficit is still 38 trillion dollars... The SS and Medicare were never on a solid financial base... Its costs are rising not falling....

[ghost1723]

@davidmesaaz Britain's healthcare system is completely socialized by which i mean the government employs the doctors, nurses, etc. and own the medical facilities. A better example of a single payer system would be canada or france.

[davidmesaaz]

@Healthcareforallweho Private sector is incapable of controlling costs but the government is capable of controlling costs? While the free market often produces twice the benefit and half the cost every 18 months the like the tech industries moore's law. Government over time is the reverse over time the costs increase and the benefits are cut. When boeing provides planes for the army does provide planes that are better quality and lower costs then the planes it provides for the private sector? No

[davidmesaaz]

Single payer health care will be as good for the poor as our single payer public schools and as cost effective as our single payer department of defense.

[allclassics]

This is about MANDATORY health care you will HAVE TO BUY. The young buyers who have little demand will subsidize the older members who have high costs. It's SSI all over again. Jsut another Ponzi scheme where the young pay for older memebers

[mfoxy9795]

(the messages I removed were just duplications of the one about Rich DeVos)

[mfoxy9795]

Rich DeVos, co-founder of the Amway Corporation and one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, who could pay out of pocket and go anywhere he chose, went to London, U.K. to get a heart transplant.

[talentscout1221]

Canada is better huh !?!

"Danny Williams, the premier of the Canadian province of Newfoundland, traveled to the United States earlier this month to undergo heart valve surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. With his trip, Williams joined a long list of Canadians who have decided that they prefer American medicine to their own country's government-run health system when their lives are on the line."

San Francisco Chronicle, Sally C. Pipes

Thursday, February 25, 2010

[dmbfannh]

That's because Danny Williams has money to blow then. If Canada's health care system is so bad why does the average Canadian live longer than the average american by about three years. Sure if your filthy rich it might be better here in the US, because there is no waiting list for care. But the fact of the matter is our system caters toward money and not toward human lives.

[davidmesaaz]

The average Canadian lives longer than the average American for reasons that have nothing to do with health care such as lower murder rates. But when you consider health care outcomes Americans receive better care the Canadian premier understands this. Danny Williams isn't "filthy rich"

[jamspooge86]

Yeah because he has lots of money to spend in order to be treated in the way that he wants . A long list of Canadians?! Yeah over 90% of Canadians approve of their public healthcare system and we get comparable or better treatment than people in the United States. Prescription drugs cost on average 1/5th here than what they do in the U.S.

[hms08KY]

The quiet rational debaters are unfortunately out-shouted by the anti single payer "actress."

That's exactly what's happening in our country now- Those who support our broken and inhumane market-based system simply won't listen to reason.. They prefer to pay premiums --and tax dollars-- to the shareholder profit stream of private insurers ( plus their outrageous executive salaries) rather than see that money used for needed care.

Go figure!-- Simply do the math?

[davidmesaaz]

40% of all health care dollars are spent by the government not the market. So if the "system" is broken its because of the perverse system of medicare.

When hospitals want to cut costs they often lose money because Medicare will reimburse them at a lower rate than their competitors.

When Medicare was passed LBJ predicted the costs would be 13 billion dollars in 1990 but its actual cost was 98 billion nearly 10x the predicted cost. Medicare now has a 38 trillion dollar deficit.

[jamspooge86]

38 trillion dollar deficit by medicare?!! HELLOOOO!! your military is the biggest deficit producing machine in your country. Public programs are meant to run at a loss because they don't have the profit incentive.

[davidmesaaz]

The military is producing the deficit you need to check your facts. We spent 1 trillion dollars in 8 years in Iraq. Obama spent that in his fist month with the Stimulus bill. We spend 2x as much on social security and medicare then we do in on military h t t p :/ / bit . ly/ H Uk vc So HEEELLLOOO you need to check your facts.

[davidmesaaz]

So your saying that a system that costs more to  produce goods than the goods are actually worth (run at a loss) is a good idea? That is soviet style logic at its worst.

Well Medicare is bankrupting this country that is why health care costs are increasing. Not because of the "Greedy insurance companies"

[FrankRizzo6662]

This video is a bunch of BS... How about next time they use the facts and not spin a bunch of lies. Typical left wing morons

[kenzie45230]

Amen to that.

[SickMouth]

@FrankRizzo6662 You have no rebuttal to the arguments presented in the video, so your contention that they are "BS" is fallacious unless you can support your rebuttal with facts from THIS century.

[TimeWarp66]

Socialist know-nothings.

[SickMouth]

@TimeWarp66 Like the video says, half of the country is socialized already -- so if you pay taxes, you support the socializations already present.

[TimeWarp66]

@SickMouth

The government takes my money by force. I support nothing. My support is irrelivent to the state because they have a legal monopoly on the use of violence, force and coercion.

[macdogq]

Leftists spin. who are they trying to fool.

Another questions; When did healthcare became a right?

[SickMouth]

@macdogq One cannot exercise other rights, such as the right to the pursuit of happiness, if one is dead or in poor health.

[macdogq]

@SickMouth Insurance company pays for HC cost, and that is exactly why there in bussiness, when you take away compitition, Insurance companies premius will increase.

[mikejp2008]

Why are people not seeing that this is a better option for everyone. Free market for profit healthcare is in it to keep you sick or thinking your sick. Prescriptions for everyone is that American ask Rush if he thinks so.

[roncram]

The public option is not the same as single payer. But Obama plans to move from public option to single payer quickly. I know Obama has denied this, but he lies. See the YouTube video watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk

If you ever thought you could trust Obama, you will not trust him again after watching that video. Obama is scheduled to give a big healthcare speech next week, only this time no one will believe him.

[jeangrey65]

No, he's changing his mind to accomodate everyone. He'd rather change his intentions to try and apease everyones side and pass something then nothing at all. And what president do you know of hasn't done the same? Remember Bush and Stem cell research. He was all for it until his party pushed religious beliefs on him forcing him to withdrawl funding. Where there weapons of mass distruction? Were you posting about that during Bushs term?

[lisachimi]

Monsanto makes poison GMO's, the AMA pays them to, Big Pharma does to. The GMO's make people sick. They go to the Doc who is run by the AMA. Who gives them "medicine" made by big Pharma & Monsanto. They hand that poison to the people and the people pay for it. The gov sees all of that money going out to private businesses. They have deals with ALL 3 Companies and they want to give you health care. IF they banned GMO's Roundup and Monsanto you WOULDN'T need health care. Stupid people.

[bigkellyr]

All I know is it is about time something is done about our healthcare system. We cannot afford to wait any longer. Change needs to happen now! My wife and I have been on a state subsidized basic health insurance where we pay monthly premiums for "basic" health care. We have paid as much as $178 a month for thetwo of us and we are paying $106 a month now but have been told it will rise in the next year rather than the state drop people from the roles. It needs to change NOW!

[lisachimi]

O it is a lie? A lie that my friends Uncle fell down stairs, went to a hospital. Was told his neck was broke, got surgery. They NEVER gave him an IV, he couldn't eat ANYTHING, he would vomit everything up. THEY still NEVER gave him an IV. HE went into cartiac arrest AND THEN they finally called his family. They were told he was in a coma and that he wouldn't be coming out of it. They then sent him to a home to die. THEN they robbed his bank account after he was dead. Yeah go Canada's health BS.

[DrChristineAdams]

American deaths due to lack of health insurance in 2006 = 22,000 (Institute of Medicine & U.S.Census Bureau) - up from 18,000 in 2002; 62% of all American bankruptcies are from medical bills (0% bankruptcies in Canada from medical bills); The Canadian hospitals are paid through the national health program so they do not collect money from patients for treatment because there are no co-pays or out-of-pocket costs. Whoever "robbed" the bank account was not the hospital.

[davidmesaaz]

A single payer health care system is not more efficient. They spend less because the government limits by law how much they could spend. The government not individuals dictates how much is spent on who what and when. If you want to spend more on your self your out of luck... A study from Canada found that Canadians spend less and they receive less medical care and when they want more care they come to the US.

[mrsthursday]

Bloody brilliant. This should be sent to every senior in the US. everybody for that matter.

[aliensdreamland]

how many people do you encounter on a daily basis without insurance or medical of any kind? How about incomplete coverage? because i can think of a whole list including including myself. and for the ones bashing medicare, check your facts what sucks is the portion of the plan where government signed an agreement not allowing negotiations of prescription pricing. the pharmaceutical industry made sure of this.

[lisachimi]

What a bunch of BS. Our medicare system SUCKS! I know plenty of people on it and they HATE IT. Plus they have some new initials for treatment BED OR DNR? Ever heard of them? Benefits Ended Death OR Do Not Resucitate. There will be more of those out with a National Healthcare Reform crap. We do not want IT GET RID OF THE IDEA!!!

[Dandaman95]

Weeth, you said that the "bloated" govt can't administer a 3% overhead. It does. Medicare had an estimated 3.1% overhead in 2006, down from 5.2% in the late 90s.

The people who receive Medicare are much more satisfied with the care than people who get care through private insurers (88% versus 60-something %)

[xxxild]

This is really well written (a little harsh listening to the different audio levels between actors tho), and lays it out as it appears to have been going down via our public airwaves through the terrible media we currently have (which also needs an overhaul back to a real free press). So, thank you for it. 5 stars and subscribed.

[thequantumflux]

Brilliant video well done 5*

[zaboomafoo25]

hey, 09geauxtiger.i come from Europe, and i can tell you that they have a great healthcare system over there, and the one here in the US sucks, we need to change it...

[09geauxtigers]

This is partisan bullshit!!! I know many people in Europe and Canada and they say their health care programs suck and many are currently being overhauled by governments.

[mollycanadian]

I'm from Canada and the majority of us support it. Of course we need to change come things. When more MIRs are required we have to buy more equipment. When we have a shortage of doctors in rural areas we have to hire and train more doctors. So this is not partisan bullshit, check the facts.

[davidmesaaz]

@mollycanadian You realize that if you had fewer bureaucrats and nurses you would have more money for machines? Most single payer health care systems have more administrators then doctors and nurses? Canada has a single payer monopoly while the US has a health care oligarchy that is funded by the US government. Having simple things such as a working price system and people deciding on health care purchases instead of some third party such as the government employers will drive the cost down.

[DrChristineAdams]

@davidmesaaz For-profit insurance is the problem. New report from Kaiser Family Foundation (kff.org): admin costs of Medicare less than 2%; private admin costs are between 15% - 20%. Vermont will have modified single-payer in 2014 for all its citizens & residents. Then we will have real facts to evaluate the effectiveness of single-payer & not just guess or theorize. Maryland has a state single payer bill (SB388). Others states are also in process of proposing state single-payer bills.

[davidmesaaz]

@DrChristineAdams Really if for profit is the problem logically lets have all businesses be non-profit. Lets give have the same single payer monopolistic state run for all business. What your saying that monopolies are more efficient than a free market driven by prices/profit. So if we eliminate choice and competition and give them infinite amounts of money they will spend less than a competitive environment. When has that ever been the case?

[SickMouth]

@09geauxtigers See above arguments. They do no match this claim.

[Weeth]

it seems to me that the question is not whether or not america's current health care system is perfect... but rather whether or not the nationalization of our health care system by our dumbass federal government in D.C. would actually end up doing america any good—or the WORLD for that matter (remember that all of these socialized health care systems to which you refer gladly accept and rely upon the benefits of our "profit-driven" technological innovations).

[Weeth]

another interesting thing happened about 40 yrs ago.. the social security act of 1965, which resulted in medicare and medicaid—both single-payer systems. is this coincidence? who knows.. but whats certain is that both medicare and medicaid are going bankrupt; social security is also going bankrupt; amtrak is bankrupt; DMV; public schools; public housing; Fannie & Freddy; etc. etc.... the list of govt failures is endless. yet somehow they always manage to blame it on those greedy capitalists

[Weeth]

i think we are missing some very important points in this video.. namely, actually exploring why costs have risen in the first place. ok, so are insurance premiums high? yes. but insurance companies react to costs.. not the other way around. so, what is causing this increase in underlying costs? well.. lets look briefly at the history of health care prices in america.. specifically, over the past few decades. health care prices have risen steadily, starting about 40 years ago.

[BudWiser999]

Why is nobody talking about the wonderful "peaceful" state of Israel and their "wonderful" MANDATORY healthcare??? With its MANDATORY 50% income tax rates, there is NO FREEDOM OF CHOICE. A freedom-loving citizen having his individual freedom of choice RIGHT is better than some arrogant guvmint bureaucrat making the decision. Want to be treated like cattle? Then sign onto Communism and single-payer healthcare. The answer to the healthcare debate is MORE COMPETITION!

[DrChristineAdams]

Competition & free markets work with commodities when people do not ever have to have that commodity. Everyone gets sick and will need health care to live. Keep the competition between providers for patients where it belongs. We don't need middlemen taking a 30% cut from each dollar for non-health related costs. We don't need to spend anymore money than we do now to cover everyone in the USA. We need to cut out for-profit private health plans so 97% of the money goes directly to health care.

[Weeth]

eh ehm. slight correction here (not necessarily attempting to make any broader point): people always need food. people always need water. people always need shelter. all of these "must have" commodities are subject to competition and free markets.

[Weeth]

also.. you say that we need to do away with "for-profit" private health care so that "97%" of the money goes directly to health care". please dont tell me you actually believe that a federal govt as bloated, inefficient, and inept as ours can possibly administrate a health care system with just 3% overhead?? lol.. thats cute. you really are attempting to make the wrong argument here.

[phillipmarch22]

Yes, we DO need to do away with private insurance companies. Everyone is screaming and yelling about government control. I think you under estimate how much control insurance companies have over our health. That industry has had plenty of time to compete to lower costs, and they haven't done shit. They only compete to raise costs. Don't give me that bullshit that they are just reacting to another force. They are corupt and I hope to live long enough to see that they do not exist anymore!

[Weeth]

phillip... the only entity capable of increasing costs excessively without going out of business is the government (or any entity that curries government favor). you can berate the greedy capitalists as much as you like but its not going to change the realities of government.. you think the INSURANCE companies are corrupt?? lol wait until nancy pelosi and... tom tancredo get ahold of it. you should save a little of that disdain for the bureaucrats buddy

[phillipmarch22]

Thanks, you are exactly right! The US Government has a lot more money than the "You should die first before I lose my vacation home" capitalist insurance companies. It is about time those fuckers learned what REAL competition is. I am all for making more money than God, but not off the backs of dying people. You obviously have not been listening to the heathcare debates. Because what you just said is NOT true.

[Weeth]

lol yea, totally bro.. because the government would NEVER make money off the back of dying people. governments never do stuff like that, right? & the govt-run health care systems DEFINITELY dont save on costs by denying life-saving care to extremely elderly people, smokers, etc.. that would mean that the govt lets people die in order to save costs. the govt would never do something like that. youre right brother.. how many healthcare debates did u have to watch to figure this out? good stuff

[phillipmarch22]

I don't know if you are being a smartass, but no government run agencies don't deny people and let them die. Actually, either do hospital emergency rooms. Right now when someone goes to the ER and doesn't have any money, the working public pays for it. So, in reality we do have socialized medicine, lets just figure out a way to do it better! The VA Healthcare system works great. I know, I go there!

[Weeth]

maybe your lack of ability to detect sarcasm is related to your lack of ability to detect government bullshit. please, google: barbara wagner.. you are right on 1 thing tho: government run agencies dont deny people and let them die.. they deny people and give them money to kill themselves—its more "cost-effective" that way. anyways, what do they care.. its not like their customers have any other options, right! its short-sighted suckers like you that fuck up everything for the rest of us.

[mrsthursday]

18000 die in the US every year through lack or NO medical care quote US ,John Abramson MD he was family doctor in Appalachia & Hamilton, Mass chair of the dept of family practice at Lahey Clinic a Robert Wood Johnson fellow, is on the clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School teaching primary care. twice voted best dr. in his area , 3 times selected by peers as one of handful of best Docs in Mass. works as expert witness author of 'Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine'

[kevinpaulharper]

You want freedom of choice? how about the fact that there is a doctor next door to me but I cant go to him because he is not in my network... Who's freedom of choice are you for, would you like your doctor to decide if you need surgery, or someone on the phone who gets a bonus and a tap on the back if they turn you down.

[phillipmarch22]

Thanks Kevin, I have an exact same story regarding my brother. His insurance denied coverage for a brain test, and my beautiful brother died. How does Dr. Adams feel about that. She states: Keep the competition between providers for patients where it belongs. The only thing private insurance companies have been competitive on is how fast they can financially rape U.S. citizens. They have had plenty of time to get their shit together. The party is over!

[DrChristineAdams]

I am saddened to hear about your brother's death. It's exactly why we need to get rid of for-profit health plans who decided his life wasn't worth a dip in their profit margain. HR 676 would stop this. In a single payer system, your brother would have had that brain test & been able to choose any doctor he wanted to go to based on who he thought was best for him. The doctors/diagnositic facilities would have had to compete for his business without an insurance company denying treatment.

[phillipmarch22]

Thank you very much Dr. Adams! That means a lot to me. What exactly happened to my brother is that they put a price on a life. Out of any issue that anyone can talk about, that is the scariest! Thanks again and God Bless!

[DrChristineAdams]

Your welcome. I hope you never have to go through anything like that again with someone you love. No one should have to go through that.

[teleutube]

bottom line, best argument:

HEALTH IS NOT A COMMODITY, YOU CAN'T CHOOSE A DISEASE, OR WHETHER YOU GET SICK OR NOT !

....how can we win with a system like that ?? !

[Blagovision]

Sounds like the kind of debate we should be seeing in Congress. In a open society we would. Unfortunatly our government is in the hands of a closed minded group of people who set limits on the debate. Not surprising these public servants are well paid by the broken industry they are trying to "reform".

[Weeth]

ironic statement for you in retrospect considering ABCs upcoming special..

[davidmesaaz]

@Blagovision paid by the broken industry? You realize that all or nearly all of the health care lobby lined up in favor of the health care bill? The industry is broken because the government already spends half of all health care dollars.

[bpartoens]

You forgot to put how much money Health Insurance CEO's make(before they give Congress & Senate their cut of the cash). William Mc Guire w/ United Health made hundreds of millions in salary, then was caught back dating stock options & forced to resigh. To punish him, his golden parachute was 1.1 billion dollars. Wonder how many policy holders were denied life saving procedures so "Bill" could receive the salary he deserve?.

Baucus has Hr 676 supporters arrested, Mc Guire makes billions.

[Zonebone]

Lol what a biased bideo...

[bugzilla2001]

This was excellent. I favorited it. Single payer is the only system that makes sense in the long term.

[FluxCapacitor2008]

Lets make is so the people can, opt out of the one person pay system on their tax form but this will prevent them from using the system. They will have to use the private health care provider. This will give people choice and provide some competition for the private health care providers and the one payer system.

[FluxCapacitor2008]

WTF Our kids know what time it is and so many adult have no clue

[FluxCapacitor2008]

Health care costs are part of the problem we have with job out sourcing; the burden of health care is put on the workers and employers, why cant we have a hybrid type of health care, use income tax money to pay into a non profit system that will pay for coverage for all Americana and then pay back a percentage in the form of a tax refund to the tax payers that dont use the coverage

[FluxCapacitor2008]

Wow H.R. 676 gets no converge in the main stream media, we are in for a big fight on this one, the fat cat insurance companies have deep pockets and they will come at us with all they got. We need to stand strong on this.

[tegrat]

You guys covered all the major points! Good job. The debate isn't really about facts anymore, it's about values. The values reflected by our current system are certainly not ones that most Americans would identify with. Freedom (to choose any proveder), Opportunity (to be employed by anyone), and Security (no denial of care for any reason) are certainly values we can all live with!

[DrChristineAdams]

Thanks, tegrat - you are right on the money!

[Weeth]

freedom to choose any provider.. are you referring to pre-packaged employer health care plans? opportunity to be employed by anyone.. huh? i am genuinely confused by those two points please explain what you are referring to. and security... correct me if im wrong but this last statement implies that you believe there is an absolute right to health care? thanks

[DrChristineAdams]

Thank you for your comment. It's nice to hear from someone who has actually experienced national health insurance. You speak with credibility.

[globalmom]

BRAVO on a job well done! You all did a great job on getting the facts and information. The USA needs a single payer health care system. Our family has had excellent experience with National health care in other countries. Health care in the USA has deteriorated in the last 15 years,as Insurance companies and HMO's dictate who can get health care and what kind. Health care is a human right and should not be for profit. We support HR676 a Single Payer solution!