BACKROUND: My used to work at Florida Hospital, but due to massive downsizing, he and about 95 percent of the radiologists there were laid off. He started up a private practice, sold it and started up, with some friends in the business, another one. Although 6/7 of the doctors were based in Tampa, we live in Orlando. So when they asked him to come, our family is very rooted here, and he bought the place in Orlando. He always said, after the Florida Hospital incident, that having a private practice gave him much more control over his own destiny. He now works there, it’s basically a family business by now. He reads the x-rays, CAT scans, and MRIs, my mom does the marketing, my grandfather does finances, and I do basically whatever else they need done.
Point is, I was talking with my grandfather (who has always been my mentor, so to speak) and he was talking about how Congress was trying to find a way to lower medicine prices. But they had vacation, so they said (basically) to cut prices down 10% until we get back. So an MRI that costs $500, now costs $450. No big loss? I couldn’t help but think of Atlas Shrugged. It’s not so much the cut (although I oppose government tampering with the economy) as much as it is that they used NO LOGIC whatsoever. Where was there decision based? Who’s benefiting from this? There is an unbelievable amount of questions that need to be answered, but won’t. Simply because there are no rational answers to their decision.
I can’t help but think of DIRECTIVE 10-289 from Atlas Shrugged. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
But what’s your take on all of this?
[quick edit]
For those who don’t know, these are the premises of Directive 10-289, if you want to see the results of this, read Atlas Shrugged.
I don’t know. I think its a local tax, I’ll ask him and post it when I return on Monday… All I know is, they were forced to lower the prices 10%. In the meantime, Happy Independence Day (http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?JServSes…ws_iv_ctrl=1021)
It turns out, I think I misinterpreted what he said. There is a 10.6% cut in “Medicare Physician Payment” meaning that instead of charging 10% less, they skip that step and just deliver 10% less of the profit to the physician.
I think that PDF document focuses mainly on this issue, although it was written on May 8, and it was put in action in the beginning of July. If I misinterpreted it again, tell me.
The government is a large buyer of medical services and drugs – because of Medicaid and Medicare. They are using this clout to decide how much they will pay for such services. If they were a private buyer, this would not be an issue. However, they’re the government, and they have forced people to pay Medicare taxes all their working lives, with a promise that they’ll be reimbursed for medical expenses when they retire. It is a promise they could not keep, and Medicare is bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy, depending on how one computes things.
Their first attempt is to pay less. Already, Medicaid pays less than Medicare. The result of this is that a lot of doctors do not take Medicaid patients. Since lots of patients – in many specialties – are on Medicare, turning down that business is not as easy. Some of the better doctors will do it, but in the long run the effect is going to be to reduce the quality of medical care and to cause a shortage of medical care.
For lots of goof reading on health care in the U.S., check out “We Stand FIRM”.