Right to Privacy

[MossRoad]

That certainly is a concern!
You are correct to point out that he who pays the piper,calls the tune, but traditionally there has been a
level of privacy between doctor and patient that I fear will be eroded over time.

The government wants to know you had a cold? I doubt that. If the government ends up administering the health care system, they may want to know if you actually received treatment for it so they can pay for it, but I doubt they will care if you had a cold.

Look, people with the means can currently afford health care. People without the means cannot. So do we that can afford it let those that cannot suffer? Most of us answer NO to that question. Then the dilemma begins: how do we raise up the people that don't have the means or the skills or even the capacity to get the means? Private insurance isn't going to cut it for those that cannot afford it. Some form of socialism in health care is needed to take care of those that can't afford it. You morally cannot let poor or even lazy people suffer. What are you going to do with them? There are millions of them in this country. They are all our problem and if you don't do anything about them, they become a bigger problem because they multiply. Private industry is not going to take care of them because there is no profit in it. That leaves we the people to take care of them. Government is going to have to step in. We are going to have to step in. If there is total privacy, no one will be able to step in and question anyone about their choices as to their health decisions. Someone in charge has to know the facts in order to treat the condition and pay for it. And someone in charge has to know where the money is going, the health trends to develop preventions, planning for future capacity, etc...

gotta go

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

It's HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Anyone who thinks AZ is the primary location for communications analysis is misinformed.

Health Information Privacy Act (of 1999 to be exact)...

 

[Chuck52]

Bob,
I'm 60 years old and realize I am healthier now than I ever will be in the future. I hope I am thoughtful. The way I see the figures, it will be a financial impossibility to continue the current medicare cost trends as the boomers go through it over the next 20 years, unless medicare payroll taxes are raised significantly. I don't really see that as an option. To me, that means finding the way through that harms the fewest people under some set of guidelines and cost savings.

We need to make medicare as efficient as possible. Hard as it sounds, we also need to realize when our own time comes, that we are being selfish if we think we need to spend the last weeks of our lives in an intensive care unit being kept somewhat alive very artificially. I don't mean to offend, but that is my personal opinion.
Dave.

Dave,

My son works in intensive care at a large metropolitan hospital. The other day he sent an e-mail to my daughter, also a nurse, saying he was planning to have DNR tattooed on his chest. She agreed it was a good idea, as did his mom, who has been a nurse for 40 years....I don't think they were kidding.

Chuck

 

[brin]

Dan - don't worry you don't have to hide ..those are just Murray Lawn Tractors...they are the only ones I know of that are black....you can outrun those...LOL

 

[MikePA]

No cyphers or supercomputers involved there, what is your point?

Simple. If people want the information they will get it and it's much easier to obtain when it's centralized.

The constitution says we will have a government. It's our job to make sure it is what it is supposed to be.

You mean like the health care bill the large majority of citizens didn't want that was passed anyway?:thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

Mikepa, You do know that folks on Medicare are not getting a free ride at all. They have paid into it for their whole working life and when they reach 65 they have no choice, they are on Medicare and for a man and his wife they pay $800.00 + per month plus their co-pay + their deductible and their co-pay on any of their medications. No the real problem is folks on Social Security that should not be there and the same with Medicare...that is the problem.. I can see where younger folks buy into the propoganda but remember, if you are lucky enough, you will live to be 65 yrs. old and then you will have no choice but to go on medicare and should be mindful of the rules you tolerate now since they will apply to you later, agian if you live that long..

I think the real problem is people failed to take care of themselves before the great depression and they all jumped on the social security bandwagon decades before I was born. A giant pyramid scheme if ever there was one. Only the early joiners ever see a profit.

 

[MossRoad]

Yep, I know. Medicare is a Ponzi scheme just like Social Security. Bernie Madoff was a piker compared to these 2 programs.

Hey, I just read that. I agree. :thumbsup:

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

I think the real problem is people failed to take care of themselves before the great depression and they all jumped on the social security bandwagon decades before I was born. A giant pyramid scheme if ever there was one. Only the early joiners ever see a profit.

If congress would have kept their sticky fingers out of S.S. like it was originally set up it would be better off now than it is...

 

[MossRoad]

I agree that Social Security has problems when multi-millionaires are receiving benefits.
But why not look at the base of the problem.
It is NOT sustainable. We now have young workers, paying the benefits to retirees. That was not what was sold to people when the scheme was set up.
I know it's going to be painful, but the day of reckoning has to come, better to do it sooner rather than later.

Why? Multi-millionaires paid into the program and it is supposed to be there for all.

Some of my family members keep mentioning "filthy millionaires" in conversation. I just shake my head. My wife and I have planned on retiring as multi-millionaires for many years. We are average people of average means. A million bucks is really not that much money anymore. A million bucks in the bank will only earn a few percentage points in interest. Even at 5 percent it is only 50K a year before taxes. That isn't a huge income.

 

[Chuck52]

Simple. If people want the information they will get it and it's much easier to obtain when it's centralized.


You mean like the health care bill the large majority of citizens didn't want that was passed anyway?:thumbsup:

Large majority? As counted by whom? Clearly everyone is entitled to his own facts! As I recall, predictions for the last presidential election were all over the place, based on various polls. Americans don't even manage to get decent turn outs in real elections, so maybe we should just run the place entirely based on polls.....and then we get to vote on which polls to use!

Chuck