This Will Spread To More Sectors
by Big Dog on Mar 19, 2010 at 05:00 Political
Walgreens in Washington state will stop accepting new requests for prescriptions to be filled for Medicad patients because the state does not reimburse enough to cover the cost of the drugs. Several other stores have also decided to stop accepting new Medicaid patients for the same reason.
Quite a few doctors in this country have stopped taking Medicare patients because the federal government does not reimburse enough to cover costs. The hospital Obama held up as a model has stopped taking Medicare patients.
Do you see the pattern here?
The government run systems control costs by shortchanging doctors on the reimbursement. Obama clearly told us that this was the safety valve that is used when there is a cost problem.
Of course there are some progressives who think this is perfectly acceptable and that doctors get paid too much or that health care and medicine should be given away. How dare these people go to school and learn a tough profession and then expect to be paid for doing it?
Well, the doctors are tired of it. Some pharmacies are tired of it.
And it will only get worse if the government passes the health care takeover plan.
Yes there will be shortages and yes there will be doctors who opt out of all of it and work on a personal level with people who pay out of pocket. It is already happening and it will happen more.
The country is at a precarious place in its history and it is up to a few truly courageous people in Congress to stop this.
And we don’t mean Obama courage where he hides behind Pelosi’s skirt.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: health care, lies, medicaid, medicare, Obama, walgreens
And the federalization-of-medical-care bill hasn’t even been passed yet! The chickens are coming home to roost even before the main event.
The great fault of government control of anything is that the normal relationship between customer and vendor, with all its critical feedback mechanisms, is irretrievably sundered. Dissatisfied customers can’t get refunds or take their business elsewhere. The State must choose between accepting even the very worst customers or violating its own rules. Quality and price become fictional constructs. And let’s not forget how governments hide their inability to perform: by making you wait.
How do government-worshipping liberals respond to the complaints? They raise taxes and expand bureaucracies. They select scapegoats — private-sector scapegoats, of course — to demonize. Every now and then they throw the unluckiest of their number to the wolves, usually after covertly tucking compensation into his back pocket. They insist repeatedly that “this time, it will be different.” We’re hearing that now with the promises to reduce Medicare costs $500,000,000,000 by “eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.” God Almighty, if it were that easy, wouldn’t it have been done already?
The ones who aren’t merely seriously deluded are either certifiable or evil. They certainly don’t deserve a moment’s attention or respect…except to expel them permanently from the halls of government, so they can do no more harm.
So in the necessary tension that must exist between:
a) what doctors want to be paid to take care of old folks
and
b) what we as a society will pay them to take care of old folks
What is Porretto’s suggestion?
He doesn’t have one. He has no idea. Not a clue. He doesn’t even take a position other than to throw venom at those who actually do have ideas, do take positions and are actually addressing the problem. I’m sooooo surprised!
Now there is someone who: “certainly [doesn’t] deserve a moment’s attention or respect…”
D.
[…] Read the rest here! […]
My GYN doctor has stopped taking anymore Medicare patients.
Were it not for Walgreen’s here (we’re not on Medicaid – yet – and are trying to avoid that happening), Mr. AOW’s medications wouldn’t be affordable. Walgreen’s always has the meds and at a good price as we belong to the Walgreen’s Pharmacy Club.
I know many others in the same situation.
A bad trend is starting at Walgreen’s according to this posting. And it won’t stop with Medicaid, either, IMO.
The hospital Obama held up as a model has stopped taking Medicare patients.
Well, doesn’t that just figure!
One more thought….Most meds aren’t very expensive to manufacture. How little is Medicaid paying that Walgreen’s has to take such a step?
Certain medications are expensive because they are new and the R&D costs need to be recouped. But you are generally right, most of the older, established meds are cheaper and available in generic.
“Of course there are some progressives who think this is perfectly acceptable and that doctors get paid too much or that health care and medicine should be given away.”
Remember the old saw, from the 30’s…”Oh, the world owes me a living…dode dodlle dode do do do!..”
Liberals.
The interesting thing is that so called progressives call health care insurance a right. How can it be a right if you are forced to buy it? How can it be a right if it has to be provided for you?
It is a good (not a right) that everyone has access to. The question comes down to who pays for it.
Bigd: “so called progressives call health care insurance a right.”>>
DAR
No they don’t. Unless you are very poor (and the vast majority of Americans are not), health care insurance is a RESPONSIBILITY. Progressives are for people taking the responsibility of insuring themselves for their risk rather than freely and purposely handing the expense for that risk on to the rest of society.
You have it ass backwards.
D.
——————
“Everyone in Japan is required to sign up with a health insurance plan. This is a “personal mandate,”…. Every nation that relies on health insurance has that requirement (except the USA), and in Japan the mandate is not controversial at all. “It’s considered an element of personal responsibility, that you insure yourself against health care costs,” Dr. Ikegami told me. “And who can be against personal responsibility?” (The Healing of America, pg. 87)
Freeloaders, that’s who.
Oh, and there is a sentence in your very own article that alone refutes the entire point of your thread:
“Doug Porter, the state’s director of Medicaid, said Medicaid recipients should be able to readily find another pharmacy because “we have many more pharmacy providers in our network than we need” for the state’s 1 million Medicaid clients.”
So the answer is (I’ll actually take a position), on the question of how to deal with this natural and necessary tension between how much to pay Doc’s (or pharmacies)…
when there isn’t enough supply, pay them more, when there is enough, pay them less.
That wasn’t so difficult.
Anyone have a good reason why Americans need to subsidize the world’s drug costs by paying 2x to 10x as much as our peer countries do for the very same pill, made in the very same factory, by the very same company?
Maybe it’s to help pay for the cost of the all boner medication advertising? (other countries like Canada don’t allow any of that nonsense).
D.