Health Care Questions, The Northern Wisconsin View

From The Rhinelander Daily Press. I understand people having health care issues but from the following article, I have a few questions. You can read the whole article at the press. I did not comment on the whole thing.

"Last Updated: Friday, September 25, 2009 11:48 PM CDT
The face of the debate
Health care discussion digresses as families lose

By Giles Morris
Daily News Staff

Last week, Necia Merckx of Rhinelander fell into the middle of the great American health care debate when she lost her job as a title clerk.

The 28-year-old Merckx and her husband, Nick, pay $350 per month for an insurance plan with a $4,000 deductible that doesn’t cover her prescriptions." The Rhinelander Daily News - Online news and information for the Rhinelander, Wisconsin region

Does or should the Merckx's Car insurance pay for gasoline, oil changes and car washes?

Merckx needs a prescription for a condition she was diagnosed with as an 18-year-old and she takes birth control pills because she says she and Nick aren’t financially ready to start a family.

The medication her doctor recommended for her condition would cost $120 per month under their current plan, so she took the next best option for $40 per month. Birth control would cost her $60 per month so instead she uses the reproductive clinic at the Oneida County Health Department, which bills on a sliding scale.

Can someone tell me who is subsidizing her birth control pills? Isn't it the tax payers?

“How many people want to pay $350 out of pocket for the doctor to say it’s a virus and you have to wait it out?” Merckx said. “I was talking to my husband the other day and saying maybe we should drop our health insurance. With the economy the way it is we really have to assess what’s more important. It’s a sad thing if you have to decide between a roof over your head or health insurance this month.”

Why would you want to pay $350 if it's only a virus? People call the doctor's today for minor aches and pains, no wonder health care is expensive.

But in addition to her prescriptions and doctors’ visits, Necia also went to St. Mary’s Hospital for a urinary tract infection and ended up having her appendix removed at a cost of $26,000.

The paper doesn't really say but did she really pay $26,000.00 for her appendix being removed or was that the amount the insurance company paid?

Five years ago, before she was married, Merckx had her own insurance. She paid $50 per pay period for comprehensive coverage with a $500 deductible.

“I don’t know why insurance went up so much, but it would be nice to know. Did it go up because the insurance companies are padding their pockets? Or because the cost of everything else went up?

Why doesn't she know the answer? Obviously she only believes what she see on T V, what she reads in the Daily press and what her liberal friends tell her. No wonder she has no answer.

Dr. Terrance Moe of Country Doc’s in Eagle River runs an independent general medicine practice. Moe is all too familiar with cases like Necia Merckx’s.

Moe has been a doctor for 35 years and has run his current practice for the last five. He said his decision to open an independent practice was based on his desire to espouse older values that govern the doctor/patient relationship.

“I’m projecting an image of the old country doctor that everyone could rely on and would put their concerns first and treat them as human being not as a piece of cattle with a number,” Moe said.

“I just get by. I’ve given an incredible amount of free care because people come in without insurance and they run up a bill and I treat them and they can’t pay and then I don’t see them again,” Moe said. “I have a tremendous amount of uncollected bills. If we had a single payer system there wouldn’t be any unpaid bills.”

Good for him, he's giving back to the community and is helping people who can't afford it. In the end you see it is money that drives Dr Moe, if only government would pay his unpaid bills! Why is the government not paying him for his bills? Is there a cap on medicare, medicaid payments?

Moe believes the first step in the solution should be preventing insurance companies from denying coverage on the grounds of pre-existing conditions.

“They’re not in the business of providing insurance anymore. They’re in the business of denying coverage,” said Moe. “Instead of spreading out the costs across the population that’s insured, they want to cherry pick the healthy ones and keep the profits for themselves.”

There, he finally admits his liberal beliefs, "spreading out the costs across the population that’s insured", that's right the middle class have to pay for everyone who can't or won't.

Moe said the American healthcare system will not suffer as a result of a public option.

“Will you have to wait longer for an elective procedure? Yes. But that’s a small inconvenience compared to someone going bankrupt because they don’t have insurance,” said Moe. “The whole thing can be done revenue neutral. All you do is extend the benefits of Medicare to age 45 and sell it at cost to the people between 45 and 50.”

There's the catch, "wait longer for an elective procedure", so rationed care is the solution. Hey Dr Moe, how's it work in Canada?

Biolo said Republicans are not rejecting reform initiatives — pointing to Newt Gingrich’s Center For Health Transformation plan and to Congressman Paul Ryan’s (R-Janesville) “Patients’ Choice Act” — but instead are rejecting solutions that interfere with a market-based approach.

Yes there are alternatives but does Dr Moe even know about them? Has Necia Merckx heard about Wisconsin Paul Ryan's plan? Answer to both, they didn't and don't care. One wants a government take over and the other wants it all for free.

“I think we could all agree that people that are down and out a compassionate society would want to take care of their healthcare, but the debate should be about how we are going to pay for them,” Biolo said. “We need to engage in these specific kind of arguments and we haven’t really done that. It sounds cold, but I don’t know of anything in the Constitution that guarantees the right to healthcare.”

Here Pete Biolo gives good answers to good questions, but as usual with those on the left, it falls on deaf ears.

Kagen has pushed for a reform package that contains three fundamental features — no discrimination due to pre-existing conditions, pricing transparency for healthcare services across the system, and a standard plan for insurance that would create competition between government and private providers.

Here Steve Kagen weighs in. When has government ever created competition between them and private business? Why are doctors paid a cap on medicare and medicaid payments? Gov. tells them how much they will be paid and the difference is made up by charging someones else s insurance company to make it up. Thanks Congressman Kagen, that sounds fair. You wonder why we have problems today.

“In my lifetime our insurance companies divided our communities. They separated mother from child,” Kagen said. “When America begins to stop pointing fingers and start solving problems as a community then we can move forward on this issue.”

Comrade Kagen, only government separated mother from child, shall we bring up abortion? He throws that word community out there. Sounds like communism to me.

“Did she ask them to negotiate the price?” Kagen said. “What your readership needs to understand is that the hospitals are charging what they can get. I would ask, ‘What’s the lowest you’ve charged in the past for that procedure?’”

Mr Kagen, Necia and her husband are not a millionaire like you. They cannot pay cash like you. How can he make such a outlandish statement about people who need help. The poor gal was supposed to ask for a break on her $26,000.00 appendix removal. Can you see how out of touch Kagen is?

Kagen admitted the specifics of the healthcare debate are complex. He pointed to Wisconsin’s Senior Care program as a success story for the type of state-level insurance cooperative outlined in the plans calling for “exchanges.” The program has allowed around 100,000 low-income seniors to obtain cheaper prescription drugs by negotiating as a large purchasing pool.

According to Kagen, the plans he supports would allow small businesses to purchase insurance in similar purchasing pools. Kagen said his sources have told him that about 50 members of the Senate currently support some kind of public option but that Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-Montana) Senate Finance Committee has voted against the creation of a standard plan for coverage.

“When people look at this issue they’ve got to start saying, ‘Who’s side are you on?’ I’m working hard to make sure that there’s a bill in the House that works because small businesses can’t hold their heads above water any longer and people can’t continue to pay exorbitant prices for insurance,” Kagen said.

Here Kagen throws in Senior Care and prescription costs for seniors. The article is about people who can't afford insurance and government take over of all the health system. What is he talking about? Small business can't keep there head above water because of government regulation. They will drop there insurance to their employees and let government health care take over. Why should they pay if government will. Then we will talk about rationing like Dr Moe is pushing for.

In the meantime, the Merckx family and a whole host of other people are waiting and watching to see if healthcare reform will actually result in affordable health insurance.

So the Daily press says, "in the meantime". Once Kagen and the left take over health care, it will be too late to stop, like water over the dam. Rationing care, death panels, assisted suicide, planned families, all thanks to Steve Kagen and the liberal left. The Merckx family is falling on hard times. You have to give them credit, They are holding on. I don't think they really want government run health care. They are scared and they are being promised free health care and don't see what the end result will be for them and others like them. It will be too late if Kagen and his pals get this passed.

Has anyone asked Steve Kagen about Paul Ryans plan? Has he read it? Does he know the specifics of the Ryan plan? Sorry, that's a silly question.

When you read from the liberal press, you have to ask questions and read between the lines. Politicians like Steve Kagen are looking for puff pieces on health care to get people brainwashed into their government run health care. Be informed, it's your responsibility.