sweet lou it sounds like your opposition boils down to one point, not seeing the gp which I really can't agree with. first of all its very arrogant ot criticize the general practicioners the way you are, secondly I just don't agree with the, I want to choose a specialist. how would you know something was wrong with your kidneys in the first place, you are in no position to make that diagnosis. hell if you could do that you wouldn't need a doctor at all.
Eh... To be fair, lots of people are victims of GPs misdiagnosing them. I won't reveal the condition, but I saw a family GP about a medical condition and he treated it and there were no results. A friend told me that the problem sounded like what he had, I went to his doctor, and voila. Even if you never have the problem, I would personally be scared to death if I was subject to the whims of a GP.
Look, a general practicioner is great for doing initial blood work...but usually they make horrible diagnosis. My experience has been, and even many doctors have admited to me (half of my cousin's - about 20 of them, are doctors) that a lot of these general practitioners really don't know a whole lot. You have to really be informed and do your homework because today you can do that. GP's can be useful, but they also can be wrong. And building a system that depends on GP's as the primary gatekeeper may cut costs, but it will also reduce the level of care. Besides, PPO's aren't what's wrong with health care. I pay into a PPO and it doesn't hurt anyone. I am not draining the system or anything. What Obama wants to do is make us instead pay into something else, so that other people can get health coverage. I think that's wrong. My quality of life should be reduced so the poor can get health care? Sorry - no way. The health care for the poor should be funded by a tax on sin products and goods.
You already pay for the poor to get health care. You just pay in a highly inefficient way for them to have much more expensive emergency care because they don't get basic care. I think you might want to re-evaluate the economics of this. How much in revenue do you think sin taxes can generate?
Not true. I have very good insurance, but I still have to get a referral for a specialist. After our second son was born, I had to visit the GP to get a referral to a urologist for my vasectomy. Same thing when my son hurt his leg, we got a referral to an orthopedist. Now, I can get a referral just by going to my doctor's office (I don't actually need to see a doctor), but in our PPO, referrals are required. This is necessary to make sure that people are not simply self diagnosing using the internet and wasting the time of the specialists.
Re-read my post. I just don't think they should fund the uninsured by having to make everyone else suffer with lesser care - that's what single payer coverage will do. Let's face it, you can't have everyone getting state of the art health care. Not today. You can't have people who make 20k a year getting MRI's done, or expensive procedures. If a kid gets hurt playing sports and he's poor, he's not going to get the best treatment. Now, should that apply to everyone? Does that mean everyone has to deal with that? Should celebrities like Yao Ming be the only ones who have access to special procedures? I just don't like the idea of us all having to have the same freaking policy. It's unamerican. yes, the poor should be insured with basic health coverage, but not by making the rest of us pay by having our benefits cut.
With what carrier? I've never heard of a PPO that requires you to see a GP. PPO by it's nature is supposed to be open access.
Lets see if I'm following this correctly..... You are opposed to the plan that has not been proposed, because you were misdiagnosed under the current medical system that many don't even have access to. OK.
Let me make this much easy for you. I am opposed to anything that will take PPO. Is that so hard to understand? GeeZ!
Have you had health care under a European or Canadian system? If you haven't aren't you making the same mistake since you are making assumptions without fully understanding?
Blue Cross, the same insurance as every State of Texas employee. It is a PPO, but even PPOs need to control costs. That is the reason (a good one) to require referrals. You can't have people trying to self diagnose and just believe that they need an expensive specialist without having an actual doctor verify it.
Do you mind telling me which plan you are on (S36, M14, etc.) so I can check into this? I work in the industry. This is baffling to me.
I wouldn't mind if I knew off the top of my head. I don't have time to look it up right now, but if you remind me during non-work hours, I will get that information to you.
It is the same insurance I have been on since 2001. I had to get a referral for my vasectomy, for my son's orthopedist, and for my wife's endocrinologist. It has been that way for nearly a decade now, and we are definitely on a PPO.
i have had health care under those systems. all health systems are as strong as the doctors you ahve to see. if you don't have choice, you don't get the best care...it's as simple as that. not all doctors are created equally. Some are better than others - would you not agree? I think it's a much bigger assumption to say every doctor is the same. I get to choose my auto-mechanic - the guy that works on my car, should i not get to choose who works on me?
