How will Obamacare effect EMS?

[genkiguitar]

I am hoping to get into the ems field soon but am worried how the new health care law will effect it. Does anyone know how the new law is going to effects the ems field? Any info would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance

[Smoot]

Nobody will know until 2014 when "Obamacare" will take full effect. Even now we do not know if it is a good or bad thing. But anyhow life will go on.

[Gomer Pylot]

IMO, it will have little if any effect. It really doesn't do that much anyway. It is the original Romneycare from Mass., proposed by Republicans, but when Obama accepted it they had no choice but to demonize it, because they couldn't possibly agree with anything he did. It's far from what the country needs, but better than nothing. It has to be a good thing that more people will have insurance, because the current reimbursement rate for EMS flights is on the order of 30%, and any increase will help.

[Smoot]

Everything you just said was your opinion plus Romney had nothing to do with the medical bill being passed therefore why was it necessary to mention him? Also, who do you mean THEY, some Republicans do agree with most of what the new bill has to offer. You make it sound like Obama is picked on, which is obliviously not the case; remember it takes both Republicans and Democrats to pass a bill.

[iChris]

I am hoping to get into the ems field soon but am worried how the new health care law will effect it. Does anyone know how the new law is going to effects the ems field? Any info would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance

 

 

Obama Care and Romney Care were both written for the benefit of the large private insurance companies, part of the too big to fail groups of companies.

 

The financial sector is far and away the largest source of campaign contributions to federal candidates and parties, with insurance companies, securities and investment firms, real estate interests and commercial banks providing the bulk of that money. The financial sector contributes generous sums to both parties.

 

Obama and Rommey represent the best interest of the financial sector. Neither of these care plans support a strong single-payer system, which would eliminate large profits to insurance companies.

 

Will some of that profit reach the EMS sector? Where’s EMS in the food chain? More than likely, EMS will do well. Some pilots will become eligible to receive subsidized health care under this system. Many pilots currently go without health insurance. All paid from the pockets of taxpayers and employers. The insurance companies see windfall profits from ObamaCare. We'll have to wait and see if some of that money trickles back down.

 

“Mitt Romney’s support for an individual mandate as part of his signature health care legislation in 2006 has never been in doubt. But emails unearthed between then Massachusetts Governor Romney and top staffers reveal how close he was to the crafting of “Romney care” and provide details on how he persuaded a skeptical Democratic legislature to adopt the provision.”

REF:Emails Reveal How Romney Persuaded Skeptical Dems To Adopt Health Care Mandate

 

“The American health care system is the most expensive of all on earth. The reason for the extraordinary expense is the multiple of entities that must make profits. The private doctors must make profits. The private testing centers must make profits .The private specialists who receive the referrals from general practitioners must make profits. The private hospitals must make profits. The private insurance companies must make profits. The profits are a huge cost of health care.

 

Because a single-payer system eliminates the profits that drive up the costs, Wall Street, Insurance companies, and “free market economists” hate a “socialized” medical care system. They prefer a socialized “private” health care system in which public monies flow into private insurance companies.

 

To make the costs as high as possible, conservatives and the private insurance companies devised ObamaCare. The bill was written by conservative think tanks and the private insurance companies. What the “socialistic” ObamaCare bill does is to take income taxes paid by citizens and use the taxes to subsidize the private medical premiums charges by private health care providers in order to provide “private” health care to US citizens who cannot afford it.

 

The extremely high costs of ObamaCare is not “socialistic medicine.” ObamaCare is high-cost privatized medicine that guarantees billions of dollars in profits to private insurance companies.

REF:What Is ObamaCare?

 

 

You make it sound like Obama is picked on, which is obliviously not the case; remember it takes both Republicans and Democrats to pass a bill.

 

Is there a difference, faces on opposite sides of the same coin, in the hand of the same master?

 

http://youtu.be/BNx642Tj9cc

Edited November 23, 2012 by iChris

[aeroscout]

The reason health care is so expensive is that about half of the health care recipients have figured out clever methods for making the other half pay all the costs. That is not the only reason. The Bar of any given state through malpractice suits increase healthcare costs by 20 to 30%. Let's not also forget the fact that our system has the best practices, the best doctors, the best technology, and the best equipment, and is the envy of the world. We could reduce prices of healthcare substantially if we practiced it like so many other nations in the world do, that is to say 3rd world practices are the standard for the vast majority of the world. Stuff is expensive when it's the best and everyone wants it for "free". I am unaware of anywhere else in the world that has HEMS anywhere near the standard of our country.

[Gomer Pylot]

If you're unaware of anywhere else that has HEMS anywhere near the standard of the US, then you haven't been paying attention. Europe has better coverage, at far better cost standards. And the reason health care is so expensive is because of the profits that iChris mentioned. Everybody is making huge profits, especially the insurance companies, who have people dedicated to denying claims, to insure those high profits, even while paying their executives tens of millions of dollars per year, each. And expensive as it is, the US does not have the best healthcare in the world. We're number 30-something, far below the rest of the western world, and on the order of most third-world countries, when considered for everyone. If you're very rich, you certainly can get the best care here. But if you're not, you get far less than the best. Life expectancy and health in general is lower in the US than in any European country, or most Asian rim countries. That information is all readily available.

[Flying Pig]

The US healthcare system is ranked "30 something" in the world? Ranked by who?

[iChris]

The US healthcare system is ranked "30 something" in the world? Ranked by who?

 

 

The World Health Organization's (WHO) ranking of the world's health systems U.S. #37

 

HEALTHY LIFE EXPECTANCY U.S. #24

 

However, where’re a little better in other areas.

 

Total Expenditure on Health as % of GDP U.S. #2

 

Prison Population and Incarceration Rate U.S. #1

 

Death Rates of Young People U.S. #1

[Wally]

American healthcare is grotequely inefficient. The insured is generally paying for something what the somebody else is buying. The buyer is your employer or other party, their interests are not indentical with yours, the insured. The insurance companies bid to that interest. The actual utility of the policy is more or less a coincidence. The market for insurance is skewed heavily towards that bulk model, so if a consumer attempts to purchase appropriate individual coverage, he is essentially custom-building a unique product as far as the market is concerned- EXPENSIVE!!!

The insurance company's interest is in maximizing the profit from the bulk sale to employers, so they 'control' costs with a shotgun. Trouble with that is that each and every health care issue is a unique siuation. If a 1% probability hits you, it doesn't make any difference to your prognosis what the other 99% outlook is. This leads to poor medical care, regulations, lawsuits, defensive medicine and over-utilization of assetts- and more ineficiency.

The consumer has been sold a bill of goods. You may have X copay and coinsurance, free scrips, but you are paying for the administration of these "freebies" at every level- provider, insurance company, etc. I've heard of copays higher than a cash charge many times...

Add that the uninsured are not truly "uninsured", they're riding your policy benefits and taxes. If somebody wasn't paying for the uninsured, the providers would not be there, period.

My opinion is that the best ways to screw this up even further is to remove the individual from healthcare equation and add a bureaucratic layer.

 

What Obama did unarguably accomplish is force the issue. What will it do for EMS? The US government loves big bucks, er- "big, efficient businesses". The connected will flourish, medical, insurance and EMS providers will draw from the tax or whatever you want to call it faucet.

Edited November 25, 2012 by Wally

[genkiguitar]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Interesting information.