[Alumni-chat] inclusion

Sun Sep 2 02:49:35 EDT 2007

Dear David,

Please enjoy your constitutional rights given us by the liberal founding
fathers of our country to believe and espouse anything you want.

If you think "small government" is good and government that tries to make up
for the deficits of the market in helping Americans live a decent healthy
life is bad go right ahead and believe that. I happen to believe that a
government bureaucracy free from corporate controlled campaign finance and
staffed by professional well trained civil service protected managers with
reasonable policies and work rules can actually make our lives better. That
doesn't mean that government can't be entrepreneurial and cultivate
public-private partnerships when that seems reasonable and effective too.

Mark P. '71

-----Original Message-----
From: alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu
[mailto:alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of J. David Coldren
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 10:28 AM
To: 'Alumni Chat List'
Subject: RE: [Alumni-chat] inclusion

Pam,

Thanks for your message which -- after telling me that I was "simply
unformed" -- can be fairly summed up in: "We have the worst health care in
the world amongst industrialized nations, and the most expensive."

You're wrong. But don't worry in a few short months, you'll have Hillarycare
and we can all relax and enjoy the benefits of that. Between now and then
you're welcome to use Canada's socialized healthcare system since it's so
muich better than ours. I feel sorry for the thousands of Canadians who are
"simply uninformed" and come to the United States for "the worst health care
in the world." Gosh, maybe their Surgeon General needs to put up a sign at
the border: "WARNING: You are about to enter the United States, which has
the worst health care in the world. The studies by our government and by the
United Nations that show that access to surgeries and other life-saving
treatments is far worse than in the United States? You may just ignore them.
Right-wing propaganda."

In solidarity,

J. David Coldren '65

-----Original Message-----
From: alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu
[mailto:alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Pam Olsen
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2007 9:20 PM
To: alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu
Subject: [Alumni-chat] inclusion

> From: alumni-chat-request at w3.antioch.edu
> Reply-To: alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu
> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:26:41 -0400 (EDT)
> To: alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu
> Subject: Alumni-chat Digest, Vol 6, Issue 92
> 
> While the liberals' first recourse seems to be to seize the
> awesome power of the State to pass a law reigning in personal behavior or
> confiscating a portion of a person's income in order to redistribute it to
> likely voters, conservatives prefer to remove government red tape and
> regulations from the backs of individual entrepreneurs and to allow the
> central government primacy only in certain areas like national defense, a
> federal justice system, and other powers actually enumerated in the
> Constitution. 

Ok, David, you've roused my ire now!  I'm going to assume that in some
areas, you are simply uninformed, since i respect your knowledge and brains
overall, even if you are that nasty word--conservative.

I recently wrote my soon to be retired senator Larry Craig because I was
furious when I learned that a medication that would cost me $350 a month if
I bought it at the local pharmacy would only cost me $46 from a so-called
Canadian pharmacy.  why?  Because "A generic has been available
internationally for several years," said the company I ordered from.

So I asked dear Mr. Craig how it can be that generics that are available
worldwide aren't available here?  This was about the time that I found a bat
on my front porch that my cat had killed and I was waiting to find out if it
was rabid.  If so, I was facing paying $1000 for a series of vaccinations.
I could not believe that we live in a country that would not provide rabies
vaccinations as a public health service!  How much would that cost the
government, about $20,000 a year?  THere is a sad story on the internet
about a four year old girl who died because her parents, who found a bat in
her room,  didn't see any evidence of a bite (which you can't see because
their teeth are so small, they don't make visible wounds).   What do you
want to bet they didn't want to spend $1000.

Anyway, to continue:  I received a letter back with, as usual, the party
line (they don't listen anymore, they lecture), they need all that money for
research, and besides, we have to support a free market.  We can't set
limits on what drug companies can charge.

So I wrote him back (haven't sent it, and now it's moot), "So, if you won't
limit what drug companies can charge, how do you justify limiting what
health care providers can charge?"

Do you realize that Medicaid pays less than half the "usual and customary"
fee that providers charge?  Medicare, I understand, pays even less.  I
haven't bothered filling out their 18 page application to find out for sure.
These entitities don't "negotiate" these fees, they simply set them. Plus
they require rediculous levels of documentation.

And Managed Care?  They suck us into their networks with various
manipulations:  if we're not in it, we can't bill them electronically, thus,
we wait much longer to get paid.  Or they send the check (if they pay
anything at all) to the patient (who typically forgets to forward it).  And
of course if we're in it, then they control what we are paid.  United Health
Care started us at our usual and customary in 95. The next year, they
lowered it $10.  The next year, another $10.  That was 9 years ago.  We
haven't had a raise since.  My office expenses have tripled in that time.
In a big city where people have money and are sophisticated about mental
health, this probably doesn't make a huge difference.  In rural areas where
people do not have money and depend upon Medicaid or insurnace to pay, it's
a very big deal.  If I want to serve them, I have to be in those networks.

I have a small practice.  But even I have over 50 companies in my computer.
And new ones come down the pike every month.  And I get to fill out all the
same paperwork to be "credentialed" by every single one of them, every two
years.  Nevermind that I am trained and licensed, that's not enough.

I could go on and on.  The rediculous amount of time we spend on the phone
getting preauthorization (which has NEVER in 10 years, been refused--it is a
bunch of silly busy work!).  Or trying to get the right menu to get the
right human to ask a simple question.  I spent 30 minutes on the phone just
the other day just to find the right human to point out to them that they
had preauthorized several sessions before sending me a letter telling me
that they had preauthozied only one, and I'd have to apply two weeks ahead
of time to get a second onw!.

It is a rediculously inefficient system that costs the consumer (in addition
to the providers) billions and billions every year, all in the name of a
free market.  A free market for everyone except providers.  Like we're the
ones ripping people off.

We're not the one ripping people off.  The drug companies are ripping people
off.  The insurance companies are ripping people off.

Providers are just trying to make a living and help people at the same time.

You might think Kucinich is way left of left, but he is the only candidate
who gets it when it comes to health care.  Conservatives can't buffalo the
country anymore with this nonsense that we have the best health care in the
world.  We have the worst health care in the world amongst industrialized
nations, and the most expensive.

I become increasingly convinced that Big Business will never do what is in
the best interest of the people.  Big Business will only do what helps their
bottom line, screw the people.

The interesting thing is, the social changes that Progressives want all
eventually happen because THEY'RE THE RIGHT THING TO DO!   But in this
country, only after Big Business have made their billions, and are forced to
do them (like health care for all, alternative energy, more fuel efficient
cars, less air pollution, etc.)

Rain storm coming in, got to unplug!

Pam

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