FDXLAG

I am guessing you are considering your pension as differed income but not the health insurance that those of us currently employed are entitled to? I am sure you must remember Marcus Welby MD from the 60s. Think back did the fathers knows best guy have 3 medicare and insurance techs at the front desk? And in fact because your medicare only pays $2.75 for that $4 gallon of milk my insurance company must pay $5 to cover your free ride.

satpak77

If someone opened up a consulting firm targeting Doctors, as in "look, their is a disconnect between the patient aka customer, and your practice" I think they could stay employed and pay the light bill for a long time.

(assuming this is received by the medical community)

Jetjok

You are exactly wrong. Insurance companies and hospitals establish agreements wherein the hospital (or doctor) agrees to accept a reduce amount for the provided service. If you have no insurance, unless you're on state aid or Medicaid, you will be responsible for the entire cost of the procedure. Whether you can negotiate a lower price for service or not is something that your individual doctor or hospital may entertain, but you cannot count on that happening.

FDXLAG

And if a doctor elects to not take Medicare, Medicaid, and or Tricare he wont have to live with the low reimbursement rates and pay the overhead required to file the forms. There is a whole market of doctors out there doing a cash only business, the market is growing, and they provide better care at cheaper rates than the insurance company dependent cattle farms. It is modeled on the medical care most of us old guys received when we were kids.

Jetjok

FDXLAG,

What you say is probably true, however, if a doctor doesn't take insurances like those you've mentioned as well as private insurances like Blue Cross, United Healthcare, etc, then he will have a much smaller patient base to draw from. Yes, his fees will probably be higher for a specific procedure, but unless he can remain busy, he'll lose income in the long run, due to fewer patients. As well, I'm not sure if his quality of care will be better, although I do agree that from a patient point of view, he should be spending more time with each patient, but again, I'm not sure that transcribes into better health care. That said, I would love to have my physicians come by my house to treat me, as in the "old days", but because there are not enough doctors to go around in the first place, I do understand the need to suffer through the long waits at doctors' offices.

My question to you is: do you know if the doctors that you mention, those that don't take insurances, are associated with hospitals, and if not, how do they handle situations where their patients need testing or procedures that they can't perform? Just wondering, as all my doctors are associated with hospitals, labs, etc, which I'm happy about because I do want a "full service" medical team, instead of a single individual, responsible for my healthcare.

FDXLAG

The one I know recommends his patients keep high deductible policies. He has a deal with imaging services company that gets MRIs (he does X rays) at below insurance compensation rates for cash. Plenty of the people in the medical field would love to except a 10% discount for cash up front as opposed to waiting 4 months for insurance reimbursement and filing 3 or 4 times. Just google cash doctor.

MaxKts

Would you like to retract that?

Anthrax

Kronan. Let me begin by saying that I love you, man. I don't know you, but I love you nonetheless. And that I can't imagine flying for another airline. If not for FedEx, I'd be doing something else with my time. So I do appreciate the job. My point is that we have a contract, and there are major gaps within it. We have a contract, and we can improve upon this contact if we have the smarts and guts to do so. When we compare what we have to other companies, we lose perspective on OUR contract. Yeah, perspective is great and all, but let's not lose our expectations or potential by comparing ourselves to some low-cost regional airline, or one that has gone through bankruptcy. Let's focus on our "sucky" contract and try not to make it suck so much. It's still gonna suck, but perhaps less sucky-sucky for short time.

And you're right, we can't assume that the company intends to put us in the same pot with all other non-union employees, although they would love to do so.

And you're right again, health costs are going to go up.

With regards to an inflationary pay increase, three percent of our pay is far better than three percent of the average income for a family of four. So in a way you are right there as well, which is why I love you, man. I do.

Still, you're an idiot.

jungle

Medical costs have inflated at a high rate because vast sums of Federal money have been injected into the system. Lots of money means higher prices.

30 million additional patients with the same infrastructure means short supply, short supply will increase prices further.

Demand is increased, and you will see insurance companies and Doctors opt out, just as many Doctors have opted out of medicare.

What you thought were your benefits are going to be diminished in the process.

tomgoodman

The cost of a college education has also skyrocketed. What a bizarre coincidence!