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OOTB's Political Thread . ..

Call me a commie socialist if you like but free health care and college education should come before going to mars or a space army or a border wall or a war in Afghanistan or aid to Israel or f-35 fighter jets (7yrs behind schedule) and m-1 abrams tanks (already 2000 sitting idle)

Jmo

Any particular reason why you singled out aid to Israel? Especially when aid to Afghanistan and Iraq are significantly higher?
 
Can you tell in your job if the percentage of doctors accepting medicare is decreasing any? One of the talking points you hear is that a growing number of doctors aren't accepting medicare anymore because they lose money, but I wasn't sure if that was actually true or just some talking point.
This is a pretty good answer to your question (link below). Medicare covers the elderly and disabled, who are some of the largest consumers of healthcare services. It can be career suicide to stop accepting Medicare patients unless you have a good alternative, like maybe specializing in obstetrics or working on a "concierge" basis (which is mentioned in the link).

ETA: Just noticed that article is a bit outdated. The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) for Medicare physician reimbursement was replaced by a law known as MACRA a few years ago that completely re-vamped the payment model.

https://www.hlc.org/news/more-physicians-no-longer-seeing-medicare-patients/
 
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a) Only someone who doesn't know what they're talking about (that's you) would say I'm being hyperbolic.

b) I make more than Canadian physicians, which only proves my point about single-payer gutting the financial incentive for Americans to become doctors.

You said it would remove the earning incentive. They still make six figures in Britain and Canada. That’s a pretty hefty incentive. Sure it’s less incentive than here, but that’s not what you said.
 
Call me a commie socialist if you like but free health care and college education should come before going to mars or a space army or a border wall or a war in Afghanistan or aid to Israel or f-35 fighter jets (7yrs behind schedule) and m-1 abrams tanks (already 2000 sitting idle)

Jmo
Agree on the wall and Afghanistan, but everything else is definitely more important than a free college education for all. One of the biggest mistakes the k-12 school system has made is telling kids they have to go to college.
 
Any particular reason why you singled out aid to Israel? Especially when aid to Afghanistan and Iraq are significantly higher?

no just throwing shit out there

but take a look, $15 billion to these 5 countries



More than two hundred countries receive U.S. aid. It disproportionately goes to a few, however, with the top five all receiving over $1 billion per year as of 2016: Iraq ($5.3 billion), Afghanistan ($5.1 billion), Israel ($3.1 billion), Egypt ($1.2 billion), and Jordan ($1.2 billion).
 
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This is a pretty good answer to your question (link below). Medicare covers the elderly and disabled, who are some of the largest consumers of healthcare services. It can be career suicide to stop accepting Medicare patients unless you have a good alternative, like maybe specializing in obstetrics or working on a "concierge" basis (which is mentioned in the link).

ETA: Just noticed that article is a bit outdated. The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) for Medicare physician reimbursement was replaced by a law known as MACRA a few years ago that completely re-vamped the payment model.

https://www.hlc.org/news/more-physicians-no-longer-seeing-medicare-patients/

I thought providers lost money on Medicare patients? So why aren’t they trying to minimize Medicare patients to cut their losses?
I’m confused why that would be career suicide if it’s not profitable.
 
You said it would remove the earning incentive. They still make six figures in Britain and Canada. That’s a pretty hefty incentive. Sure it’s less incentive than here, but that’s not what you said.

I think his point was that if a person could go into significant debt for med school, take on the opportunity cost of attending med school for several years instead of entering the job market earlier, have the stress and schedule of being a doctor, etc. and make the same amount (or less) than someone who has a presumably more laid back job with a better schedule that didn't require nearly as much upfront cost or time in school - why would anyone pick the former?

Yes six figures is a solid income - but it needs to be looked at on a relative scale.
 
You said it would remove the earning incentive. They still make six figures in Britain and Canada. That’s a pretty hefty incentive. Sure it’s less incentive than here, but that’s not what you said.
Now you're just being obtuse. The relative difference in earning incentive is astronomical. We're talking multiples. And if you could instead choose to be some office worker with far fewer years of education, shorter work weeks, and a helluva lot less stress yet still make the same salary, imagine how many physicians would choose a different career.

Some 10,000 Americans age into the Medicare benefit every single day. We're on the front end of a tidal wave of demand for healthcare services. We need more doctors, not less, so it would be inexplicably foolish to remove the incentive for people to pursue careers in medicine.
 
This is a pretty good answer to your question (link below). Medicare covers the elderly and disabled, who are some of the largest consumers of healthcare services. It can be career suicide to stop accepting Medicare patients unless you have a good alternative, like maybe specializing in obstetrics or working on a "concierge" basis (which is mentioned in the link).

ETA: Just noticed that article is a bit outdated. The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) for Medicare physician reimbursement was replaced by a law known as MACRA a few years ago that completely re-vamped the payment model.

https://www.hlc.org/news/more-physicians-no-longer-seeing-medicare-patients/
Thanks. Seems to me that this would end up being another problem with single payer. Either you would be taxed to death and have a hard time finding a doctor or you would be taxed to death and have to pay the "concierge" model.
 
I thought you were an economics major?

Yes I have a degree in economics. Generally we try to minimize losses and maximize profits. If a certain type of clients are creating a loss then I’d want as few of those as possible. Which is why I asked why not taking them would be career suicide. Sure your demand would take a huge hit but that doesn’t matter if the lost demand was below the supply cost curve anyways.
 
Now you're just being obtuse. The relative difference in earning incentive is astronomical. We're talking multiples. And if you could instead choose to be some office worker with far fewer years of education, shorter work weeks, and a helluva lot less stress yet still make the same salary, imagine how many physicians would choose a different career.

Some 10,000 Americans age into the Medicare benefit every single day. We're on the front end of a tidal wave of demand for healthcare services. We need more doctors, not less, so it would be inexplicably foolish to remove the incentive for people to pursue careers in medicine.

The demand for those cushier jobs that pay the same amount is finite. At some point the market still pushes people into the medical field.

I’d love to see us pay doctors well and still not have people crippled by medical debt. I don’t think those are mutually exclusive goals.
 
Yeah and their lifetime earning potential in Canada is still pretty damn high too. I’m not saying their model is perfect but claiming that single payer removes the earnings incentive for doctors is hyperbolic. They would still make really great money. The biggest hit would be to insurance companies and big pharma.

Quick google search says that in Canada physicians earn an average of 125k. In Britain they make about 160k. Not bad for two countries with universal healthcare programs. All of those numbers are lower in the US, but there’s still plenty of earning incentive. And those numbers came from an article about how much less doctors in Canada make, not some left wing puff piece.

 
Yes I have a degree in economics. Generally we try to minimize losses and maximize profits. If a certain type of clients are creating a loss then I’d want as few of those as possible. Which is why I asked why not taking them would be career suicide. Sure your demand would take a huge hit but that doesn’t matter if the lost demand was below the supply cost curve anyways.
You sounded snarky so I replied in kind. The short version is that providers still need enough volume to cover the fixed costs of the business: property, buildings, equipment, etc. Nearly 1 in 5 insured Americans are covered by Medicare or Medicare Advantage. You can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em.
 
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The demand for those cushier jobs that pay the same amount is finite. At some point the market still pushes people into the medical field.

I’d love to see us pay doctors well and still not have people crippled by medical debt. I don’t think those are mutually exclusive goals.
Sure, but you still end up with far fewer physicians than we currently have. I've already explained why that would be catastrophic in the face of surging demand.

I agree those aren't mutually exclusive goals. In fact, it has to happen because the current model is unsustainable. One of the reasons I hammer people who bitch about Obamacare is because they don't understand the ways in which the law tries to bend the cost curve to slow medical spending. The industry is a fully-loaded freight train, though, so it's hard to make it change directions quickly.
 
You sounded snarky so I replied in kind. The short version is that providers still need enough volume to cover the fixed costs of the business: property, buildings, equipment, etc. Nearly 1 in 5 insured Americans are covered by Medicare or Medicare Advantage. You can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em.

Didn’t mean to.

That clarified things. I was thinking a net loss while factoring in both the unit fixed and variable costs. But if they make up ground on their fixed cost overhead then it makes perfect sense.
 
I try to avoid political discussions for the most part, but there is one thing my far left and far right friends agree with me on. A good chunk of student loan debt could be avoided if they'd just take advantage of the much less expensive community college system we have in NC. Knock the first two years out at a community college then transfer to a four year school. Your diploma will still say "UNC," "Appalachian State," etc...

Back to the trade school point someone made above. I'm in the construction business and almost every sub you talk to can't find good labor, even when they pay them a really good salary. Electricians, plumbers, HVAC, etc... None of the kids today want to go that route. Even if they could quickly find work and later parlay that into their own business.
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Biden's about to become the favorite for the Dems. He's going to crush Super Tuesday.
 
Ima go ahead and call Maine, Mass., Colorado, Vermont and California for Che.

He's losing Mass by 6 points currently. Maine is separated by like 30 votes.

Biden going to win Tenn, Ark, Okla, Minnesota, Alabama, NC, VA. He's going to hang close in Texas so those delegates will get chopped up between the 3 of them.

None of them are going to get the 2,000 they need before the convention and the party will rally around Biden.
 
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He's losing Mass by 6 points currently. Maine is separated by like 30 votes.

Biden going to win Tenn, Ark, Okla, Minnesota, Alabama, NC, VA. He's going to hang close in Texas so those delegates will get chopped up between the 3 of them.

None of them are going to get the 2,000 they need before the convention and the party will rally around Biden.
If they pick Biden, Bernie voters might just riot. They certainly won't vote for Biden.
 
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can’t vote for bernie, just can’t...biden can’t string sentences together...income, taxes, personal life is great...it was also great under obama, bush, and 2nd half of clinton,

is this real????
 
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Bernie voters won't vote for Biden. the DNC keeps rolling-out the same old crap. Joe Biden is just another ancient party fossil who is in the pocket of Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman and General Dynamics.

The DNC is addicted to this "Next Old Fart In Line" corporate-shill candidate strategy. Sanders supporters are fervent and stubborn.

I'm content to see Trump win by an even larger margin this time.
 
good... move along

Looks like she'll pick up some delegates but finish third in her own state. Time for her to drop out, and prove she doesn't actually have a progressive bone in her body by endorsing Biden.
 
Bernie voters won't vote for Biden. the DNC keeps rolling-out the same old crap. Joe Biden is just another ancient party fossil who is in the pocket of Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman and General Dynamics.

The DNC is addicted to this "Next Old Fart In Line" corporate-shill candidate strategy. Sanders supporters are fervent and stubborn.

I'm content to see Trump win by an even larger margin this time.

Chris Matthews accidentally let it slip on live television. He basically said something along the lines of 'a lot of party leaders would rather just wait another four years and get someone in that they actually like." The DNC's financial backers would much rather lose with Biden than win with Bernie.
 
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Chris Matthews accidentally let it slip on live television. He basically said something along the lines of 'a lot of party leaders would rather just wait another four years and get someone in that they actually like." The DNC's financial backers would much rather lose with Biden than win with Bernie.
I don't know that they would "win with Bernie." But, Joe Biden is a dud.
 
Oh shit- Biden won Texas. Didn’t see that coming. The Bern is on life support.
 
Oh shit- Biden won Texas. Didn’t see that coming. The Bern is on life support.
He's no where near life support thanks to how delegates are won. Current estimated delegate count:

660 for Biden
586 for Sanders
110 for Bloomberg
101 for Warren

Contested convention won super Tuesday.
 
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