Health Care Question - need your answers!

[kimkim]

Hi, guys!
I am an immigrant, and I honestly haven't been followomg closely on the ongoing debate about health care reform that Obama has proposed. So I pretty much do not know anything about health care. And I was hoping if you guys(fellow pre-meds) could answer my questions about health care. I think it is definitely time for me to catch up on those current issues.

(1) So Obama is proposing universal health care and wants to bring down the health care cost. This looks like a good idea to hundreds of citizens who want affordable health insurance. However, what about private insurance companies? Wouldn't they seriously oppose to this plan? Insurance companies will get less money from their customers(citizens) if their plan becomes cheaper(affordable). So how exactly is Obama handling this? So is the government giving money(probably tax money) to private insurance companies to compensate for their cheap and affordable health insurance plan?
(2) So I heard some people oppose to Obama's health care reform because the reform would only increase the debt. What debt are they talking about, and why would bringing down the health care cost increase the debt? If it is the debt for the government, for this health care reform to be done, why would it cost money for the goverment?
(3) Finally, under Obama's plan, is everyone required to buy health insurance even if they don't want it?

Thank you so much guys.
I can't wait to hear your answers.

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[armybound]

This is probably one of those times where you should read everything from CNN to Wall Street Journal and just take in information. These questions are asked so many times around here that you could probably also get a lot of good information by searching.

Briefly,
1) Obama is lowering payments to physicians/hospitals, not insurance premiums. The savings is at the spending level for Medicare/Medicaid, not for individuals. Since Medicare is often the point of reference for insurance compensation, insurance companies will probably also pay physicians less, thus saving themselves money.
2) Government debt. Enrolling more people in Medicare costs the government money.
3) You'll have to read the proposal on CNN or somewhere, I can't recall specifically.

 

[linkin06]

3.) yes, he wants to charge people penalties for not having insurance and can afford it.

 

[Depumcrc]

good overview

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/....html?scp=1-spot&sq=health care reform&st=cse

 

[cardinal2010]

This is probably one of those times where you should read everything from CNN to Wall Street Journal and just take in information. These questions are asked so many times around here that you could probably also get a lot of good information by searching.

Briefly,
1) Obama is lowering payments to physicians/hospitals, not insurance premiums. The savings is at the spending level for Medicare/Medicaid, not for individuals. Since Medicare is often the point of reference for insurance compensation, insurance companies will probably also pay physicians less, thus saving themselves money.
2) Government debt. Enrolling more people in Medicare costs the government money.
3) You'll have to read the proposal on CNN or somewhere, I can't recall specifically.

1. is very oversimplified. The latest rounds of proposed medicare cuts decrease payments to some physicians. They also increase payments to others, depending on the specialty. If my memory serves me correctly, the hardest hit specialties are also the highest paid (surprise, surprise), such as cardiology, radiology, and radiation oncology with cuts up to around 10%. On the other hand primary care specialties see a pay raise including medicine, pediatrics, family practice, and geriatrics.

Source :http://mdsalaries.blogspot.com/2009/07/2010-specialist-salary-cuts-primary.html

Depending on what you want to go into, this is either good or bad news. Either way though, I think its fair that the pay gap is starting to close between specialists and PCPs (come on, should a radiologist really make 3x more than a PCP with only 1-2 years more training?). I do hope this comes from raising PCP wage up more than lowering specialist wages though.

 

[armybound]

1. is very oversimplified. The latest rounds of proposed medicare cuts decrease payments to some physicians. They also increase payments to others, depending on the specialty. If my memory serves me correctly, the hardest hit specialties are also the highest paid (surprise, surprise), such as cardiology, radiology, and radiation oncology with cuts up to around 10%. On the other hand primary care specialties see a pay raise including medicine, pediatrics, family practice, and geriatrics.

Source :http://mdsalaries.blogspot.com/2009/07/2010-specialist-salary-cuts-primary.html

Depending on what you want to go into, this is either good or bad news. Either way though, I think its fair that the pay gap is starting to close between specialists and PCPs (come on, should a radiologist really make 3x more than a PCP with only 1-2 years more training?). I do hope this comes from raising PCP wage up more than lowering specialist wages though.

Read the OP's question again, then read my answer again.

 

[teenmachinery1]

you should use the search function.

SDN's search as well as google.

There is plenty of material if you read through the threads. Then, perhaps you could ask questions that haven't been rehashed on SDN a hundred times.