Mayo Clinic stops taking Medicare Patients

Yes sir reeee - and that's how some spell s-u-c-c-e-s-s

Exactly. As they are quoting a history of Medicare not paying enough (as in "the past", which has nothing at all to do with future or yet to become active programs), it would seem that Medicare has been barely sufficient for a long time. Time to replace it.

Please, come on! Are you really REALLY trying to blame this on Obama? P-l-e-a-s-e!
Obama's plan have not become active yet, and will not for a while. Wait up to blame anything on him, my friend. Wait up.

Not sure where you got the $260,000,000,000 number. The number I saw was $460,000,000,000.

I have seen many doctors' offices over the years with signs up saying that they were not accepting any new Medicare or Medicaid patients.

I'm thinking the conservatives should be happy with this. They don't want the government to be paying for people's medical care. They believe it is a privilege. If you can afford the Mayo clinic, great. If not, oh well.

The key is "over the years" This has nothing to do with Obama.
The US Health care system is know to be one of the most expensive in the World, and in turn one that offers the LEAST amount benefits to its Citizens... This way way way before Obama. That is the reason for change.

The OP is blaming something on Obama that will take months and months if not years to get implemented. It just past Senate when, the day before Christmas? And now, a week later, she is blaming him?

It didn't even go back to congress yet! Congress didn't even pass the reform yet, and the OP is already blaming the Reform.

Now.... How can a reform that doesn't exist yet be blamed for something?

Well, then - the government needs to refund the medicare fees I paid for all the years I worked - it wasn't a small sum - I could take the "refund" to pay for my own medical care. I'll be 65 in a few months, and hate the idea that my Social Security income will now be reduced by over $100.00 a month - I'll take that, too.

Oh, and by-the-way, I've never used any of the unemployment funds I've paid in to - but, then again, I may still have a chance.

Sorry, I missed something - where did mrblanche blame Obama in this thread?

It makes perfect sense to me. If more and more medical facilities aren't taking it already, then pull the money out and put it into a new program. May or may not work is better than obviously not working.

Not him; I was quoting him to make a point to the OP. I revised my post to reflect that.

No, I did not blame Obama. This is a deep-rooted problem that has to do with Congress depending on private insurance to make up what Medicare and Medicaid don't pay.

I had a friend who was a doctor. At that time (this was about 1985), he was taking Medicaid patients. He said he got paid about $2 per office visit. He had a student come in for a football physical. In the course of the exam, he found the student had a venereal disease and noted it in his charts. The school got the records of the visit, confronted the student, whose mother got a lawyer and sued my friend. He swore he would never take another Medicaid patient as long as he practiced.

But he practiced in Hot Springs, AR, where he HAD to take Medicare or starve.

I'd like to see more discussion of a system copying the Swiss or the Japanese, whose systems seem to work very well. The French system, so far as I can tell, does not, discouraging initiative and invention.

I had high hopes for the current administration to make real progress on this problem, but it looks like they're not going to do it, either. The CBO says the current proposals are more expensive and still don't cover everyone.

If a person were to make $80,000 a year for their entire career, and work 25 years, they will only pay roughly $30,000 into Medicare. There are quite a few people who will go through that amount just in medicines. When medical bills far exceed what they paid in...who pays?

It is a tax, not an insurance premium. We are only paying for the people currently on Medicare. There is no guarantee that we will receive anything. The whole program could be discontinued this year and there would be no obligations to the people who pay in.

Exactly. This is why Medicare is becoming an burden on the younger generations. More of their pay is being transferred to the elderly. Eventually, it could severely damaged the economy to the point where we could have emigration and be left with no one to pay the bill.

Insurance,
Tax,

- whatever the name - we, the people, are still the ones funding it with our own dollars - it's not "Government" $$.

The money just doesn't materialize from the land of Oz - what ever the amount that was deducted from our income check(s) was $$ we worked for - IT WASN'T FREE.

(And, by-the-way - taxes are still deducted from our Social Security checks - taxing our income just doesn't stop because we're no longer employed, or retired, or senior.)

It's a good Samaritan-like thing to have MY $$ put into a pot that also helps the more vulnerable souls, my fellow CITIZENS, but, we do expect the funds to be there for us, too. If we didn't, then I think that people wouldn't just allow $$ to be deducted from our checks to go into the general fund.

Social Security, and/or Medicare should be considered a guarantee, otherwise, don't take my hard-earned $$ on a false pretense.

It's not guaranteed, and it's not a false pretense. Everything she said is quite clearly spelled out under the program. Current deductions are for current expenses, there is no "big pot" that "your" money goes into to sit until you need it.

But your entire argument against the proposed system is the supposed burden it will place on nation's young and the economy. Why the change of heart?

I know I will and I'm frankly worried about it. I am funneling as much as I can for retirement.

Currently there are 3.9 workers paying taxes into Medicare for every older American receiving services. By 2030, as the baby boom generation retires, that is projected to drop to 2.4 workers for each beneficiary

Further, the Congressional Budget Office projects that "total federal Medicare and Medicaid outlays will rise from 4 percent of GDP in 2007 to 12 percent in 2050 and 19 percent in 2082—which, as a share of the economy, is roughly equivalent to the total amount that the federal government spends today" 06-17-LTBO_Testimony.pdf

There are 3 ways to address this spending.

1) Up payroll taxes on the currently employed. Given that we are in a recession that has yet to start hiring, raising employment taxes will slow or stop any hiring. Also, it seems perverse to me to raise taxes on these people who are told that health insurance is a privilege to have to pay for those over 65.

2) Implement cost control which means that providers like the Mayo clinic will refuse to take Medicare patients. Rationing health care is going to have to happen. We can't pay for everything for everyone.

3) Raise premiums on Medicare patients. Given how many people have done little or nothing to save for their own retirements, but are the most likely to vote, this option will wither on the vine.

There isn't a magic bucket of money. And the whole health care debate seems to think there is.