Outpatient amputation performed on Medicaid patient. Surgery was scheduled for 2pm, patient was released at 5pm, had a limb amputated and was in & out in 3 hours!!! There is no way the patient was even truley stabilized in that time span. Government run healthcare at its best. That's not something Ted Kennedy would want for himself & his family, not something I want for me & mine.

exresident,

I remember the system of which you speak, very well. I can remember in the early 80's and before, that a doctors visit costed around $35 and included a good many of the tests in the price.
Now, one is lucky to get out of a doctors office paying less that $200. Most Americans without insurance cannot begin to afford that, so they go to ER rooms.
Yes, something needs to be done. Who is behind the drastic price increases?

Kenneth, there will be a lot of savings with the changes being proposed. Those savings will off-set the cost. You cannot just look at total cost and not figure in the savings.
I'm not saying the bill is perfect. I'm sure that in the beginning, there will be a lot of confusion.
My mom is on Medicare and just had major back surgery. As she got passed from one doctor to another, they all did the same tests. I don't know how many office calls, x-rays, blood tests, and MRI's that she got. I even took all of the x-ray's to every doctor she went to, but they still did their own. It was unnecessary. Cutting out those multiple test will save Medicare billions, Country-wide. Keeping uninsured out of ER rooms across the country will also save a lot. Getting the drug costs down will save. Having medical records where doctors can get to them easily, will save. Less paperwork will save. All of these saving will add up.
Reform is needed so bad. Having a watchdog riding shotgun over insurance companies is needed right now. Maybe in time, that can be relaxed, but it is the only way to get them to quit the practices they engage in now.

I didn't read this first, but...

.."Until they, themselves, have suffered from one of these they have no right to even talk about such a thing!"...

Is there something that you aren't telling us Kenneth? :P

Kenneth, it's too soon to weigh in on the results. You and I both know that it takes money to make money. When a business opens up, they need capital from other sources first. I don't expect things to change overnight, like some of you do. It took a long time to get into this mess and it will take a longer time getting out of it.
Staying the course if more evil than trying to do something about it. "The course" is what got us into this mess. I'm willing to give things a chance.

Well of course, it's all Bushs fault!!!!!

The timing of this report is fishy. What better way to get Americans totally agaisnt healthcare reform at the exact time of important votes?

Kenneth, speaking from the er chest....I have had several members of my family have breast cancer before 40 and several of us have benign tumors so far. I have difficulty with a few people sitting at a table with breakfast, lunch, coffee etc. all being catered making decisions on our vital organs.

I feel it really should be between our doctors and ourselves and also dependent on our family histories. And that should be no bodies business.

But what no one is mentioning is the electronic records bill that requires all doctors to have in place so your medical records will no longer be between you and your doctor --the government will gain access. I think the systems have to be up by 2013? Anybody can correct me if I am wrong.

I am already dealing with electronic records. It is great to log on and email doctor back and forth, reorder prescriptions, read lab tests, etc. But I do have a problem that big daddy will soon receive my aggregate data also.

And yes I believe that it will lead to rationing of medical care. Funding for such analysis was in the last stimulus bill. So we are going to be on one really rough roller coast ride with no privacy at all.

And this is not a one party or another issue --it is already a done deal.