Public Option Is Simply A Government Version of Blue Cross or Aetna etc.

[stopbush]

The simple fact is that single payer or public option is NOT the government setting up and running a medical establishment. It is NOT the government employing doctors and telling people which doctors they can see.

A public option IS the government acting as the insurance company. They are a public version of Blue Cross or Aetna or PruCare or any other insurance company that offers health insurance for a price to consumers.

It is up to the individual doctor to join the network offered by a public option. Some doctors don't accept Anthem while they do accept Oxford. If your doctor elects to not join the public network, then you will still be able to see him but as an out-of-network option. It is the DOCTOR'S decision to join the network, not the government's to keep him out.

Why won't doctors join certain networks? Because they don't like the fact that certain health insurers set limits to what they will pay for their services, and that cuts into the doctor's income. Their fear is that the government will set ceilings on what they'll pay for their procedures. By setting these limits, the government will be able to offer consumers lower monthly premiums. Offering lower monthly premiums means that more people will opt for the government insurance option over the private option. At some point, doctors can't keep refusing patients in the government plan because there will be too many people opting for the cheaper option. At that point, the battle is lost for the doctors. They will need to accept patients in the government plan, even though the government pays maybe half for a procedure than the Aetna's will pay. And that means that Aetna will soon have to negotiate lower pay outs to doctors as well, so they can compete with the public option in attracting patients. But being beholden to their stockholders, they can never compete with the government plan which doesn't have to worry about paying stockholders dividends.

BTW - those dividends are just another word for the money made gouging patients on what they pay for procedures.

Eventually, the private insurers will all go under because they won't be able to gouge enough consumers to pay for their ridiculous administrative costs, their higher pay outs to doctors for the same procedures done under the public plan and their shareholder dividends.

And once the private insurers go under, doctors across the board will need to come to grips with being paid an above-average salary, rather than being paid a top 10% of wage-earners salary. They will need to come to grips with having to make money through seeing an increased volume of patients while getting a smaller payment per patient.

Which is why doctors and the Aetnas of the USA are against the public option.

Which is why the Rs and the medical establishment want people to think that public option means that the government tells a consumer, "you can't see Dr Welby anymore. You have to go to Dr Kevorkian now," when it's actually a case of Dr Welby having to accept a lower payment for his services from the same patients he's always had.

This is what it's all about. A government plan means negotiated costs on medical procedures and pharmaceuticals. This takes a big chunk out of the profit margins of doctors and big pharma, but it benefits consumers across the board as premiums and drug prices drop. But what is taken away from doctors and big pharma per procedure/pill is made up for with the addition of 40-million newly insured Americans who will now go to see a doctor when they need to, rather than sitting home sick. There will also be an increase in preventative services as those who are insured will be paying less per month for premiums and will opt to see their doctor and get their meds, all because it will now be affordable. And, there will be an easing up on the most-expensive treatment - the Emergency Room - which has become the default option for the uninsured, the costs of which are reflected in the high premiums we who are fortunate enough to have insurance pay right now.