IFF - Idaho Freedom Foundation

Costs are so high so you can pay for the people who don't pay. Welcome illegals, we will pay for your health care, everything is free. If you are a tax paying citizen with health care, you will be stuck with a bunch of bills.

If I remember correctly, these physicians were gauging the industrial commission to care for workers comp cases and demanding much more than general market prices. They were not staging a protest, but rather organizing a false shortage of coverage to force the commission and Blue Cross to pay outrageous fees. I find it interesting that you try to tie some physicians organizing to drive up their reimbursement rates to the impact of Obamacare since this all started before Obama was even elected.

The post "Reality in medical land" starts with talk about what "the market will bear," and then conveniently forgets that very little of the health care industry is market-driven at all. For starters, the government controls either directly (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) or indirectly (insurance mandates, heavy regulation of insurers) about 90% of health care spending. Only about 10% of spending is directed by consumers themselves. If consumers were responsible for a greater percentage of the burden of health care costs (perhaps through HSAs, with only catastrophic insurance coverage), then there would be greater incentive to spend more cost-effectively. I would be shocked to find out that the person posting about the costs of their medical care knew those costs before getting the treatment. Who cares, right? Insurance will pick up the bulk of it. People don't shop around for their basic (non-emergency) medical care, because they are not on the hook for most of the bills. As a finite resource, medical care must ultimately be rationed in some way. The big difference is between those who want the government to decide what care patients receive and those who want to decide for themselves. Had you been responsible for paying more of the bill for the pain specialist yourself, you probably would have done more of your homework ahead of time and found a more reliable specialist. In a true market, a person who provides bad service at a high cost will not be in business for long, especially in this age in which information is so easy to distribute and obtain.

Also, for all of the complaining by the pro-government-solution people, they seem to overlook the fact that the structure of our health care system is largely the result of government regulation. For example, the tax treatment of benefits is largely the reason why health insurance is so tied to employment. Insurance mandates at the state level have also driven up insurance costs in many areas, and people are not permitted to buy insurance across state lines. There are plenty of other examples.

It is very common these days for politicians to do everything in their power to prevent market forces from operating, and then blame all of the failures of their policies on "market failures." It is hard to tell if people are dishonest, misinformed, or perhaps a hefty dose of both.

Who am I?

First off, I know its great to say "Government" and stir the folks all up. But it was a private company -Blue Cross Blue Shield - that set the price. Not the government.

The Doctors do not have to work for that wage. This is true. But they dont have the right to organize and form a monopoly either. The issue is that the Doctors organized.

What if all the repair shops got together and decided they werent going to work for less than $300 per hour. The Free Market no longer applies - everyone sets their rate to $300 per hour. That is in essence what the Doctors did.

Its amazing how you can take a Free Market principal people and twist em into non-free market people.

In "no-fault" dissolution cases (NWO-fascism), children are seized from their natural guardian without trial, and then the natural guardian's income is plundered, bank accounts seized and credit trashed, all without notice or due process. When men complained, they were fired from their job and arrested for violating orders written in court rooms without their knowledge, but not a word of assistance or help from their neighbor.
Ok Doc, it's your turn.
Ok neighbor, you are next.

Sound like doctors and associated healthcare professionals should drop out of the system entirely, but still practice -- i.e. don't register, don't form a business entity, etc... but become a known, valued, and protected member (i.e. the neighbors and customers won't report you to gov. thugs) of the community to whom one can go for medical help and take only cash, gold/silver, barter as payment for services rendered.

I worked in the health care field for many years and no longer am practicing. When I heard about the new health care bill, I immediately thought of several obstacles. Doctors aren't going to put up with the unrealistic demands. Some will will stop practicing and those choosing to go into medicine will choose another career. Nurses will follow suit. Thinking that there are going to be enough nurses and doctors to absorb 30 million more people is crazy. You thought your wait to see a doctor now is long, the wait will be increased. Those that remain in the medical field will be way overworked. There is no way around rationing either. They will steal from Medicare to cover younger people. Bad, bad idea.

Great article, where is the state/federal gov't at in fighting the doctors on this?

Fact: All government health care plans are “Socialized Medical Care.” One thing is for sure…those hell-bent for statism have not given any thought to basic economic principles. When liberal candidates talk cost controls in health-care plans they mean "price controls." This would limit the number of individuals entering into the health care field. Those that have skills that would produce more money elsewhere, will leave the health market. Meaning the health care providers left, will demand higher wages because the work load will increase. Resulting in very limited (rationed) or substandard care provided in any socialist plan. Liberals loving statism just don’t understand the law of supply and demand~!

At some point you have to look at what the market will bear in costs- examples of this are the $120.00 screw drivers that major defense contracts charge DOD, $500 dollar toilet seats etc...Medical costs have been artificially forced up because of MD greed, insurance industry over charging to show profits to their share holders and justify ridiculous salaries of their CEO's and upper management costs. I work in Health and Government-and you know what we call it as we see it- price fixing is price fixing- are ortho docs worth more than GP's? hell no if anything less. Are heart specialists more or better trained than a GP? No again they may know more about one organ but a hell of alot less about total body systems and interactions. Where you see conspiracy I see an agency working towards a balance and fairness and extending the value of the dollars by getting more services, nothing different than insurance companies do when they contract with a provider.( I deal with the whining of the medical specialists all the time about them being underpaid) So before you go all "here come the commies" like that fool McCarthy from the 50's take the time to talk to the experts, ask questions -explore the reality- EXPLORE BOTH SIDES - believe it or not most folks who work in government health systems management are not there for the salary, but we are there for the betterment of the people we serve. Recently I went to see a pain specialist, I waited in his office 40 minutes for him to show up from the gym, I paid a $30. copay, my insurance was billed $550. and paid #400. he spent 4 minutes with me and offered me no suggestions saying I had to live with the pain. On the other hand my GP charged me $15. billed insurance 65 got paid $50, spent 35 minutes with me and found a solution- in a $100. medical device. Where was the real value? You always talk about socialized medicine like it is a bad thing. The only place it might be bad is on the auto dealers and real estate brokers pocket books - but on the general public it will make for a much better experience.

It is simply time to replace Workers Compensation and the State Industrial commission with a simplified program from the private sector. I would be interested in finding out how many claims filed by Idaho Workers were denied and then settled months or years later before going to court. Also I wonder how many scum sucking bottom feeding attorneys work for the Industrial Commission.
TIME FOR A CHANGE ... Harper, Spirit Lake, ID

There is no power under the law that can force any man, doctors included, to work for compensation that man does not consider adequate. The 13th Amendment ended such horror.