If not affordable wealth care or Obama care, how do we provide healthcare to all Americans?

WHY DO YOU BELIEVE "WE" SHOULD PROVIDE HEALTHCARE TO "ALL" AMERICANS? DO YOU HAVE ANY BELIEF IN PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?

If you are an American citizen, you have rights and one of them is the right to decent healthcare, a healthy society is a happy society. We cannot wage war on Muslims thousands of miles away and turn away the poor in our own backyards.

"LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS"....HEALTH IS NOT A GIVEN...

I meant affordable health care! I don't know why I do not catch these mistakes, it's freaking me out.

FREE MARKET HEALTHCARE....COMPETITION WITH GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT, NO BOUNDARIES FROM STATE TO STATE...

A national single-payer healthcare program. Let the government pay for it. We pay them taxes, which should at least benefit us SOMEHOW.

Good point

HR676 -- Universal Medicare.

I've always been for single-payer. ObamaCare does a lot of good; it's a vast improvement over what we had but I disagree with the mandate. The Conyers/Kucinich Universal Medicare plan provides everything, for every American -- health, dental, eye, mental health care -- with no co-pays or out-of-pockets, ever, AND it costs less than ObamaCare and would have an immense positive effect on the economy.

Wow.... is this for real?

Absolutely. It had 76 co-sponsors when it was introduced last year. It hasn't come up for a vote, but it can still be brought up for one, at any time:

http://www.healthcare-now.org...

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin...

We have to be able to make it more affordable and be able to outside the state should we chose to to buy insurance and I'm sure there are some other things that need to be done to.

One small thing we know in the UK
If you support the privatization of a national health service -
- making it a big business . Then you deserve to paye for it
As fools will be ROBBED STUPID.

Republican Plan:

"Don't get sick, and if you do, die quickly."

How cold and uncaring can you get.

Well, thankfully I DO NOT echo that sentiment....

WE do not. It is each person's responsibility.
In addition, perhaps a wide ranging retooling of the welfare system would be of help.
Eliminating corporations and lawyers(HMO were a mistake from the beginning) from the health care equation would be a wonderful plan as well.
The tort reform that the liar in chief promises and then failed on would be a good idea too.
First and foremost, the unjust socialist obama care tax must be repealed completely if there is to be hope of any type of fix.

Pass a law changing private insurance companies into quasi-public corporations like utilities -- and regulate the HELL out of them. Cap rates, force them to drop pre-existing conditions, open group parameters, etc.

Their business is legalized gambling, and they've been stacking the deck for years. That's called cheating, and it's time they were called out on it.

Interesting and targeted.

MILLION RAVES FOR YOU!!!!

For sure.

Though I am an MD, that is not my problem. Physicians provide a service just like your electrician or plumber does, and that service comes at a cost.

I will give everyone the best treatment I can provide within my limited area of specialty, but I can't be expected to work for free or on drastically reduced wages just because some politician decides its a good idea. Good luck finding doctors willing to put up with that. Why do you think many doctors in private practice are selling out right now?

If there's a shortage coming, who are they selling out TO?

Simple really. If you have a group of doctors forming a private practice of partners, there will be some who will sell out their share leaving the others (who are not in a position to do otherwise) with the mess, or else newbies who do not know any better.

Many medical practices are now being forced to take on more clerical staff than they are doctors, nurses and clinicians because of the impending situation. Wait and see how this plays out for the patients.

I am just glad our practice deals in predominately elective procedures and we do not have to contend with the insurances companies or the government.

Is there a chance Obama care could work?

I suppose that would depend on how you define "work". It was doomed from the start from a patient care standpoint.

Work, meaning succeed.
It seems that Obama care is a reality no matter who gets elected.
Don't you think it may be wrong for doctors to try to make it fail or help it fail?
Isn't universal healthcare better then nothing at all for the public?
What is your answer to heath care, if not this, then what?

Again, that is not my problem. I am not here to save the world. My job is to provide medical services to those who patronize our clinic and surgical suite.

Naturally, I think Obamacare is bad for the practice of medicine, but that won't change how I do my job.

Ok, fine but if doctors bail because they are getting a bit less money, that does not say to much for doctors. I mean if I am making 200 thousand a year and if everyone is covered I make 15 thousand less, that personally would not bother me. I would rather make less money and have everyone covered and be able to afford proper medical care. Money is important but the health of millions of people is very important as well. I also do not understand how doctors are going to make less money, if they are seeing more patients. I would think they would make more money, if they get more patients.

Would you rather take a number when you show up for an appointment (it took you three weeks to attain) from your primary care physician and have an nurse yell "next please" while you are several others are herded like cattle into multi-person exam room?

The practice of medicine goes beyond mere clinical procedures, and a diagnosis for every person is different because people are different. Mass medicine is not how to effectively treat patients and give them the best care outside the ER.

As far as my salary is concerned, I would also like to point out to you that between undergrad, medical school, interning and residency, I spent almost a decade in education and training, and I had student debt that was approaching 300 thousand dollars. Do you not feel that salary for highly specialized and professional careers be compensated accordingly? I am not a teamster, and I don't appreciate being treated like one.

I hope you are right and Obamacare is a tremendous success, but I am highly doubtful, and frankly concerned what it will mean for both MD's and patients.

I think it's going to work beautifully as an example of why government should stay the hell out of our business and not try to run anything.

Yes... the republicans just DO NOT WANT it to!

Political stance has little to do with medical feasibility. If you think you and your little friends in DC can push us around without serious consequences then you are in for a rude awakening.

I am not some pawn in your little ideological game and I dare say you would likely react in the same manner if someone was attempting something similar in your professional life.

Oh, I'm already seeing how it's going to play out. My primary's office has one interesting employee who doesn't seem to have any function other than to fail to deliver messages accurately. :)

Why will they need more clerical staff? There are (or used to be anyway) people and companies that specialized in doing paperwork for docs. Have they dropped out?

I can only tell you what my experience has been here in the So Cal. medical community, and as you might expect, additional medical records and insurance/government claims specialists will be all but a necessity for many medical specialties. I admit, these people are notoriously awful employees.

Our practice has one (yep, just one) front desk attendant that does surgical scheduling, call routing, light clerical, medical records and patient services. This type of setup will soon be a thing of the past for nearly every practice outside of elective medicine.

We don't.
We allow freedom and personal responsibility to work by eliminating corporatism