HMO's good or bad

[Omardeth]

what do you think . as i sit and wait to go see a doctor , first called at 1am this morning , i am wondering why they don't seem to do better .

No HMO policies for me. My PPO/major-med provider is bad enough.

[Chuckiechan]

When you fill out the forms, where it says person to notify in emergency, put in a malpractice lawyers name! I do that right after my wife's name...

[Omardeth]

hahah ilike that

[fritz the cat]

HMO's exist as a poorly designed plan to contain medical costs.
This is acomplished by denying medical treatment deemed "unnessesary". The problem is in who decides what is nessesary and unnessesary. Usually a person who has little or no medical training. So put a doctor in charge, you may say. Think about this for a moment, a person who wants to become a doctor is going to spend years studying, hours and hours daily training, go into debt up to his ears, just to sit behind a desk looking over records? Yea, right.
Another problem with HMO's is in the fact that you do not chose your doctor, one is assigned to you. Or you are assigned to him, however you wish to look at it. If you don't like him/her, or you feel the doctor is not treating you right, or you just feel the doctor is not competent, to bad. Thats YOUR doctor, deal with it.
I could go on forever about this, so I'll stop before I put you to sleep. Bottom line, imho HMO's are bad bad bad.

[kenyg]

Dr's don't like HMO's either

[Bushmaster]

HMO's should be able to live their alternative lifestyle in peace.

[Epidemic]

It is all about making money and if you make people better all the better should be the choice.

I am not sure you understand the real world here people

Doctors are all about money not making people better. Heck even most of the ones who do free stuff are just hoping for the advertising on the news.

Of course this does not apply to all doctors but it would include the vast vast vast vast majority of em.

Why do you work at company x y z. If you work at burger king do you do it to feed the hungry or for money.

[fritz the cat]

Originally posted by Epidemic


I am not sure you understand the real world here people

I base my opinions on real life experiences. I was a medical technician in the military for 6 years. For the last 11 years my wife has been fighting CREST Syndrome. She has 7 stents installed in various parts of her body, and is going in for another in a month or so. ( She is only 41) She has been in Cardiac Intensive Care and ICU's more often then I care to think about. It's not unusual for her to run up a hundred grand a year in medical bills.

I've seen the medical field from both sides, as a care provider and as a spouse deeply involved in the medical treatment of my spouse. What are your credentials?





"HMO's should be able to live their alternative lifestyle in peace."

Tell that to my ex-boss who went to an HMO doctor because he didn't feel well. He was diagnosed with malaria. He paid out of pocket to go to a non-HMO doctor and found out he had leukemia. How long would he have lasted under the care of that HMO?

[angelcat]

Originally posted by kenyg
Dr's don't like HMO's either

You are quite correct with that statement Ken.

Our main Doctor, and the hospital associated with, dropped HAP HMO entirely. The Reason? When they did pay the doctors, it was much less than what was they were supposed to pay, and then again, there were many times they refused to pay at all. Now CE and I have to go in search of a new doc in our area, that does accept HAP, at least untill late fall, when we can switch to a different company.