Comments

1

Do you introduce yourself as a nazi when you phone these backwater ingrates, Herzog?

Sounds like higher medical bills, all in all.

2

If rural hospitals need to cut costs in order to provide hard-working nurses with decent breaks so they don't end up injuring people out of exhaustion, cut the pay for the top tier administrators. These are NONPROFIT HOSPITALS and no hospital CEO needs to be raking in the big bucks while the nursing staff is abused.

3

I am a nurse with 10 yrs experience. The WSNA seems to be great at advocating for hospital nurses, but what about all the nurses at Skilled Nursing Facilities (that's Nursing Home to civilians)? We are up to our eyeballs in patients for less $$ and with less resources?!

3

Calm down random monkey. I’m sure Bernie Sanders already has a running mate picked out.

4

Your anecdotal experience in rural hospitals doesn't constitute a factual account.

5

I suspect this is above your mental abilities, Do It Yourself, but here are some health insurance CEO's salaries.....Keep in mind that there is absolutely no reason for health insurance companies to exist. They are the classic middleman...

United Healthcare $17,389,976
Aetna $59,000,000
Kaiser Permanente $10,000,000
Humana $4,700,000
Blue Cross $13,400,000

And it's not just CEO's of course: There's thousands of attorneys that make six figures fighting claims, and tens of thousands minor functionaries who exist to things like send out bills and answer the phone.

You just sit there, and think about it, and then tell me who is causing the higher medical bills, dear.

6

...

That's cool, lady, but I didn't take a side, and I'm simply stating the obvious.

Have fun picketing the building the CEO isn't in, k?

7

@5: Health insurance companies do not set prices at hospitals or for health care providers. That is like saying the price of gas nationwide is the fault of the guy who runs the Shell station down the road.

Also, Blue Cross (Blue Shield) is not a specific health insurance provider, it is a conglomeration of 40 or so different and independent companies and organizations operating under that licensing/brand name offering a set of specific plans.

I know health insurance is a confusing topic, but if you are ignorant about how it works, you don't have to say anything.

8

Theodore dear, you are correct about "the blues". The salary quoted is for the CEO of Blue Cross of Michigan. I should have been more clear. Mrs. Vel-DuRay regrets the error.

But you are only partially right in your assertion that insurance companies don't set prices. They contract with health care providers for what they will pay for procedures. So, in essence, a handful of for-profit companies are price fixing. If you are OK with that you are either employed by the industry, or even more naive that I feared.

Do it yourself dear, I apologize for trying to make you think. You're right. Allowing nurses break time and rest periods cause the cost of healthcare to skyrocket! It's much better to allow the people who provide the bulk of the care in a medical facility to be worked to the brink.

(But seriously: someday, probably soon, when your relatives decide that it's finally time to put you in a more structured environment, you'll be glad that nurses are adequately rested)

10

@6: You called the article’s author a “nazi,” but now that you’ve been challenged, you cowardly claim you “didn’t pick a side.”

It’s a special kind of wimp who’s too afraid to stand behind his own, anonymous internet post, ha ha ha.

Knock him out the box, Vel-DuRay.

11

If these hospitals cannot function as privately held companies, then form hospital districts and bring them into public ownership at the county level. Jefferson County did that, and the hospital system there is great. We can do the same thing in Walla Walla County

12

I believe it takes cultivation of one’s own character to see it in others.

I’m not entirely sure how increased expenses likely leading to increased costs is a controversial statement. Do you see me in any way opposing comment 2?

Are you all just hoping to will things into existence, or are you making attempts at prophecy?

I’m pretty sure the author doesn’t call up people and introduce herself as a nazi. It’d be really confusing for the person on the other end of the line and doing so would likely impede cordial conversation.

Did I say “this basic law of applied economics is right and I am glad for it”, or is that simply what you decided those words mean?

What parallels did you draw between my words for Fraulein Herzog and my statement that costs will likely rise? Is it somehow common knowledge that people who call other people Nazis enjoy rising prices?

Is that what I’ve missed?


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