Letter: Special interests in health care

Bob K.
Atwater, MN     10/26/2009 4:29 PM

Laurie, there is one item I forgot to mention. That providor is there to help you 24/7 365 days a year. You have the ooportunity and comfort to know they will be waiting to serve you and get you well any time you need to use the facility.

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Laurie G.
Olivia, MN     10/26/2009 4:27 PM

Bob K - I've dealth within the world of supply, demand, etc. to know that they don't need to be charging patients as much as they do for the items used....how many tylenol pills can do you think can fit into a semitruck? Unions or not, there is no excuse for the unrealistic charges.

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Bob K.
Atwater, MN     10/26/2009 4:05 PM

Laurie G. regarding the prices charged for the "luxuries" you named - well it takes a trucker to deliver the product to the hospital dock. It takes the dock worker to unload as the trucker is not allowed to do that work. It then must be counted, authenticated the shipment is correct and the receipt sent to accounting to match the invoice to allow payment. Now it must be checked into stores and recorded into inventory. A request for an item resupply is made by the nursing floor, which is sent to the order puller and put on the delivery cart. A person wheels the delivery cart to the floor, and stocks the floor for useage. The nursing floor staff then must record the useage and send the note to billing so it can be put on the patient billing to the insurance company . The insurance company receives the bill and discounts it 60% and 30 to 60 days later pays the 40%. Now all those people in the pipe line are being paid, many of which are union workers, and they demand they get paid every week or very two weeks dependant on pay practices of the providor. While it may seem simple to some people, there is a lot of detail that does not meet the eye when you wonder why you paid such a price for a "luxury" that you just took home with you.

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Barb K.
10/26/2009 3:46 PM

Carrie, I do mean health care costs - not insurance costs. $1560 per year would pay for a lot of doctor visits. I don't know how often you go to the doctor but other that for vaccines and baby checkups, my kids went less than once a year. I didn't take them in for just a cold, or flu or regular checkups. I know I'm lucky that my kids are healthy but there are a lot of people who run to the doctor for every little thing. If everybody had to pay something, costs would come down because there wouldn't be so many people running unnecessarily to the doctor. For most people a major medical insurance policy to cover the really big expenses and a tax free medical saving account for the smaller expenses would work very well. That would reduce costs because people would think twice before going to the doctor and would also be concerned about the cost. There does need to be help for those who truly need it but the US citizen really does get the best healthcare in the would, no matter what the UN says, and it really frightens me to think we could end up like Canada or England where people are rufused care. People here may be refused insurance coverage but they are not refused care.

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Laurie G.
Olivia, MN     10/26/2009 3:44 PM

Barb - I know how depreciation works. I was simply correcting your erroneous statement about when it can be implemented.

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Bob K.
Atwater, MN     10/26/2009 3:40 PM

Barb, you are correct regarding some people took liberal arts courses and some took business courses. bob d, if you rolled over your dollar each day, you had $365 of sales with a $36.50 profit( you have to have a sale or earn some income less an expense to make a profit) . Which is why we have to have licensed acctnts and CPA's to guarantee a companies books are correct and have followed all IRS laws. I might add with regards to some equipment depreciation there are some rules - In order to begin depreciating an asset, three things must first be determined. •the initial cost of the asset •the expected useful life of the asset •the estimated value of the asset at the end of its useful life - So if you buy an asset at say,$1 million and an expected life of 10 years, it has a residual value of $100,000, for which you can declare depreciation expense over the ten years of $900,000.

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Barb K.
10/26/2009 3:20 PM

bob d - It is so obvious you don't know anything about accounting. When a company makes .0425% that is most likely of gross sales. It could also be of net sales which would be a percentage of a small amount. There is no "rolling over".

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Barb K.
10/26/2009 3:13 PM

Laurie - if a company spends $1million on capital items in 2009 and it has to be depreciated over 20 years they generally can only deduct $25,000 in 2009, $50,000 in each of the next 19 years and $25,000 the following year.(total of 21 years) Now keep in mind they can only deduct a total of $1million so they actually lose whatever inflation accures in the 21 years's time. Yes I do accounting.

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Carie L.
Granite Falls, MN     10/26/2009 3:06 PM

Laurie - re; 210pm - Hehehe - thanks! I needed that chuckle!! :)

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Craig H.
10/26/2009 3:06 PM

1 in 5 do not have thorough health care coverage. I'm am certain those people are still getting medical treatment however and the bill has to go somewhere. Hospitals charge those who are insured more to make up the cost, the insurance companies need to keep the shareholders happy, and the middle class continues to get the shaft in all of it. How people don't see this as needing reform is beyond me.

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