Our health care system was designed by the insurance companies to benefit no one except the insurance companies. This system is ruining America's ability to compete in a world market. Just ask General Motors. It prevents people from becoming entrepreneurs because they can't afford to start a business and keep their family insured.
I started a thread a while back about a successful, self-employed friend who was self-insured. She got very sick with cancer and could not work for over a year. Her money started to run out and she realized if she missed one monthly payment her insurance company would happily cancel her policy. She's been saved by an ex-husband who has been kind enough (and rich enough) to pay her premiums. She is expected to get well and work again, and thus have an opportunity to pay him back. Her insurance company just raised her rates again - third time since she got sick. They have also refused to pay for numerous treatments her doctors have recommended. The battles with her insurance company will probably go on longer than her illness.
We have no safety net in this country. If you get sick, you lose everything. Sick people are at the mercy of corporations whose job it is to make money. Sick people do not make them money. They prefer you dead, or someone else's problem. Until Americans take over their own medical care as a nation, we're just going to be the cash cows for some insurance company CEO and the stock holders.
after reading squinney's entry , i think i better stick with the canadian health-insurance .
the canadian system is not the best in the world , but doesn't seem to be as bad as what squinney encountered .
you certainly have my sympathy , squinney !
hope there is some way out of that quagmire .
hbg
squinney wrote:I was seen in the ER a few weeks ago for a kidney stone. A fairly sizable one.
After well over an hour in the waiting room vomiting and pacing from the pain, I was provided pain meds. The doc came in and assessed. He asked if I have insurance. I told him that I do not. A scan was ordered to confirm the diagnosis. I was sent home with pain meds and instructed to call a uroligist associated with the hospital.
I called the urologist the next day, was told to pay prior to seeing her, did so and was instructed to continue pain meds and Flomax. If it wasn't better after a week, it was suggested that I go to the other hospital that is "for people without insurance."
Now, I get that what the urologist was saying was that she was trying to save me money. She even stated that the hospital that I went to would charge at least double what the other one would charge and wouldn't even consider scheduling surgery without half the money up front.
But, as I told her, I can't even get insurance that would cover anything. I get rated, as is the practice of insurance companies now, for a lot of stuff, even if it was a urinary tract infection 25 years ago. And, this is for someone that has been in the ER or to a doctor only twice in over twenty years.
So the issue isn't wether or not anyone has insurance and takes responsibility. I could be paying over $500 a month now for insurance only to find that once treated they have declined to pay.
The middle man is the problem, not the health care. This particular doctor was sympathetic to that and agreed. She said she sees it all the time. Her suggestion was to wait until it got bad enough again to be seen in the ER, at which time they would HAVE to remove it.
That's a pretty lousy "choice."
Kidney stones often pass in the urine on their own.
If I were you, I wouldn't suffer in pain for one week however. And...I wouldn't go to the "free hospital" if the other hospital is a better provider of health care.
hamburger wrote:after reading squinney's entry , i think i better stick with the canadian health-insurance .
the canadian system is not the best in the world , but doesn't seem to be as bad as what squinney encountered .
you certainly have my sympathy , squinney !
hope there is some way out of that quagmire .
hbg
In the USA, the quality of health care individuals are able to receive depends very heavily on the locale of the hospital. The Northeast is lucky to have many fine hospitals especially in the Boston and the NYcity areas.
Yes, kidney stones do often pass on their own, but at 5mm only a 50/50 chance. Two and a half weeks later, it has not passed. How long should I wait?
The other hospital is not "free" either since it was purchased approximately 6-7 years ago by a large for profit conglomorate. That is a trend that has been happening across the country for two decades.
The hospital I chose to go to is associated with a HUGE university in our area known for it's outstanding medical care. It used to be a community hospital and was purchased by the University a few years ago. I figured at the time that it would cost me either way, so why not the closest one with the best care and without the longest wait.
I don't claim to be entitled to medical care. I just think it would be the humane thing to do as a society rather than waiting until I (or anyone else) needs to lose a kidney because I don't have insurance or insurance that would pay and it has shut down due to being blocked.
Are we humane or not? Who will decide who is worthy?
squinney wrote :
Quote:I don't claim to be entitled to medical care. I just think it would be the humane thing to do as a society rather than waiting until I (or anyone else) needs to lose a kidney because I don't have insurance or insurance that would pay and it has shut down due to being blocked.
Are we humane or not? Who will decide who is worthy?
sorry to see that you get hardly any sympathy at all !
it's very easy to ignore society's(our neighbours') REAL PROBLEMS .
hbg
I just returned from having lunch with five friends, all Reps. They could care less about humanity relative to healthcare. Their only concern is that their taxes will (they think) go up.
When one in three have no, or inadequate, health insurance, there is no doubt in my mind that we have a healthcare crisis. Moreover, it is damaging to our country.
Nobody screeches in disgust when Washington spends trillions of people's tax $$$sa on blowing up and maiming people in some hapless, underdeveloped part of the globe. Yet, when a few billion bucks are earmarked to improve the availability and affordability of health care for the American public, people get all snaky.
Charity, folks, starts at home. A country that has a healthy and educated population is a powerful and strong country. It is also a country where true democracy and industry can thrive. Currently that is not the case in America. Many people have to work two or three jobs just to get by and they still can't afford proper health care, food, housing and education. Whilst many of you think that this is an acceptable state of affairs, ask yourselves why that should be. In terms of living standards and quality of life, the US doesn't rank very highly amongst developed nations. Which, once upon a time, it used to. interestingly enough, I bet that the loudest opponents to universal health care are probably least able to afford health insurance and services under the current system.
Universal health care isn't a slide into uncontrolled socialism or national bankruptcy. Nor will it undermine the principles of American morality and democracy. Quite to the contrary, it will probably pay social dividends beyond the scope of many people's imaginations.
Charity? This is the country that nuked Japan, not your bible study group.
Dividends beyond the scope of many people's imaginations. Good thing we've got civic heroes of superior moral fiber and vision who still believe in the power of doing the right thing to legislate our wretched hides back onto the right path.
This is frightening ladies and gentlemen. I mean someone thinks they got superior vision to some segments of the populace, spirited dissent is 'snaky', and there might be enough of them out there to make a law. Do the math, if they can legislate they're average and yet they think they know better'n the opposing group. Throw 'em in with the ones that just want another service on someone else's tab...
You're thinking, forget the 'snaky' thing, any group that legislates thinks they know best and might be wrong but we still do it - damn right! That's why we should stay off each other's toes instead of trying to make each other into the citizens of utopia. We've got most of what we've got without heavy societal control, if the supply of health care could be adequate (which it won't be as long as we all must die) and if it's so important, we'd have it already, so why chop up the principles we got this far with to try and force it? Making a law to keep business running is one thing (which I'll never believe this is), or responding to mass sentiment like we did after 9/11, but to get a big fuzzy idea and force a third of the team to play along - it's fascism for the spineless and decadent.
I'm self-employed. I paid for health insurance for years, but the costs kept going up and the benefits kept declining. I finally had to drop it. Why? Not just the cost. But I was too sick to work to pay for it.
Used up my savings, my everything, paying for health care.
I had cancer a few years ago. I was admitted through the emergency room (uncontrollable hemorrhaging) and was operated on several days later.
But I was a hostage to the system for the radiation treatments. I had to apply for Medicaid in order to receive the treatments. Not get Medicaid. Just APPLY for Medicaid. First I needed a little recovery time. I applied once. The application was rejected. And the clock was ticking. Applied again. Rejected again. More than a month had passed. The third time was the charm.
I have a problem with my knee. I walk with a cane. What's wrong with my knee? How the hell should I know? It's not life threatening. I have a polyp on my larynx. It should be checked every six months. When was it last checked. About five years ago. I could go on. Things that should be checked, watched, tested I can't afford, so they go unchecked, unwatched, and untested.
Shame on the United States of America.
Bless Ya Boita.
Our system sucks.
Rockhead wrote:Bless Ya Boita.
Our system sucks.
Ya, well we have had 30 years notice that the system was broken and we tried one thing to fix it (rationing AKA HMO's). It was obvious with-in five years that rationing was useless for fixing the core problems. So what sucks, our healthcare system or us? Do we take ownership of what we do and don't do or don't we?
30 years ago I was 12.
I give a rats ass who's to blame.
We got a lot of folks hurtin' and a few makin lots of money....
I'm done, cuz I'm not real nice right now.
Feel free to carry on.
Rockhead wrote:30 years ago I was 12.
I give a rats ass who's to blame.
We got a lot of folks hurtin' and a few makin lots of money....
I'm done, cuz I'm not real nice right now.
Feel free to carry on.
30 years ago my DAD was 19.
Who give a flying f$$k what got us here. Let's fix it now.
maporsche wrote:.
Who give a flying f$$k what got us here. Let's fix it now.
Because we need to have some understanding of what is wrong and how it got wrong before we can fix it. There has been sabotage done to health care because it has been profitable for some to do that, if you don't know who is doing it and why every effort to fix the problem will fail.
I have not had healthcare for awhile... I am desperately trying to budget money for it.
Meantime I know people who can afford it if they would make the effort and just choose to roll the dice.
That's why I can go with Hillary's mandated plan as long as it would make premiums fair. I could pay a fair premium. as it is, I can only afford to cover my boy cub.
How do they fund the healthcare system in France? Let's do that.
In Oz we have 1.5% tax levy for Medicare - which is universal health cover. If you go to a bulk billing doctor (one who charges the government's 'fair consultation fee' you just show your card and no cash changes hands. For docs who charge more you pay the diff between the fair and actual fees. You get a hefty tax rebate if you started paying for private medical insurance by age 30. I'm not sure our system is best, but clearly it could be a lot worse.
Cuba's focus on primary health care tells you all you need to know about the economic benefits of prevention. Comparable life expectancy to the US at a fraction of the cost.
We use the medicare system as outlined by hinge above. A few years ago we started paying $100/month into a special investment portfolio. Last count there was $10,000 in it specially set aside for medical expenses. Had I paid health insurance premiums this money would have been gone.
By the time we are in our 60's we should have $50,000 or more and still have the public system to fall back on.
If I was young I would set up an insurance account and pay the going premium rate into it instead of to health and home insurance companies.
Motor vehical insurance is a different story more likely to make a claim when you are young. So you would actually start later in life.
Its a risk but a calculated one.
