Thoughts on Universal healthcare

[sugarbush]

I hope that we get Universal Healthcare within the next term or two. I am sick of spending money on insurance premiums and having to hound the insurance company to get them to pay the medical bills. Lucky for me my MIL is an insurance coder and knows the ins and outs so our insurance company can't get away with anything. As soon as we get a rejection letter my wife is on the phone listing off the laws they are trying to break. It always gets payed, but they always reject first.

I actually had to drop my coverage in order to get our son onto my wifes plan because she has a better policy. So I have been among the unisured for almost a year now.

If any of you haven't seen Sicko you should rent it. Even if you don't like Moore it is a really good documetery.

 

[Blue Skys]

nevermind

 

[hinkjc]

Being employed in the healthcare industry and doing a lot of studies for my concentration in Healthcare Administration for the last 7 years, I have to say that universal healthcare is not all it is cracked up to be. I have studied the various programs offered in other countries quite extensively and it is not as successful as people try to make it sound. In a word, it sounds good, but put it to work and it is less than optimal for meeting the healthcare needs of all. If it was the cure all to meeting health care needs, don't you think it would have been implemented already. Just my insight.

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

Quote:
Ditto,

 

[Wynette]

I'm NOT a fan of Universal Healthcare. Having a SIL who lives in Canada...I've heard horror stories. To be fair, though, I do have insurance through work, so I'm quite sure that skews my viewpoint.

 

[sugarbush]

Actaully I don't think it would be implimented already because the insurance companies have far too much to loose....like an entire industry.... so they lobby hard to block it.

I am sure it is not the fix all, but for millions of people something is better than nothing.

I hear all the time how bad Universal Healthcare is and how bad Canada has it....but what do our Canadian members have to say about it?

 

[Wifezilla]

With Universal Health Care, medical office visits will be just as fun as a day at the DMV.

 

[mjane]

Quote:
Ditto here too. I'm a Rn and I recently had this discussion with my doctor. IF universal helath care happens, realize you will not be able to keep your normal doctor. There will be not be any privat e practice for mds. There will be subacute care centers and whoever is on staff that day you will get. My doc will frequently keep sample meds in his office for patients that can't afford them. LAst week I had to take my daughter who was home from college with a bad cold, cough. He knew we covered all her needs out of pocket because our insurance company won't cover a 21 year old college student. She has basic medical but no prescription. My doc set us up with antibiotics, inhalers and cough meds. Now he won't be able to do this if universal health care happens. I like going to a doctor that knows my family and me so well.

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

As long as we have doctors, lawyers and insurance companies to lobby Congress to prevent the loss of financial billions in premiums and payouts, I think Universal Healthcare is a nice concept but not a reality.

I am uninsured - I'd love to see some kind of regulation or de-regulation within the insurance industry but I'm sure I'm just whistling dixie to the wind.

 

[Xtina]

Wow, I'm surprised we've been through a whole page without a fight starting. But the BYC is great for that. I'll lay out what I think too, and I hope no one gets mad.

I'm pro universal healthcare and realize it's never going to happen. And I'm sorry to be negative about it, but Mr. Obama's plan is not going to fix anything for me or my family. I may get government healthcare, but it's going to cost me just as much as the coverage I have now and I'm sure that I'll still have to fight to get things paid for.

Arguments that other nations' healthcare systems have problems are like the pot calling the kettle black. Yeah, they have problems. But we have worse problems in my opinion. Every time I go to the doctor, I get a massive bill. I'm enslaved to an employer that is unethical because if I quit my job, my family won't have coverage. This doesn't sound like freedom to me. Yes, the government is notoriously inefficient, but my biggest point is that my health, or my lack of health, is nothing for any company to profit from. And profit they do. The way they profit is by charging me monthly payments for a service they never provide. I have paid more for my health care since I got insurance than I did when I was uninsured. The only thing that keeps me from cutting it off is fear of a major accident or disease. And if I did have something happen to me, I know they wouldn't cover it anyway. I would probably be bankrupted by their refusal to cover an itemized list of expenses, just like so many other American families, because I don't have a MIL who works in the industry to help me fight them. And I can't afford a lawyer on retainer to chase them down for every thing they say they won't pay. My husband went to the ER because a miniscule sliver of metal from a construction site flew into his eye when he was riding home from work, and the insurance company wouldn't pay their portion. We don't really know how they figure that doesn't fall under their responsibility.

All this to say that I wish we weren't as easily swayed as a nation by the concept that things might be bad if we had universal coverage. Things are bad, right now, really bad. This is no state for the richest nation in the world. You know, they get universal healthcare in Iraq and Afghanistan off our taxes, but American citizens don't. And there's nothing to say that if you're rich, you can't pay for private healthcare if you want it anyway. A whole niche industry would boom out of rich people not wanting to go to the doctor with everyone else. But I'm not rich. I just got a 20% pay cut at work because of the economy. And I could really use that reduction in my personal financial burdens. Heck, an extra $200 in my pocket every month would really stimulate my local economy. And if my employer didn't have to cover his portion, again, that's jobs he doesn't have to cut. Also, it really shouldn't be my boss' business that I have to have surgery. An unethical employer could just decide to lay me off because I'm too much of a burden. This happens as well, all the time.

So let Mr. Obama toss us this bag of tricks. It's going to keep me in the same situation as before, lower the burden for my boss, and let a lot of poor people get coverage. I'd prefer the government handling it, because the government doesn't have to make a profit by denying me coverage. And I'll still be shouldering the greatest portion of the burden because that's my lot in life. No one's getting out of anything they're responsible for here.

P.S. the lack of universal healthcare makes the philosophical argument that unemployed people don't deserve to go to the doctor when sick. And their sickness and lack of insurance coverage financially burdens us all and puts us all at risk for sickness.