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Current Mood: cranky, oh MY yes

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health stuff

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Remember that MRI scheduled for this evening? Today's snail brings News! from Anthem Blue Cross. After due consideration, they agree that an MRI is reasonable in the case and will allow the appointment to stand.

WTF? Anthem gets to decide if my knee hurts bad enough for me to Do Something About It?

Ghod, we need a health care system in this country. Please.

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I really do not understand why people think having the government step in is a good thing – in anything.
The company I work for routinely shops the different health care insurance companies to get the lowest rates. Yeah, I bet there is stuff my health care might not cover – but they are trying to balance cost (mine and the companies – health care insurance is split 50/50).

So we make government health care. My taxes go up – now I am paying for mine and yours.

Sure some people can not afford health care and the human thing to do would be to pay for it for them. But I am trying to make a living myself and taking even more of my money away is not helping me. It is bad enough that the current government is de-valuing the dollars. That makes thing more expensive for me and kills the little bit I have set aside for retirement. Thanks a lot. I would love to blame Obama, but the real problem is the people in the US want a quick fix / magic pill solution for everything.

You are probably totally against it because you have never experienced it. I have. I grew up in Germany and I never had to wait for any surgery, procedure, doctor's visit or medication in 27 years.

I lived in the UK and I never had to wait for anything during the time I was there. Even in Croatia (a country that is barely out of a war), where part of my family lives, health care is better than here in the U.S.

It's really depressing me that so many people believe the right-wing and health insurance company propaganda claims about nationalized health care being bad for the citizens. It's only bad for the health insurance and pharma companies that are making billions off the backs of the insured.

It's really depressing me that so many people believe the right-wing and health insurance company propaganda claims about nationalized health care being bad for the citizens. It's only bad for the health insurance and pharma companies that are making billions off the backs of the insured.

THIS. Oh god, is it ever THIS.

The bigger the organization the more prone it is to in-efficiencies and corruption. Can you think of a bigger organization the US government?
What other countries are able to do, does not necessarily hold true to the US. Your argument holds no weight with me.

I hope you never lose your job.

i have, several times. it sucks.

No one likes high taxes, but you're telling me (and this is a hypothetical senerio) that if you could have a healthcare system where all you did was show a card to the doctor and not get a huge whomping bill when you left, and the cost was say a one percent increase in your taxes, you wouldn't go for it?

You already pay for education (teachers, librarians, aids), and safety (police, fire and rescue) why not doctors and nurses?

Referring back to the VA hospitals - there's a reason I (a vet) take the basic plan, then pay extra to choose my own doctors and facilities:

Lack of basic sanitary precautions during colonoscopies passes AIDS and Hepatitis around like a party favor:

http://tinyurl.com/lkvqkj

http://tinyurl.com/l5chsm

Some issues with treatment of prostate cancer (which my husband will be having in three weeks):

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/health/21radiation.html

...and a trivial little piece about Gyn exam rooms opening out onto the waiting room:

http://tinyurl.com/ktqduj

Finally, a problem common to both civilian and military medical care - no room at the inn:

http://tinyurl.com/nlancg

A government "thou shalt" isn't going to fix this. A government "thou shalt treat all emergency room patients, regardless of their ability to pay" led to the Orange County hospital closest to my brother-in-law shutting down its emergency room entirely. Unfunded mandates. Gotta love 'em.

But in answer to Sharon's question, "Wishing for a health care system THAT WORKS is a Bad Thing?", my response is "HELL, no!" I just have serious doubts as to the competency of the federal government (and most state governments) to come up with one. Although they've done such a GOOD job of project (and money) management so far!

First response to the articles: AAAAAAHH.

Second response: I note that the first article about the endoscopy equipment includes this tidbit:

The internal report noted that the VA is not alone in reporting problems with endoscopy procedures: Private hospitals in California and Pennsylvania have notified thousands of patients in recent years after similar concerns.

It's not just the VA, sadly.

This is true - and the last article expresses a universal problem as well. Earlier folks in this thread commented that their own VA hospitals were exceptional. That's terrific. I hope they continue to be so.

In fairness, I have to add that while I pay extra to choose my own caregivers, my medical care is still heavily subsidized. What I pay is not what the average 45-year-old woman trying to buy health insurance would pay.

We're back to Sharon's request - a health care plan that WORKS.

Sigh...

If it was an opt in -- I only get billed/taxed if I join. Yes.

Trust, I do not trust my government to do the job right.

I would actually feel better about it if it was done at the state level.

I really do not understand why people think having the government step in is a good thing – in anything.

The greatest paean to just how effective the US government is, is that reasonably intelligent people can grow up there to be libertarians without dying instantly of cognitive dissonance.

The company I work for routinely shops the different health care insurance companies[...]

So, you're saying that everyone should work for your company, or some comparable company, or be denied affordable health insurance?

LOL, try an actual argument next time.

Well, how much would you pay for an albuterol inhaler? How long a hospital stay is covered after a caesarean section? What do they do to prevent caesarean sections? How are diabetes testing strips rationed? What's the amount you'd pay for glasses, and how often are eye exams covered?

You should already know the answer to at least one of these... And it should be easy enough to find out. It's not like I'm asking about exotic conditions, just 4 exceedingly common chronic ones.

The tax rate for Medicare is 1.5% in Australia. Nobody even notices that the money has gone!

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Totally against government health care.

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