Angry Health Care Rant

by ctrwtf 24 Replies latest jw friends

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  ctrwtf

  For those of you who live in truly first world countries (UK, Australia, Canada, Etc Etc) you can skip this. For those of us stuck in the USA, not a first world country at all, please feel free to read on.

  I've done my best to be fiscally responsible my whole life. I bought my first house at age 25. And because of having a little loot to protect and not wanting to end up in some overcrowded emergency room waiting hours to be seen by Doogie Howser, I purchased health insurance. My lovely wife had our first child, covered by insurance. I had two separate life altering stays in the hospital before I was 30. Again, covered. Back when I first purchased health coverage it was a few hundred a month. Comparatively affordable.

  Until the Afordable Care Act, if you were self employed you were screwed by the insurance companies. It was a litlle better if you worked for a large company that provided a policy for its employees. The reason that fiscally responsible people were paying through the nose was to cover those that could not or would not pay for their own health care needs. Fast forward to the year 2012. My individual premium for health insurance rose to, wait for it,.....................2300 a month! I make a good buck but even I saw the need for a sea-change. Thankfully, the kids are mostly out of the house and Mrs Ctrwtf was ready to get back into the working world. Now because of her, we have pretty great health insurance.

  That's the back story. Now the reason for my rant is that a-hole Republicans still are fuming about so-called Obamacare. I find it ironic that the party that touts personal responsibility doesn't want to part with a nickel to be personally responsible about their own health needs. "I'm young and don't need health insurance." Really? If you get in an accident or need your appendix removed it's going to cost anywhere from 50K to a million bucks. Do you have that cash floating around? "No, but I'll pay it off over time." Guess what Einstein? The hospital is going to send you to collections in three months time then write off the loss and pass the cost on to the next consumer. That said consumer being me, the guy that pays for health insurance at an inflated rate to cover your irresponsibility. Now let me state for the record at this point, I'm not mad about those that because of personal circumstances cannot afford to be responsible for their own needs. I'm mad at people that complain that the govt is forcing them to be responsible. BTW, republicans have yet to forward ANY ideas to solve this enormous issue.

  Personally, I think the best healthcare systems in the world are single payer, govt sponsored. But if you dare to forward that idea, you get the inevitable, "Ya, but people from all over the world come to the USA for advanced medical treatment maaaan." Okay, less than a handful fo people come here every year for some exotic treatment. Meanwhile, life expectancy in every other first world country is surpassing the good ole US of A. They're also spending less per capita on medical treatment.

  I'm not sure if this is the forum for such a secular discussion. But I wiil say that the dubs as a people could care less about being fiscally responsible. Janitors and pioneers don't usually have enough to spend on such things as personal responsibility. Maybe they should purchase some "miracle wheat" to deal with what ails them.
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  jgnat

  Do Canadians go to Mexico (heck, do Americans to go to Mexico) for superior medical treatment? Nooooo.....

  They go there because the procedure is too prohibitive/has too long a wait list/sensible doctors won't consent.

  That being said, there are clinics and surgeons in the US treating rare conditions where there just isn't a comparable treatment here in Canada.
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  Wide Awake!

  All the Obamacare-ites love to pretend that everyone that hates Obamacare wants to go uninsured and be irresponsible. This simply isn't the case. I'm self employed and had reasonably priced coverage before the Unaffordable Care Act. Now I have to pay 40% more for worse coverage.

  I feel duped because I was under the impression that if I liked my plan (which I did) that I could keep my plan. Where did I get this idea from? Hmmm....

  Supposedly Obamacare will force everyone that wasn't covered before to buy health coverage. But let me ask some questions: Why will people that made poor choices before suddenly make good choices and sign up for unaffordable coverage? Because there's a law that says they are supposed to? Will illegal immigrants suddenly buy health care so they can obey the law? Will the homeless and mentally ill? What if those struggling are unable to keep up with their bills and let the policy lapse?

  Obamacare doesn't fix these problems. But it does punish the responsible people that were already paying for coverage by gouging them further.
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  jgnat

  When this government centralized its' internal administrative services, the departments who had larger budgets were mightily ticked off. Yes, for those departments, they were worse off. But for more, services were lifted. Yes, there's a trade-off for centralization.
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  LisaRose

  I have Tricare, which is the government run, military health care system. When people were ranting about the government being unable to run health care, I had to laugh, Tricare is great. Unlike other insurance, they never refuse to pay if it's for eligible care. There are a few hoops to jump through to get specialty care, but it's not as bad as most insurance.

  It's fun to see the right wingers going crazy because none of their dire predictions came true. There were glitches in the, system, and it could have gone better, but it was not the end of the world like they predicted. Many people who could not afford insurance can now get it. Mortality rates are decreasing. Hopefully they will work out all the glitches and it will get even better.
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  littlerockguy

  Lisa,

  Not every healthcare facility takes Tricare insurance and if somebody has Tricare insurance and wants to see a doctor that does not participate in that insurance that doctor cannot see that patient and charge him an office visit fee.

  LRG
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  nonjwspouse

  When the IRS is in charge of the healthcare ( which is wha Obamacare is, IRS controlled healthcare) can you REALLY seeing this being less expensive for middle class people? Do you expect efficiency with all of this? Do you expect "not one iota of fraud or waste"? Really? Dr's are leaving, just as teachers are leaving the professions because of current actions by the federal government.

  Instead of the current law, insurance having the ability to cross state lines could have done a lot. So could tort reform.
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  Indian Larry

  I am in early 50's

  I have had health insurance for my whole life until 4 years ago. At the time I was paying $1300 for a family of 3. I had to let it go for a year for economic reasons. When I tried to get insurance again they would not allow me to get insurance due to a health problem I have. It is a problem that is genetic and has never required treatment. It is a very very very slow moving problem that in all likelyhood will never affect my health. I never maid a claim on that issue ever.

  Still they denied me coverage. So I (self employed) have to risk everything going without coverage. Along comes Obamacare. Now I can get coverage again, my deductable is high ($5500) but at least I do have coverage and because my income is under $70,000 it only cost about $380 per month.

  The thing is all the years I did have coverage I paid in well over $200,000 in premiums and never had a hospital stay at all. I did however have kidney stones once. I was in the emergency room in severe pain. The hospital was taking other (who I am pretty sure were not insured) and left me out there for 2 hours. I finally left and did without.

  The thing is that I was still paying for those without insurance to have healthcare. The reason my premiums were so high was because the hospital has to charge $12 per asprin for the people who have insurance to cover the ones that don't.

  I know I am rambling but bottom line is this. I do not have a problem at all with Obamacare. The high deductables will keep people from running to the doctor to get antibiotics every time they get the sniffles and the insurance companies will still make money, you can be sure of that. As far as the republicans whining about it . . . get over it. It kind of reminds me of all these guys with the rebel flags in their windows. You lost move on. This country is a democracy, the majority of our elected representatives passed the affordable health care act, that is the way it is. Get over it.

  The act never would have passed if the health care system wasnt so royally screwed up in the first place with insurance companies and hospitals battleing to see who could screw you over the most.
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  jgnat

  I realize that it rankles to get advice from a smug Canadian, but I found this video to be fairly well balanced and smart.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSjGouBmo0M

  His conclusion? Health care is so expensive in the US because individual hospitals can't leverage savings from bulk buys like we do in Canada. I know our pills cost less.
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  nonjwspouse

  Indian larry I agree the US healthinsruance system is broken. Tort reform would help with the massive insurance premiums Drs must pay, plus helpthem make decisions based on the best paitent care, and not out of fear of lawsuits. (Insruance "standards", that are cokie cutter onesize fits all)

  Insurance companies have had monopoly over each state population. if hey had been allowed to cross over state lines, then the pool would be so much bigger and the competition plus risk spreading out would drive the prices lower.

  There are some Drs who have even trying to practive without accepting any insurance, and much lower cost to the paitent than whaaan iinsurance company woul dbe charged just so the Dr wouldet the fraction of the charge. Curtting out the insurance inflating prices ,middle man, is a very good idea. Catestrophic insurance at a lower cost for the unexpected, and that is what I as a self employed person would have done. Obamacare forbids Drs to practice without accepting insurance FORBIDS. This is to much federal control.

  The insrance companies haveeen out of control, and needed reform, but Obama care is a disaster. More already paying preiums people lost coverage due to being dropped, than those who were uncovered to begin with. How is that improving? It isn't. many people go on the exchange and get lower coerage than they had before being dropped.

  Reform, yes, Obamacare, Federal taxation on health care, IRS controlled , doubling medicaid, no.

  Remember as Jgnat said, the US is the leader in many helth care innovations and treatments. There is a reason for that. Obamacare removes the incentive for the health care field to go the extra mile, to take the risk in leading treaments.