Have You Decided Yet?

[Edwina's Secretary]

The thing that angers me the most are the lame promises regarding health care that everyone seem to be "operating" with.

A little investigation and anyone would see the idea of health care for everyone is a pipe dream.

Doctor's do not like to deal with the feds because of the delay in paying for services.

Fraud is a huge concern - Docs and patients do it...

Costs will go up. Usually that happens when the pockets paying for medical care get really deep.

And what is wrong with dreams?

This week we received a note from the woman who delivers one of our newspapers. She is a single mother of three. Who gets up in the middle of the night while her children sleep to deliver our paper. She has never missed a day. The paper is in the right spot every day.

But newpaper delivery people do not have medical insurance. And she has cancer and needs surgery. Her pockets aren't very deep. She will be out of work for two months.

Pipe dream?

A friend of mine has a medical condition -- lupus. She nearly died and was on kidney dialysis ten years ago. She is doing well now and working. Her medical insurance is through her husband's employer. They changed carriers and he made a mistake on the paperwork. So the insurance company dropped her (and their two kids.) I am trying to help her straighten it out (I know some of the magic words due to my profession.) Meanwhile she is cutting her medicine in half because she is afraid of the cost and what will happen because of her pre-existing condition. Oh yeah...her husband just found out his employer is going to have a layoff next week. So it may not matter. And it is past the 30 days for a Change in Status enrollment, etc, etc.

Pipe dream? Doesn't every change start as a pipe dream?

[RICHARD]

I don't have very much experience in the health insurance industry but I can tell you that there is a difference between pipe dreams and reality.

I am very much in favor of med insurance for everyone. But the reality is that there are forces - pharm companies, med supply companies, implant companies, docs and the other people involved in providing health care that do not want, nor care for more government involvement.

Ask any physician about billing and the feds.

Here's another hint about why Fed Insurance won't work.

Should the gov't. start insuring medically they will look into the costs and investigating why the prices are so outrageous. Companies like Baxter, Smith and Nephew will Medtronics will fight tooth and nail to keep their golden goose alive.

I have seen the prices of sutures, screws and plates, implanted defibrillators...I wish I could fleece - I mean sell product to hospitals.

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The health plan I worked for had a plan to save money and reward the docs who could save the most.

A friend took his son to a satellite clinic (same company I worked for) his son fell and bumped his arm.
NO X-RAY, just an ace band-aid, aspirin and little "bend your arm".

Later on that evening the kid woke up screaming - the second visit revealed a broken arm.

Crappy health care is a reality. I had to make sure my I.D. badge was off because if I walked into a public area with it on I'd always get the, "Oh, you work for XXXXXX? You killed my Mom, sister, brother....."

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Every change does start with a pipe dream, But you have to be ready for the people you are going to pi$$ off when you light up in a No Smoking area.