Healthcare costs

[Grace]

She's one of my favorite talking heads!


Good article. It asks the basic 'consumer' questions.

I really enjoy her articles. She seems to have more common sense than some of the others who prattle incessantly.

[RICHARD]

I was listening to the radio and the HMO that I worked for had a commercial about how 'wonderful' it was to be a member...

Now you can,

Send an email to the doctor's office.
Get info on your Med Recs.
Get info on your prescriptions.
Schedule appts., cancel appts.


I stood there and laughed for about three minutes because the woman said the system was "safe and secure".

This is the same company that was fined almost 450k for letting employees look at the Octomom's files.

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Use your imagination to see what a email from a HMO member would look like, what the person who answers the email has to do to decode it and what the timeline in answering the note is!


Deer Doktor Mel Practice.

I have a prblm with da way dat I go 2 da b-room. I 8 some food dat made me sick. I cannot go numbr 2 for three daze! I hurtz when I tri to push and may be I need 2 c u fast. I want 2 eat sumthing but only do G2, a sportz drink!
Let me no what 2 do, I am hurtin!


I love technology!
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Now they will increase the cost of your premiums because they have to hire 'peeps' that will do nothing but answer emails all day long.

Please remember this when the HCR bills go for a vote.

I am all for tech and improving service in the health care sector, but find that this is a recipe for disaster.


You will see that the lawsuit about the person who WILL NOT SEE A DOC will send an email in to the HMO, wait and then die beacuse of some 'hitch' in the system.


"The patient did not read the disclaimer-if they have a serious condition they need to call 911 of go directly to the medical center/ER for help."

What a colossal eff up this is going to be!

[Grace]

The latest from Susan Estrich -

Mother Knows Best

The president is "not familiar" with the bill. No one can explain how it will work yet, as Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told a contentious town meeting. There are various plans, and negotiations are still in the early stages.

But whatever it is, we should be for it.

Am I missing something?

We're only talking about our health and our kids' health, the things my mother, may she rest in peace, told me a thousand times are the only things worth caring about. If you have your health, you have everything. And if you don't, what in the world matters more than the best health care in the world, which is found right here?

Not by everybody, mind you, and not cheaply, for anybody. No one's suggesting for a moment that there aren't major problems with both access and cost. But the best health care in the world is still here, and before we take steps that could make things much worse, I'd like to be very certain that they will indeed make things much better.

Your health, as I now tell my children, is not something to fool around with. Read the labels. Don't take unnecessary risks. Look before you leap. The devil is in the details.

Why would it be different for a health care plan?

I'm glad no one is calling me to ask whether I "support" health care reform.
At this point, the question — and the polls measuring people's answers to it — is utterly meaningless. What is health care reform?

Would I love to see every American have access to high-quality medical care? Of course.

Am I just as appalled as the next person when I get the bill (that for me, luckily, is mostly paid by insurance) and see what various tests and scans cost, or, rather, what hospitals are forced to charge patients with insurance in order to cover the ones without it? Sure.

But I'm not willing to give up my doctor or the time I spend with him. I'm not willing to give up the relationship we have. My children, now grown, feel as comfortable calling him as I do because he has taken the time with them over the years to build that trust.

And no matter how high the final price tag on those tests have been, never once have I said, "If I'd known how much they would cost, I wouldn't have had them done." No, I'm grateful for my insurance, grateful for the technology, grateful for good care.

So am I for health care reform? Do I support the House bill, whatever it is, or the Obama plan, which may or may not be the same thing?

Not yet. Not until I know what it is. Not until someone convinces me that whatever it is will do more good than harm, both for the country and for my family. Mother knows best.

source

Someone please explain to me why they are in such a hurry to pass this? Even Medicare took 18 months.