Government run health care

[Edwina's Secretary]

I have a friend. I have known her..and her husband since before they were husband and wife - at least 25 years.

They have three children. Their son is grown and on his own. The girls are still in high school. They have been through many ups and downs in their marriage...the worst had been just over 11 years ago. She was diagnosed with lupus. Very, very sick. At times she was not expected to make it. She was on a kidney transplant list. Eventually, she went into remission. Her kidneys functioned at 25%. Enough.

When her daughters started high school she went back to work. Nothing fancy but with benefits. Her employer... loves her as she is a great person. But they had some concerns hiring her because of her medical history.

It was a good thing they hired her because her husband is a manufacturing engineer. And now - most manufacturing is done in India or China. Last year the company where he worked closed. He has been looking for work since. I got him a gig with a client for a few months. One company told him his English is "too accented."

And now...her lupus is back. She has been in the hospital. She is on dialysis and chemo. She is hoping she can work a few hours a day. The money of course. But also...by law she is entitled to 480 hours (12 weeks) of unpaid medical leave. After that, her employer can terminate her. And her benefits. (And mostly likely they will. Strictly business of course.) The family cannot afford COBRA. MAYBE...the stimulus funds that are helping people by paying 65% of COBRA will be extended beyond 12/31/09. Maybe not.

I have been helping their older daughter with her college applications. That will most likely have to take a back seat to the medical expenses.

I cannot imagine how frightened she is. Which of course, does not help her illness.

Please, please....do not say "pray for her." What she needs is a country that gets out of the dark ages. A country that recognizes it is not 1776 anymore. A country that recognizes, as the rest of the civilized world has, that adequate and affordable healthcare is a right...not a privilege.

Some of my PetTalk friends have met her. I know they will join me in hoping our country comes to its senses before it is too late.

[Puckstop31]

I have a friend. I have known her..and her husband since before they were husband and wife - at least 25 years.

They have three children. Their son is grown and on his own. The girls are still in high school. They have been through many ups and downs in their marriage...the worst had been just over 11 years ago. She was diagnosed with lupus. Very, very sick. At times she was not expected to make it. She was on a kidney transplant list. Eventually, she went into remission. Her kidneys functioned at 25%. Enough.

When her daughters started high school she went back to work. Nothing fancy but with benefits. Her employer... loves her as she is a great person. But they had some concerns hiring her because of her medical history.

It was a good thing they hired her because her husband is a manufacturing engineer. And now - most manufacturing is done in India or China. Last year the company where he worked closed. He has been looking for work since. I got him a gig with a client for a few months. One company told him his English is "too accented."

And now...her lupus is back. She has been in the hospital. She is on dialysis and chemo. She is hoping she can work a few hours a day. The money of course. But also...by law she is entitled to 480 hours (12 weeks) of unpaid medical leave. After that, her employer can terminate her. And her benefits. (And mostly likely they will. Strictly business of course.) The family cannot afford COBRA. MAYBE...the stimulus funds that are helping people by paying 65% of COBRA will be extended beyond 12/31/09. Maybe not.

I have been helping their older daughter with her college applications. That will most likely have to take a back seat to the medical expenses.

I cannot imagine how frightened she is. Which of course, does not help her illness.

Please, please....do not say "pray for her." What she needs is a country that gets out of the dark ages. A country that recognizes it is not 1776 anymore. A country that recognizes, as the rest of the civilized world has, that adequate and affordable healthcare is a right...not a privilege.

Some of my PetTalk friends have met her. I know they will join me in hoping our country comes to its senses before it is too late.

Very emotional...

And all very good, from the heart. But this issue requires a brain as well.

How do we do this, without ruining our economy, like all the other countries that have tried it? Health care a RIGHT? Perhaps. Why not make it so?

YES, our system is in need of repair. YES, people like the one described here need help. Is it worth screwing our economy to the point where we are dragged down to 3rd world status?

WHO PAYS FOR IT???? This is something the left often ignores.

Emotion is swell. Its time for REASON to be part of the debate. Remember, I am with you. But it needs to happen in a way that does not destroy our economy, more than this administration has already hurt it.

[blue]

Im going to implore for PTers to pray, send good vibes, or light a candle for ES's friend and her family. My understanding is the benefits from the bill under debate will not come into effect until 2013/14.

[sasvermont]

ES, I am sorry to hear about your friends and their health and job situations.

Puckstop, how rude of you to make the comment about needing a brain. Grow up, will you?

[Puckstop31]

Its rude to say that we should put a LOT of thought into the way we change our HCS?

ES provided a very good example of why the system needs to be better. All the good intentions in the world will not mean anything if the country can't afford the burden. The bills in both the House and Senate will hurt our economy even more than it already is. So again, how does it get paid for? How do we REDUCE costs? (Without reducing the quality of care.)

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The Dark Ages? REALLY? The country that far and away gives more to charity? The country that was first to the moon.... How insulting for ES to say that our country needs to get out of the Dark Ages. "A country that recognizes its not 1776 anymore." Please.

Thats the emotional bullcrap that I am talking about.

"....that adequate and affordable healthcare is a right...not a privilege."

Thats the catch, eh? And if it is a RIGHT, why is there not a Constitutional Amendment in process? Oh, right... That is SO 1776.


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Yes, I have ideas as to how to make it better and more affordable.

1.) Limit the awards for pain and suffering to reasonable amounts. Not the amount a good speaking lawyer can get out of a emotional jury.

2.) Allow insurance companies to sell policies in multiple states.

These two things by themselves will reduce the cost of care. There are more good, no GREAT ides out there. The problem is more people need to be willing to take on the responsibility themselves for THEIR healthcare. That alone is why it is dangerous to speak about healthcare as a right.

[sasvermont]

What you said about requiring a brain, was rude. Nice try to dismiss it so easily.

[Puckstop31]

What you said about requiring a brain, was rude. Nice try to dismiss it so easily.

Fair enough. I apologize for being rude.

Any comments on the substance?

[Randi]

Sara, I so very sorry your friend is going through this. I can imagine how frightened she must be. I am one of those who have met her, and I will definately send her a card.

Concerning the possible change of the health care system in USA, I have to believe that it’s out of ignorance that so many are against it - or simply that people have no clue how such a system would work. It’s done in many European countries. It’s not perfect, but it secures everybody, whether they are rich or poor. We can get treatment in hospital for free, and I do think that should be a right for any person. Yes, we do pay more tax in European countries, but we can afford it, and we can count on free health care and feel reasonable safe.

At least some Americans have this view on healthcare:

“I am willing to pay $583.33 a month to prevent me from having ANOTHER $50,000 dollar bill for a one week hospital stay, like I had xx years ago. The following week I had to be rushed to another hospital and the bill was even higher with all the things they did to me. Fortunately at that time, I had excellent insurance and I only paid less than $200.00 for the whole thing. Things are different for me today. I have the same condition and NO insurance.

I am willing to pay $583.33 a month to be able to show the money-making doctors that they don't have to worry about me when they treat me. I don't want to be sent home ONE DAY before I need to be.”

And here’s an article from The Washinton Post that will enlighten you on health care in other countries:

5 Myths About Health Care Around the World

As Americans search for the cure to what ails our health-care system, we've overlooked an invaluable source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world. All the other industrialized democracies have faced problems like ours, yet they've found ways to cover everybody -- and still spend far less than we do.

I've traveled the world from Oslo to Osaka to see how other developed democracies provide health care. Instead of dismissing these models as "socialist," we could adapt their solutions to fix our problems. To do that, we first have to dispel a few myths about health care abroad:

1. It's all socialized medicine out there.

Not so. Some countries, such as Britain, New Zealand and Cuba, do provide health care in government hospitals, with the government paying the bills. Others -- for instance, Canada and Taiwan -- rely on private-sector providers, paid for by government-run insurance. But many wealthy countries -- including Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and Switzerland -- provide universal coverage using private doctors, private hospitals and private insurance plans.
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In some ways, health care is less "socialized" overseas than in the United States. Almost all Americans sign up for government insurance (Medicare) at age 65. In Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, seniors stick with private insurance plans for life. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is one of the planet's purest examples of government-run health care.

2. Overseas, care is rationed through limited choices or long lines.

Generally, no. Germans can sign up for any of the nation's 200 private health insurance plans -- a broader choice than any American has. If a German doesn't like her insurance company, she can switch to another, with no increase in premium. The Swiss, too, can choose any insurance plan in the country.

In France and Japan, you don't get a choice of insurance provider; you have to use the one designated for your company or your industry. But patients can go to any doctor, any hospital, any traditional healer. There are no U.S.-style limits such as "in-network" lists of doctors or "pre-authorization" for surgery. You pick any doctor, you get treatment -- and insurance has to pay.

Canadians have their choice of providers. In Austria and Germany, if a doctor diagnoses a person as "stressed," medical insurance pays for weekends at a health spa.

As for those notorious waiting lists, some countries are indeed plagued by them. Canada makes patients wait weeks or months for nonemergency care, as a way to keep costs down. But studies by the Commonwealth Fund and others report that many nations -- Germany, Britain, Austria -- outperform the United States on measures such as waiting times for appointments and for elective surgeries.


In Japan, waiting times are so short that most patients don't bother to make an appointment. One Thursday morning in Tokyo, I called the prestigious orthopedic clinic at Keio University Hospital to schedule a consultation about my aching shoulder. "Why don't you just drop by?" the receptionist said. That same afternoon, I was in the surgeon's office. Dr. Nakamichi recommended an operation. "When could we do it?" I asked. The doctor checked his computer and said, "Tomorrow would be pretty difficult. Perhaps some day next week?"

3. Foreign health-care systems are inefficient, bloated bureaucracies.

Much less so than here. It may seem to Americans that U.S.-style free enterprise -- private-sector, for-profit health insurance -- is naturally the most cost-effective way to pay for health care. But in fact, all the other payment systems are more efficient than ours.

U.S. health insurance companies have the highest administrative costs in the world; they spend roughly 20 cents of every dollar for nonmedical costs, such as paperwork, reviewing claims and marketing. France's health insurance industry, in contrast, covers everybody and spends about 4 percent on administration. Canada's universal insurance system, run by government bureaucrats, spends 6 percent on administration. In Taiwan, a leaner version of the Canadian model has administrative costs of 1.5 percent; one year, this figure ballooned to 2 percent, and the opposition parties savaged the government for wasting money.
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The world champion at controlling medical costs is Japan, even though its aging population is a profligate consumer of medical care. On average, the Japanese go to the doctor 15 times a year, three times the U.S. rate. They have twice as many MRI scans and X-rays. Quality is high; life expectancy and recovery rates for major diseases are better than in the United States. And yet Japan spends about $3,400 per person annually on health care; the United States spends more than $7,000.

4. Cost controls stifle innovation.

False. The United States is home to groundbreaking medical research, but so are other countries with much lower cost structures. Any American who's had a hip or knee replacement is standing on French innovation. Deep-brain stimulation to treat depression is a Canadian breakthrough. Many of the wonder drugs promoted endlessly on American television, including Viagra, come from British, Swiss or Japanese labs.

Overseas, strict cost controls actually drive innovation. In the United States, an MRI scan of the neck region costs about $1,500. In Japan, the identical scan costs $98. Under the pressure of cost controls, Japanese researchers found ways to perform the same diagnostic technique for one-fifteenth the American price. (And Japanese labs still make a profit.)

5. Health insurance has to be cruel.

Not really. American health insurance companies routinely reject applicants with a "preexisting condition" -- precisely the people most likely to need the insurers' service. They employ armies of adjusters to deny claims. If a customer is hit by a truck and faces big medical bills, the insurer's "rescission department" digs through the records looking for grounds to cancel the policy, often while the victim is still in the hospital. The companies say they have to do this stuff to survive in a tough business.

Foreign health insurance companies, in contrast, must accept all applicants, and they can't cancel as long as you pay your premiums. The plans are required to pay any claim submitted by a doctor or hospital (or health spa), usually within tight time limits. The big Swiss insurer Groupe Mutuel promises to pay all claims within five days. "Our customers love it," the group's chief executive told me. The corollary is that everyone is mandated to buy insurance, to give the plans an adequate pool of rate-payers.

The key difference is that foreign health insurance plans exist only to pay people's medical bills, not to make a profit. The United States is the only developed country that lets insurance companies profit from basic health coverage.

In many ways, foreign health-care models are not really "foreign" to America, because our crazy-quilt health-care system uses elements of all of them. For Native Americans or veterans, we're Britain: The government provides health care, funding it through general taxes, and patients get no bills. For people who get insurance through their jobs, we're Germany: Premiums are split between workers and employers, and private insurance plans pay private doctors and hospitals. For people over 65, we're Canada: Everyone pays premiums for an insurance plan run by the government, and the public plan pays private doctors and hospitals according to a set fee schedule. And for the tens of millions without insurance coverage, we're Burundi or Burma: In the world's poor nations, sick people pay out of pocket for medical care; those who can't pay stay sick or die.
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This fragmentation is another reason that we spend more than anybody else and still leave millions without coverage. All the other developed countries have settled on one model for health-care delivery and finance; we've blended them all into a costly, confusing bureaucratic mess.

Which, in turn, punctures the most persistent myth of all: that America has "the finest health care" in the world. We don't. In terms of results, almost all advanced countries have better national health statistics than the United States does. In terms of finance, we force 700,000 Americans into bankruptcy each year because of medical bills. In France, the number of medical bankruptcies is zero. Britain: zero. Japan: zero. Germany: zero.

Given our remarkable medical assets -- the best-educated doctors and nurses, the most advanced hospitals, world-class research -- the United States could be, and should be, the best in the world. To get there, though, we have to be willing to learn some lessons about health-care administration from the other industrialized democracies.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Thank you Randi for posting that. The xenophobia of some people in this country is embarrassing. There are many successful systems out there that could be adapted to the U.S.

Anyone who thinks we aren't already paying for each others medical insurance is naive. Every time we buy a can of soup - we are contributing to the medical insurance of someone else.

So we continue to provide healthcare in the most inefficient way possible.

Hurray for us...

[Cinder & Smoke]

As Americans search for the cure to what ails our health-care system,
we've overlooked an invaluable source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world.
All the other industrialized democracies have faced problems like ours,
yet they've found ways to cover everybody -- and still spend far less than we do.

Given our remarkable medical assets -- the best-educated doctors and nurses,
the most advanced hospitals, world-class research -- the United States could be,
and should be, the best in the world. To get there, though,
we have to be willing to learn some lessons about health-care
administration from the other industrialized democracies.

Hey Randi ...
We'll have an opening in the White House in a few short years ---
Would you be interested?

[RICHARD]

Randi,

I read thru the article and there are a few points that the writer seems to have missed.

No mention of the lawsuits for meds, implants and procedures that go wrong.

A good percentage of the techs, nusrses and docs are foreign born and educated.

-------------------

Innovation in health care are often stifled by lawsuits because 3 people out of 100,000 have some side effect or die from the treatment.


I do not know if you get the commercials on TV about a new medicine to treat nail fungus and at the end the announcer says that taking the medicine will cause 7 or 8 side effects that may make you SICKER than the original malady.

The current regime in control makes it sound like the problems with healthcare will magically disappear with a new law/bill.

The system has to be reformed by first controlling the costs of treatment and materials. People refuse to understand this and think that any opposition to the president's push to get HIS idea for healthcare enacted is racist or anti Obama.

These ideas show the desperation and the unwillingness to look at the whole picture, It's far easier to making the topic into a political struggle than it is to look out for the people that need to have any kind of health care.


Don't fall for the media horse crap about health care reform.

The writer also makes the assumption that we do not have the "world's greatest" heathcare.

I have to say we have the best facilities and the best treatment options, the problem is with the ability to provide those services and facilities to everyone here in the states.


The rest of the world have their systems in place and would have the same kind of outrage and problems trying to implement a change to those programs, just like we are going thru.

I do agree that the money making part of the system in the U.S. is part of the problem, so he did write the truth about that.

The real danger and cost to health care here in the United States are the people who have no qualms about letting a bunch of AH politicians determine the future of medicine.

In essence we are giving them a blank check to determine what is best for us.

It's like getting a prostate check from a homeless person off the street.
You pay for the exam, get the exam and have invested in a bottle of booze to keep the drunk, drunk.

[Randi]

Thank you for the offer, Phred - although I have to decline. I'm getting too old and lazy.

Richard, we don't do all these lawsuits over here, doctors get it right the first time. ..... No, of course, sadly, mistakes happen, and people do get a lot of money if something goes wrong.

As far as I know, we don't have a lot of foreign doctors here, but they ARE looking for some. I don't know how well educated they are, compared to ours, but if they're not, I'm sure they'll get the proper training here.

The danger of the American health system is that a lot of people think only about themselves! We all should do more to help others. It helps us all and therefore helps you too.

[RICHARD]

Thank you for the offer, Phred - although I have to decline. I'm getting too old and lazy.

Richard, we don't do all these lawsuits over here, doctors get it right the first time. ..... No, of course, sadly, mistakes happen, and people do get a lot of money if something goes wrong.

I just passed over a story where a lawsuit against the tobacco company was settled for I don't know how many millions of dollars.

You can be assured that if you bring a lawsuit against any company for a med you were given for an illness and even if the case does not go to trial the company will settle out of court in order not to have a judgement go against them.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/Travel...web3111644.htm

wow!

[Edwina's Secretary]

Those who want to use fear -- say things like "now women under 40 will not be allowed to have mammograms!" also like to talk about how great our healthcare is now.

As if pretty offices make for quality healthcare. The objective measures of healthcare - life expectancy, infant mortality, etc. - the US consistently lags.

I have to laugh when I read this statement too...

The current regime in control makes it sound like the problems with healthcare will magically disappear with a new law/bill.

Talk about horse crap? I have NEVER heard anyone in the current administration say that.

But then...I know it is an administration not a regime...

We need to focus on facts - not the hyperbolic hysterical horse crap people make up.

[Edwina's Secretary]

What you said about requiring a brain, was rude. Nice try to dismiss it so easily.

Oh SAS! You didn't recognize the new, kinder, gentler version??