... who still thinks that our current "extract a profit" based health care delivery is superior to the "health is everyone's concern" single payer model? How much out of pocket per year did the illness cost your family in terms of % of yearly family income? How did it impact the cancer sufferer in terms of future employment and health insurance covereage? So far the answers are mostly falling into 3 categories (1) Even with my insurance, I still can't afford to get sick. (2) We had good insurance, so it didn't impact our family much. (3) I object to the notion that our health is a community concern rather than a matter of individual choice.
With 80% of America's bankruptcies being due to medical expenses, it's hard to believe that NO participants have experienced the devastation a single serious illness can cause even the insured. "She had chemo for 18 months and even with insurance we had to pay the equivelent of year's family income. She's had a hard time finding jobs since because no one wants to insure a cancer survivor, and even when she does have a job she pays extra for pre-existing condition coverage" is my own family story. My mother who is 86 now, has dementia going into Altheimers. I know, this isn't cancer, but this can be worse in some respects.
My mother uses Medicare and not allowed to use MediCade. The reason for not being allowed to use MediCade is because she still has assets in excess of $1500.00. I am sure you people who have been involved with MediCare and MediCade know what I'm talking about.
I am fully for a single payer plan that is run by our government.
Our country is the only modernized country in the world that does not have government run plan or at least the opportunity to go into it. Sure, there are problems with any system, I will grant you that much.
I don't want to hear anyone complaining that they have to pay for someone elses health care through their taxes. All they are being is GREEDY, self-centered, egotistical fools. But, of course, this country is based on greed in the first place. Me first and the heck with the other guy.
Our system is based on what is called, believe it or not, the Social Net. This means that the government creates programs, using your tax dollors, that everyone is entitiled to use when they need it. The problem is, is that some people seem to feel they won't "ever" need it. This is total illusion.
Just wait, your turn is coming up. Because of the demand to limit government programs, when you might need these services, they won't be there for you because of your greed.
It would be wonderful that someday our government will allow people to Opt Out of its system, or pick and choose which taxes not to pay. Why? Because, since you don't want to pay your taxes for programs that help other people, someday you will need this or that service and you won't be allowed to use it. I will have absolutely NO sympathy for you whatsoever.
The total combined force of people themselves is what makes a country great. This country, the US, is no longer great because of its peoples' increasingly greedy nature to hord its wealth. Why is it that only 10% of our population hold over 80% of its wealth? That means, the rest of us, 90% of its population has to settle for only 20% of its wealth.
And, what pisses me off is that the average person on the street votes for these laws because of your self-defeating political or religious ideaology that help the rich because of greed. You think the wealth is going to "trickle down" and make you rich too. Your fools to think so! thank John Edwards for increasing the cost of health care
exponentially by his ...for profit litigation..
thank you John..and thank you to all of the demagogues who appreciate every Barrister's support and lobby for special interest on their behalf I have. It was very expensive. My father died of cancer, and my mother has had breast cancer.
Is it your assertion that we should be forced to bear the health risks of others? My brother had it... had health insurance and apart from normal co-pays for regular office visits there was no cost to him.. Both my Grandfather and my uncle have lost their lives to cancer after long and expensive battles. My grandfather had lost almost all of his estate to care. My uncle was covered under his insurance.
I believe it is outrageous to expect that I would think it was someone else's expense, it was our families expense. My grandfather moved in with us, and we took care of his daily needs for the last 7 months. Should someone have to pay me to do that? No, it is what FAMILY does.
I would never expect a stranger who has no idea who or what I am to pay for my expenses, and I sure as H do not want the Gov't telling me what treatment I will have or won't have. Sorry, but do you really trust the gov't with your health? Even with the great BC/BS I can't afford to get sick, the co-pays and deductibles are not within my budget.
It cost me $400 for a $1400 MRI ?
Does anyone think it cost $1400 for a MRI ?
Its used to pay for those without insurance. Well we always paid a huge chunk every month in order to have good coverage so I dont know if it is a good comparison. Did you have coverage that cost 750 a month? What bothers me is the oncologist giving hope to people and making them believe that the treatments will save them when in reality they only have a couple years to go. I would want to spend the final months not vomiting and feeling bad from the treatments my mother has had cancer 5 times...i'm not exagerating. It looks as though her lymphoma has come bag, so it may be round 6.
she would not have lived if she went with what her insurance was offering to pay for. She made herself single by law and qualified for experimental treatments that worked...thank god. Not me - cancer is preventable and treatable - but not by mainstream medicine. Chemo kills more than it helps. The first answer was right, litigators rise the cost of health care!
Lets do something about that!
Insurance bought privately for a cancer policy is very affordable. Many insurance companies are going through reform now. When is the last time you looked into it, and the rates for family coverage and the types of policies to choose from?
I agree with Halestrm, I do not want the government adminstering my health care!
~ I had cancer. I had a very rare cancer that required a specialist and special treatments. I had great health insurance, a PPO, that covered my specialist, treatments, surgery and physical therapy. Never had a problem. I paid $100 co-pay for the surgery and a few copays for my specialist. Unfortunately, my company stopped offering that plan and I chose to use an HMO as opposed to a .
The HMO wanted to re-direct all my Post operative follow ups to a Dr. that didn't do the surgery and absolutely would not pay for the Specialist. They told me any Dr. would do despite the fact that my PCP, Specialist and I all wrote letters and appealed the denial of service. The HMO wouldn't budge. I wound up paying my specialist out of pocket. I dumped my HMO this year and am using a Client Directed Plan which allows me the use of any Dr. that I choose. It will pay for Network physicians and even Non-network physicians but at a reduced rate.
Most Universal plans define Big Government HMO's. Any cancer patient will tell you that all cancer is not the same. Each subtype has it's own protocol. In other words, what treats Lung cancer, doesn't necessarily work on Breast cancer. The rare cancers, have fewer options and we sometimes have to resort to experimental treatments and treatments deemed medically unnecessary. Under my HMO, those experimental treatments would likely be denied. The term "Medically Necessary" is an open ended term.. With an HMO and Public Insurance, a clerk, not necessarily a medically trained person, will decide if they will approve the treatments based on cost, not what's best for you. The other problem with taxpayer based insurance is that they can only spend what tax dollars are coming in. There is a complete conflict of interest in saving money and providing quality care.
Single payer system in America means, Blue Cross, Aetna, Humana and any insurance company that offers health insurance will be not be allowed to sell you Health Insurance. Since 14% of Americas workers are employed by the insurance companies, that means a lot of people, customer service, underwriters, actuaries,salesmen, negotiators, claims personnel, anyone that handles insurance claims at a hospital or clinic will be out of a job, not to mention the reduced salaries of the Dr's which may cause less flow into medical school and more leaving the profession. Hospitals will have to close shop if they are "for profit". No profit for Pharmaceutical companies, medical suppliers and anyone involved with the health care industry means less research and fewer advancements. For you, it means if you're unhappy with the Government plan, you're out of luck. There is nowhere else to go.
The crux of the out of pocket costs for cancer patients, come from using treatments that were not deemed "medically necessary" or experimental. Under the government system, this will STILL be an issue. We are simply transferring the issues from the Private where there is competition (If you don't like Blue Cross, you can choose Aetna) to the Government (If you don't like Big Brother, oh well. Live with it)
The actual percentage of people that are uninsured in America is around 10%. 10 Mil of the 47 million are Illegal and pay no taxes, yet we will be expected to pay their medical bills. Some have no insurance because they are healthy and didn't feel they needed to buy any. Some have Medicaid and some use Medicare. The statistics quoted, take these people into account as "Under insured". Yet we are expected to believe there is a health care crisis. Health insurance and deficiencies in Health care are two different things. Rising costs are due to the high cost of malpractice, illegals that cross the border, get treated and go back home leaving an unpaid bill, inflation and other factors. To blame Insurance companies solely, is unfair. They negotiate pricing directly with the hospital or Dr as the Government would do. But that's the thing, they negotiate. The Government would order.
I'd like people who use Medicaid to weigh in how just how wonderful it is to have to use Public Insurance. When I was pregnant with my second child, I used Medicaid.
- I had to wait 3 months for my first pre-natal appointment as opposed to 2 weeks on the Private plan.
- I filled out pages and pages of paperwork
- There were 4 Government clerks available to assist with the paperwork and hundreds of applicants daily.
- It took them 3 YEARS! to pay the OBGYN and the hospital for services rendered. The hospital sent me to collection before Medicaid got around to paying the bill
- The clerk handling my case lost the paperwork 5 times before he submitted them for payment.
- They decided what services they were going to cover AFTER the birth. The epidural was not covered due to it being "Not medically necessary". I was discharged less than 24 hours later. They covered one post check up for me.
-Under that public insurance, I was responsible for $1400 of my birthing expenses plus an additional $1200 as a spendown for just ME. This was in 1994. I pay $140/mo premium for my current insurance monthly and put away what ever I can afford in a pre-tax, interest bearing savings account for my deductible and I'll happily do it for an open ended, my choice based plan which covers my entire family and not 20 of my closest strangers.
- I can go on and on about the lack of a computer network that never actually "networked" with anyone, the rudeness of the few Government employees processing paperwork, the lost claims, the few Dr's that would even take on new Medicaid patients because they had so many, the slow payments, the drive by delivery, cherry picking what was Medically necessary.
I can guarantee, this is not what you want for Americans.
It was awful!
The biggest reason why I am opposed to Govt takeover in a single payer system is: under medicaid, my caseworker dictated what I could and could not do on that plan. If they expand it and FORCE everyone to use it, how long will we who have cancer, heart disease, diabetes, birth defects, mental problems and addictions, become a "burden on the taxpayer?" How long will it be before the Government refuses to cover a patient with heart disease if they eat too much saturated fat, smoke or drink? How long will they tell you, you can't hike, fish, bungee jump, rollerblade or own a trampoline to cut down costs?
This is not the liberty our Constitution gurantees the Government will not interfere with. They are doing that in England by refusing to cover obese people. Don't think for a minute that won't happen here. You can see how smokers, drinkers and overweight people are singled out already.
Our privatized system is NOT broken beyond repair. I believe we can come up with solutions amongst the privatized sector without dessimating an industry.
Thanks for reading my long winded reply. I hope it gives you something to think about.
Edit to add after reading your story: I am reiterating, with the Public insurance, your family members treatments will still be scrutinized. No public plan has removed that "Medically necessary" language. That is a huge loophole for them to cut costs and deny payment, not care, with no recourse for you as a taxpayer. Experimental treatments, clinical trials and controversial therapies, will not be covered under Public insurance either. Don't expect your "Insurance" problems to go away. It's a tough solution.
Medicare and Medicaid are Government single payer health care paid for by taxpayers. Look how well they work. You can't complain about government run insurance and then in the same breath want government run insurance. The government run single payer health plan is just extending medicare.
EDIT:
The page below illustrates some issues with the British system including denial of care for overweight and smokers, denial of drugs to cancer patients that could extend or cure them due to costs. Govt medicine doesn't guarantee payment. People are still left with the costs of what the public insurance will not cover.
http://www.liberty-page.com/issues/healt... |
