I'm all right, Jack, thank you very much! I have a great Health Insurance Policy. Costs me ten bucks to fill a prescription, and $20 to see a doctor. All the testing and whatnot is free! If I should ever spend a thousand bucks in a year then everything after that is free! My $130,000 Cancer battle cost me exactly a thousand bucks. Why should I want to change anything?
My Doctor tells me that the situation will get a lot worse. There are not enough Doctors in the pipeline to replace those who will be retiring soon. Baby Boomers are a growing segment of the population and there won't be people in the medical profession to care for us! Hospitals are loosing money because people are losing their insurance. You can't operate a business for very long if you are in the red. They will raise prices at the same time as insurance companies reduce benefits. Across America hospitals are going out of business daily. It is the "Law" we have always had. Hospitals have to treat patients whether they pay or not, so they raise prices on those who do pay to cover those who don't. We have the only system in the world where sick people with money pay for sick people without money.
Here is the deal for me. I have been to very poor countries, seen beggars on the streets with broken arms and open wounds, seen what it is like to have the bottom tier treated like dirt. I can see in our own country how the Middle Class is falling over a cliff, stressing and so close to the edge. 50 Million people have no health insurance. Not only is that an embarrassment, we pay for their health care should they need it, and it seems the poorer one is the more they need it.
What I have a difficult time understanding is we have National Health care NOW! If you are 65 or over we have Medicare and it works pretty well. Nothing is perfect on the planet but as a direction Medicare works pretty well. I think I read somewhere that it has a 7% administrative fee which is incredible for a government agency! If we expanded Medicare it would be better and cheaper for everyone. I don't understand the problem??? Are we afraid of "Death Panels"? Hey, I was closer to death than most of you have ever been and I will tell you when you get that close you wouldn't be afraid of death panels! It is the "Life Panels" I would be afraid of. To spend millions of dollars for four more months of pain and agony is crazy!
Did you know that 50% of medical costs in the U.S. is spent by just 5% of the people? Most of Medicare's costs are spent on the last year of your life. You think this is a problem now just wait until the Baby Boomers get a little older! If one chooses this route, heroic efforts and tied to tubes there is always private supplemental insurance you could buy. Personally I wouldn't. Fast and furious, that's me!
In reality there are probably several ways to solve this problem. Taiwan until two years ago had our system, or lack of system I should say. They actually spent some effort studying health care in several countries before choosing their own, a single payer system that is working well for them. Why can't we do this?
I don't wish cancer upon anyone but I guarantee you would want a different system if you got it. Mine was "cheap" to cure (and it is still gone!!!), over $200,000 is more normal. Even people with "good insurance", covering 80% will still leave you with a $40,000 bill. The saddest story I can relate to you is the guy who has a good job with great benefits discovers he has cancer. In the middle of treatment he becomes too sick to work and loses his job and his benefits, no health insurance. Next he loses his house and if he runs out of money mid treatment he is kicked out of the program. Yes, this happens all of the time!
There will be no cures to our system unless we can agree there is a problem. Can we at least do that?
Maybe one by one we could identify what is wrong and agree with a method of improvement?
I'm okay and I don't give a crap for me. I worry about my friends. I worry about my daughters. And I wonder why we don't have it within us to make this a better world? Seriously, why can't we figure this out?
My Doctor tells me that the situation will get a lot worse. There are not enough Doctors in the pipeline to replace those who will be retiring soon. Baby Boomers are a growing segment of the population and there won't be people in the medical profession to care for us! Hospitals are loosing money because people are losing their insurance. You can't operate a business for very long if you are in the red. They will raise prices at the same time as insurance companies reduce benefits. Across America hospitals are going out of business daily. It is the "Law" we have always had. Hospitals have to treat patients whether they pay or not, so they raise prices on those who do pay to cover those who don't. We have the only system in the world where sick people with money pay for sick people without money.
Here is the deal for me. I have been to very poor countries, seen beggars on the streets with broken arms and open wounds, seen what it is like to have the bottom tier treated like dirt. I can see in our own country how the Middle Class is falling over a cliff, stressing and so close to the edge. 50 Million people have no health insurance. Not only is that an embarrassment, we pay for their health care should they need it, and it seems the poorer one is the more they need it.
What I have a difficult time understanding is we have National Health care NOW! If you are 65 or over we have Medicare and it works pretty well. Nothing is perfect on the planet but as a direction Medicare works pretty well. I think I read somewhere that it has a 7% administrative fee which is incredible for a government agency! If we expanded Medicare it would be better and cheaper for everyone. I don't understand the problem??? Are we afraid of "Death Panels"? Hey, I was closer to death than most of you have ever been and I will tell you when you get that close you wouldn't be afraid of death panels! It is the "Life Panels" I would be afraid of. To spend millions of dollars for four more months of pain and agony is crazy!
Did you know that 50% of medical costs in the U.S. is spent by just 5% of the people? Most of Medicare's costs are spent on the last year of your life. You think this is a problem now just wait until the Baby Boomers get a little older! If one chooses this route, heroic efforts and tied to tubes there is always private supplemental insurance you could buy. Personally I wouldn't. Fast and furious, that's me!
In reality there are probably several ways to solve this problem. Taiwan until two years ago had our system, or lack of system I should say. They actually spent some effort studying health care in several countries before choosing their own, a single payer system that is working well for them. Why can't we do this?
I don't wish cancer upon anyone but I guarantee you would want a different system if you got it. Mine was "cheap" to cure (and it is still gone!!!), over $200,000 is more normal. Even people with "good insurance", covering 80% will still leave you with a $40,000 bill. The saddest story I can relate to you is the guy who has a good job with great benefits discovers he has cancer. In the middle of treatment he becomes too sick to work and loses his job and his benefits, no health insurance. Next he loses his house and if he runs out of money mid treatment he is kicked out of the program. Yes, this happens all of the time!
There will be no cures to our system unless we can agree there is a problem. Can we at least do that?
Maybe one by one we could identify what is wrong and agree with a method of improvement?
I'm okay and I don't give a crap for me. I worry about my friends. I worry about my daughters. And I wonder why we don't have it within us to make this a better world? Seriously, why can't we figure this out?
3 comments:
why can't we figure this out? Well it helps if people cared about other people. Not just me caring about you, but those running the health care industry, insurance etc. cared about you, and it would really be cool if the Govt. guys and gals cared..seeing as how you and I are paying for their great health insurance plan. I am currently trying to decide if we can afford to take our max. amount of "cafeteria plan funds" this May. It is pre-tax. We can put $6000.00 in and next year the feds say only $2500.00..so if I want my knee replaced and I pay the 20% after the first $4000.00 deductible..I will still have to finance the rest..but we have to do it because next year (don't know if it is Jan. or May for us) it will be more difficult.
And Hubby couldn't take 12 weeks off to have his ankle tendons repaired. So he is just suffering through. It stinks. I never thought it would be so hard for middle-aged used to be middle class people to get our health needs met. Of course Mittens Romney said on Leno the other night that the guy who is laid off and has a heart attack..well too bad for him. That shows just what we are dealing with.
What about those who cannot afford to buy insurance and will be forced to under Obamacare, Jerry? My kids have super high deductibles and the other cannot afford a health care policy. For their family, it would cost at least 1/3 of their monthly bring home. Hard to live on the remainder when you have kids and rent and utilities and food and other bills. Where will the poor you mention be able to find money to pay for their health care? Isn't it going to be mandatory that people have insurance coverage? How will they squeeze blood from a rock? And if they manage to find the money to pay for their own health care insurance, that will be that. They won't be able to afford the gas to get there.
Hey, Sherry, thanks for staying at this party! Obama care or, if you like, "Romney-care" is a subsidized program and, I believe, you pay according to your ability. Check out Mass.where Republican Gov. Romney started it all. Everyone in Mass. has health insurance, how did they do it?
How did Taiwan do it? How does anyone do it? and why can't we??? I think I know the answer but people don't want to talk about "that problem"!
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