Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Clear!


What's the hurry, the droids in Congress ask, about getting a health care bill in place so soon?

I can't believe these people are so very out of touch they are oblivious to the crisis of health care in America.
You know what their problem is? They are spoiled rotten.
While they enjoy a fat paycheck, and top notch Cadillac health insurance policies, millions of Americans are shut out. 

People I know have difficulty just getting access to the low income or free clinics.
They are so maxxed out they have to limit the number of patients they can even see.
*IF* they are seen, there is then worry about being about to afford expensive diagnostics test, or prescriptions.

It seems to me, the name of the game is *sky's the limit".
Insurance companies make deals with Doctors about reasonable & customary charges, Doctors then charge the max to get bargained down to an amount that is acceptable. Pharmaceuticals are so far out in left field... with absolutely no limits on what they can charge.

Ahh but health care makes up 1/5th of the nation's economy. It's a cash cow for profit.

Even people who are lucky enough to have health insurance-- a majority are not happy with a variety of issues.

Obama called this lack of a health care system "maintaining the status quo" in which 14,000 citizens lose their health care every day.


Random snippets:
"With the ever-higher premiums and the lesser and even denied care the present private insurers see fit to provide..there should be no reason not to go with the Public coverage. The Private Insurers even restrict us as to what Doctors we can see and what Procedures can be allowed. Is not that called Managed Care ? Those insured on the Public Plan, Medicare, do not have to endure those restrictions. So why should all those Private Policy Payers be treated so callously ? ( That is..those deemed Healthy enough to be 'insured' at all, by these greedy companies.)"

Yes what we have is the pay more get less program.

" Insurance Companies are 'For Profit' Corporations...not Health Providers. The only Health they care about is a Bulging bank account."

I'm seeing increased co pays & this year, my coverage only pays 80%-- last year it was 100%.

See http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/15/119...,

Here's a quote from that site:

"The US health care system ranks last among other major rich countries for quality, access and efficiency, according to two studies released Tuesday by a health care think tank.

The studies by the Commonwealth Fund found that the United States, which has the most expensive health system in the world, underperforms consistently relative to other countries and differs most notably in the fact that Americans have no universal health insurance coverage.
What's the h

"The United States stands out as the only nation in these studies that does not ensure access to health care through universal coverage and promotion of a 'medical home' for patients," said Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis."

* Please note the ranking was done in 2007. The only thing that has changed is 2.6 million lost jobs in 2008, and 65,4000 jobs were lost in January of 2009.

So really , the only things that have changed is more people have lost jobs, and probably lost healthcare (COBRA extended insurance coverage is a great idea, but is SO expensive it is beyond cost prohibitive. )

In closing, I wish we could pull the plug on Congressional health care insurance & require them to use the free health clinics. Then they would understand the hurry. 


To any politician who has the gall to ask what's the hurry, here is my response-- are you familiar with the medical term *flatline*? America's health care system is currently DOA ~ dead on arrival.  We don't have a system. We have predatory insurance companies running the show and all others are on their own. 

I think the key point about the Health care plan is that they are using this as a political hot potato & trying to make it divisive. 

It is NOT about supporting Obama..... because of course they will abuse that. 

It is about people working multiple jobs & turned away from the free health clinic because they are maxxed out. 
It is about not getting access to a specialists or care you need. 
It is about not affording the tests needed to diagnose & then probably would have a hard time affording the meds.  

It is NOT about supporting Obama- it is about supporting the millions of people in this country who are suffering, hurting & literally dying because they can't afford medical care. It is one of the top reasons why people go bankrupt in this country. 

We are the only huge industrialized nation without universal health care. 

Because even though Presidents come & go, the need for universal health care remains. 

It is a dire & urgent need- of the people. 

Take the frigging politics out of it. 

And the notion we must cut back on other spending to do so-- my answer is this:

Look at the War budgets. 
By all means-- cut back there. $890 billion dollars would have bought a decent health care system. Of all the things that government wastes money on, like Wall Street bailouts, and other pork barrel spending, this is something We the People really, desperately need.
It is not wasteful spending. 

It's not out of line- the hurry  & urgent rush to get Universal health care in place, in fact it is so critically late, it has been  fatal in some cases.  Yes, people are dying for healthcare in America. 






5 comments:

nonnie9999 said...

to the assholes in congress (on both sides of the aisle), health care is just a big friggin' parlor game. meanwhile, real people are dying. maybe they need to spend their break watching those people die.

Fran said...

right on nonnie.... our ability to have health care access is in red alert status.
Problem is the insurance & big pharma fills the politicians pockets with lots o' money.

Clearly money talks.

D.K. Raed said...

but but "we have the best healthcare in the world", right?

pbffft ... what good is all this high quality healthcare if no one can afford it. you are right, we are LITERALLY dying for good healthcare.

one of the GOP spinmeisters got up in congress the other day to tell about a good canadian friend's death because the "socialized healthcare of canada" thought he was too old to get the procedure he needed AND he didn't have the money to come to america for it. I almost choked! Newsflash! If his "friend" couldn't afford to come to america for some medical procedure, he sure as hell couldn't afford to pay for the procedure itself ... same as many of us who are either uninsured or underinsured or haven't yet been notified by our insurers that whatever procedure we need is not covered.

Another GOP whizkid got up & whined that he's sure we wouldn't want to put our healthcare in the hands of some government bureaucrat! but of course he has no problem leaving his healthcare decisions up to some pinhead insurance administrator who doesn't have any kind of medical degree and whose sole goal is to REDUCE or ELIMINATE all claims! nope, he is just fine with inserting that person between him and his doctor.

And why-oh-why do these idiots keep bringing up Britain or Canada? No one is talking about that kind of national healthcare (implemented immediately after WW2 before the insurance companies got their hooks into the system)! We are talking about something like what the Swiss or Germans currently have. Well maybe not at first, but eventually. They allow private supplemental insurance but strictly regulate the amounts that can be charged for everything except the premium. The insurance companies there actually COMPETE by having lower prices for better benefits ... imagine that! And medical bankruptcy is unknown in those countries. And oh yeah, they enacted those systems in the 1990's, back when we were futzing around with HMOs. So it can be done!

If the citizens of those countries were told today that they'd have to give up their current healthcare system and adopt one like ours, they'd be rioting in the streets!

Fran said...

Best healthcare in the world- IF you can get to it.

I worked for GMAC the finance wing of GM..actually a wholly owned subsidiary, for 4 years.
EVERY year they rolled out a new health care plan. Different provider. You know those lengthy books with all the little fine print rules and regs exclusions, exceptions, and the killer *pre existing condition exclusion*.

I always thought that should be illegal.
You have a known medical need, therefore you will be immediately neglected & rejected.

I remember just getting cross-eyed trying to decipher what is covered and what is not.

Last year at my workplace they said the cost is only going up a few dollars.
A few days later they said ooops!
There is an error in the paperwork-- the part that says you pay a higher co pay & then insurance covers 100%....
it is only going to cover 80%.

Riiiight. The price did not go up????

I am now paying 20% of what my medical bills are, AND higher co pays.

What kind of smoke & mirrors BS are they trying to sell us?

Good comeback re the Canadian.
they kept going on about how we should not get prescription meds from Canada.... the meds do not go through the same scrutiny as here in the US.
The response was
*Show me the dead Canadians*.....

Often the same meds by the same mfr are sold for 1/2 the price or less.

There is huge profit in the medical field & there is no interconnectedness.

People are charged through the nose to become doctors.
Insurance contracts force Doctors to charge the max.
Sky's the limit for pharmaceuticals.

They need to help subsidize Doctors education, have caps of costs, make big pharma BID for a contract to provide the lowest price.

Nothing has been done to contain costs, really...
and so we have this totally broken situation where
so many people are destitute.

Congress is so out of touch. Every one of the states they come from has struggling free or reduced cost clinics that are overwhelmed.
They run on shoestring budgets, a song & a prayer.
They have to turn seriously sick people away.

They make do.

we don;t even have to reinvent the wheel.
Learn from the other countries that have had universal healthcare for decades.
Glean from their experts what works & what does not.

The conversation should not be about *socialized medicine*, it should be about saving lives.

D.K. Raed said...

"show me the dead canadians" !!! hmmm, I believe their life expectancy is as long or longer than ours. same as many other countries who've been "victims" of evil socialized medical experiments for many years now. something isn't quite adding up. wonder if congress has even noticed that little statistic, or are they too busy adding tons of complicated non-workable amendments in order to guarantee health care reform death. with blue dogs controlling the health care debate, we will all be waking up with fleas!

and aaah yes, the annual medical insurance check-up ... it's usually quite painful and guaranteed to make a bigger dent in your budget!