To mandate or not to mandate
These health care plans of the Democratic campaigns are all about socialism. I don’t have health insurance. I want health insurance, at least until the day that I have enough money to cover all our medical needs out of pocket. I do not think it is any one’s business or place to garnish my wages if I opt out of health insurance. Wages should not be garnished; fine the employer who fails to offer health insurance, but don’t fine the individual. Have we all forgotten what happened the last time Hillary Clinton had her finger in the health care pie? This universal health insurance plan will not make health care better for the public. It will take away our choices and what we are able to do for ourselves. It will take away options and the ability to get the kind of care we choose to get. What will happen to alternative medicines? Will this increase the offering of these options or hide them underground? I am all for some Health Insurance reform. I think we need some changes there, but I don’t like the government sticking it’s finger in every piece of my life’s pie.
I realize I need to do a lot more reading on this and that most of my responses are of knee-jerk reactions, but when I read things about mandates and garnishing my income out of force - I get a bit defensive. Share your thoughts and links with me please and let’s discuss this politely. I know I have some readers out there who are on either side of this. I have not discussed some of our personal experiences with the good, the bad, and the ugly of health insurance and the choices we had or didn’t have at times. We can not afford health insurance (I might share the numbers with you later, maybe). We have a child with special medical needs and I often worry about her and what will happen to her when she is older. How will she get what she needs regarding her health? What will happen to her if there is no coverage for her? The list goes on. This is not the place for that right now.
So please share your thoughts. I want to read what you think and learn from your experiences. There are so many articles and papers and opinions I don’t have time to wade through them all, although I have been trying.
Physicians for a National Health Program
Universal Health Care — Call it Socialized Medicine - older article, but I think it applies.
In kindness without attacks please tell me: what do you think?
It’s definitely an ugly situation. The answers are not easy. As the wife of a doc, I am very worried about what “universal health care” will do to the system.
Sadly, right now he has to practice a lot of defensive medicine because of the risk of lawsuits. Kids that he KNOWS do not have a certain thing must still be tested (x-rays, ct scans, bloodwork) on the off chance they have it. Of course, I wouldn’t want something missed if it was my own kid, but sending every kid through a ct scanner isn’t the answer and it just jacks up the costs for everyone.
Karen (Pediascribe)’s last blog post..MY CRITICAL HEALTH NUMBERS MAY BE THE ONLY NORMAL THING ABOUT ME
[...] Don’t forget my earlier post. Life, [...]
Karen - I was hoping you would comment. I have often wondered it one the best reforms we could give the country is a major reform of the lawsuit issues and give the doctors the ability to do what they need to do. Doctors are trained professionals and while i realize there are some quacks out there that really shouldn’t be practicing, too many people look at and treat doctors like they are a god with all the answers. Doctors are humans too. I realize that they hold a lot of peoples’ health in their hands, but the public needs to realize they have a voice, they have options, and they need to educate themselves. It is not wrong for them to question an opinion or seek other options. The public leaves it all on the doctor and that is wrong too. That puts way too much pressure on the doctor and leaves him needing to do just what you said, “practice defensive medicine.” It’s a shame. And that is just the tip of the iceburg of what I could say on that. I feel sorry for the doctors, I really do.
I wonder if there will ever really be any balance on these issues.
First, common sense needs to dictate what diagnostic tests are ordered when. My husband was symptomatic for his type of cancer with a family history to boot and we still had to fight to get the test approved by his HMO. Compare that to Karen’s husband who has to run expensive tests on the off chance a child has a rare condition. This situation makes no sense. There has to be a happy middle between the two extremes.
Second, there has to be some financial pressure on employers to offer AFFORDABLE health insurance to employees. Unless we end the employment is tied to health insurance racket (see point one),not every employer is offering reasonable health insurance choices to their employees. My husband’s employer offers ONE health insurance option to the staff and that option costs $1200/month for families regardless of family size. The average salary at this company is in the $40,000/year range. Do the math–how many families are able to afford the family coverage? Not many. I don’t care if you call it a tax, fine, penalty but make it painful for the employer so that they decide it is in their best interests to shop around for less expensive options for their employees. The plan is benefit-rich as they say but if no one can afford it, how much does it matter if it covers your fertility coverage?
I do not think the answers are quick or painless but assuming the free market will take care of the problem has not worked and nothing is going to change that. And the problem is not caused by families who can afford coverage but are sinking all of their premium money into fancy cars, houses or boats. We are doing frivolous things such as paying for our housing, food and utilities.
End of sermon…
Chef’s last blog post..Wordless Wednesday - Yellowstone Lake
Hmmm…something disappeared from my post above. Here is the introductory paragraph that I lost…sorry SL
As the wife of a cancer survivor, we have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of the health care system. The fundamental mistake, IMO, was made long ago when we tied health insurance to employment. That is probably another situation for another day. Realistically speaking, I think you have to do a couple of things to improve the system.
Chef’s last blog post..Wordless Wednesday - Yellowstone Lake
If affordable medical treatment is to become a reality, tort reform is definitely tops on the list of “must happen”. The per capita cost of tort costs hit close to $900 in 2004. That’s not per patient, but per every man, woman and child in the US. So spread that cost among the total number of paying patients, and you get a frightening number. The government, of course, caps how much it pays out through Medicare and Medicaid, so the remaining number of paying patients bear the cost, mostly through insurance companies. But that’s only half the problem. The medical billing system is terribly inefficient. Ever look at an itemized list of services?
My Mr. is from Canada where they have socialized medicine. It doesn’t work and never did. We are still un-doing what they did to him… I do not want socialized medicine - ever. There are also many Canadians who come to the US to pay out of pocket because their healthcare is so bad. My BIL had to wait 10 months for an MRI. I’ll pass, thanks! Hillary needs to keep her nose and her fingers out of my healthcare and my paycheck.
Ladybug Crossing’s last blog post..The Pokey Lumberjack
All the socialized medical systems are abysmal.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7045263.stm
John Stossel on 20/20 did a very interesting (and disturbing) bit on Canada’s and Britain’s system. Both had waiting times in the months. Britons sometimes resort to pliers and vodka to pull their own teeth rather than wait the four to six months for a dentist.