alank @ 6

The long and short of healthcare in America is that it works as long as you stay healthy, don’t get sick, don’t get hurt, or don’t otherwise need medical attention.

Hey but we can all go to the emergency room, right?

Yeah, here in Los Angeles – we could die right on the emergency room floor!

Ain’t we lucky to live in the greatest country in the world?????????

There’s power in numbers friends….

-Tim

Brisingamen @ 69

burnspbesq @ 56

What we’re saying is “Universal Health Care” not INSURANCE.

Health Care cum Insurance Companies became more concerned with producing profits for shareholders, rather than taking care of patients — that’s where things went wrong.

And it’s not just patients who are suffering. Nurses are underpaid and overworked, because for-profit hospitals try to do more with less staff. This isn’t just bad for the patients, it’s bad for the nurses, they burn out quicker and leave in droves.

Doctors order tests, and insurance companies say “no, not necessary” and the person making this decision does not have a medical degree, much less a license to practice.

Health Insurance is breaking the health care professions just as much as Bush is breaking our military. Someone needs to put a stop to it.

Hold up a sec. I’m not the enemy here. I’ve got my own set of issues with the status quo. I’m just trying to understand what it is that people want, and figure out how to get there.

But what I see here is a lot of people who seem to be in denial about two fundamental truths: (1) nothing is free; and (2) nothing exists in infinite supply.

Even under a pure government-provided single-payer system, your access to healthcare is going to be rationed somehow, because as a society we aren’t ready to pay “whatever it takes.” SOMEONE is still going to be a gatekeeper.

It may be a scheduler at a clinic, who tells you you have to wait a period of time that you’d rather not wait before having a procedure done, because demand has outrun supply and they can’t increase capacity overnight. It may be Congress deciding that “this year, given the tax revenue that’s available, we can build ten new hospitals or one new aircraft carrrier, and we need the aircraft carrier more than we need the hospitals.”

But the simple, inescapable fact is that in a public-sector-only system, you are not the ultimate decision-maker with respect to your healthcare choices.

No disrespect intended, but I happen to think that I’m more capable of making smart,informed decisions about my family’s healthcare than anyone else. And I have a problem with giving up that autonomy.

It would not be unfair for you to ask whether my beliefs on this issue are influenced by where I sit on the income-distribution curve. And I’ll answer that question honestly: yeah, they probably are.

But I generally believe that individual autonomy is a good thing, and I have a problem getting comfortable with a system that would take fundamental decisions about the quality of your life out of your hands.

Be careful what you wish for; you may get it.

You are, of course, free to believe what you want. It is, however, simply a FACT that Americans pay more for worse healthcare and ration by price. In fact the US pays more per capita in government spending than some OECD companies, and not much more than many others.

And yes, if you don’t want universal healthcare, you are, in fact, part of the problem. You are spewing propaganda that is functionally a lie – again, in other OECD countries, they pay less and on the measured statistics, get better care. And there are no uninsured. Of course there is rationing, as there is in all systems, but it isn’t rationing on price.

The funny thing about your rationale is that unless you’re truly rich, odds are that a severe illness in your family would bankrupt you no matter what insurance plan your “choice” has given you. 50% of US bankruptcies are related to medical expenses and most of them are from people who were insured.

I got calls after being hospitalized from a collection agency. They demanded a huge payment. I said no, I could pay them $20.
“Richard” from “Chicago” (Dinesh from Mumbai, more likely) said, “That’s an insult, no way would we take that! Next time you go to hospital, they won’t take care of you! We’ll sue you!”
So I said, “Fine. Then I’ll die. No problem. Or you can sue, you’ll get nothing. Up to you.”
Next time they called I told a supervisor the same thing. Fuck’em.

Collection agents are really only scary to the middle and working class. The really poor just say “fine, take me to court. I got ‘nuthin”. The rich sic their lawyers on them.

But for the middle and working classes they can be terrifying, because they threaten to take everything, they call everyone, and they will even call your employers. So make sure you know your rights, take no crap from the, record every call (check your state laws on the legality of recording calls) so you can prove they’ve been abusive (and 90% of them are). And make your offers by registered mail.

newdealfarmgrrrlll @ 18

Health care! these insurance companies are totally and ONLY in the business of making obscene profits. They don’t make profits if they have to pay for medical care.

I am not trying to be a pain in the ass or a troll in asking this question, because I am genuinely curious, but what level of profit (measure it any way you want — operating margin, return on equity, whatever) would you consider not obscene? And why do you draw the line where you draw it?

None. Just like medicare. Which would reduce administrative costs from 20% to 30% down to the 2 or 3% medicare has. Americans pay 50% more for healthcare than the average OECD country and receive substantially worse care on almost all the metrics while having over 40 million people uninsured and tons of people who are ostensibly insured who don’t get the care they need.