Tag: healthcare

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Healthy by ignorance

For 14 years, I lived a healthy life. I was healthy because I did not know any better. For those 14 years, I was uninsured and avoided the doctor. Since I avoided the doctor, I had no reason to believe I was anything but healthy.

Today I go to the doctor as an insured person to receive a physical complete with EKG. I suspect that I will have very good results with the exception of high blood pressure; none the less, I sit in the waiting room with butterflies in my stomach. See, nothing makes an uninsured person more ill than visiting the doctor and after nearly a decade and a half, more than a third of my life, without insurance, my mind cannot help but think of worse case scenarios and how they, no matter how minor, could devastate my life and finances.

I have good insurance now. However, I have walked the walk and am acutely aware of how desperately this country, the United States of America, needs healthcare reform. The Obama administration made a start but gave in to too many concessions. Were I still uninsured, the healthcare “reform” would be doing nothing for me.

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Senior Health Care Solution – according to Maxine

So you’re a sick senior citizen and the government says there is no nursing home available to you – what do you do?

Our plan gives anyone 65 years or older a gun and 4 bullets. You are allowed to shoot 4 politicians – not necessarily dead!

Of course, this means you will be sent to prison where you will get 3 meals a day, a roof over your head, central heating, and all the health care you need! New teeth – no problem. Need glasses, great. New hip, knees, kidney, lungs, heart? All covered. (And your kids can come and visit as often as they do now).

And who will be paying for all of this? The same government that just told you that they cannot afford for you to go into a home.

Plus, because you are a prisoner, you don’t have to pay any income taxes anymore.

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT?

[Source, imgur.com]

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The US Healthcare System is the Best in the World!

Well, actually it’s ranked 37th.

Evidence that other countries perform better than the United States in ensuring the health of their populations is a sure prod to the reformist impulse. The World Health Report 2000, Health Systems: Improving Performance, ranked the U.S. health care system 37th in the world…

It is hard to ignore that in 2006, the United States was number 1 in terms of health care spending per capita but ranked 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for adult female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality, and 36th for life expectancy. These facts have fueled a question now being discussed in academic circles, as well as by government and the public: Why do we spend so much to get so little?

[Source, , ]

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What killed the public option?

$19 million and 5 purchased votes shot down the best change that could have ever come to this country.

Max Baucus got $7,734,102, Blanche Lincoln received $4,190,592, Ken Conrad took in $3,287,891, Bill Nelson was given $2,414,895 and Tom Carper accepted $1,592,380 from health industry interests. [Source, Intershame.com, Bought by the Insurance Lobby]

These Senators clearly voted against the wishes of their constituents who 81% favor the public option. Is this another example of the Government of the Corporation? In CEO We Trust.

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We need a single payer option

Health care reform is essential in this country. People are dying so that other people can put dollars in their wallets. That is wrong.

Kimberly Young, vibrant 22-year-old who was working at least two jobs in Oxford after graduating with a double major in December 2008, became ill about two weeks ago, but didn’t seek care initially because she didn’t have health insurance and was worried about the cost. "That’s the most tragic part about it. If she had insurance, she would have gone to the doctor," Brent Mowery, her friend and former roommate, said. [Source, Crooks and Liars, R.I.P. Kimi Young, 22, Another Casualty of Our For-Profit Deathcare System.]

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Dropping Public Option is NOT an Option

Contact your representative today! It’s easy. Just click here. Tell your representatives that giving up a public option is NOT an option. A pubic option is indispensable! Government run health care is not about jobless people or illegal aliens. Government run health care is about the millions of people who cannot get insurance and therefore cannot get affordable health care. The reasons people cannot get insurance vary from being self-employed (living that American dream!) and either not having enough employees or enough profits to get affordable health care, to pre-existing conditions which may or may not even be a factor in their health care (did you know being on anti-depressants 10 years ago could be enough of a pre-existing condition to deny you insurance coverage even if you no longer use the drugs?), to working jobs with inconsistent work schedules which cause the employee to be laid off for lengthy periods of time such as construction and fisheries (that lobster you enjoy so much was probably caught by a U.S. citizen without insurance), people who have maxed out their insurance such as the mental ill (just because they are ill doesn’t mean they should be shoved away), and the elderly.

50 million people is a lot of people. That means you probably know several people without insurance or health care. They are probably ignoring conditions that could be treated which will result in more expensive care in the long term or early death. So if you don’t believe we need government backed health care, have lunch with one of these people today, look them in their eyes, and explain it to them.

Remember, these people do not want insurance! They want health care!.

Update: My apologies for the numerous grammar errors and word omissions in this post. I believe most have been corrected. I was a bit rushed this morning and really did not have time to be posting but felt this issue deserved attention. It definitely won the "2009 post in greatest need of an editor" award.

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US could insure everyone by reducing bureaucracy

By adopting Canada’s system of administration, the cost savings would allow all uninsured people in the United States to have medical care.

USA wastes more on health care bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to all of the uninsured … Administrative expenses will consume at least $399.4 billion out of total health expenditures of $1,660.5 billion in 2003. Streamlining administrative overhead to Canadian levels would save approximately $286.0 billion in 2003, $6,940 for each of the 41.2 million Americans who were uninsured as of 2001. This is substantially more than would be needed to provide full insurance coverage. [Source, Medical News TODAY]

The benefit to the single payer plan is the reduced overhead and associated costs of managing the health care system. France has issues but it may be a better model for the US health care system.

The American health care model, [Houston native Jennifer Hua] says, is too expensive and too insecure. France offers her family good medical treatment, better insurance, more convenience and no worries about how to pay medical bills if her husband’s job changes.

French model encourages people to put health ahead of economic anxiety.

As America seeks a better way to provide medical care, France offers an example of a system where everyone has government-provided, basic health insurance – citizens and immigrants alike. Expenses for such chronic illnesses as cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis are covered entirely by the state so patients can focus on treatment rather than financial ruin.

[Source, Dallas News, Is French health system a model for U.S.?]

I personally think I’d live longer and contribute more to our society if I wasn’t constantly worrying about how I will be able to pay for my family’s health care. The worry makes me more ill than anything else.