With medical insurance being so unaffordable....

Suzi78 wrote:

Go Beavers wrote:

Suzi78 wrote:

I come from the great socialist country of Sweden. Growing up, we only had two (state owned of course) tv channels and 3 types of cereals. It was tough. Anyways...my mom's husband just had shoulder replacement surgery. It cost him a total of $45, which is for the three days that he spent at the hosptial ($15/day). Downside? He had to wait 6 months to have his surgery.

I was in Sweden back when and remember the timer on the t.v. counting down to the next show. How I wish we had the same in the U.S. Now, thankfully someone invented the DVR!

Hahaha, I'd almost forgotten about that timer! And there was always some type of background bird sound. No commercials back then, so in between shows all we would see was that clock ticking...ticking......all paid for by the obedient tax payers. Ahhhh...great times!

Here it is!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iGV2F5e ... re=related

That clock is more entertaining than about 75% of American TV right now! Combine that with universal health care and the lovely Sweedish ladies and I'm suddenly considering relocation. :thumbup:

Medical care should be universal, but the quality and freedom of choice also has to remain. That's where the problem lies.

mookeywrench wrote:

Medical care should be universal, but the quality and freedom of choice also has to remain. That's where the problem lies.

That's why I'd support a 2 tier system, where if you want private you can, but there is a strong government option.

haffajappa wrote:

keeponrockin wrote:

mookeywrench wrote:

Medical care should be universal, but the quality and freedom of choice also has to remain. That's where the problem lies.

That's why I'd support a 2 tier system, where if you want private you can, but there is a strong government option.

I agree!
If those who have money want to pay for private care it not only appeases everyone but it also clears up waiting list times for those who can't afford it

I could be wrong here, but from what I know of the situation in Australia they do have this exact system. Any Aussie's here able to explain? Or am I imagining things?

stardust1976 wrote:

Thorns2010 wrote:

haffajappa wrote:

I agree!
If those who have money want to pay for private care it not only appeases everyone but it also clears up waiting list times for those who can't afford it

I could be wrong here, but from what I know of the situation in Australia they do have this exact system. Any Aussie's here able to explain? Or am I imagining things?

We do have that system here. We have Medicare, which is government funded - whereby you can be seen in a public hospital - no charge for emergencies, or for elective surgery, however you may have to wait for surgery or to be seen by a specialist if it's not an emergency. We also have private health insurance, which you can purchase and will allow you to be seen quicker in most cases. You get a rebate from any cost incurred when you see a doctor through our public system as well. It's not perfect, but from what I know of the American system, ours is much much better. We also have many many clinics that allow you to see a doctor and the cost is billed through our medicare system to the Government, so there is no out of pocket expense. Also with prescription medicines, there is a scheme so that the cost is lowered for most medicines, and once you reach a certain yearly limit, the cost is lowered to something like $5 per prescription. It works pretty well really.

Thanks hunny!

And, why is something like this so hard to do in America??? I mean really? Is it only because of the for profit insurance we have, or something else?

Thorns2010 wrote:

stardust1976 wrote:

Thorns2010 wrote:

I could be wrong here, but from what I know of the situation in Australia they do have this exact system. Any Aussie's here able to explain? Or am I imagining things?

We do have that system here. We have Medicare, which is government funded - whereby you can be seen in a public hospital - no charge for emergencies, or for elective surgery, however you may have to wait for surgery or to be seen by a specialist if it's not an emergency. We also have private health insurance, which you can purchase and will allow you to be seen quicker in most cases. You get a rebate from any cost incurred when you see a doctor through our public system as well. It's not perfect, but from what I know of the American system, ours is much much better. We also have many many clinics that allow you to see a doctor and the cost is billed through our medicare system to the Government, so there is no out of pocket expense. Also with prescription medicines, there is a scheme so that the cost is lowered for most medicines, and once you reach a certain yearly limit, the cost is lowered to something like $5 per prescription. It works pretty well really.

Thanks hunny!

And, why is something like this so hard to do in America??? I mean really? Is it only because of the for profit insurance we have, or something else?

Unfortunately I think it is more than simply for profit insurance companies. Medical supply companies, pharmaceutical companies, Universities with a medical school, there are so many people with their hands in this pot. Healthcare industry is about 1/6th of the entire US economy. To have that taken over by the government would cause the industry to take a nose dive. Not saying the government would be the cause of it, just that there are so many people that benefit from the system currently it would be almost immeasurable to try to foresee the consequences or impact it would have on our country. People would pay less in medical bills that may or may not come, but they certainly would have to pay more in taxes, and we all know how people feel about that.
2. Would be hard to continue funding said program when the economy turns to shit like it does now. With tax revenue down and politicians on all sides unable to be responsible with funds it would be hard for me to believe the government could handle running a larger version of medicare and medicaid. There is already tons of fraud. Borrowing money can only happen for so long. We already have a debt level that will cause our downfall.
3. 300,000,000+ that is the number of americans that will need it. To have a universal health care system here would be a monstrous logistical nightmare.
4. Add that into the fact that the US federal government is limited by the constitution in which there is no real provision for healthcare coverage. So to really do it correctly, and make it a right, a constitutional amendment would be needed which would be difficult to do. Simply passing a law can be reversed constantly, as they are trying to do now with the defunding of the program...

Ultimately I think that a single payer system is by far the best option for the people, but we all know how often politicians move simply on the best interest of the people. I also am not a big believer in a huge central government and this would only give them more power in our lives. the way some of our social programs(at least in minnesota) get abused, there would be plenty of people who would simply be able to live off the state through provided money (EBT) and healthcare...I am not a big believer in a system that would allow that.

There is no easy decision here and unfortunately we don't have a system that is set up to solve this kind of problem efficiently.
just my two cents anyway

Coming from the UK where our Health service is pretty much free I am baffled as to why people are against free health care. My auntie died of cancer recently, she had been fighting it on and off for over 8 years now and if we had to pay for any of her treatment she wouldn't have lasted half that. It sickens me to see people in the US who have to sell their homes and lose all their savings just for the opportnity to continue to live.

You're right some people do wait longer for say a hip replacement but there are private firms around that can see to you straight away if you chose to pay. I believe medical insurance can be taken to help pay for these private treatments if you wish. The NHS doesn't get enough praise these days, I will take this over any free market bullshit anyday. Prescription drugs are available at a flat price of £7.20 I think it is at the minute.The rich have no more of a claim to life than the poor, simple as that.

stardust1976 wrote:

Thorns2010 wrote:

haffajappa wrote:

I agree!
If those who have money want to pay for private care it not only appeases everyone but it also clears up waiting list times for those who can't afford it

I could be wrong here, but from what I know of the situation in Australia they do have this exact system. Any Aussie's here able to explain? Or am I imagining things?

We do have that system here. We have Medicare, which is government funded - whereby you can be seen in a public hospital - no charge for emergencies, or for elective surgery, however you may have to wait for surgery or to be seen by a specialist if it's not an emergency. We also have private health insurance, which you can purchase and will allow you to be seen quicker in most cases. You get a rebate from any cost incurred when you see a doctor through our public system as well. It's not perfect, but from what I know of the American system, ours is much much better. We also have many many clinics that allow you to see a doctor and the cost is billed through our medicare system to the Government, so there is no out of pocket expense. Also with prescription medicines, there is a scheme so that the cost is lowered for most medicines, and once you reach a certain yearly limit, the cost is lowered to something like $5 per prescription. It works pretty well really.

We have a similar system in NZ too. Our of curiosity, does the Australian system cover tourists who don't have travel insurance? I know our does - if you're in NZ and you break your leg hiking a glacier, you can get it fixed up easily. Like you guys (and the Canadians, Brits, and Swedes) we think healing the sick is more important than checking their bank account.

I'd like to see someone from the anti-universal healthcare crowd look a cancer patient in the eye and tell them they can't get chemo because their bank balance is too low.

I just got an individual policy for myself. The premium is $120/month.

Is that really unaffordable? Really?

It is a pretty standard policy, but if that is unaffordable for some, they could just raise their deductible and make it more of a catastrophic plan than a maintenance plan.

Of course, that would involve people saving the extra money so they can meet the deductible if needed and nobody is able to do that. Most just seem to want the remote control of having their employer deduct the premiums automatically and insurance pay for their healthcare automatically. That's what has gotten us in this mess.

If I had been on my own for health insurance and was able to keep the money my employers have spent on the premiums, I'd likely have about $100K put away for health/medical issues today.

The healthcare system over on my side of the world is similar to the Australian and New Zealand system. All healthcare is absolutely free no matter what the procedure is. There's only one government hospital(and a substantial amount of clinics) here but considering how tiny my country is, it would be ridiculous to suggest another. The only downside is that you have to wait to get a non-urgent procedure done for several months; but generally that's because there is a lack of staff or even beds sometimes. Then there's the private sector, which is pretty vast, and relatively affordable over here. Sometimes government employed and private doctors work together in special occasions (when there's a strike etc).

Healthcare is also free even for tourists without travel insurance.

I honestly wouldn't expect it any other way and can't believe people would argue against universal healthcare.