Another Reason for Healthcare Reform
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Another Reason for Healthcare Reform
| Mon, 05-11-2009 - 7:57pm |
I have to say, this is ridiculous. Ins. companies are so greedy and so unfair. It seems even if you are young, you can be turned down for Health Ins.

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Really?
"Anyone who thinks a private insurance being able to exclude "pre-existing" conditions is disgusting or inhumane does not understand the concept of "insurance". Or they're simply being ridiculous.
It's like demanding you be able to purchase insurance and be covered for the fire in your house last week. The fire that occurred prior to you having insurance. See how silly?"
I think this comment illustrates very nicely why the health care system in the U.S. needs reform.
The problem is that medical costs are way out of line with the incomes of many middle class Americans. This means that ordinary, educated, middle class Americans without health insurance are at high risk for losing everything if some member of the household has a serious accident or illness. These are people who do not qualify for government assistance because they make too much money, until they've lose everything they've worked for, all their assets. Then they're not middle class any more. They're poor.
Deborah
Edited 5/15/2009 10:50 pm ET by muddymessalonskee
>>Key here is I believe education should be a part of government, not healthcare! That is where we will never agree. <<
wy is education more important than health care? I know of no children who would die from not knowing how to do algebra but your infant death rate suggest they are dying from lack of adequate care.
You keep saying people in Canada don't get adequate care but we have a longer life span, and a lower infant death rate. SOME people get better care in the states but I would say most don't. I have been on EC's and seen women not go to the doctor because they were afraid it would be nothing and they would have to pay anyways. That right there shows me a huge problem.
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...and it goes unmentioned, that there is no certainty that a healthcare program adopted by the United States would be identical to that in Canada.
Oh it gets even better then that...we had some medical bills turned into collections from about 5 years ago (when a Dr almost killed me) anyways they demanded to see our paycheck stub for the last 3 months, I pay our medical insurance out of my check ($700 a month for medical, ad&d for myself in case I became injured, dh's life insurance, cancer insurance for both of us) and this witch of a woman demanded that I DROP all of our insurance and use that money to pay these bills...#1 how dare she #2 it's a good thing I wasn't at this meeting or I would of taken a swing at this woman.
~Sam
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzRhZDc1YmIzZTg3ODU4ZDA1ZjRjZGE1ZGY2MDc3OTU
Words Vs. Realities
Universal health care isn’t health care. It is medical care.
By Thomas Sowell
This may not seem like a breakthrough on the frontiers of knowledge. But it completely contradicts what is being said by many of those who are urging “universal health care” because so many Americans lack health insurance.
Insurance is not medical care. Indeed, health care is not the same as medical care. Countries with universal health care do not have more or better medical care.
The bottom line is medical care. But the rhetoric and the talking points are about insurance. Many people who could afford health insurance do not choose to have it because they know that medical care will be available at the nearest emergency room, whether they have insurance or not.
This is especially true for young people, who do not anticipate long-term medical problems and who can always get a broken leg or an allergy attack taken care of at an emergency room — and spend their money on a more upscale lifestyle.
This may not be a wise decision but it is their decision, and there is no reason why other people should lose the right to make decisions for themselves because some people make questionable decisions.
If you don’t think government bureaucrats can make questionable decisions, then you haven’t dealt with many government bureaucrats.
It is one thing to deal with bureaucrats when you are at the Department of Motor Vehicles and in good health. It is something else when you have to deal with bureaucrats when you are lying on a gurney and bleeding or are doubled over in pain on a hospital bed.
People who believe in “universal health care” show remarkably little interest — usually none — in finding out what that phrase turns out to mean in practice, in those countries where it already exists, such as Britain, Sweden, or Canada.
For one thing, “universal health care” in these countries means months of waiting for surgery that Americans get in a matter of weeks or even days.
In these and other countries, it means having only a fraction as many MRIs and other high-tech medical devices available per person as in the United States.
In Sweden, it means not only having bureaucrats deciding what medicines the government will and will not pay for, but even preventing you from buying the more expensive medicine for yourself with your own money. That would violate the “equality” that is the magic mantra.
Those who think in terms of talking points, instead of trying to understand realities, make much of the fact that some countries with government-controlled medical care have longer life expectancies than that in the United States.
That is where the difference between health care and medical care comes in. Medical care is what doctors can do for you. Health care includes what you do for yourself — such as diet, exercise, and lifestyle.
If a doctor arrives on the scene to find you wiped out by a drug overdose or shot through the heart by some of your rougher companions, there may not be much that he can do except sign the death certificate.
Even for things that take longer to do you in — obesity, alcohol, cholesterol, tobacco — doctors can tell you what to do or not do, but whether you follow their advice or not is what determines the outcome.
Americans tend to be more obese, consume more drugs, and have more homicides. None of that is going to change with “universal health care” because it isn’t health care. It is medical care.
When it comes to things where medical care itself makes the biggest difference — cancer survival rates, for example — Americans do much better than people in most other countries.
No one who compares medical care in this country with medical care in other countries is likely to want to switch. But those who cannot be bothered with the facts may help destroy the best medical care in the world by falling for political rhetoric.
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