Insurance in America and the family
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| Mon, 08-04-2003 - 11:19am |
Here are my questions about health insurance:
1. Do you think it is a neccisity? In these days of lay-offs and unemployment, alot of families go without health insurance. Newsweek had an article about "going bare" last week. We have friends that have done without insurance and they have 3 children.
2. What do you think the answer is to the working uninsured? My mother was one of these for a year. She is a dental hygienist. Her employer did not offer insurance. She bought a caustrophic insurance policy but it did not cover regular doctor visits or procedures. Some of the working uninsured are minimum wage employees that can not afford even those insurance policies.
3. Is there any solution to the raising cost of health care? I am just floored that stitches could cost so much. I know that I am helping pay for the people that come to the emergency room without insurance. It just seems ridiculous that 3 stitches and sedation could cost thousands of dollars.
We consider health insurance very important due to DH's brain cancer. I work for insurance in case DH passes away. He is getting ready to get laid-off and the prospect of him finding a job with good benefits scares the poop out of me.
KG
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Frankly, I would NEVER have my DD or anyone in my family go unisured. I have a friend who got pregnant without inurance...what a nightmare it has turned out to be for them! Because I work for a large medical center, my family has the BEST medical insurance. That alone is worth it to me to work out of the home.
#1 Yes, health insurance is a necessity. I think it is horribly irresonsible of parents not to have health insurance. We have NEVER had our family uninsured. I want the best for my family. If something ever happens to any of us, I want to have the resources for the best care.
#2 I am not sure what the answer is for this, but I know that even McDonalds has health insurance benefits.
#3 Yes, there is a solution to rising health care costs. It is called Tort Reform. We need to put limits on lawsuits against Dr's. The reason why your hospital bill was so high is because the amount of money Dr's/hospitals must pay for liability insurance. These rates are making many dr's quit practicing. Until we put caps on settlements we will never see health care costs go down. Dr's do not make much money these days, I do loans for plenty of them and I am amazed at how little they make. I wouldn't want the liability or time put in to becoming a Dr for what they really make.
2)catastrophic insurance is a must for a person who can't afford more comprehensive insurance. Maybe the government could work something out with small employers so that even those with one or two employees can offer insurance. I know large companies get a bulk discount, but if you own a small dental practise (guessing at your example) you may employ only one or two people and be ineligable for the insurance companies group rates and so can't afford to both 1)pay salary and 2) offer insurance.
3)tort reform! malpractise insurance is sooooooo expensive because malpractise lawsuits with no cap are so common. And the expenses are passed on to you. For every person who thinks the doctors/hospital should be punished by being forced to pay out millions, there is somebody else paying a couple thousand dollars for stitches.
K
&nbs
K
&nbs
I do believe that one thing wrong with our current medical insurance/health care system is that we are no longer consumers of services. If it only costs $10 to see the pediatrician, how many people think long and hard about utilizing that service? Do they realize that the insurance company may incur costs up to say, $300 on a doctor visit? I think there needs to be a closer link between the medical choices a person makes and how those services get paid. When you have to pay full price for an antibiotic, you are much more likely to use it properly and make sure it is truely needed in the first place. I know of people who have a prescription filled (only a $15 co-pay) for a $175 drug that they end up not using because they just wanted a "back-up." There is some mis-use going on.
Medication costs, I think, are a *hugh* part of what's driving health care costs.
I've seen doctors who will prescribe expensive medications just because the patient's insurance will cover it (even though a less expensive substitute will do the exactly the same job) and I've seen people who will demand the expensive "latest" brand-name medication even if the less expensive generic will do the same job.
Sometimes, I think "universal health care" similar to Canada or many countries in Europe is the answer, but then.... what if my family member, say an 85 year old otherwise healthy and functional person, needs heart surgery but is denied because he is "too old." I don't know. No easy answers, I guess.
You are right in that there are no easy answers. It just makes me sick to my stomach that health care is such a mess. Here in Tennessee, we have state medicaid called TNcare. I was on it with my first pregnancy (working but no insurance) and DH was on it with his first brain surgery (same situation). Thank God, we had the option. Otherwise, we would not have been able to afford our house or our life. We would still be paying the bills. The problem is that now health insurance companies have been marking all sorts of people uninsurable because they know TNcare will pick it up. Also, people have taken advantage of it. The state is pratically going bankrupt over it. Of course, most states are in financial crisis these days.
&nbs
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