Health Care

[MouseWife]

You surely did hit upon a point.

I know of people who do not have health coverage but are always in the ER, Intensive Care, etc. With health problems that they bring on to themselves. Drugs, alcohol, etc.

And, what totally TOTALLY makes me want to throttle them is that they complain about the care they are given, like they are being mistreated. Of course, this is the addiction talking but still.

Yep, we pay for their care in higher premiums or limited coverage.

I know that health coverage is a rare thing or hard to get. Some places have a minimum number of hours to work to be covered and by golly, they don't always get those hours. Go figure.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Our current employer-provided health care is a bad model. HMOs are somewhat of a failed experiment. They've been used in ways that were never really intended and it's driven costs out of control.

What I'd like to see is, as Pan suggested, a minimum level of coverage provided to all citizens, and with the ability to pay for "better" services. And I see that ability to pay taking the form of pre-tax medical expense accounts, and a system that I don't know the name for but it's essentially a collective bargaining arrangement where several businesses get together and instead of providing insurance for their employees, they negotiate with health care providers for heavily discounted services. This way, no one is paying premiums, you simply pay for what you need, but the guarantee of business lets the providers keep the prices down.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Why does our healthcare suck? Malpractice suits (and the required insurance), for one.

HMOs used to work. They don't anymore. I was raised within the HMO system, and I always got what I needed. I guess that was before the greed took over. As noted in a previous post, shareholders get upset when the cycle of ever-increasing profits is interrupted. "I know people aren't getting the care they need, but darn it, the share price went down!" Um, nobody but you cares about that? The rest of us just want to be able to see a doctor!

Stock price *will* go up and down. Deal with it.

We have the best health care that money can buy. :: sigh ::

I saw something once on tv about a group of doctors that priced themselves at a reasonable rate, and refused all insurance. You go in, pay your $25 and you're good. It was working for them.

I do like the idea of medical co-ops, where the group of docs bands together. I don't think doctors are any happier with how difficult our system is to operate.

[PanTheMan]

Originally Posted by MouseWife

You surely did hit upon a point.

I know of people who do not have health coverage but are always in the ER, Intensive Care, etc. With health problems that they bring on to themselves. Drugs, alcohol, etc.

And, what totally TOTALLY makes me want to throttle them is that they complain about the care they are given, like they are being mistreated. Of course, this is the addiction talking but still.

Exactly. I have an alcoholic neighbor who is a one man health care crisis. He has drank himself into pancreatic failure, a fractured skull, a really bad car accedent, and numerous other health problems. His Pancreatic Failure I.C.U. experience cost almost $1 Million (He is now Insulin Dependant) His car accedent, Cost OVER 1 Million for him and another 1/2 Million in damage to the city (Thank God, he missed several oncoming cars, and only took out street signs, the front of a building and a telephone poll going 50+ in a 25, passed out, foot on the gas) How he lives is beyond us all. Was sentanced to "Rehab" lasted 2 weeks...

Everytime his now mended broken back gives him trouble, he WANTS TO SUE. Everytime he needs to inject insulin HE WANTS TO SUE, because he convinced the Hospital screwed up, and the list goes on... (All Doctors are A-Holes, The Nurses are B*tches...)

Guess what folks, WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS BILLS! We also need some sort of 3 strikes law for those bent on drinking or drugging themselves to death, but that wont happen.


Then my Mother wonders Why she has to pay $600 a MONTH at age 72 for Kaiser.

[tikiboy]

The healthy paying for others' misfortune or irresponsiblity is how the health care industry has always worked. It always will.

I also feel that everyone regardless of how much they make should recieve some form of health care. But the proposals that have been brought forth so far by the California legislature or by proposition haven't been the solution.

A couple of posts have made light of people's fears of socialism(i.e. socialism...bad). The fact is we already live in a "mixed economy" where socialism is present(i.e. Medi-Cal)

The govt has shown me that it is not capable of taking on something as important as health care. I feel it is best left to private industry where the search for the almighty dollar will foster change. We're already seeing it now. In my health care options at work the HMO and PPO options are being priced out, but new and innovative health care solutions are appearing that most people take part in(Ex: Lumenos)

That's the beauty in trusting the market. When a service becomes overpriced or burdensome(PPO and HMO respectively) there will always be something to compete against it.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Yeah, something will replace it. I just hope it works better.

[MouseWife]

Originally Posted by PanTheMan

....Everytime his now mended broken back gives him trouble, he WANTS TO SUE. Everytime he needs to inject insulin HE WANTS TO SUE, because he convinced the Hospital screwed up, and the list goes on... (All Doctors are A-Holes, The Nurses are B*tches...)

Guess what folks, WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS BILLS! We also need some sort of 3 strikes law for those bent on drinking or drugging themselves to death, but that wont happen.


Then my Mother wonders Why she has to pay $600 a MONTH at age 72 for Kaiser.

Hey, I thought for a moment we were discussing the same person! But, no. This guy doesn't have a car. Thank God. Same type of story. He has been through rehab so many times. He is so lucky that the Homeless shelter takes him back. When he is in the hospital, he complains and complains. This after being brough out of an alcohol induced coma of about a week.

I wonder what his bills are.....

I worry about people who depend on what types of medical coverage has been promised to us, etc.

I've understood this always about how those that have take care of those that don't. Just hard to swallow when all of the working people I know try to stay healthy and well and not miss work, going even when they feel ill or struggling with child care. I've been jaded by seeing the people on the opposite side of the coin.

A very heartwrenching show I saw this week on Oprah. People surviving on $60 a week? This market said that 80% of its customers were on food stamps?

Oh, sorry for going off on a different thought.....

[PanTheMan]

It is a truly unfortunate fact that mixed in with the hard luck cases of people willing to work, willing to try an improve their lives, and people just the victims of a run of bad luck having been dealt a crappy hand, there will be mixed in with them, the trash of the the human race just looking for a free ride.

It is the trash that gets the headlines, the hardworking single mom, gets overlooked. Poverty's victims are once again victimized by some of the scum who really seem to enjoy living down there. They bleed and abuse the system, so when those in real need come along, they all are greeted with cinical eyes.

Society is being ripped apart by so many things, it is hard to point exactly to the cause. I feel personal accountabilty is a cancer eating at the core though. From childhood on- pointing the finger at others for ones own stupidity and poor life choices seems to be where it all starts.

Funny thing though, I Have always noticed a complete lack of personal accountability among the drunks, druggies, lazies, and slackminded, but now i see it within the ranks of the incredibly wealthy and powerful too. Must be something in the air.