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Have you ever stopped to look beyond your own little world? Today YOU are paying fines for those without health coverage. You pay it in higher health care premiums, and every time you receive any care.
If everyone bought coverage, premiums would go down significantly. If everyone had coverage, care costs would go down, as doctors, hospitals, etc wouldn't have to make up the difference by overcharging those with coverage.
But if you don't care about how much it costs YOU, then continue to be an obstructionist, and you will get your wish, as YOUR costs will continue to soar as YOU indirectly cover those without.
How do YOU propose that people that can't afford insurance, pay huge fines?! If you can't afford it, you just can't afford it.
The people I am talking about are the ones that don't get coverage from their employer, they can barely afford to make ends meet as is, and certainly can't afford anywhere from $300+/month in insurance, that they will probably not even use much, if at all. These are the people that make too much for state aid/federal aid; but don't make enough to be classified as middle class. They are the ones that will be anally raped by this crap Congress is trying to pass.
It's ignorant.
Seriously, you can't get blood from a turnip, and water from a rock, and money from the broke. If you don't have it, you don't have it.
I'm not trying to say I have all the answers, but seriously, if this is the best they can do, they need to step down and give others a chance.
How about first off, looking at the core problem. Healthcare is expensive. It's so pricey, that to some; it's a luxury, not a core need.
How about reducing prices for services? There are laws against price gouging for many other things, but not healthcare. Why not?
Take for example our local Peds. One group charges $110 for a visit with insurance, and $60 w/o. Another charges $75 w insurance and $45 w/o, and our personal ped charges $55 with insurance, and $30 w/o. Why the differing costs for an OFFICE VISIT?! Not to mention the varying costs of insured vs uninsured?
Why not a basic office fee across the board? I understand varying regions have higher/lower costs of living and that can/will be taken into account as well.
Most people can't afford routine check-ups and preventative care like they need, so they go w/o till it gets too far gone, and the bills rack up too high. If the Gov wants to help, set up free/low cost clinics weekly to see people at affordable rates, to get basic care/preventative care. Do it on nights, weekends, and other times where the low paid working class can get the care.
It's MUCH cheaper to prevent a major problem, than to fix one after it's already here. I also know it's not the best analogy to compare humans with cars, but here goes. I see it like this: It's MUCH cheaper and easier to check the tires, change the oil, and check all the systems in your car on a monthly basis, then to wait till your engine locks, and have to pay out the wazoo to get it fixed or replaced. Same with health care. If you get basic checkups, you will be alerted to minor issues that could become major if not taken care of early.
I dunno if any of this makes sense, it's just stuff that has been banging around my head for months now, lol.
Time to jump into the fray. I'm going to put my white turban (freshly stolen from the Great Karnak) and peer into the future. Two years from now, we can all come back to this post and marvel.
December 2009. Amid great fanfare, the new health care bill is signed into law. It consists of four cornerstones: making health insurance mandatory for all citizens, a byzantine mechanism to fund it, tort reform to eliminate large judgments against any health related court action, and electronic record keeping of medical history. Great reassurances are made concerning the privacy of medical records.
July 2010: Byzantine funding mechanism is ruled unconstitutional in SCOTUS, no alternative is found so the poor are cited for contempt if they fail to pay, and eventually, reluctantly, jailed.
August 2011: Facing an emerging situation that could not be untangled, emergency legislation is passed and signed making the back-door access insurance companies have had to customer medical records now legal through the front door. This is justified as a method to lower heath costs by identifying and "correcting" high risk behavior by raising premiums. High risk behavior is defined as (but not limited to) smoking, drinking, obesity, indulgence in sports involving risk of injury, and foreign travel.
July 2012: Health care nirvana is achieved, and the need for medical insurance is mooted when a class-5 comet destroys all life on earth. Nearly all feel this is a great improvement on the previous system.
Last edited by Mike Mc; 09-13-2009 at 04:05 PM..
Reason: typos
I am a born and bred American and USMC Veteran for this country thanks.
Way to be WAY off base.
Then how do you know so much about the Canadian health care system? Maybe you don't know as much about it s you think you do. If you had gone to Canada during the Vietnam war, I'd pay a lot more attention to your evaluation of the Canadian health care system.
As someone who has been in the hospitals dealing with patients and insurance companies, I can tell you that doing nothing is going to rob my child in the future!!! The cost of an er visit today is ridiculous. If we wait to do something about this, my daughter, in ten years will be paying an ungodly amount of money for health insurance and her er visit should that day occur. I am not even going to sit here and pretend like I have or know the solution to this problem but people have to be accountable for the fact that if they come into the ER without health insurance, they have to pay. Whether they opt not to have health insurance or they are an illegal alien, there should be some sort of pay back and instead, these people give false social security numbers or no social at all and they are treated and stick the rest of us with their bills. Maybe we should be allowed to have private hospitals that DO NOT treat those without health insurance? Maybe then those who don't have it would be more willing to pay for it. This does not include those who cannot afford it, this includes those who are here illegally and those who choose not to have health insurance. This way those who do pay for health insurance and do want to carry coverage would be given the best treatment available from a private hospital. We HAVE to do something!!!
Oh, let's not EVEN get into how horrible the public health system in Canada is, seriously.
Anywhere from a 9-18 month wait to get a new Dr.?! If your arm is hanging on by a thread due to an accident, it's a mere 3hr wait to see the Dr?
Whatever.
I think a lot of those stories are more exceptions than the norm and people like to push them for thier agenda. No different that all the stories about the horrors of our own healthcare system.
There are plenty of options out there, frankly it's likely we will just see small changes...I think the political stalemate on the topic WITHIN the same party should speak volumes.
July 2012: Health care nirvana is achieved, and the need for medical insurance is mooted when a class-5 comet destroys all life on earth. Nearly all feel this is a great improvement on the previous system.
No, no. Let's get it straight if we are going to reference it. August 2012, not July 2012. And at this point, I'm halfway hoping it happens. The political/social nightmare started perhaps 30 years ago and has just been getting more and more Orwell (or worse--now we are going Logan's Run) by the year. Perhaps it's best to just wipe the slate clean and hope for another glob of protein completing all the proper random steps within a clump of pond scum in a pool of nutrients. Maybe the second time's a charm?
Last edited by ChrisC; 09-14-2009 at 01:38 PM..
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