Canim, every single day I see people losing health insurance, or their insurance not being taken by their doctors. I also see every single day people not being able to take their medications because they can´t afford them. In any primary care setting, I´d like to see a person who is happy with their insurance..

I don´t think that lack of primary care doctors is the only problem, lots of people cannot afford to go to even a family doctor...... of course there are many other issues as well, and government reinbursement is one of them. If they are going to put everybody on medicaid and then not pay doctors the 10% of what they are asking for then that´s not gonna solve anything...

I think that this problem can only be solved by the government, government OWES this to people. No private business will ever care about you if the government won´t require them to, as they do now.

Clearly, more has to be done though... I am not sure what the best solution is..

A friend of mine sent this to me today...

Let me get this straight.
Obama´s health care plan will be written by a committee whose head says he doesn´t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn´t read it and whose members will be exempt from it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a treasury chief who did not pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that is broke.

What could possibly go wrong?

A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll addresses my earlier comment wondering how many of the people opposing reform actually know what it is they are opposing........

On health care, the numbers favor the Obama plan but also aren´t overwhelming. Without being given a description, 33% said that Mr. Obama´s plan is a good idea, versus 26% who said it´s a bad idea. When given a description, 56% said they favored the plan, versus just 33% who opposed it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124095605121565495.html

 Which proves the (Dutch) proverb that ´a lot of people scream ough even before they get hit!´.

Look at some of the polls on Rasmussen.  There are several on healthcare.  Just to show you how inaccurate polls are:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/

I don´t usually trust them, as they are always slanted by the ones who are doing the asking. 

Anyway, everyone needs to do a lot of research....not by watching the news either.  There are many good points in this bill (reimbursing medical students for school if they practice in rural areas, ect......) but there are many things that are not feasible either.  Like I said, we need reform...but we need reform that makes it better, not worse. 

I belong to a hospital committee that has hosted two town hall meetings with our local representatives.  The meetings have been and will continue to be bipartisan so members from both parties and both houses have been present.  Our physicians and healthcare workers are making excellent recommendations and asking great questions.  Our next meeting with our reps is scheduled for August 25th.  I would be happy to share results of this meeting with anyone who is interested.  Just send me a PM.

 I tend to agree with you about polls.  I just thought it was interesting that.....once given factual information regarding the plan.....rather than Palin/Limbaugh/Fox news bites, people actually changed their viewpoint. 

It´s really a sad commentary that so many in the public will take a quote or soundbite and turn it into "truth".  Most people rely on the media to give them a 5 minute spin and then base their stance on that instead of informing themselves with REAL information about the issues.

 Your ancestry has nothing to do with it.  I mentioned a hypothetical situation, which you interjected yourself into.  The point in fact remains, those from privilege have an unfair head start in all areas from health to wealth.

Many people are uninsurable.  For instance, if one has a "pre-existing condition, their insurance costs are all but unaffordable.  The definition of pre-existing condition is quite flexible, in particular,  when used to deny claims. 

If one works for a company that offers health insurance, they are lucky, but if they loose their job, they also loose insurance.  That sort of looks like slavery to me.

Then there is the matter of sky high deductables (the amount of money you have to pay before the insurance company will pay a penny), lifetime caps (the total amount a insurance company will pay for your care even if you are remain insured by them)

Have you heard of the case of Natalie Sarkisian?

"An insurance company that initially refused to pay for a liver transplant for a 17-year-old Northridge girl who died in a hospital should face criminal charges and pay civil damages, an attorney for the girl´s family said Friday."

Then there is this:

Disability by Denial: Blue Cross Rejects Critical Surgery for Orange County ICU Nurse

"Nurses from around the country have vowed to take up the case of 46-year-old Kim Kutcher, RN, as she battles Blue Cross and its decision to sentence her to a possible lifetime of disability by denying her back surgery that doctors and nurses believe is critically important. 

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee have put out a call to flood to flood Blue Cross´ office with calls and faxes, in an urgent appeal to the insurance company to overturn its decision and save the health of their colleague.  They will be joined in the effort by other patients, friends, and family of Kutcher from Orange County, as well as advocates for the kind of "Medicare for all" healthcare that would end the ability of health insurance corporations like Blue Cross from making life-and-death decisions like this one.

Kutcher has degenerative disc disease — related to her years of nursing — and her neurosurgeon recommends an artificial disc to solve the problem, and allow her to return to work as a critical care nurse.  Calling the procedure "investigational," despite the FDA’s approval of it, Blue Cross is instead pushing a different high-risk procedure that will fuse two of her discs together.  She is scheduled once again for the surgery on March 11 and plans to go through with it even if it means paying out of pocket and losing her home. "

I could go on, but I think this gives a pretty good view.

As for my ideals being liberal/socialist, I am proud to be a liberal.  Why don´t we look up the definition of liberal?

"synonyms liberal, generous, bountiful, munificent mean giving or given freely and unstintingly. liberal suggests openhandedness in the giver and largeness in the thing or amount given <a teacher liberal with her praise>. generous stresses warmhearted readiness to give more than size or importance of the gift <a generous offer of help>. bountiful suggests lavish, unremitting giving or providing <children spoiled by bountiful presents>. munificent suggests a scale of giving appropriate to lords or princes <a munificent foundation grant>.

My point is, health care should not be in the hands of those whose primary goal is to deliver profits to their share holders.  The current system we have is inhumane and barbaric in the extreme. 

A new insight into the healthcare debate... from the point of view of children!! Check it out...

healthcare for children

I´ve never had any experience with the American Health Services but I´ve seen Moore´s Sicko and that made me happy I am not in that system. Since we´re discussing medical care in different countries, here are my two cents:

Poland - theoretically medical services are free. Everybody pays contribution to National Health Fund if they work (about 150pln=$5. This grants you free access to your GP and specialists, also free hospitalisation. Too bad specialists have contracts with the NHF for a limited number of procvedures. For instance, a dentist is contracted for 2,000 extractions a year. So, if he runs out of free extractions in April and you need to have it, you won´t be seen to. You need to look for a different dentist or pay. In practice it is only the GP that Poles go to using the public (free) system. Gyns, dentists etc are usually preferred to be seen privately. One of the reasons is that it takes you ages to have an appointment with a public specialist. Fortunately private fees are not very high, for example, a filling at the dentist´s is less than $40 (that´s why loads of Brits go to Poland to have their teeth done - the standards and services are high but the prices are low). There´s loads of bribery in hospitals, basically to make sure a relative of yours is taken proper care of, you need to give bribes to the personnel. Sad but true. Sueing a doc in Poland is hard as Medical Board consists of other doctors who hardly ever sentence one of theirs..

Ireland - you may have a private insurance (about €700/year/3 people family), or you may decide to be a private patient. A visit to a GP is about €50, a night in hospital in a public bed is about €60. There´s a law that says you cannot spend more than €100/month/family on medicine, everything over that sum is covered by Drugs Payment Scheme. Also, you can not spend more than €600/year for medical services like hospitalisation and all money above that is covered by the state. If you are a low-income family or are over 70 you get a medical card that entitles you to a free medical services.

 DD, these prices are they extra? I mean you pay your insurance PLUS these amounts? Or is it one or another? In case of the latter a GP is very expensive in my view, if I go privately to a GP it´ll cost me 21 euro, but a hospital bed is cheap. That costs me here around 600 per night, without medical help or medication, just the nurse, bed and food. There is no maximum here.

 Sigh....sounds great!  The thing about bribery....doesn´t sound so great though.  The reality of the situation here is if you have to be in a care institution for any time, you really need an advocate (careing friend, family member or loved one) around.  That is someone to be there to see that you are getting good care. 

Nursing homes are the worst.  One does NOT want to go to one of those places without an advocate.  I have visited, and still visit a few people who have been in nursing homes recovering or finishing their lives.  The facilities are  horrors!  I´m not disparaging the workers, theydeserve much more than they get and should get medals for what they do, as they  are over worked and underpaid.   The enviornment is depressing, it´s not a healthy one either. It is hard just to visit them and not come out depressed.   They smell of urine and feces, someone is always screaming and you don´t know if they are having a psychotic episode or really in trouble.  One time I heard a woman screaming and screaming over and over again.  When left the person I was actually visiting to peek in her room, it turned out her bed was badly broken.  I was able to call and get help for her. 

You do not want to get sick or injured in the USA.  We need a better system.  From what I´ve read about Netherlands care, it´s really enviable.  We need some sort of Universal Healthcare...NOW!....actually yesterday...but now will do...We are the ONLY industrialized country without a universal health care system.