According to Them
It's interesting to watch the politicians and wealthy news anchors/casters talk about health care for the average person. Interesting because they have got it so wrong. Generally, they are clueless about what the average person is up against. One politician (Eric Cantor), interviewed on Squawk Box Wednesday morning and again on Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe today, spoke about why universal health care provided by the government is bad for the people. His example? A mother not being able to decide which pediatrician her children can see due to government restrictions in a government run system. "No one should be involved in your decisions about health care," Cantor states, but there is already someone involved in your decisions: The insurance companies. They choose which doctors you frequent by naming doctors and other health care facilities as "out of network," and not covering you, if you choose an "out-of-network" doctor, or service provider (which may be your preferred doctor, especially if a company changes its health care provider; a practice that is becoming a frequent occurrence.
Where's the Research?
I have (or had) so-called excellent coverage. However, my deductible has doubled per person in my family. (By the way, I pay part of the health care provided by my employer.) The insurance company covers fewer of the doctors that I see, and have been seeing for years. Recently, my new provider decided that it would like me to take generic drugs instead of the name brand I've been taking for years. I've been bombarded with paperwork which states the monetary benefits of using generics. I agree. If the generic works, use it. (I tried the one they suggested & it doesn't work properly for me). Furthermore, my health care provider pays only 65% of covered costs...COVERED COSTS. These changes have all taken place within the last year, or year and a half. Those of us who are truly "average" citizens, who are employed (even the middle to upper management) and have coverage, are facing very serious issues with our current health care system. Unfortunately, these issues are not touched on when politicians and the media discuss health care on various news programs. Pick a station, pick a view. It's very polarized out there in TV Land. When a station addresses both sides of an issue fairly, I suggest you stick with it. Bill Moyers? And (usually) Joe Scarborough, when he's not joking around, or in a tizzy about something the democrats just did/said.
Experience is the Best Teacher
Caps? Haven't checked them,yet. I am afraid to. What lessons should we learn? Insurance companies have caps that could cost an average person his/her entire life savings and, most likely, his/her home should a catastrophic illness strike. So, we pay more & more toward our so-called health care benefits. The insurance companies interfere with our medical care by making it too expensive to see certain doctors, or take certain medications. And if we get cancer, or heart disease, or something that can not be cured with a predetermined method of treatment, we lose everything we saved for our entire life. And there is nothing we can do about it. We'll, as they say in my old neighborhood, "That's the breaks". Start wearing garlic around your neck to ward off catastrophic illness, friends, because our current health care system does not focus on preventative care. They put you into the system after you have an illness and then push you around and give you a stack of paperwork and phone numbers. Good luck.
Recently, I spoke to someone who was a claims clerk for a small health insurance company. Many important medical decisions were determined by her. She had no medical background at all. She was a smart person, but she was not trained in medical procedures. Even worse, according to her, they were told to reject a claim three times before considering it for payment. The absurdities go on.
Big Business vs. You
Health insurance is big business in the US. The industry employs thousands upon thousands of people and is extremely profitable (think CEO). However, if England could implement a universal health care system after suffering through the casualties of World War II, we can do it in the midst of our economic crisis. Some of the health care industry workers would be absorbed into the new system of health care. Others would not. This would cause hardships. However, the Wall Street fiasco and the auto industry problems are also causing hardships. The difference is that Americans would get something positive from universal health care: Health Care. In the long run, the system would run more efficiently. Imagine: no papers to fill out. Everything would be on computer. Imagine: no pre-approval. No complicated, inch-thick stack of forms to read through. Privacy? You would be at no greater risk than you are now of having your information hacked into. Your privacy would be protected. Your employer would not have access to your health information without your consent. He doesn't have your passwords and can't hack into your computer savings or checking accounts. You would be safe. Papers need to be replaced, anyway. It was all well & good, but we are also environmentally challenged right now. So, turning to electronic methods is moving in at precisely the right time.
More Myth
Forget the notions that if we have universal health care we will wait for hours or months for treatment. Propaganda, my dear friend. If you are reading this blog, then you have access to a computer. Do some research. Check out France, England, Spain, Canada and other countries as well. Are there some problems with these systems? Yes, of course. This is real life. In real life there are always problems. However, those problems pale next to ours. Forget the idea that America has the best. If you can't access the best because the best is out of network, who cares about that? Anyway, didn't the celebrity Farrah Fawcett recently travel to Germany for an innovative treatment? More and more you hear about patients going overseas for treatment/care. I interviewed someone who recently moved to America from England. One question I asked concerned the issue of long waits for medical treatment. Her answer? Not true. This is America's time to show that it cares about its citizens and not just about its money, or machismo. We can be innovative. We must be. After all, isn't that what America is all about?
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