Universal Care for all facets of life

Oooh! I need a new car! A car is pretty much a necessity up here.

 

I had a Mexican who worked(legally) for me as a salesman. A pretty good one. He earned above average income compared to the rest of the sales force. After 90 days, he became eligible for company provided health care insurance covering him, and was offered the opportunity to insure his 4 kids and wife for an additional amount that he would have to pay. He refused to insure them. His reason, and this is close to a quote, was:

"Why should I pay for insurance for them when all I have to do is take them to the hospital and it's free?" That was an eye-opener for me.!

He further requested he be paid whatever the company paid for his insurance and not cover him. That way he would actually be paid to take advantage of his free health care.

Pretty cheeky.

 

I enjoy reading medical blogs, so I come across such discussions going on within the community. I'm sure, however, that those people who are interested in sharing their thoughts in such circles and discussing structural problems with the health care system as a whole tend to be more prevalent online than among doctors as a whole.

 

If you think that health care is expensive in these United States now, just wait and see how expensive it is when it's "free".

 

Then why do Europeans and Asians pay less for health care and are healthier than Americans?

 

Have you compared the suvival rates for diseases such as various cancers between Americans and Europeans?

The basic answer to your question is not a matter of health care but a matter of lifestyle - eating habits, physical activity, etc. If we Americans as a whole ate better and exercised more we would as a whole be healthier.

 

'Sicko' slant irksome even in Canada

By SALLY C. PIPES
The Providence Journal
Monday, July 30, 2007

In his new movie "Sicko," Michael Moore uses a clip of my appearance earlier this year on "The O'Reilly Factor" to introduce a segment on the glories of Canadian health care. Moore adores the Canadian system. I do not.

I am a new American, but I grew up and worked for many years in Canada. And I know the health-care system of my native country much more intimately than Moore. There's a good reason why my former countrymen with the money to do so either use the services of a booming industry of illegal private clinics, or come to America to take advantage of the health care that Moore denounces.
Government-run health care in Canada inevitably devolves into a dehumanizing system of triage, where the weak and the elderly are hastened to their fates by actuarial calculation. Having fought the Canadian health-care bureaucracy on behalf of my ailing mother just two years ago -- she was too old, and too sick, to merit the highest-quality care in the government's eyes -- I can honestly say that Moore's preferred health-care system is something I wouldn't wish on him.

- rest at www.scrippsnews.com/node/25776

 

A Canadian Doctor Describes How Socialized Medicine Doesn't Work

By DAVID GRATZER | Posted Thursday, July 26, 2007 4:30 PM PT
I was once a believer in socialized medicine. As a Canadian, I had soaked up the belief that government-run health care was truly compassionate. What I knew about American health care was unappealing: high expenses and lots of uninsured people.

- rest at www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=270338135202343

 

Nope. Doctors.

 

Close, but not completely true. Yes in an emergency all can get medical care reguardless of the ability to pay. Howeve they may not be able to get routine, or preventive care.

When I was unemployed, my family's income cosisted of my umemployment check, and Jeanne's Social Security Disability check. You would think that it would be a no brainer that we would qualify some type of assistance. Jeanne did have Medicare due to being on SSDI, but the kids and I had nothing in the way of medical insurance. This situation didn't last long enough for even the paperwork to go through, but it was questionable if the kids would have qualified for a state medical card, and I definatly would not have. With that income we could not have afforded private insurance. The state of Illinois does guarentee helath for all Children now, but did not when I was in this situation.

I make a decent salary, and can afford to pay my health insurance premiums. I don't know how the lower paid people at my work can afford it. I also don't know how to fix the problem of expensive health care.


Bill

 

The same way any other problem gets solved in these United States gets solved - the free market. People seem to be able to obtain car insurance and homeowner insurance without government or their employer being involved in the process.

When I was a kid 45 years ago health insurance consisted of hospitalization. Health insurance was not used back then to cover routine doctor visits, shots, etc. It was used if one had to go to the hospital.

 

The problem with health care is that the better job you do the more money it's going to cost. Save somebody's life from cancer at 55 and you're going to have to treat their heart attack at 65, their broken hip at 75, and their Alzheimer's at 85. It's a money pit.

 

45 years ago it also didn't cost $85 for the doctor to spend 2 min. with your sick child.

The insurance you had then was Hospitaliztion insurance, not Medical Insurance. Without the part of my premium that my employer pays I could not afford Health Insurance. Without health insurance and my wife's Medicare I would be spending in excess of 50% of my income just to cover regular Doctor visits and medication for my wife and my son. That amount does not include anything beyond their regular care.

We have a free market now and look at the cost of health care. Dr. and Hospitals charge what they want. They are the ones who have entered into agreements with insurance companies to regulate costs.

It is completley unfair that my insurace company could get a better rate than yours, and both will get a better rate than the person paying out of pocket. Health care rates remind me of income tax rates. No one can figure what they are really paying.

Bill

 

Actually we don't have a free market now. Government influences the whole system compared to what it was 45 years ago through Medicare, Medicaid, and various state health care programs. And as government influence has drastically increased during the past 45 years so have the costs.

If one wants less of something and have it cost more the surest way to bring it about is to have the government be involved in it.

 

Who said they did?

 

It's unbelievable how many people don't understand that simple truth.

 

So should we just let them die at 55? :tonofbricks:

 

No, not at all. I was just pointing out that costs increase exponentially as a result of successful medical procedures. Failures keep costs down.

 

Before WW2 almost no one had health "insurance" which is actually a pre-paid medical service and mets none of the criteria for insurance. Some people had "major medical" insurance which paid for emergancies and ovenight hospital stays. Preexisting conditions were excluded. People bought insurance against "the seven dread diseases," polio, cancer , heart attacks, forget the rest. Schools sold accident insurance for the children. Sick old people stayed home and died.