U. S. Healthcare Sucks '

[traveler63]

Ok, this probably should be in the Free Clinic. But it is also a rant.
On my soapbox!!!! Do you U. S. posters, know that there is only one company that most insurance companies use to determine what is a prevailing charge or reasonable and customary. Do you know that the company that they use is owned by United Health Care called Ingenix? That this company has been investigated by the New York Attorney General? That reasonable and customary can change from city to city, so what my insurance company considers reasonable and customary for Tucson say for a sleep study can be more or less expensive down the road in Phoenix?
How can anyone determine how to fix the healthcare system or what will work, if we don't even know exactly what the real costs are before we even begin?

Secondly, what about pre-existing conditions??? When I early retired I was working and opted for COBRA to bridge to an individual policy until 65. At this time it also covered Kirk. Well, he had a heart event in 2007. So, yep, he had pre -existing before COBRA ran out, and I started to research way before the COBRA would expire. I know that this will be yelling but: NO INSURANCE COMPANY IN ARIZONA WOULD EVEN TALK TO US!!. I have a condition called ITP, which is autoimmune and not one doctor can determine why I have a low platelet count. So, we were forced into a HIPAA Act of 1994, which basically says to Insurance Companies, they must give us medical insurance, they can just charge anything they want, raise the rates any time they want, and I can't get out of of it to even go to a lower HIPAA policy from another carrier. No such thing, so I am stuck for another 2 years. In 2008 premiums and copays for us were over $18,000 and the return, i. e. payment from the company after deductible, Why a whopping $1,000. Kirk turned 65 in late 2008, so he is out of th policy. I am one of only 79 in the state that has this policy.
So, sorry, but hopefully you U. S. citizens will pay attention to what is going on so that in the haste to do something this year, we don't have something far worse that we already have.
I don't care if you don't agree with me. my opinion is we need something that will hammer the insurance companies to be more competitive, and if a public system supported by government as one of the options then so be it and it better have some language about pre-existing conditions, cause there are a lot of us out there that do have health problems. Just remember, the insurance company wouldn't even rider my pre-existing out, they wouldn't even talk to me.

Worse is all of the people losing their jobs, can't afford the COBRA and then there are all of the uninsured that someone has to pay for.
Our senators and representatives have the best healthcare coverage our tax dollars can buy I WANT WHAT THEY HAVE!!!!!

Off the Soap Box !!!!

[bixaorellana]

Let's all think back to the first Clinton administration, when Hilary Clinton and Al Gore dared to suggest that US "health care" was seriously deficient. Remember what happened then?

Now, this many years later, after the B*sh years -- which make one wonder why we still have a country, even a xxxxed-up one -- everyone is reaping what the far-too-protected insurance industry has sown.

And each and every person who ever bleated, "but that's socialism!" when Canada's health care system was cited can blame himself for what he's done to himself (or herself) and others.

And our elected representatives can ruffle their feathers all they want about "the insurance lobby". Bullshit! They're happy enough to have lobbying in place, blatant, legalized bribery that it is. It's way past time for accountability and for the public to educate themselves and not live in the emperor's new clothes fantasy land they've fostered all these years.

www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009020602/insurance-lobby-loses-lone-argument

thinkprogress.org/2009/05/19/bcbs-smears-obama-publicpla/

[Deleted]

Nobody in Europe can understand how the U.S. can spend so much on health care with such a crummy result.

When I brought my mother back to France, before I even got the other paperwork settled for her, one of the very first things that she received was a CMU certificate (CMU = couverture médicale universelle) which allowed me to take her to the doctor, have a two-day full medical evaluation at the hospital (including brain scan), plus things like taking her to the ophthamologist, who decreed that she needed a new cataract operation, which she had in a very exclusive clinic, and also get her Alzheimer medicine which costs about 100€ a box -- all of this without paying one euro. CMU is the automatic coverage that anybody in France gets who doesn't have 'normal' medical coverage. (I pay a lot more -- as I should -- through salary deductions and such.)

One would think that a capitalistic country like the U.S. would understand that it is far more beneficial to the economy (assuming they don't care about the people) to have a population with adequate medical treatment, as they are more productive when they are in good health and are also not worrying about other family members with health problems.

[bixaorellana]

I can feel rage taking over me yet again even thinking about this subject, but I also feel that people in the US who have lots of insurance coverage are at risk of receiving unneeded tests, treatments, etc. so that the medical establishment can better suck off of the whole insurance system. And EVERYONE winds up paying for those kinds of shenanigans.

[lagatta]

I'm on another board and there is a young healthy man who is receiving all manner of unnecessary tests because his this or that count is a bit high, and his temporary employers (he is a graduate student) can and do demand such tests.

If I lived in the US I basically wouldn't be insured, which is not a good situation for anyone.

The US (lack of a) healthcare system also means it is very difficult to do any preventive health campaigns (not that we necessarily do enough here). Sad considering that nutrition is also such a disaster in some parts of the country, where cheap calories are available and healthy foods are at a premium.

[Deleted]

I've revived this thread after six years because our good neighbour across the street on Whidbey Island has broken a vertebra and they think it's because of bone cancer. He is in his sixties and hasn't had health care for over 25 years and he is self-employed and poor. There are next to no options for him - he lives alone and has no family. He's obviously fallen throught the cracks, between Obamacare and his own neglect and it makes me furious. Nobody deserves a fate like this. I am starting on my husband's Canadian immigration tomorrow.