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1. 

   Atma said, 5 months ago

   Anything the drug and health insurance companies like, you know it isn’t good for either your health or net worth. A quick stat: the equivalent of 2 jumbo jets full of people DIE every 3 days from iatrogenic (so-called “health care” related) causes, primarily prescription-related. It’s the 3rd major cause of death in the USA. If we had that many people actually dying in jumbo jets, there’d be investigations and law suits galore.

2. 

   dtroutma said, 5 months ago

   Sam actually should be holding a broken paddle. The positive side is that the dudes in the front of the boat are not wearing life vests. “Men overboard!”

3. 

   believecommonsense said, 5 months ago

   ^ except if they go overboard, they’re determined to take everyone else with them ….

   by every measurement, healthcare in the U.S. has worsened since it was taken over by private insurers from the non-profits

4. 

   cdward said, 5 months ago

   ANandy, do you work for the insurance industry? It is horribly expensive to have insurance, and the industry keeps changing coverage so that you never know what you are getting. We’ve already practically doubled the premiums we pay – and had the coverage cut. We are limited by our employer as to our options on which companies to choose, so we have to pick between increasingly bad and worse. But if you look out there, it’s no better anywhere.

   I just hear you saying it’s all the fault of the patient because they don’t question their own treatment.

5. 

   HOWGOZIT said, 5 months ago

   BCS–only going to get worse if government gets more involved and dictates what employers must do. Let these deadbeats give up their new cars, booze, cigarettes, cable/direct TV and pay for coverage like those of us that responsibly do.

6. 

   DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

   I am eternally fascinated by the ability of the Health Insurance industry to convince the American public to continually vote against its own self-interests. The old “better dead than red” argument come back again; “I’d rather die of easily preventable diseases than enjoy universal health care that someone once labeled “socialist.””

7. 

   Gary Kleppe said, 5 months ago

   The problem with the wingnuts’ “every man for himself” approach is that health care costs are so ridiculously skewed. The sickest twenty percent of the public need around 85% of treatment dollars. Usually that’s through no fault of their own. Watch this video, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNHNCScYpX8

   The concept of insurance was supposed to fix this: Everybody pays into a fund that gets spent to help the people who need it. In practice, this has failed. For-profit insurance companies only want to insure the 80% of us who need relatively little care. They want nothing to do with the expensive 20% which get left at the mercy of charity or government programs.

8. 

   foxglove16 said, 5 months ago

   ANandy, the # of ER visits is only going to decrease when there is Universal Healthcare. The reason being that people w/o insurance go there, where they cannot be denied treatment, because they cannot afford going to a doctor to get treated. People with insurance do no go there unless they are in a wreck or having a heart attack. I was once bitten by a dog on the job (I am a home health Physical Therapist), and was required by my boss to go to the ER (where Employee Health was) to get it looked at. I waited for 4 hours and saw people w/ bad teeth needing pain killers, people w/ coughs, etc, who were there because they could not pay to see a dentist or MD. The system is out of whack, and it’s not because people like me are demanding a mint on my pillow in the examining room.

   My employer is looking at ways to cut costs. Now we have an insurance policy where they deny routine tests for an auto immune thyroid problem that requires adjustment to my medicine, deny my chiropractic bill because they assume it is from another on the job injury which was closed 2 years ago (I’m supposed to be allowed 12 a year), and drop other services altogether, etc. I know many nurses who were insurance case managers. The stories they tell… Insurance companies would literally let you die rather than cover things. They actually will delay things until you die because they would not have to pay out anything on you again!

9. 

   Right_On said, 5 months ago

   The boat should say “Titanic” on it.

10. 

    believecommonsense said, 5 months ago

    Howie said: BCS–only going to get worse if government gets more involved and dictates what employers must do. Let these deadbeats give up their new cars, booze, cigarettes, cable/direct TV and pay for coverage like those of us that responsibly do.

    do you really believe that our healthcare problems are a result of deadbeats who choose not to pay for health insurance? Really?

    I imagine there are some working young people who decide not to enroll in their employer’s healthcare plan to save a few bucks each month, but there are millions of more people who would LOVE to be able to enroll in and pay for an affordable health insurance plan.

    Those millions of people include those who work for employers who do NOT offer health insurance plans, people who work less than full-time (and in today’s market that is usually defined as working less than 37 hours a week), people who are self-employed and have to buy an individual plan and can’t because of pre-existing health conditions. Those conditions that allow insurance cos. to deny them coverage can include asthma, high blood pressure, and any number of highly treatable conditions but insurers deny coverage, or offer limited coverage with such high premiums and deductibles and co-pays that they may add up to 50 percent of their annual income if they have any kind of medical treatment.

    i believe you know, don’t you, that medical bills are the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy in this country. And it’s not due to people being deadbeats, it’s that with today’s high cost of healthcare, one hospital stay may equal a year’s worth of income without good insurance.

    I have had good employer-sponsored health plans, not-so-good employer-sponsored health plan, I’ve paid big bucks to continue health insurance coverage through COBRA, and I’ve gone periods of time without health insurance because I had no choice.

    If you’re satisfied with your health insurance, Howie, I’m glad for you, but wouldn’t you like all Americans to at least have access to an affordable healthcare insurance?

    I know you are thoughtful enough to recognize we do have a problem beyond lazy deadbeats, right, Howie?

11. 

    HOWGOZIT said, 5 months ago

    I do realize it BCS, but it is those that can’t sacrifice their “luxuries” and take a chance on not needing insurance (life or health). Then when a catastrophe hits it is “my government doesn’t do enough for poor ole me.” Yes let us help those that try to help themselves. I think you know what I’m alluding to BCS.

12. 

    dtroutma said, 5 months ago

    My insurance rates have gone up, and the copays have gone up- HUGELY on my “private” insurance to cover my spouse. My VA care has been good, the drugs on their formulary not only cost me nothing, but they NEGOTIATE the price with providers. An example of absolute idiocy from the wingnuts driving prices up was the REPUBLICANS passing a bill making it illegal for medicare to negotiate with the poor poverty stricken pharmaceutical companies, maybe even cutting back on their advertising budgets, to provide lower drug costs.

    We do need a system that gets common cold sufferers out of emergency rooms, VA does provide an example. While I’m not going to say that system is perfect everywhere across the country, it’s a lot better than corporations are providing, at lower cost.

13. 

    HOWGOZIT said, 5 months ago

    Oh yes trout–let’s blame Repubs for everything–b o r i n g

14. 

    believecommonsense said, 5 months ago

    Howie, then would you support reform that prohibited insurance cos. from cherry picking the young and healthy and denying everyone else for private insurance plans?

    Would you support a government healthcare plan option for those who private insurer’s won’t cover?

    Would you support regulations which would prohibit medical providers from charging private pay patients as much as five times for same service/test/procedure as they charge insurers?

    Are you in favor of mandating health insurance?

    I agree there are some people in the category you describe — those who could afford health insurance but choose not to for a variety of reasons. I believe that group is the minority of our vast numbers of uninsured. That’s why there must be some reform of the system.

15. 

    HOWGOZIT said, 5 months ago

    I concur a reform of some sort is needed, but not one that dictates an employer must pay for one’s healthcare or face a fine.

16. 

    DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

    ANandy replies: The situation here is one of our leadership failing to timely deal with a festering problem, resorting to the bogeyman tactic, shift blame to a big company, industry, whatever.
    Now the ones who failed us before will try to make us believe we can do as other nations have done but avoid the pitfalls.

    Well, then why in the world don’t you elect politicians who will represent YOUR interests rather than the interests of Big Business. We do that in Canada; we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. You might want to try it one day.

17. 

    Akenta said, 5 months ago

    DrCanuck, how is the media in Canada? Here they tend to ignore you if you’re not one of the two parties or very rich. Makes it hard for the people to get a real choice.

18. 

    cdward said, 5 months ago

    ANandy wrote: “cdward, I do not work in the insurance industry. I recognize the tendancy of those who have no personal stake in the cost of their care to have no regard for the cost.
    I do recognize the expense of insurance and believe a better way to accomodate our needs exists than to turn the responibility over to the Federal Government to manage.”

    ANandy, thanks for the response. Obviously we don’t agree, but I’ll accept your first point. The only problem is, those who DO have a personal stake – ie., those who stand to make a lot of money from it – have great regard for the cost and are doing everything they can to get that cost as high as possible. As many here have attested, it’s getting to the point where we – and I earn a decent middle-class salary – are having a hard time paying for it ourselves. For countless others who are lucky to find minimum wage jobs or only part time work, there’s no employer-provided insurance. Try affording it if all you’ve got is minimum wage.

    To your second point, it’s good that we agree on the need for reform. Again, I doubt we’ll agree on what sort, especially since I do not trust big business. In fact, corporations are the one entity in this world that are designed to be amoral, designed to exist only for the benefit of their shareholders rather than the good of society. History has shown that they will do everything they can to maximize profit, even if it is to the detriment of the rest of their society.

    Besides, it’s my sense that the government can do a lot very well and more economically than corporations. I’ll take the US military, for example, over the undisciplined and undependable (and overcharging) Blackwater. I’ll take the USPS over any other postal service. To say that our government can’t do health care at least as well as other governments is kind of sad. But I’ve experienced the health care systems in other countries and received better care, so I know it’s possible – we just have to decide to do it. However, if you have other plans for positive reform that will make us a healthier nation, I’m glad to hear them.

19. 

    DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

    Akenta: I watch the news on both Canada’s CBC as well as Britain’s BBC, and America’s ABC, CNN, and Fox, so I believe I can make reasonable comparisons. American news is privately owned and, as such, must compete for “eyeballs” to stay alive. They do this by directing their news at the lowest common denominator and issues that get folk all riled up. (Many misinterpret this as a bias; it’s not, it’s just marketing.) Canada and Britain have government subsidied networks, they don’t need to compete, so they are able to keep very high journalistic and objective standards.
    
    I found exactly the same thing in the two educational systems in Canada and the US. Private colleges in the US dumb down their curricula to stay alive, Canadian colleges are government sponsored, no competition for tuitions, and are able to keep educational standards higher.

20. 

    M Kitt said, 5 months ago

    CDW, the W slackard suggested shifting social security over to the investment market, fannie and freddie, think where those funds would be now and what it would mean to the pensioners who rely on it…the point of privatizing that program is the same as keeping health care in that status, the corporations and the politicians they fund into office smell profit and want their hands on it. An efficient and well maintained health care system with minimal overhead (goverment run) would deprive the health care industry of the opportunity to turn down as many claims as possible and pocket the difference, along with bumping up the price in the 25% range for overhead/administrative costs, these parasites have no conscience.

21. 

    dtroutma said, 5 months ago

    Not quite accurate Andy- my son had LASIK on both eyes, and the Navy paid for it- last time I checked, they are part of the “government”. The clinic does a lot of Navy people, and that training/experience does help their “private” clients.

22. 

    Anthony 2816 said, 5 months ago

    Maybe it’s because LASIK is purely an elective procedure?

23. 

    believecommonsense said, 5 months ago

    ^ because insurance cos. don’t normally cover Lasik surgery, those providing it have been forced to keep costs low enough so people can pay out of pocket. My recent healthcare insurance plans have not covered Lasik either, so your premise has no merit.

    And it’s not government entitlement in any case. Are you aware that Medicare subscribers PAY a monthly premium and Medicare covers 80 percent of provider’s claims, the member is responsible for the remaining 20 percent?

    Many members then purchase what’s called “Medigap” insurance — which ain’t cheap— to cover the remaining 20 percent after an annual deductible.

    Gee, that sounds a lot like private insurance doesn’t it?

24. 

    believecommonsense said, 5 months ago

    and I forgot to add that neither Medicare, nor Medicare supplemental plans include prescription coverage …

    so Medicare recipients pay an additional premium for that too

    so ANandy, if a retired person living on a pension pays for Medicare, a Medicare supplement and a prescription plan, you’re complaining about what, precisely ?