Since my husband is an independent consultant we have to pay for our own health insurance and it is eating us alive, costling close to 00 a month, and we still have co-pays on our office visits, PT, and prescriptions.
But before I jump on the band wagon in support of Universal Health Care I wanted to hear from our friends around the world who have it. What are the pros and cons, and what do you really think about it?
Good topic Honey! I am interested in this as well. As a health care provider, I see the ugly side of the system we now use. I would like to find out more about UHC too.
First, I think we need a law that bans them using pre-existing conditions against us. And, we need a law that gives everyone the right to good health care.
When you get past those two points, it gets messy. State run health organizations are not the best. Competition does have it's benefits. I want to choose which doctors I go to. I hate HMOs as I feel that they do not serve the patient but only the organization that manages them and they drive doctors out of the field.
Hillhoney, some states do have high medical expense insurance for lower premiums. Is it possible your state is one. I think about 38 of them have passed legislation on this. Basically, they take your medical expenses to reduce your overall income and qualify you for programs.
I've also found independent health insurers that will take pre-existing at lower premimums than that. Or, if you belong to certain profession organizations, like your local Chamber of Commerce, etc., you can get in on their group insurance. Here, in AZ, if you have at least two employees, you can get on insurance because it is now considered group insurance.
This, of course, doesn't really address your real question. I would like to see what others have to say about that.
After reading a few forums on a few different diseases, as an American I would not want universal health care. It opens a Pandora's box. In some parts of Europe you have to wait a year and a half for a routine MRI is you suffer from MS. It takes even longer to see specialists than it does for us. If you think waiting 3 months is bad, trying cutting in on doctor's money, having to pack in more patients, more GPS referring and it will probably take a good year to get into a specialists.
If there was a way to have a PPO type of universal insurance it would be great! But to cut costs that would NEVER happen. The upside is there would probably be more referrals. The downside would be the overall quality of Dr. visits and substantial wait time.
It is a terrific idea in theory. But it is one of those things that is impossible to perfect for everyone.
PS...not to mention our taxes would probably go up another 15 - 20% to pay for the cost of universal health care.Shandi, I agree with you on all points. But it is a crime that so many Americans go without any healthcare.In the USA, I think we have the worst kind of system with about 35-40% of the people with no coverage at all.
The elderly and disabled have Medicare
The very poor have Medicaid.
The fortunate have medical insurance.
The rest have none.
There are an awful lot of working people who do not have any coverage. Who do you think pays when they have a health disaster? It raises costs for for those with resources!
If everyone paid a into a national fund at a reasonable cost, instead the fortunate few who have medical insurance, the pool of money might be big enough to care for all.
Did you know the 30% of the health dollar goes into administration of health care and not providing health services?
I have full heath insurance as one of my benifits at work. Actually it's my only benifit; but it's a huge one in my opinion.
It is indeed one of the reasons I continue to work and will as long as I can. I would not be able to pay out of pocket for my health care....and I'm almost certain I couldn't afford insurance on my own.
I know lots of folks with no health insurance at all. My ex-husband is one of them. He "Didn't believe in it". When he had a massive heart attach earlier this year he finally began to see the benifits of insurance. Sure the hospital took him right in. Saved his life and housed him in ICU for 4 days....but now that the immediate emergency is over he's having a horrible time even getting a doctor to see him for continued care which he'll need for the rest of his life. Not to mention the thousands and thousands of dollars in unpaid medical expenses. It's a horrible situation.
It's a crisis for sure. I wish something could be done about it; but what?
No. 1 thing....insure people WITH pre-existing conditions! Then figure out a way to insure everyone at a reasonable cost. I have contacted my state senators about this. They have e-mailed back that that are in agreement with me and are trying in Congress to fix the problem. Unfortunately, my state senators are democratics and our President and Congress majority is republican! This will never be solved I'm afraid. Dems and repub's will NEVER agree on a solution because of their own political agenda and we, the American people, will pay the price unfortunately. I hate to say this, but the best to come is when you turn 65 and medicare steps in. Sorry situation isn't it?
Susan
Hillhoney, we had to self-insure for a couple of years. BCBS was about ,250 a month at that time. But someone mentioned the Chamber of Commerce to us, and we went to them. Then we were paying about 0 per month for the exact same coverage. If you haven't looked into it, please do.Hi
I live in NZ and we have 'universal health care', that is to say public hospital care is paid for through general taxes. (We're a highly-taxed nation.) It does sound as though it's better than the US, as anyone in NZ gets emergency hospital care/surgery etc, straight away and for free.
However, in reality we operate a two-tier health care system as 'elective surgery' (basically for anything that won't kill you if you wait, like a hip replacement, cataract removal etc) takes years on a waiting list to happen, unless you have private hospital insurance. Those that can afford it, like my family, have private insurance for surgery only. (Or they pay even more and have specialists and general practitioners and prescription medicines covered too.)
As NZ is located close to many poor Pacific Island countries, we get a number of people arriving just to get medical care here for free. We're grappling with that one at present, as so many NZers are on surgery waiting lists themselves. It's kind of nice being such a soft-hearted nation though
P.S: I see my rheumatologist privately, as he would only be able to see my once a year, under the public health system...
Our National Health Service is a shambles. In theory it should work fine and it used to. Everyone pays National Insurance out of their wages and this goes towards the costs. However, when there are so many unemployed and non-payers the system becomes overstretched. Having said that I would not like to be in an insurance based medical system. I suppose here you have a choice. If you can afford it you can have private medical care and go to a private hospital (less waiting lists etc). If you can't, then you still get medical care, it just takes longer. Every system has its pros and cons. I don't think our health service has been helped by the introduction of private comapanies running public facilities, but that is a government issue.
Niki
Well after reading this I feel like our system is fine for me...I would basically be paying for insurance no matter what. But for those with out that option...that is a different story. They still get seen and treated in the ER...and the hospitals eat the cost. They are in turn jacking up the cost of care, so the insurance premiums go up, and people like me pay more so that non-paying patients get care. Sounds like universal health care doesnt it? I guess there is no great way to do it...We need a new way all the way around.Here only the rich have private hospitals, most hospitals and drs have to be in your health network or your insurance won't cover it. Now the company I work for has 3 types of insurances, the first is catstrophic insurance that covers only emergencies and you have to pay so much before they will pay 80% of the bill, second is the hmo and 3rd is bcbs which is a very small network right now. I am on the hmo and I don't know what I would do without it. Too many of our people don't have insurance and when they do get health care it is the emergency room and we are paying for it. Here in my city they have started a free clinic which takes clients 3 times a week, people who have no insurance whatsoever. They have a very long waiting list of patients. I told my husband that by the time we would even think of retiring we can't, there will be no medicare, so we will have to keep working to keep our insurance. meme