So CA Governor Schwarzenegger has rolled out his proposal for universal health care coverage in his state. And a few other states have put some universal care types of laws into effect, though I'm not sure any of them are actually providing universal care yet.
Since being uninsured or underinsured is a pressing and frequent theme on this board, at least for the US folks, what do you guys think about universal care? It's supposed to be on the national election agenda for the next couple of years. And I can't stop thinking about it.
1. Would you move to another state to get care/insurance coverage if you don't have it now in your state?
2. Would you vote to pay higher state or federal taxes in order to provide universal coverage in your state or in the US?
(Yeah, many of us would cut other programs we're not in favor of to provide more or universal health care, but what if that's not a choice? What if they're not going to cut the program you dislike and taxes had to be raised--not extremely, but enough to cause a stir?)
3. How important do you think this issue is on a national level, relative to other high profile issues like national security, etc.?
I dont know if universal heath care is the answer (assuming it would be the same concept as how Canada has it) My sister in law says it takes a long time to get tests done and that sort of thing. I do think, however that there needs to be something done to correct the problem to many americans are now facing. The Public Aid insurance needs to have some kind of reform. Though we will never see that in our lifetime. There are to many people that are on it that dont need to be on it and way to many people that dont have it that despritly need it. I think that the US gvt needs to start stepping back from everything that they are doing and look at all the problems that the US has. There is no reason that so many people are living in poverty in one of the richest countries. They need to make heathcare more accessable for those that need it the most and insurance companies need to get their head out of their A%$es and start helping those that need it the most instead of trying to make the most money for their company.
After suffering without insurance for 2 years..........GOD YES. I'm so desperate to see a doctor, I have dreams about it. I don't even care if I have to wait to see someone a little longer. You just don't know what it's like to go without it. And to have all the neurological issues I'm having, it's becoming scary.I think we all have a right to good health care. When you are sick you cannot be as productive as possible. You want a good, strong base of taxpayers, then let's get people well. Millions of dollars are lost yearly from sick days. People like me are forced to go on disability because even with insurance, I can't afford to pay for all the tests they are doing. Every time I think I can just forget battling for SS, I remember about getting medical care and I am just stuck.
I've been without health insurance like Katie and it is terrifying, especially when you have children. It needs to change. I feel like it needs to be a consitutional right. They did that in Brazil and now people are getting treated for conditions like AIDs where they could not get any medications before. And, Brazil is hardly a rich country.
They can cut elsewhere. Let's get the priorities of human life first in this country. That's what it is about. People are dying. Sick people are put out on the street. Elderly people are starving, trying to choose between medicines and food. If we are such a great country, why aren't we taking care of our most fragile members?
I don't think copying National Healthcare systems like Canada or Britain has is the answer. There are big problems with those. But Americans have a knack for doing things better when they set their minds to it. That's what we need, a determination to make things better.
We need health care for everyone. We just have to figure out how to make it happen. I know that a lot of waste is going into spinning paperwork that could be used for helping people.
It's not right that someone like Katie has to worry about getting more and more sick, to fear being permantently disabled because she only makes 0 more than what the system allows for her to get medical care.
Time is of the essence with not only our disease, but with many others. Every time there has been a delay in getting services, I have gone down significantly and it has not been recoverable.
The only advantage I have right now in this disability mess is that they cover all my medical. But just imagine if I didn't have to worry about that. I could try and do any kind of odd job to stay off of disability. I think most people would.
It's more because it is a drastic change and people don't like change even if it is good for them. But lives are at stake.
Hi Deanna
I live in the uk and our health system does have its faults( waiting for 3 months to see a specialist, 3months for a scan or xrays etc) but it does have its upside. Every old person or child has healthcare whether they can afford it or not, medications are free if you dont work or a pensioner. I have never been denied arthrtis meds and because my husband works I have to pay is a prescription charge of £6.50. Most of our doctors are foreign and I dont see my rheumy often as appointments are very scarce but my G.P. is excellent in seeing me within 24 hrs.My mum is 70 and had a very bad nosebleed over xmas, she was seen at E.R. and then seen by an ear,nose and throat specialist at a clinic all within 6 hours, she had a small op and was given medication and money never came into it.
I used to live in South Africa where all medical was by private insurance, if you didnt have insurance you didnt get treated. So looking at both ends of the spectrum I would rather have the UK health system than have my family suffer under a "no money,no treatment" rule. Its archiac and down right barbaric. Governments are sending their own to early graves and its inhuman to deny someone treatment just because they cant pay. Its a death sentence to alot of people.
Sorry but this subject gets to me especially when I read so many posts of geniunely ill people not having a choice to recieve medication.
With Medicare and Medicaid we have about a thrid of our US pop on some kind on national health care already. Taxes already pay for it.
About another third of us have private health ins - I know many working people who still can't afford their co-pays for services. The premiums can be a financial back breaker for many just barely making it workers. Even some high paid folks have a tough time when really sick. Have a friend going through outpatient chemo for melonoma who had 30 chemo sessions at each over 6 weeks = ,050 out of pocket with no cap. Sometimes we think we have coverage but we really do not.
With 47 million people in the US with no health ins at all, disaster strikes and they end up in the emergency room. We all pay for this anyway with higher costs to those that have some means of paying.
It might not be so much more expensive. It is just that the costs are kind of hidden with accounting tricks.
Surely a cared for population with better health will have the vitality to make up the money difference. Besides it is the morally right thing to do...we must care for the sick.
I would love to have my own business but I am stuck working for big corps because I can't qualify for health ins. The only policy I can get is AZ high risk pool at 0 per month. It really would have to quite a good business to be able to make ,400 per year just for ins premiums. My co-pays and drugs already top ,000 a year out of pockect with my corp group policy. You can easily see why I have not got the courage to startup my own business.
Am I wrong in thinking that there is more of a mood in the country to take action toward universal healthcare, much more so than when (and I'm NOT stirring up partisan politics here, please) President and Hillary Clinton were talking it up in their day? I want to think we have a shot at taking positive steps this time.
Katie, even though you will be "under-insured" won't you at least be getting into the system and gaining some access to care? I'm not minimizing the reality of being under-insured, please understand. But it is a step, right?
Yeah, for some reason it seems like people are more willing to do the universal thing now. Maybe Clinton just stirred the pot enough for us to take notice, and it's taken this long for people to go "hey...I have a say in this.."
Yes, it will be a step for me. And at this point some access is better than none, you're right. I worry about down the line, when I need MORE than some. Then what? Ya know? Maybe I think too much. But hey, if I could get into a system where I could be fully treated no matter what, I'd be all for it.
Katie, I imagine you'll be moving further down (or up) the line yourself along with your future needs for health care. You'll be moving up in your job and making more money, or switching jobs to something with better health coverage, or winning the darn lottery, or something!
Even though the disease keeps marching forward, opportunities pop up along the way like the little dudes you're that used to pop up to be shot down in video arcade games. They probably don't do that anymore in these days of Playstation XXII or whatever the latest thing is. But anyway, the little dudes will pop up and instead of shooting them down (opportunities) you're supposed to grab them.
That's the beautiful thing of being 23. It's ugly fate to already be a JRA Lifer at 23, but the little dude in that is that at 23 you have so much going for you in your youth, not to mention your own sterling qualities
You've always been bigger than your disease. You'll keep on.
Thanks :) I don't try to worry about it too much, as that just always seem to lead to trouble for me. Heh.
But I do wonder why we don't have just a better health care system PERIOD. Whether it be universal or not. We keep jumping into saving all these other countries who have poor or no healthcare, and that's fine...that's the humane thing to do. BUT, what about ourselves? What good are we going to be as humanitarians if we're all ill, and can't afford to do anything about it? Just a thought.
OMG Katie i had that same argument/debate w/ my husband yesterday. We go to all these other countries that ,correct me if im wrong, have not asked us for our help but there are so many people in this country that are asking for help and no one listens. What needs to happen for that to happen? Id bet if any one of these problems affected anybody in congress or the president id bet they would have a different outlook on this issueMore and more people are slipping out of the middle class in America. We are all beginning to understand that no matter how hard we work that if things are tough for our companies, the company will save itself at our expense. We also all know more than one person who lost a good job (no fault of theirs) and had a dismal long struggle to land something half as good.
It is becoming clear that pulling at your 'bootstraps' only tears the straps off your boots these days?
I want the old America back! I want my hard work to advance me! I want a little company loyalty. Just once I'd like to see the big guys put their salary back into the company instead of 'out sourcing' work to cheaper workers in foreighn countries.
Marian I agree with you. Corporate greed is undeniable. It used to be that if you performed well at your job, you had a sense of security, and a sense that you were part of a team. Companies were loyal to their employees, rewarded them for longevity, and the employees in turn were loyal to the company. Those days are gone. As an employee ages and his benefits become more costly for the company, his future is increasingly uncertain. There is no value given for years of experience and knowledge.
Corporations are courted by outsourcing firms, presented with proposals which are hard to resist. Every job shipped out of the the good old USA to a third world country saves the corporation tremendously. Not only do they save on the salary expense, which is substantial because of the lower salaries paid overseas, they no longer have to pay for health insurance, disablility coverage, contribute to pension plans or 401K's, pay for unemployment and workman's comp fees. They are greatly rewarded for eliminating US jobs.
We are told that this is all good for the US economy, because it ultimately will create new jobs here, since corporations will have more monies available for expansion and development. But somehow that doesn't seem to be happening. The top tier of these organizations receives outrageous salaries, stock options, and bonuses, the middle tier gets squeezed out, and the only remaining jobs are the lowest paying ones. This is building a house of cards that is destined to collapse. Without a healthy middle class, eventually there will be no one to purchase the goods and services being produced by these corporations.
More and more Americans are being forced into living without insurance and without jobs which provide a liveable wage, and we are now realizing that the safety nets we were accustomed to when our parents were working during the post World War II economic boom no longer exist. We don't have pensions, we don't have healthcare, and we don't have a government or corporate world that even acknowledges our plight.
I think this is why you are hearing more people speaking out in favor of Universal Healthcare. I just hope and pray their voices will be heard.
It needs to be changed that is for sure. I hear stories every day of unbelievable suffering. They are all from people I know. I spend a lot of time in these waiting rooms of doctor's offices and social agencies. The pain just seeps through the room.
A government, a good one, must take care of its people. That means all of the people, all of the time. The reason they don't want to change the health care system is because the drug companies and insurance companies would be hurt. That's why seniors can't buy medicines from Canada or Mexico. It hurts the drug companies. It doesn't seem to matter that they are living on limited incomes. By the time you reach my parent's age, you don't have the options of working any more. So, that's it. On to the scrap heap.
Or, my sister and her husband are raising a special needs child. They can never have any assets. Everything must go to the child's needs. They sacrifice plenty for the good of this child but must go through all kinds of loops to get her help.
I just feel like the current government is too interested in sending our young people to war and not looking out for the welfare of those at home. Maybe we do have to send them. But we should take care of our own shores too. And, when these young people come home, they shouldn't be faced with such poverty and not able to get good and decent care themselves.
Should we all be expected to bare the brunt of the finacial responsability for illegal immigrants that come into our country and get benifits that the majority of our hard working American's can't qualify for now?
I don't think so. But we already are in places like California, Arizona and New Mexico. In fact, being Hispanic will get you benefits really quickly. All the paperwork I receive from any of the state programs is in Spanish first, English second. That seems a little insulting.
In my opinion, and that's all it is, I think that we would do far better to encourage diplomatic programs that helped strenghtened Mexico's own economy instead of putting the burden on ours. I truly believe that this push to help the immigrants is more based on having cheap labor in this country. But that comes around and bites us because then jobs are not available for our own young people.
In AZ, our emergency rooms are filled with the uninsured with waits starting at 4 hours and extending past 16. This is because of a huge influx from the border. When I go into the state aid office, 90% of the people non-English speaking Hispanics.
Of course, they need help. It's obvious. But I think the help should start across the border. That can be done through education and exchange programs. It doesn't mean we should be paying all their expenses so that they can cross the border illegally.
I have friends that have immigrated from other countries here. They pay their own way on everything. They have to abide by strict rules of Immigration, pay their taxes and do their share. I don't understand why we are making these exceptions for illegals.
Most of the illegals are hard-working, fine individuals. But let's do this right instead of backwards. The way it is happening now is hurting all of us.
Universal health care is great! Those objections about having to wait in line etc are sort of bogus. Yes, in Canada we have wait lists but it's not because health care is too expensive (there is more than enough money in the system. It's because there's a corporate agenda to get rid of universal health care and have user pay health care. The idea is if people have to wait there will be public pressure to switch to private healthcare. So the neo-con corporate friendly governments are always strangling off funding for staff and putting it into new (empty) hospitals and other misappropriate places. Managed correctly universal health care is a boon to everyone (except corporations).At least I would get free food, medical care and a roof over my head. Seems we treat prisoners better than we do the disabled. That's an over simplification. I actually believe that the disabled have great difficulties in prison.
But I am not a criminal. I am not an illegal alien. I was born on this soil. I worked long, hard hours trying to support my family. It is an insult to have these benefits handed over to illegals not to even begin to say how immoral it is. And, now to have beg for benefits. I've had to beg for medical care. Some of the best, most caring medical care I have received was when I was actually homeless for Healthcare for the Homeless in Albuquerque, NM. They were my bridge back up to working again.
I have mixes feelings about socialized medicine and this is why. I feelI do think we need health care for everyone. When I was working, I made a really good wage but some years I spent as much as ,000 in uncovered and copay costs. The least it has been since I got RA is 00 a year. That's with insurance.
There is a lot of waste in the current system as you described. My daughter made 7 trips to the ER because they would not do an admit. That's real budget conscious.
It needs to be health care for everyone. But I think they are using the model of the welfare health care to keep Americans for fighting for it. Of course we don't want to be numbers in the system. I'm right at where you described.
However, they are willing to wait to treat us until we get to the point of disabiities and life threatening conditions. We are just doing this whole thing backwards.
And, you are right. The doctors hands are tied. We're losing doctors because the system is so screwed up. That's really a shame.
Just because it's broke, doesn't mean it can't be fixed. We do have examples to start with by looking at Britain and Canada. Are we not unable to do something better. We seem to like to do that as Americans. If we did, then maybe it would have the effect of also improving things for those countries with existing socialized medicine.
We have to get over that fear. We can make something better. As was said before, it is the moral thing to do.