Healthcare

[DownInSocal 12]

I cautiously stick my head up and ask:

Anyone want to talk about Healthcare?

I will be forthright. I lived for years with no insurance. I have had insurance I didn?t pay for through work. I have paid out the nose through work for insurance. I have bought insurance on my own.

Now I am considered by U.S. standards to be cream of the crop if you will, I have dual coverage. I am married to a retired Navy man and I have coverage through my job. No matter where I go I pay nothing for my health care or medications. Through my husband I will now have healthcare for life. I understand what a gift his 21 years of service has given me.

I watched a Michael Moore movie years and years ago (not Sicko, I refuse to see anything that promotes Cuban anything). He was asking some young Canadians why everyone should get healthcare and they simply said ?Because they are human beings?. A light went off in my head. I believe healthcare is a right in a prosperous nation such as ours. We are talking about fellow human beings here. It pains me to read the boards and see people struggling to get surgery when they want to get healthy but are blocked at every turn due to our current disaster of a system.

I admit I am middle liberal and registered Democrat.

I would love to have a civil discussion. Everyone be nice please. We are all in the same boat here. We want the best for our country. (Canadians, Aussies, Brits all welcome!)

Ready????. Go!

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." ?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

I pay $500 a month for ins. and it's really lousy coverage, but better than nothing. I was all excited because as a widow, I will get social security at 60. Then I read that my ins. will go up to $1,000 a month when I am 60. So my entire social security will go to pay for that.

[Ruthi 60]

I am in favor of free health care as long as they are upfront as to where the money is going to come from to pay for it and our taxes do NOT pay for illegal imigrants to have free health care on our dime.

I dont think free health care is a good term. Nothing is free.

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

My friend who is only 48 yrs old had a heart attack on Monday. I talked to her today and her insurance through her work will only pay 50% of her hospital bill. This is a single woman who works very hard to support herself. It makes me sad that her coverage is so lousy, and now she will be off work for a period of time with a huge hospital bill to worry about.

It also makes me feel bad that I never told her I had WLS. I haven't told many people, but telling her now would only make her feel bad that I never told her in the first place.

[DownInSocal 12]

I don't want my taxes paying for any healthcare (beyond emergency life saving measures) for anyone who is here illegally. Period.

I tend to be a different Lib when it comes to immigration. Maybe it comes from living on a border town. Illegal immigration scares me. Legal immigration does not. Illegal immigration side steps our health checks, our criminal checks, our checks to make sure they will be productive in society (not mooch off of welfare, social security, and Medicare). I can’t even imagine how many TB positive and violent criminals flood across our borders on a daily basis.

[DownInSocal 12]

My friend who is only 48 yrs old had a heart attack on Monday. I talked to her today and her insurance through her work will only pay 50% of her hospital bill. This is a single woman who works very hard to support herself. It makes me sad that her coverage is so lousy, and now she will be off work for a period of time with a huge hospital bill to worry about.

It also makes me feel bad that I never told her I had WLS. I haven't told many people, but telling her now would only make her feel bad that I never told her in the first place.

Why will they only pay 50%? Some of these plans are down right criminal.

[stoongal 10]

I live in Canada and have always felt blessed that I am never out of pocket for any medical expenses (plastic surgery and sleeve WLS are the only things that come to mind as they are elective) And even those, if they were a health issue (co-morbidities, eyelid infections) would be covered. As a senior in Saskatchewan the most I ever pay for any prescrition drug is $15. Period! We go to the dr's for most any symptom except for colds and it is all free to us. (Yes i know our taxes really do the paying, but it is for every Canadian, regardless of income) I have had three children, 2 cataracts removed, an ovarian cyst removal, a carpal tunnel surgery, 2 full knee replacements, and eyelid surgery - at no extra cost to me. My husband only has had a hiatal hernia repair, lucky guy, but we are getting on and it is great to know we are covered no matter what!

Wait times have been drastically reduced these last few years, and I can make an appointment with my dr. with only a days notice. In a real rush - we have medical clinics staffed by Drs. round the clock.

So when your president says that funded health care is the main issue, I have to agree with him. For every individual - it really matters!

Thank God we already have ours.

Donna

[Tiffykins 673]

I just don't see it happening without raising taxes or increasing the deficit even more. I feel like my grandchildren lives have already been mortgaged with our national debt.

I "want" to believe it's a great idea, but I honestly don't believe it will happen within a decent time frame. I know something needs to be done, but at what cost?

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

Why will they only pay 50%? Some of these plans are down right criminal.

I don't have a clue. I would suppose she is lucky to have any coverage at all. Most jobs in this town are minimum wage jobs that have no health care coverage. She is an accountant, so she does make a decent wage, but a lot of employers refuse to pay for any health care packages.

[DownInSocal 12]

If taxes are raised to cover all individuals is that so bad? In my opinion no. Where do you draw the line on who deserves care and who does not? The person flipping the burger that feeds the CEO does not deserve even basic health care?

Part of the problem is people need to be responsible. They should start budgeting for health insurance like they do car insurance. But lets face it health insurance is a million times more expensive than car insurance. I believe many people would buy health insurance if it was cheaper than $500 for a crappy policy. Anyone who thinks you can get health insurance for $200 a month is living in a dream world. I am not talking $10,000 deductible plans as health insurance either. That is just crazy when some people make less than $10,000 a year!

[Tiffykins 673]

If taxes are raised to cover all individuals is that so bad? In my opinion no. Where do you draw the line on who deserves care and who does not? The person flipping the burger that feeds the CEO does not deserve even basic health care?

Part of the problem is people need to be responsible. They should start budgeting for health insurance like they do car insurance. But lets face it health insurance is a million times more expensive than car insurance. I believe many people would buy health insurance if it was cheaper than $500 for a crappy policy. Anyone who thinks you can get health insurance for $200 a month is living in a dream world. I am not talking $10,000 deductible plans as health insurance either. That is just crazy when some people make less than $10,000 a year!

If mine and mine husband's taxes are going towards more "free" healthcare in this country, then NO. I don't think all the people deserve free healthcare, especially those who aren't working because their held up in their parent's basement, getting high, living off government assistance, popping babies out left and right deserve to have a decent policy. Which our taxes are already going to those people, but I don't want more going to more deadbeats. There could be more reform in our welfare, and government assistance programs in this country, and billions could be saved. BUT, because of the "sense of entitlement" that so many people have in this country, it'll never be done.

I'm beyond grateful for our insurance made available to myself and my son because of the job my husband is doing. BUT, I don't think that every human being deserves to have free healthcare at the cost of every other American who works their a$$ off just to put food on the table.

I don't want the government to have more control than they already have, in addition to that, think of the unemployment rates if national healthcare takes over, and all of the insurance reps, claims reps, salepersons, adjusters, and so forth lose their job.

If I need a hip replacement, I want it as soon as possible, and I definitely don't want a government telling me I need to wait XX amount of time. I've heard horror stories about wait times in Europe and Canada. I have a friend who lives in Canada, and she constantly gripes about the healthcare system up there. I guess there are pros and cons to any system, but I am not going to idly sit by and blindly accept that this healthcare reform plan is good for us as a nation.

[MacMadame 81]

I think illegal immigrants should be allowed to buy health coverage because it costs us less in the long run if they pay into the system and don't just take out. I'm practical like that.

I also think our system is very obviously broken and therefore I'm willing to try something different.

[burnsun 27]

Reply....in my state you are paying for the ones in the basement....... either on medicaid or when they do not pay their bills and it passes on to you and your insurance provider.

You are paying for medicare now with fica.....

I see and have seen this issue from all sides (one pregnancy w/o insurance) over 19k....this was the normal one by the way. Tests that cost me 200 and 40 dollars were reimbursed in a subsequent pregnancy (when I had insurance) for 12 and 25 bucks! And with emerson ...... stuff covered and not covered and all the fighting..... I am still getting bills and I really do not know what to do!

All of my adopted children get medicaid throught their adoptions (they were all US children in or would have been through the system) and I have used this as their primary and as a secondary! I watched my husbands grandma.....spend and sell and do everything right till she had no money left..... we could no longer help her....and then we were stuck trying to find her medicaid and medicaid bed in a nursing facility ,,,,,

something is way wrong!

I really feel the most screwed people are the ones who pay their bills and have no insurance!

[DownInSocal 12]

Honestly where is the word "free" coming in? Making it so people can buy policies at a group rate instead of individual rate is not free.

The average individual low deducible (under $500) plan in California is $450 a month for a 35 year old woman. Add in a whole family (that is Primay holder plus spouse and children) and the cost jumps to $955.

The people sitting in basements getting high already qualify and are using Medical. Trust me you are paying for them already and nothing will change under this plan except if we don't do something those who DO work and DO pay their bills can BUY insurance at a more reasonable rate. It is the people who are making $10 an hour that can NOT afford to buy insurance. Who can afford $955 a month except the people who make decent wages and already get insurance through their jobs?

I do understand about the "sense of entitlement" but some of us wonder why some have so much "sense of privilage". Some are willing to let others die of cancer because they worked a low paying job cleaning toilets and could not afford insurance that was more than their monthly income. Like somehow allowing people to buy insurance at a lower rate is going to take away from the priviliged ones care. I don't want you to have to make sure I can get mine. That is kind of scary thinking and it seems to be prevelant in the reform debate out there.

Edited September 17, 2009 by DownInSocal

[MacMadame 81]

When I was self-employeed, I had to pay $400 a month for my health insurance. I was able to get both kids for around that and dh was covered at work. So we were paying about $800 a month for health insurance and crappy insurance at that.

I couldn't qualify for the BCBS policy that my kids were under either because of my weight. I had to be on dh's group plan and $400 was the company's cost for a spouse.

It was a very tough time and I'm glad now that I have group plan coverage that my company mostly pays for. I don't know how people who don't get insurance on the job can do it.