Health CARE REFORM (So CHIME in on the SOLUTIONS)

Rose, I don't really get into these kind of discussions but I wanted to let you know that I am praying for your situation. I had no idea you lived near the fires. I will be praying about that also.

Thank you Roxanna! All prayers gladly accepted. Have a GREAT DAY my friend!

See www.nopom.info for one solution that would not cost anything and no taxes. It eliminates all the middlemen.

Hi Larry! Thanks for dropping by to comment. I've viewed the site and hope to read more in the near future.
Have a great day!

If you read the novel that will make it a great day for me.

I used to check my bills until I reported errors to my insurance company and they told me they couldn't request adjustments or the providers wouldn't work with them!

Hi Trish! I assume the providers had a good thing going and didn't want a chink in their chain. Honest people would have looked for new providers ya think?

Universal health care now! We should be a more compassionate nation. We find the money for needless wars; we can find money to help our fellow citizens.

amenm leo

Hi Leo L. and Aunt Boni H.! For whatever the reason Leo doesn't have a reply to comment area and you both seem to be on the same page so I'll reply to both of you via this comment.

Universal Health care would be great if it were truly universal. I would have to see it to believe it, as the health care I've witness is never on the same wave length. I choose to use both organic and organized medicine, which is very hard to do in the current system. I believe there is a need to have both. So saying universal health care at this point is NOT an option.

Too many illnesses are exacerbated by meds that are pushed into the mainstream and touted as the next miracle drugs, all for the love of money they can make. Sure, there ARE MANY DRUGS that are needed, but in this day and age with so many, a DOCTOR also needs to be a pharmacist to know ALL the interactions. The drug companies can SURE sell the drugs with their ads, but the reactions to the illnesses and other underlying problems are SO MANY times overlooked as another drug is heaped on the reactions/symptoms and then death occurs.

We NEED to LOOK at the total picture and WIPE OUT any back pocket exchanges that are taking place via doctors and drug companies to insure the safety of the masses. We need to make it illegal to court doctors, hospitals and drug companies for services and allow the person who needs chiropractic, wants acupuncture, or any other form of NON- mainstream medicine to take responsibility for the care they choose. This would open the doors for less drug abuse, less over use of a system that obviously HASN’T been working and empower the patient to look to the doctors less as gods, but as humans to be trusted with their care. We are ALL humans and we make mistakes. We live in an information age and should take responsibility for our care. This would also bring these billion dollar law suits for medical malpractice under control, because WE HAD a SAY in OUR TREATMENT, NOT some INSURANCE COMPANY who doesn’t have a clue how we react to drugs, chiropractor, trigger point injections, acupuncture and on and on.

WE NEED to BREAK the archaic mold!

As for the useless wars. ….. I can’t say I know of one war here in the U.S.A. where we sat down and said…. “I think I will go bomb some place today.” Wars are VERY complex and the way I see them they are fought by many religions, partisans, and people. I just try to remember………. God IS in control and I pray for peace.

Blessings my friends and have a great evening!

Practically every country in the world has some kind of universal health care EXCEPT for the US, so what is the big mystery? It works great. I've used it in England, and have many friends who've used it in Canada, France and England. Their health care costs are much lower than ours per person, also.

it's the law that every vehicle has auto insurance. since when is the value of a vehicle more important than the health of your fellow man?

HI Lori! Thanks for dropping by to comment my friend1

You go broke paying for insurance.....and then can't afford to go to the doctor, because of the high deductible. Like that makes sense.

Soooooo true Alison. Thanks for dropping by to comment!

The irony is that if everyone dropped their health insurance, we would have universal, single payer, government health care.

I'm NOT saying drop the health insurance. I am saying we should be allowed to shop around and get the best service for the $ and this would alliminate those who aren't messuring up and wasting our money, by keeping us tied to a system that is NOT working.

My health insurance through work has a huge deductible. I had a baby in 2008 and it cost me around $5,000 out of pocket -- almost nothing was covered.

It makes you wonder who picked your insurance company and why? Thanks for dropping by to comment Mary. Have a great night!

Personally, I've seen so many horrible things happen via Medicaid, Medicare and VA that I do not want the government in my health care.

I posted something last week by a man (Democrat) who lost his son in a hospital (due to their errors). He did plenty of research about our health care system and insurance and came up with some great solutions. Those solutions are some that I have mentioned before and they are some that Republicans have been encouraging.

Here's my post about those solutions: Play By My Rules

And Marilyn, have you ever seen a horrible thing happen because of corporate for profit insurance DELIBERATE denial of service to people who are PAYING for the service?

The difficulty you see is mistakes get made, and you demand PERFECTION from government, and allow the private sector to run overt death panels. Sorry mam, but GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE IS CONTROLLED BY THE GOVERNED. You and I have the responsibility of running the government. Try finding the NAME of the person who is making the rules for your private insurance plan.

I know who makes the rules with our current insurance. The company is self-insured and merely has an insurance company for administration. Any problems are taken to the company personnel dept.

But I've been in BC/BS, United health care, and others. I've know people from all walks all over the US and have never run into anyone who was denied coverage. Not even the couple in FL whose son had 5 heart surgeries before he was 10 years old - the first being while he was still in the womb. You know the insurance company lost money on that family.

But I have seen how the government works - with the VA, with Medicare and Medicaid, and I've seen how they run every other department around and I am not at all impressed. I do not want any of the idiots in Washington having anything to do with my health. And since they're the ones writing a mountain of "shalls" and "shall nots" they are the ones making the decisions. No thanks.

There are ways to have health care reform that keep the government's paws out of our care.

I live in the US under the current health care system and, though we have insurance, it is terrible. We have to have three separate policies to cover me, my wife and two sons. We have private health insurance and we are lucky to have it, but the INSURANCE COMPANY, not the government, regulates medication and does not allow us to receive what the doctor prescribes. Even when one medication just went generic, we can't obtain the proper amount needed per month. The deductibles are extremely high, so our health care savings account doesn't come close to covering their costs, and that isn't even considering vision and dental (which are expensive and not covered at all by the insurance).

I lost my previous health insurance due to a layoff (and COBRA running out) and had no choice but to get some kind of private plan(s). I have a son who was 2.2 lbs at birth, 3 months early, and barely made it. He is un-insurable, period, we were told, except with a HIPPA guaranteed insurance plan. There are very specific circumstances under which one is eligible for such a plan (they involve using up 18 months of COBRA coverage), and these plans are expensive. And they offer poor coverage with a high deductible.

I'm carrying a large total in deductibles for my family for the three plans, plus high monthly premiums, and we're being refused medical care by our insurance plans for many issues.

So, all these scare tactics about how the government will take away this or that are complete nonsense in the first place, and in the second place the government can't take many benefits away from me because I already don't have those benefits, thanks to my insurance co's.

Thumbs up James, you and Marilyn need to have a little talk. I would PAY to participate.

My own experience has been with a variety of private plans, over 50 plus years of employment in several different fields, ranging from entertainment to journalism to cross country trucking. As a Trucker I had a company provided HMO...it covered me at home. I was home less than two full months a year. On the Road, I had 80% coverage ON APPROVAL ONLY. I was, effectively uninsured nearly all the time.

Other policies were so complicated that on more than one occasion my family doctor required me to pay him at the time of service and file the claim with my insurance carrier.

But, I will admit that I did have coverage for a few incidents. And, luck kept me from finding out what a financial disaster an uninsured illness could be. Then the government included me in the Veterans Medical System.

Thanks Karl. I'd have the talk for free, except that I have been having it, and it isn't getting anywhere as far as I can tell. There's no reason anyone has to listen to me, of course: I don't claim to know everything, but I do believe I'm on the right track here.

Hi Rose, all...

I have no insurance at all, couldn't afford it but truly need it and if any bill gets passed in 2013, it'll be too late for me and a whole lot of people. Doctor's don't see you without insurance, nor do they order tests you need, or put you in the hospital, operate, any of it. Many will die before or IF anything is passed.

Marilyn, that "many" is estimated to be as many as 45 thousand per year, or 180 thousand between now and 2013. That is a medium city full of human beings in the next four years. It is about 125 people each day. EQUAL TO AN AIRLINER CRASH EVERY TWENTY FOUR HOURS.

Wow Everyone! Thanks for all the great info. I've had ins. but to NEVER HAVE GOTTEN to the ROOT of the ILLNESSES for 10-12 YEARS and a zillion tests later, that says something about the government CONSIGHNED DOCTORS

Rose, thanks for stimulating the conversation!

I can say the same as you said, but in my case it would be about non-government doctors regarding their treatment of me, my father, my mother and others. I can also say that my sons have received great care from non-government doctors, when insurance has allowed us to afford it (which used to be all the time, but isn't any more). So, I don't believe that the government has much if anything to do with the situation. HMOs seem to me to be far worse than the government in many cases. Now, I just have crummy, expensive, high-deductible private health insurance, and I can't get enough medicine to last more than a week for some problems, but I can only have the prescriptions filled once a month. It creates a real dilemma, and again the government isn't involved, it is pure capitalist health care in its full "glory."

Best wishes, and all the best for your health.

Well, mine were HMO's Allowed by...... you guest it; the choices the government gave me from THEIR CHOICES!

Round Robin. Use to be back in the day; it was mandatory the insurance send me an itemized payment history. Then I could let the GOV. know when there were proceedures; I NEVER RECEIVED>

NOT ANYMORE

Thanks for the best wishes my friend!