Instead of having 2,000 different payers (each one after a profit)— have one payer who is not after a profit. Our system costs at least twice as much per capita as the rest of the world and we got 47,000,000 with nothing. The rest of the developed world does not have a single citizen without healthcare.

Switching to the obvious single-payer system would save us $300 Billion each and every year. Studies show about 18,000 Americans die every year due to lack of healthcare. There are about one million bankruptcies per year now and at least half are due at least in part to healthcare bills.

We would also have dental, optometric, and (for our trolls) behavioral. There could be no pre-existing condition, no deductible, no pre-approval, no co-pay, no question of a spouse or their gender.

He must figure everyone has a corporate jet at their desposal though their wifes inherited wealth to fly to each health care company and discuss their health plan(s) options with their attorneys.

Thats how I do it. What are you too lazy of an American to do it yourself to?

Leftright – someday, that might be your mother, your wife, your sister. Have you ever thought of that…?

Don’t insult d-bags and clowns. Unlike Sen. Coburn, d-bags are useful and clowns have talent.

I’ve been undergoing treatment for breast cancer for nearly two years. (It’s actually my second time with this; I had it on one side 15 years ago, was cured, then got it on the other side, a completely unrelated new cancer. Pretty sucky, huh?) In the middle of my multi-step reconstruction process, I lost my job and had to switch from excellent insurance that covered virtually everything I needed at 100% to the really crappy insurance offered through my husband’s part-time job. Neither employer paid anything toward the cost of our coverage, so we had been paying about $12,000 per year, and now are paying over $5,000.

Here’s what that $5,000 policy gets me: I need one more major surgery, assuming there are no complications, to complete the breast reconstruction, but my current insurance pays only a small percentage of the surgeon’s fee, nothing towards any other doctor’s fees (such as anesthesiologist,) only a small payment per day towards the hospital bill, only $50 (!) towards the cost of the implant I need, etc. I would thus be left with tens of thousands of dollars in bills for this one surgery. The kicker is that my plastic surgeon told me that she would have been willing to waive her fee, but because her medical group has a contract with my so-called insurer as a “preferred provider,” she is not allowed to waive or reduce her fee under any circumstances, or they could lose the contract–in other words, she has to charge me full price because I have this crappy insurance, whereas if I had no insurance, she could operate on me for free. (But then, of course, I couldn’t get admitted to the hospital, so that point is moot, anyway.)

This insurance is through a huge, national retail chain (not Wal-Mart, but just as well-known,) costs us over $5,000 a year for “family coverage” for our family of three, and actually covers almost nothing. Here are a few more examples: if I have a recurrence of my cancer and need chemotherapy, I’m screwed; chemo is not covered, period. It pays nothing for emergency room care, physical therapy, mental health care, and many other things; it also has ludicrous “caps” on everything else (such as a $600 per year max on radiology.) It also only covers a percentage of prescriptions, as opposed to a co-pay, with a $1,000 yearly cap, and also doesn’t cover many medications at all, even many with no generic alternative, which happens to include every medication my daughter and I take. It goes on and on, but we can’t drop this shitty insurance because my daughter and I both have pre-existing conditions and if we have a “coverage gap,” we will never get coverage again.

My own situation is bad enough and there are millions of people in similar and far worse situations. How is this the best health care in the world?

Thank you, Strat. That’s a succinct post if I ever read one.

I appreciate that.

Bwaaa-ha-haaaaa. . . .

. . . except the results of their ignorance and hard-heartedness have proven tragic, not laughable, both home and abroad. And for vets, they get to experience the ridiculous outcomes of our four-branch government both on American soil and by serving those who only care about them until they become injured and are a financial burden.
Shame on the Republican Party.

Why are the idiots on the right side so hateful of their fellow Americans. I mean, who would be against S-chip for example? It’s healthcare! It is necessary for our country to remain strong and healthy. What could be wrong with that?
April 29th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

It’s a “liberal issue”.

PROFIT & CHERRY PICKING.

Make the system Non Profit, and don’t allow exclusions for Pre Existing Conditions…like all other Industrialized countries have done. Maybe if people actually got Healthcare for their tax dollars, instead of endless war in the middle east…they wouldn’t be so hostile towards their government.

Why are the idiots on the right side so hateful of their fellow Americans. I mean, who would be against S-chip for example? It’s healthcare! It is necessary for our country to remain strong and healthy. What could be wrong with that?

In my area, a woman who miscarried needed to have her baby removed. She didn’t have the $1000, the supposed bargain her doctor offered her, so she was told to come to the emergency room once she started spilling fluids. It ultimately took that, and passing out, to have the procedure done.

I say to you right-wing “free-enterprise” freaks who believe humanity is wrapped in dollar signs: rot in hell.