Health Care Reform

[TheItinerantSon]

https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-09-17-uninsured17_ST_N.htm

Why do you think it will slow the rate of our innovation or decrease quality? the second video covers what we believe is our sweet innovations not helping us just getting doctors more $$$ to line their pockets.

How do you make it to you doctor under HMO. You have to make an appointment weeks in advance. Then when you visit the insta care you have to fight your health insurance because you didn't get the referral needed to go.


Like I said the President asked for help tackling this issue and all he go was partisan garbage. So, I posted these videos to show a side that is less covered.

The second video you posted described the problem with fee-for-service health care - it does not describe the hits the plan gives to pharmaceutical companies and medical device makers.

Secondly the data thats presented in that video comes from teh Dartmouth Health Care Atlas. It is a laughably flawed study. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/health/policy/18dartmouth.html Thats a general overview of the issue, I can give you the specific data if you would like.

Also, the idea that other countries have better health care systems than ours just because they have more longevity is also misleading. Those countries have less stressful lives and better health habits. Also those countries are piggy-backing on the incentives the US market provides for drug making.


Heres an article I would hope you would consider reading

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/03/my-drug-problem/7279/

I think it provides an important and illustrative critique of the problems with the administrations approach to health care.

Also, the 50 million uninsured stat says more about our employment picture than our health care system. There are other ways to decouple employment and insurance (and I agree thats probably a good idea)

 

[TheItinerantSon]

My family was nearly financially ruined by my medical costs and that was during the HMO era. My medical care (cancer treatment, 3 surgeries, multiple ER visits, 3 weeks in ICU, proton therapy at Loma Linda University Medical Center, etc.) was just under a half million dollars. I am very glad now that at the time I had an HMO as it kept our monthly out of pocket reasonable while I couldn't work full hours during treatment. Under my current plan, which costs in the neighborhood of 12X what my HMO did on a monthly basis, I would have to foot $5000 up front before any medical benefits kick in at all and then I would still pay a $40 copay + 20% of all bills to be paid on a monthly basis, that is, if they are covered, as many are not. And that doesn't count prescriptions, which for a cancer patient can be very costly (I had an experimental med that cost over $200 PER PILL). Even with my HMO it still stuck me with well in excess of $75k in debt (not all from medical but ancillary costs as well), on top of house payment, car payments, student loans, etc. I figured that with my current health plan I would be on the hook for well over double that out of pocket, and the monthly would be staggering. As it was we declared bankruptcy as a results and are just within the past few years, 12 years later, getting our credit back on its feet. Granted my case is an extreme one, but it does happen. I am lucky I had my degree and some experience to get me back on my feet. Others are not so lucky.

Count me as one who thinks something has to be done to fix our health care fiasco. And soon.

I'm sorry about your situation, and I'm glad you had the werewithal to get the treatment to help you move on with your life.

But I'm just not sure theres a solution. You talked about experimental pills being part of your cancer therapy - well consider, that in countries like England and Australia (as described in teh Virginia Postrel article i linked to above) the vast majority of the population does not get access to those types of treatments. Is that really a better situation?

 

[LogGrad98]

I have not seen an option I really like yet. I am just glad there is dialogue around it with some momentum of some kind. I just know that there has to be something better than what we have now. I imagine it will have to be something altogether different and new. Just copying other countries' crappy health care systems won't get us there.

 

[sirkickyass]

I'm sorry about your situation, and I'm glad you had the werewithal to get the treatment to help you move on with your life.

But I'm just not sure theres a solution. You talked about experimental pills being part of your cancer therapy - well consider, that in countries like England and Australia (as described in teh Virginia Postrel article i linked to above) the vast majority of the population does not get access to those types of treatments. Is that really a better situation?

Of course, the result of our current policy is that Americans in effect subsidize the research and development of everyone else's therapies.