I'm truly curious. As someone who knows the field, as well as the yearly price increases, how do you feel this should be done? As it stood between 2007-2008, I personally watched individual healthcare skyrocket 40%. This is for people who are actually paying for health insurance. I've shown this before. When WWII started, wages were freezed so companies couldn't lure good people from an already depelted field. Capitalism's answer? Benefits. Almost immediately companies would offer the same wage plus benefits including free health insurance, along with a multitude of other things. And that was fantastic for the world's greatest generation. (sorry... you, nor your parents fit that mold. Nobody sacrificed nearly as much as the depression/WWII crew) Ultimately, LBJ decided there was WAAAAAAYYYY too much money invested into social security to ever be used, and allowed the Gov't to dip into it. (it essentially went from a decent retirement fund for the elderly to 2-300/mo. plus this crappy medicare policy, which now has to need a supplement at $2-400/month to cover you fully.) I'm aware of all of the "I have a dream" speeches that Dem's run. And I want to live in a gumdrop room in lollipop land. To give everyone coup de gras on health insurance would physically kill this nation. There are two roads: #1: Put ceilings on costs: This would effectively stop aspiring, intelligent doctors from persuing this field. Hell, they might go into law, instead, which would cripple the health-care business further. #2: America pays for everything: Think about how many people there are out there that actually make children now because it gives them a bigger paycheck. Not only will they come in spades, but they will also take advantage of free care, because they have nothing else to do. ie. my back hurts. fix it, or give me a dietary supplement, etc. My personal solution? Require, I repeat, REQUIRE every company to give employees benefits. COBRA still stands. If you can't find a job in 18 months, so be it. To the Self employed: Have same benefits provided under the group strategy, and the difference is Gov't paid, regardless of pre-existing condition. To the unemployed: Free prescriptions and ER services. Nothing more. Thoughts?
^ as somebody who "knows the field" - you have formulated an embarrassingly shallow and misguided analysis. I don't "know the field" - but I know that a lot of your assumptions are tenuous at best and abjectly wrong at worst.
Ah, my misguided moron, let me explain: I have watched individual and group rates both skyrocket in the past 5 years. The individual rate was alarming, which is why I posted it. There are no "assumptions" other than my proposals, which are future ideas and can't be proven one way or the other. And, I mean this sincerely, as a lawyer I'm sure you can look up health increases for companies such as Unicare, Aetna, Assurant, Blue Cross, etc. I work for all of these, and I can't even get them to show me a comparative rate between today and a year from now. But I recall what they paid originally. Please show me how you can... I know from my irate customers. Annuity-wise is simple, but it is very hard to talk to someone about increasing rates when nothing has happened. Sigh. This time it is you who are out of your field. 2 for 2 today. How embarrassing for an unemployed idiot savant, such as yourself.
Fatty - your $15 an hour of running QuickBooks 2.0 for some doctor does not, I must break it to you, give you much of an understanding of healthcare. In brief - your "two-road" solution belies a breathtaking ignorance - please look up the administrative costs for health care plans here and in other nations with national health care in order to see why.
I have friends from Germany that hated the universal health care. They had to be told when they could go to a doctor, etc. Even when ill they waited on a list. Now, this was in the '90's but it drove them to seek medical help in The States. They were shocked at how they had the freedom to choose which doctors to see... So eventually decided just to stay here. Not making this up... I just don't have much else to share on the topic. I think the suggestion of free meds (which are needed), and ER to the jobless is fine... we kinda foot that bill already though in the county hospitals as it is.
I know many families in Europe that would say the exact opposite. My wife's family has never had a bad thing to say about the service that they receive from their Universal Healthcare in Sweden. I have a friend from HS who's parents I am very close too. They live in France half of the year and only get treatment when they are there because it is so much cheaper to do so while still maintaining a high level of service. Free ER service is probably the dumbest thing that we could do. ER's are already over worked. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. It makes no sense for people to go to the ER for pnuemonia when they could have been treated for a cold.
Would you please show me this? I watched "actual age rates" increase 40% last year. It's called an actuarial scale. And the more you argue with me about the fact that you're a condescending moron, the more I'm apt to ask you where the proof is, "lawyer." (FYI, kiddos, Sammy isn't anything more than a computer junkie who purports himself as something he isn't....) Sammy... Please call me if you want the data from every insurance company. If you are a "LAWYER" it is very easily attainable. me email is in my profile. I'm tired of you and your tirades. Email me or get a job and shut up.
One of my oldest friends, a Texas native, has lived in British Cloumbia, Canada, for the last 25-30 years and has nothing but good things to say about their healthcare system.
What we do not know is what the administrative costs for a health care agency to cover 270,000,000 people will look like. We do not know how doctors will be compensated. We do not know what, if any, incentives for innovation will remain. In short, there seems to be a lot we DON'T know. I agree that the system needs a complete overhaul. I just don't know the best way for the overhaul to take shape. I am not convinced that it is best for the government to take over 12% of the GDP.
I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that we are one of the only countries that spend 12% of our GDP on healthcare. Perhaps if healthcare was managed better it wouldn't cost so damn much. I just find it odd that so many other countries can do it, yet we cannot. Why can't we put our "American Ingenuity" to work and produce a Universal Healthcare System that works? You would think that we could look at all of the systems out there mold a system that uses all of the best ideas.
actually we do have some idea - it's a little program called Medicare and the administrative costs are far lower than than that of private coverage. How much lower is debated (by think tanks funded by private insurers) but the available evidence indicates that is lower. Even if we take the most generous estimates - provided by health insurer funded studies - it's still about half the share of admin costs.
I specifically mentioned Germany. While in Europe, it's not Sweden or France... And on a different continent than Canada... I also said it was in the '90's... That's at least anywhere from 9 - 19 years ago. Things can change. I also know that it involved cancer. And the best doctors of oncology are Stateside. Whatever. I wasn't trying to start a debate on Europe or Canada.
And it is great for check-ups, appts., what have you. But should you develop a debilitating disease, it is attrocious, and you can ask your friend about it. My friend. We live, luckily, in an area where our hospitals are nearly second to none. My mother fell flat with a brain aneurysm 3 years ago. Had she waited, she'd be dead. The fact that my family paid $500/mo. for that is no more wrong than car insurance. Please tell me how it is justifiable to let the entire thing be a walkway platform where everyone gets everything, and we'll just move it down, accordingly. You've no, and I mean NO idea, how much baby-boomer's right of everything has manifested. FYI: To anyone who is under 40: Libs are screwing us. If we get universal health care? Seriously? Re: LBJ's idea on breaking into retirement. NASA, IMO, should have Columbia, Endeavor, and Challenger ready to launch when LBJ's coffin is available... READY? PULL!
That is just not true. If someone has an emergency, they get treated. Call any oncologist or cardiologist and see how long it takes to get an appointment here in the US. It isn't like we get in the next day with our wonderful healthcare system. Hell, I tried getting into the ****ing dentist and had to wait almost 2 MONTHS!
There are 50 million people that don't have access... that might affect how good the wait time looks now.
Is this why there are no doctors in Europe or Canada? #2: America pays for everything: Think about how many people there are out there that actually make children now because it gives them a bigger paycheck. Not only will they come in spades, but they will also take advantage of free care, because they have nothing else to do. ie. my back hurts. fix it, or give me a dietary supplement, etc. You think women will stop working and have a bunch of kids because now they'll get adequate healthcare as they lose their houses in foreclosure, gas hits $4, and a gallon of milk tops $5?
Well firstly, the average ss check is over a grand, not 200$. Requiring ALL companies in America to pay for health care would DESTROY small businesses and startup companies. Thats one of the big problems with health care as it is, it is a huge competitive disadvantage for American companies to have to provide health care for all of their employees. I personally see nothing wrong with the UK system. But anything would be better than what we have now.
I have to second this... it took me nearly 2 months to get an appointment with an experienced nephrologist.
You didn't get it. There are wait times here just like in other countries. My mom had a growth in her cooch. They thought it might be cancer. It took her 3 AND A HALF MONTHS TO GET INTO AN ONCOLOGIST! Wait times are not just for universal health care. Luckily it was nothing and she had it removed. The fact still remains that she had to wait for-freaking-ever to get it checked out even with insurance.
