Health care reform scares the hell out of me..For many reasons, some are political and I will not get into those..

The main reason is that I have a chronically ill child, I would hate to find out that the new health care system would not cover his medications..Actually I would go into orbit if this were to happen..

I did a breakdown on what medications and supplies would cost a month for his basic care..Not pretty at all..

If you want to know about it, just ask me questions, and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

Chronic illness here and yes, I am watching too! Life-long Democrat but I try not to be stupid about it.

Lynne

I am too afraid to ask questions about it..

Do you realize that even without universal health care the US government spends more per capita on health care than the Canadian government does. Makes you wonder who is making a profit on health care.

There is no reason to be afraid in all seriousness.

Good Point Soon..

*swallows fear*

Budgetary lesson:

Everyone talks about how Social Security is going to fall apart because we will be $4+ trillion in the hole when the baby boomers retire.

Well, Social Security is a drop in the bucket compared to the liability on Medicare, which is upwards of $30 trillion.

Medicare is unmanageable, and there are problems within the system, like how doctors are paid on a fee-for-service basis, and not a quality of outcome basis. We pay doctors and hospitals to treat the sick, not to make sick people healthy.

But, regardless of the inequities in the system, the payments are unmanageable because the overall cost of health care has continued to skyrocket. Since 2000, premiums have doubled. They have not doubled because of medicare, but because health care in the private sector has become so expensive.

Secondly, the argument that liability reform will fix all is bogus. Medical errors cost almost $100 billion a year, not because of liability reform, but because someone fucked up. If you focus on patient care, and not saving the ass of your doctor, you reduce cost in the system.

If you move toward electronic medical records, you reduce cost in the system.

Also, there are areas of the country where there is only ONE insurance company providing health insurance. The lack of competition does not provide incentive for the company to offer better quality service and more affordable rates.

Also, health insurance companies are shielded from anti-trust laws. Why? What incentive does this provide to the company to offer better service and more affordability. If you provide competition, you reduce costs in the system

So, force competition so that companies compete for your business, which is about as capitalistic as you can get. Make it illegal for a company to deny you coverage based on a pre-existing condition, make it illegal for them to just drop your coverage, change the way current government health care programs pay doctors and hospitals from a fee-for-service to a quality outcome system. Allow for the re-importation of prescription drugs so that we can reduce the costs of actual medicines.

Also, companies are dropping coverage of their employees not because they want to, but because they cannot afford to continue to provide coverage. So, make the system less expensive so that private sector companies can provide employer-based health insurance. Providing insurance to your employees gives you a competitive advantage because you attract better, more talented, and more productive workers.

When you think about it, health care reform is about as capitalistic and pro economy as you can get.

Oh, and the US already has government run health care. Look at the VA, and Medicare.

Yes, it's broken. Yes it's too expensive.

Doctors and hospitals have run scared about liability...it has NOT improved communication about medical outcomes or thus improved health care.

Ex. For years they put nurses rubbed pressure sores thinking that it improved circulation, well it did do that, but increased damage more. EMT's used trauma sleeves that worsened circulation. And on and on with a hundred conditions.

Research should be used to improve medicine, not for evidence for court cases.

And then there are medication errors.... but hospitals avoid studying them, to avoid getting sued. Truly. I hear the nurses talk at where I work.

Medicine is also at a point where it can keep most people alive indefinitely. We need to get realistic about what we can afford.

I will admit that TriCare pays for what a lot of other insurance companies will not pay for..And when a doctor writes a prescription it is filled as written without a fight

Eek.

Is there somewhere I can actually find the proposals? I'm really tired of hearing one sided arguments from these parties. They spend more time bickering about which side is going to save the day then actually doing what they were nominated for.

I'm all for reform...within reason. I don't want something forced on me though...as long as I have a choice I'm ok.

.....but when is the last time we really had a choice on where our government spent our money?

I just wrote a very long post about this and deleted it. Anyway it goes, I'm screwed and I don't want to get depressed about anything else this year.

The bill under consideration tries to be all things to all people and is collapsing under it's own weight. I do not want the government to run healthcare, I just want them to help cover the uninsured, the elderly, and the veterans. I wish they had focused on that goal as a priority and accomplished it without screwing with something that attempts to regulate everything and everyone, including people who are already satisfied with their plan and doctors.