Health care....

[brice1967]

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba649

So my brother in law sends me some canned crap about health care.  Him being a senior citizen, the future of health care means a lot to him.  Since he can't make heads or tails out of Universal Health Care, he's taken to trying to find everything he can regarding universal health care.

The email he sent me had statistics on hip replacement, cancer survival, cancer treatments and how many MRI machines per 1000 people in each country.  By and large, the comparisons showed that the USA medical patients received health care quicker than those in Canada and England.  

I still don't know what to make of it all, but I found the link above while trying to figure out more on this stuff

[teko]

Yes, hospitals and doctors are free to charge what they like and this is a big part of our problem with this insurance business. Private pay is much much cheaper if you can afford it. There def needs to be some regulation on what can be charged.

[brice1967]

All of that is troubling information and the varying prices drives me absolutely crazy.  Somewhere around here recently, I posted something I heard on a PBS story.  It was from a doctor who worked with a surgical group who preformed surgeries at 3 different regional hospitals.... the very same surgery preformed by the same surgeon at any of the 3 hospitals was a different price.

The quality of care is virtually the same.  The surgical staff is essentially the same, yet different prices.  He also mentioned pharmaceutical prices as well.  They vary, and he urged listeners to bring their own OTC meds when applicable.

Now see, I see all of this a concern regarding "Obamacare".  I don't know how the program addresses any of these issues.  And since we are going to be dealing with insurance providers, I think we are going to be dealing with more BS.

I think so much of what was in that article bolsters that opinion.

(I had an umbilical hernia repaired some years back.  On my bill, the same product was listed twice.  Insurance said they weren't going to pay for it because the procedure calls for one... they wanted me to pay for the other.  They eventually came around, but it was less than entertaining dealing with them.)

[teko]

Here is a wonderful comparison of some counries and how they differ on prices of certain health procedures. It is eye opening. I thought you might like to check it out brice. Here is the link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/health/colonoscopies-explain-why-us-leads-the-world-in-health-expenditures.html?_r=2&

[brice1967]

I'm still not finding out how this would be a wonderful thing.  Seems like some of the canned replies from those standing in opposition is holding some water, to me.

I don't know....  What I really do not want (and the stats my bro in law sent me kind of proved it) is to have my ability to keep the same level of health care I currently have.

I mean, if you do the math, this country has less people entering the medical fields and we are going to thrust millions of more people into the health care system (and there are plenty where the help is warranted)... it just seems like there will be less care available.  If not that, it seems as if hospitals are going to become MASH units and the quality of care will go south.

I'm doing all I can to try to be optimistic about the subject.  Believe me, I don't want bad health care... but....

[teko]

I havent seen adgal around in a while, she would be the one to set us straight on universal health care pros and cons. ACA is not universal health care but hopefully will lead us in that direction.