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for those who THINK they want gov't run healthcare

Faster horses

Well-known member
I got an email from a Canadian woman. I thought I'd share just a bit of it here:

"Had surgeon look at knee and says it's chronic since it's goes out so often and June 4 is the scheduled surgery.... in and out, same day, called arthroscope. You wonder how they could be so back-logged for a 30 min. procedure.
Horrible health care system since previous election and same wealthy conservatives re-elected this past Tuesday so our health care will continue on downward spiral. "
 

fff

Well-known member
Who's calling for government run health care here in the US? I see Obama calling for affordable health care, not necessarily government run.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
As I've stated several times- a universal health care INSURANCE plan is supported by the AMA and the medical field, with the belief that within 10 years of preventative medicine, periodic checkups, and early diagnois of serious illness's it would actually be a positive to the economy instead of the negative drain it is today.....

Thats the reason we need someone thats thinking about the future- and not reminiscing of charging San Juan Hill :roll: :wink: :lol:

A short comparison of the healthcare plans - McCain vs. Obama
by: Bob Gentry
Thu Oct 16, 2008 at 16:10:32 PM MDT

Health care reform is admittedly a complex issue, but it is not so esoteric as to preclude learning the facts and arriving at one's own considered opinions. I attended a talk at St. Pat's, Missoula, on Tuesday night by Dr. Anne Murphy on this very issue. It was very informative. I wrote this without consulting Dr. Murphy, and my apologies to Dr. Murphy for mistakes and misstatements.
As stated by Dr. Murphy (and I paraphrase):


Whether a right, privilege or obligation, quality, accessible and affordable healthcare is a utility, not a luxury. It is essential to opportunity.

Bob Gentry :: A short comparison of the healthcare plans - McCain vs. Obama
This essential aspect of opportunity is denied to over 48 million uninsured Americans right now. An additional 48 million are underinsured - meaning one major illness could result in bankruptcy (healthcare costs being the single highest cause of bankruptcy in the US). And an astounding 32% of all Americans under 65 (the "working class") are uninsured. In the US in 2006, Americans spent an average of $7,000 per person out-of-pocket for healthcare, more than twice the average out-of-pocket expenditures in other "developed" countries. The US has the fastest rising costs of healthcare of any of these countries, outpacing growth of GDP and personal income.
The nuts and bolts of healthcare reform must begin with an understanding of the state of healthcare insurance in the US and the devastating effect on all of us of this situation. Actual reform efforts must be judged based on the specific whys and hows of the healthcare system. Dr. Murphy provided excellent information regarding these questions, but as she said, to discuss healthcare reform in one hour is just a start.

Additionally, Dr. Murphy briefly outlined the healthcare proposals of the presidential candidates. Briefly:

John McCain proposes to eliminate the current tax exclusion for employer sponsored insurance so that employer sponsored health insurance contributions will be taxed as income - then tax credits of $5,000 per family, $2,500 per individual would be allowed to offset healthcare expenditures. Insurance markets would be deregulated so that you could buy your healthcare from any insurance provider anywhere, basically, without regulation by the state auditor as is the present case. McCain would further guarantee access to health care for a "high risk pool," but this would have to be state funded and in a deregulated insurance industry imagine the cost of mandating states to pay insurance companies for policies on people they would much rather reject for coverage. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that McCain's proposal would result in an additional 5% of coverage for presently uninsured Americans. It's presently unclear where the funding for McCain's plan would come from, and it's quite possible that a large number of medium size employers would drop insurance plans altogether. The cost of McCain's proposal is $1.3 trillion over 10 years.

Barack Obama proposes an employer mandate to offer health insurance or pay additional taxes with a small business exemption and the creation of a national health pool for individuals and small businesses. Obama would mandate coverage for children, all of them. Children are among the least expensive to insure, the state of Massachusetts already does this, but there are questions about enforcement of this provision. Obama would further institute insurance reform through ending risk rating based on age, gender and health status. Many people, after leaving group coverage through an employer, simply cannot get health insurance now based on these actuarial factors. Obama further proposes a federal reinsurance program for catastrophic cases that, in the present state of underinsurance, is the highest factor in causing bankruptcies in the US. And Obama's has a plan for financing his program, payroll taxes and ending tax cuts to >$250,000.00 wage earners. EPI estimates that Obama's plan would cover an additional 47% of the presently uninsured Americans, it would offer private vs. public plan options, insurance pooling (moving toward single payer plan) would give a bit more power to the insured, and the cost is estimated at $1.6 trillion over 10 years.

As further pointed out by Dr. Murphy, neither of these plans provides universal health care coverage, neither is a single-payer system, and the US will probably remain last in a ranking by the Commonwealth Fund of "developed" countries in health care efficiency, equity and access for some time. But this type of change must of necessity be phased-in and bi-partisan. It is essential that Americans develop more realistic and more informed expectations about healthcare. Education is essential, facts are essential. If the goal of health care in the US is not full coverage, universal healthcare, then it's simply not going to happen.
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Small simple " tune-up" procedures, as what that knee problem sounds like, is not scheduled ' next day'.....it's scheduled as much as 2wks out or even maybe more.

That way the more major surgeries are taken care of at faster pace.


You want to be having a heart attack and be held up due to someone have some knee cartilage chipped back???? I think not.

Not all hosptials have several OR's...some only have one.
 

hopalong

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
Small simple " tune-up" procedures, as what that knee problem sounds like, is not scheduled ' next day'.....it's scheduled as much as 2wks out or even maybe more.

That way the more major surgeries are taken care of at faster pace.


You want to be having a heart attack and be held up due to someone have some knee cartilage chipped back???? I think not.

Not all hosptials have several OR's...some only have one.[/quote


Is that wehat happened when they schedued your brain transplant?? they waited a few days and gave you one of a 3 yr old???? :roll:
READ and understand!!!!!!!! if you can!!!!!!
 

jodywy

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
Small simple " tune-up" procedures, as what that knee problem sounds like, is not scheduled ' next day'.....it's scheduled as much as 2wks out or even maybe more.

That way the more major surgeries are taken care of at faster pace.


You want to be having a heart attack and be held up due to someone have some knee cartilage chipped back???? I think not.

Not all hosptials have several OR's...some only have one.
gee we live a 100 miles from anywhere but took our Daughter to a clinic that dose nothing but knees, and in the same small city there a surgery center where dozens of surgeries go on during the day. bets are most small cities have similar clinics and surgery centers here in the USA
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Now that we have an orthepedic surgeon again so most can be scheduled in a weeks or twos time (only do surgeries certain days of the week-unless its an emergency)- but prior to that you had to wait until the "travelling" surgeon came up from Billings (twice a month) and then after he examined you one trip- they'd schedule you for the next trip or succeeding trip depending upon caseload and seriousness of the injury....
 

Yanuck

Well-known member
Faster horses said:
I got an email from a Canadian woman. I thought I'd share just a bit of it here:

"Had surgeon look at knee and says it's chronic since it's goes out so often and June 4 is the scheduled surgery.... in and out, same day, called arthroscope. You wonder how they could be so back-logged for a 30 min. procedure.
Horrible health care system since previous election and same wealthy conservatives re-elected this past Tuesday so our health care will continue on downward spiral. "

I'm going to bet June 4 of 2009? if it ain't life or death you can about gurantee a 3 to 24 month wait to see a specialist, and THEN, they'll schedule you for surgery if needed. My Dad was very ill with pneumonia last Dec, one lung completely filled, the other had the space of a softball open. He is in a small town extended care hospital, it took 2 weeks for a bed to open up in Calgary so he could have drain tube put in, they drained 5 LITRES of fluid out of 1 lung.
Having had experience with both systems? I guess I'd rather pay and have the treatment available when I needed it. I think if the Gov't down here went after the hospitals they'd find that over charging runs rampant and is a major reason people go bankrupt if they get seriously ill
 

fff

Well-known member
jodywy said:
kolanuraven said:
Small simple " tune-up" procedures, as what that knee problem sounds like, is not scheduled ' next day'.....it's scheduled as much as 2wks out or even maybe more.

That way the more major surgeries are taken care of at faster pace.


You want to be having a heart attack and be held up due to someone have some knee cartilage chipped back???? I think not.

Not all hosptials have several OR's...some only have one.
gee we live a 100 miles from anywhere but took our Daughter to a clinic that dose nothing but knees, and in the same small city there a surgery center where dozens of surgeries go on during the day. bets are most small cities have similar clinics and surgery centers here in the USA

My city doesn't have one. Some doctors tried to put one in, but the hospital put a stop to it. They said there wasn't enough business for both and that surgery center would attract all the insured people so the hospital would be left with Medicare/Medicaid and uninsured. I wonder how those surgery centers are affecting your county hospital?
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
jodywy said:
kolanuraven said:
Small simple " tune-up" procedures, as what that knee problem sounds like, is not scheduled ' next day'.....it's scheduled as much as 2wks out or even maybe more.

That way the more major surgeries are taken care of at faster pace.


You want to be having a heart attack and be held up due to someone have some knee cartilage chipped back???? I think not.

Not all hosptials have several OR's...some only have one.
gee we live a 100 miles from anywhere but took our Daughter to a clinic that dose nothing but knees, and in the same small city there a surgery center where dozens of surgeries go on during the day. bets are most small cities have similar clinics and surgery centers here in the USA


You were lucky enough to have an orthopaedic clinic, like you said that does nothing BUT knees, and you were lucky.


Not all small towns are that lucky.

That's the point.....it's an uneven playing field in the health care agency...all across the US and that's the problem also.
 
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