re: This, is rather disturbing

<blockquote><b>Quoting Mom.to.PoohBear:</b>" Yeah that's true, but theoretically coverage was supposed to be expanded. Not saying that I agree or disagree, I really don't know at this point. "</blockquote>




"Theoretically"? Oh dear God.

Quoting TheNuge:" Hello, rationing! "

Not all universal health care systems practice rationing of resources ... just because you see the NHS has 'socialist' that doesn't mean a change in in health care in America is going to cause things like this.

Quoting The (super kinky) Master:" Not all universal health care systems practice rationing of resources ... just because you see the NHS ... [snip!] ... you see the NHS has 'socialist' that doesn't mean a change in in health care in America is going to cause things like this."

Ummm. we are broke. We borrow almost 40 cents of every dollar. Our major entitlement programs are projected to be completely without money in a few years.
How would our government NOT have to ration?
The government already rations to some degree via Medicare. My paarents have it and they cant get whatever treatments they want/need. They government hasnt stepped in to restrict life-saving treatments but some lifestyle treatments are limited.

This is terrible,i feel like throwing up now.

Quoting TheNuge:" Ummm. we are broke. We borrow almost 40 cents of every dollar. Our major entitlement programs are ... [snip!] ... they want/need. They government hasnt stepped in to restrict life-saving treatments but some lifestyle treatments are limited."

It's true I see it every day when people come to my pharmacy and are denied a med because it's not covered by their medicare. Very sad.

what the smurf   i support humane euthanasia. how the hell is it illegal to give a baby a shot to put them to sleep before stopping their heart, but it's legal to slowly and painfully starve and dehydrate them to death  

Quoting ☮ Phuket:" whats wrong with insurance now? you either get it, or get medicaid.... why did we have to change smurf.. this is great we are all smurfed."

Great us relative. When I was working it cost me $976 per month for family coverage through my job (not counting the $500 a month the job covered) and when I had my son, I was surprised to learn I hadn't read the fine print very well. All my prenatal care was covered 100% - the birth - a separate $5,000 deductible (not to be confused with the $1,000 personal or $2,000 for family for general heath. SO after paying out almost $12,000 in insurance premiums MYSELF & over $12,000 if you count my employers contributions I had to [ay $5,000 to have a baby. THAT is why people didn't think the current set up was "great". It isn't great. it's great IF you have a job that covers most of your insurance costs or if it offers insurance OR if you are low enough income to get state insurance. If you are anyone else, the system bends you over & pays out nearly nothing. My insurance paid less than $300 for that birth. Nice. WTF did I have insurance for? LOL I could have paid it all myself & taken a nice vaca if I had understood THAT is where we were going. Silly me though prenatal covered 100% & a $2,000 deductible meant the birth was included. Even my HR person was floored when I asked them - because no one there had a baby in a VERY long time.

Quoting justanothamotha:" Great us relative. When I was working it cost me $976 per month for family coverage through my job (not ... [snip!] ... the birth was included. Even my HR person was floored when I asked them - because no one there had a baby in a VERY long time."

wow! that is a terrible plan. your company has a really bad policy. now, the nation can head in that same dircetion.

Quoting TheNuge:" wow! that is a terrible plan. your company has a really bad policy. now, the nation can head in that same dircetion."

That was 6 years ago & I am far from unique.
If insurance is run out of business - I guess I say good. They have done nothing but jack rates & lower coverage for the past 20 yrs. I am old enough to remember when having coverage meant you were covered. That hasn't been true for quite a while now.

Quoting justanothamotha:" That was 6 years ago & I am far from unique. If insurance is run out of business - I guess I say ... [snip!] ... 20 yrs. I am old enough to remember when having coverage meant you were covered. That hasn't been true for quite a while now."

I feel differently. Your coverage is less becasue your employer is chosing less coverage.
Rates are high becasue COSTS are high. Running insurance companies out of business will do nothing about ridiculous costs. Getting the government involved in any business causes costs to rise.
For example, governemnt involvement with colleges has increased significantly over the past few years. Tuition has increased faster than healthcare costs.
Government is awful at getting great results (with the exception of national security/military) and i do not want them having much to do with my care or the care of loved ones or the care of total strangers. They will ruin a good (not perfect) system.

Quoting TheNuge:" I feel differently. Your coverage is less becasue your employer is chosing less coverage. Rates are ... [snip!] ... much to do with my care or the care of loved ones or the care of total strangers. They will ruin a good (not perfect) system."

Coverage is less because of the cost of higher coverage insurance. Everyone I know has less coverage than they used to - everyone. I don't know anyone who has less than a $1,000 personal $2,000 family. Maybe I feel the way I do because I have been in the workforce for over 20 yrs & remember when I used to get insurance at NO cost to me & got it for my family (I was single & not married then, but if I were married with kids, they'd have been covered). The ONLY people I know who have "good" coverage that is anywhere near like I remember (and have dental coverage & optical) are government employees OR have medicaid. Everyone else I know is just like us or in worse shape for coverage. The birth deductible was weird thing, but being as I worked predominantely with older men, maybe they didn't read the fine print either when choosing a policy as it wasn't the big priority in coverage. It did have good drug coerage, but being as my family takes no prescriptions, pretty much ever, it was of no use to us.

I get what you are saying - I do. But I have 3 friends that all live in different countries that each have government health coverage. They ALL have complaints about their various systems BUT they all agree it is better than what is happening here. So overall, no I have no fear of Obamacare or any other healthcare that is put in place.

I worked as a pharmacy tech for a decade. I watched COUNTLESS people trying to decide which meds were more important to fill because they had only this much money. I watched elderly people take pain meds over heart meds because they couldn't live with the pain & they would get the heart meds when their check came in. And I don't blame them, if I fell down the stairs I might take the pain meds too over the heart meds. I saw too many people who were scraping pennies trying to afford medications & were often going without. It is a silly way to live when you are only allowed to have as much healthcare as you can afford. I suppose we ought to do that with all public services, you can have as much police protection as you can pay for, as much fire department assistance as you can pay for, etc.

And as far as I know - you *can* have private insurance if you choose to under the new plan.

And yes - costs have gone up AND insurance companies have also recorded record breaking profits.

Saying the costs to us going up are directly related to the costs of healthcare going up is hogwash. It's like sayin gteh cots of gas going up is directly related to crude oil prices...well yes & no - because again, when gas prices skyrocketed for us, due to a supply issue, amazingly again, it was record breaking profits for the stockholders. Is the pric eincrease related to increases in cost? Sure, insofar as it means they can feed us a line of BS & increase it twice as much as they need to & convince us it's not their fault.

On a side not e- the cost of garbage pickup her ei sgoin gup 50% as of Jan 1. There is a note letting me know the price has to increase because the price of garbage per TON has gone up $5...really? How fascinating - because that in NO WAY relates to a 50% increase overall. I put the garbage out & can promise it never weighs more than 30lbs...so in a month MAYBE 120 lbs which may get close to 1 ton in a years time.

They all do the same deal - their costs go up a little, so ours goes up a lot.

Quoting justanothamotha:" Coverage is less because of the cost of higher coverage insurance. Everyone I know has less coverage ... [snip!] ... which may get close to 1 ton in a years time. They all do the same deal - their costs go up a little, so ours goes up a lot."

Inflation. Sucks.

Quoting The Blissful Six:" Inflation. Sucks."

yes.it.does.

<blockquote><b>Quoting justanothamotha:</b>" yes.it.does."</blockquote>




It's one of the reasons I might make my move to India permanent. The cost of private health insurance there? Average $266 a year foran emergency plan. That's all I need as medical care there is cheap and some of the best in the world.