Health Concerns & Costs

[Uncle Al]

OK - Telling the world. My wife had a major stroke about a week ago.
Still in the hospital. I feel like I'm being pressured to make a quick decision.

I'm getting more frustrated each day. To top it off, coming out of the hospital
Monday evening, around 6PM, to head home - I found my Suburban was broken
into, my tool case stolen as well as the key & badge for the performing arts center,
where I help take care of a 1926-ish vintage Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ.
My keyboard & Amp, in black cases, were not taken. Guess the thieves didn't see
them due the darkness. I was lucky on that score........

Now I just found out that Humana & United Health Care are 2 of the worst companies
when it comes to rehab. They don't want to pay for anything. The rep at the hospital
recommended to change to regular Medicare at the next enrollment period. Medicare
pays better & quicker. Now, I'll have to check on our costs for the change.
Just have to wait until November to change. GRR......

I'm frustrated beyond, and too, no end

Uncle Al


(I don't like one-finger typing on my cell phone - takes forever to write something....)

[Jim]

I'm sorry you had such a nasty combination of events. Praying.

Our health care system needs major reform. Support candidates who will do this, then vote.

[Uncle Al]

Thanks Jim,

I'll never vote for anyone who supports a socialistic government.
A good example of a country that did is Venezuela. They had a wonderful and
powerful democratic & capitalistic society. Economic growth was one of the
best in the world. After the socialists came into power their country is in
extreme poverty. I do not want Nikita Khrushchev's prophecy, from his 1959
speech at the U.N., to come true for America. Yet - the Liberal Left Democratic
candidates are promising just that. People won't/don't learn from history.
I don't want to see ' that history' repeated in America

OK - I'll go back under my rock and

Uncle Al

[crfriend]

Now I just found out that Humana & United Health Care are 2 of the worst companies when it comes to rehab. They don't want to pay for anything.

With all due respect, you've fallen into the same trap that millions of other US citizens have been sucked into by the "insurance" industry's propaganda. Put bluntly, "health insurance'" in the USA is nothing more than a wealth-transfer scheme from what little is left of the middle class to the oligarchs. It's a scam, a fraud, and essentially criminal in its intent -- and it has precisely nothing whatsoever to do with health care.

Put the scare tactics of United "Health" and Humana behind you and consider the real successes of the UK NHS or its Canadian analogue. Do not listen to the horror stories put out by the US "insurance" industry (a for-profit scheme that makes money off the suffering of its subscribers). We have ample evidence here from folks living in those places that those systems work. Sure, hey have their warts here and there, but what system doesn't. However, both of those allow access to actual care which the US system suppresses in the name of profit.

Sadly, November may be too late. However, remember that on "election" day.

[PatJ]

I guess I am a bit radical when it comes to health insurance.

Somehow, I feel that people who invest in the stock of health insurance companies
are turning a profit in the form of dividends by insurance companies denying
health care, or minimal health care to policy holders. A clerk without a
medical degree is the one making the decision whether or not you receive
the treatment the doctor orders. And the more claims denied, the higher
the profits for the insurance company stockholders.

I worked for a company that ditched the health and dental coverage in
favor of self-insurance. The money that would have been paid in premiums
was used to pay health claims directly. No stockholders were involved and it cost
less for my employer. In addition, they purchased a "catastrophic plan"
with a million dollar deductible to cover anything that was over what they
had anticipated based on the history of claims for health coverage.

It worked really well.

[SkirtsDad]

“The essence of a satisfactory health service is that the rich and the poor are treated alike, that poverty is not a disability, and wealth is not advantaged.” Aneurin Bevan, In Place of Fear, Simon and Schuster 1952

Having travelled and experienced healthcare systems in several countries I am grateful for the NHS. Regardless of status or wealth, whether you have contributed, or not,, you get treated, and it's free.

My last long term partner, some years ago now, was from Colombia. Her sister because ill with a cold which lead to a chest infection, so far as I recall. She didn't have medical insurance and didn't go to the doctor because of the cost. After a couple of weeks she was admitted to hospital. She had contracted pneumonia and died a few days later, aged 27.

I have read that the cost of childbirth in the USA can be up to $51,125.... under the NHS it is 0 to the person giving birth - you can even choose a home birth and they will send a midwife out to be there. Businesses in so many countries are profiting from something as innate as giving birth, whilst those that can't afford it have to endure heightened risks of severe complications and even death How can a system that looks after the rich and ignores the less well off be in any way moral?

[denimini]

I am sorry to hear about your wife Unc. Also the break-in was a nasty blow on top of that.

I think that health care and hospitals should be nationalised as there is no place for profit making from illness and injury. The Uk has been served well by the NHS and Australia with Medicare, although both require vigilance from the electorate as various subsequent governments try and dismantle or sell off these institutions. A country where people suffer because they can't afford health care can not be considered "civilised".

My partner Heather, was diagnosed with lung cancer and although she eventually succumbed, I always had the feeling that no cost was spared and every effort was made in her treatment, including a number of 500km RFDS flights to Adelaide where the nearest radiotherapy was ............. all at no cost to us.

[moonshadow]

Socialism:

n. any of various theories or systems of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society or the community rather than by private individuals, with all members of society or the community sharing in the work and the products.
-Websters New World Dictionary, 1974 edition

Why is Medicare for all considered socialism?

And why is current Medicare (for people 65 and older) exempt from this scrutiny?

Two takeaway facts to consider here:

Humana, a private insurance supplemental corporation left you high and dry

Medicare, a government administered health insurance program came (or will come) to the rescue..

Just be thankful you have at least that option, roughly 27 million American's have nothing, and additional 45 million have insurance plans so lousy ($10k deductibles) they make Humana look like a "Cadillac plan". Add those two groups together and we have roughly one third of the U.S. that is un/under-insured.

Wait until that coronavirus breaks out in the U.S. full force. Most of those uninsured Americans work in the service industry and probably won't even see a doctor if they get sick because they fear the financial losses and ASTRONOMICAL medical bills. Two weeks in a hospital uninsured can cost HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS... So those sick fry cooks and waitresses will try to tough it out, rather than get the appropriate care, and making everyone around them sick in the process...

Indeed the coronavirus may bring about MFA in America once in for all, but I fear it may be at a cost of thousands of deaths across the board because we are literally the only first world nation on Earth that, if you are uninsured, are subject to a third world health care system. It will be a wake up call, and hopefully there won't be too many deaths before we heed the warning.

Our medical system here in the U.S. is a disaster. I'll support any candidate that has at least some kind of a plan to fix it.

Open your eyes, read the comments on this website of people living in Canada, the U.K., Australia, etc.... each one praises their government health care system...

The medical lobby IS. LYING. TO. US. PERIOD!

[crfriend]

The medical lobby IS. LYING. TO. US. PERIOD!

It's not so much the medical sector (the providers, e.g. doctors, nurses, &c) that's lying to us, it's the "insurance" industry that's spewing the lies -- and that's where all the money is. Even the providers of health care are getting badly squeezed by the "insurance" industry.

We need to do better.

[moonshadow]

We need to do better.

Which is why I'm voting for Elizabeth Warren in Virginia's primary.

I realize Sanders had a more robust plan at the current time, but Warren has a better chance of beating Trump in November, as she seems to have somehow avoided being branded with that dreaded and MISUNDERSTOOD "S" word that is freaking everybody out.

Another note, if Sanders somehow beats Trump in November, he will not be able to push through his version of MFA as proposed. That's not how our government works. He has to get it through Congress. Currently we have a anti-compassionate Senate (republican controlled) that seem to only care about themselves and their corporate donors interest.

But hopefully at the very least we can get something passed that was better than that cluster-f--k disaster known as the "Affordable Care Act", which was NOT Obama's "signature health plan", rather was the result on a change in power at Congress half way through Obama's first term, due to the insurance industry's MASSIVE fear campaign regarding death panels and such.

It was a crock of horsesh!t.

If nothing is done, I sincerely hope that if the coronavirus, or some other deadly disease breaks out and gets out of control here in the U.S., that if doesn't result in thousands of not hundreds of thousands of deaths... but even if it only kills ONE UNINSURED AMERICAN THAT WAS TOO AFRAID TO SEEK MEDICAL CARE BECAUSE THE COST, THEN THAT BLOOD IS ON THE HANDS OF THE REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS AND THE AMERICANS THAT VOTE FOR THEM.

PRO-LIFE. MY. ASS!

I like you Al, and I respect our fellow conservative members here... but your politicians of choice are killing people... it's as simple as that.

[denimini]

John Pilger's film "The Dirty War on the NHS" covers this subject very well and is worth seeing.
A reasonable crit here: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/n ... ocumentary

And the same rot is starting to creep into the Australian Health system: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/no- ... 544vz.html

[Rokje]

Our system of health insurance in the Netherlands

In $ it is roughly $180 each month, with an own risk cost of at least $400 each year. You can raise this amount to get a cheaper monthly deal with the insurance company

Taking my hormones because I'm a transgender woman cost me $ 400 each year. I'm happy to pay the $400, because a years amount of hormones costs far more than $400.

[moonshadow]

I also apologize for coming off as "rant like", but I do hope this thread doesn't get locked as I have some interesting perspectives I'd like to share taken from the pages of some material I've read regarding coal town and the social system that dominated the Appalachias 100 plus years ago... it was quite fascinating and I can't wait to share it when I have time to sit down in front of my computer.


It ties into our subject here, and these former coal towns were a place where pure capitalism mixed with some of the ideals of socialism only without the communal ownership of production (which technically isn't socialism), yet provided for the basic needs of the workers.

What I'm talking about is the birth of what I'd consider the modern democratic socialist movement against a backdrop of capitalist corporations owned by a select few....

Suffice it to say, the situation is complex, and say capitalism is evil, or socialism is evil isn't giving either a fair judgement. Both can succeed or fail depending on a variety of factors...

More to follow... stay tuned..

Don't get the damned thread locked...

[geron]

The BBC's From Our Own Correspondent programme this morning included an alarming account by one of its US reporters of what happened when she broke her wrist and needed a titanium plate. The exclusions and excesses on her health insurance were -- to this European -- startling.
https://www.bbc.com/programmes/p084y5w6

BTW, western European countries generally have excellent free healthcare provision, without necessarily having extremes of socialism too.

[beachlion]

When I moved to the USA, I tried to get health insurance. I could not get any before I had a Green Card and that took a year and a half. I tried to get health insurance from Dutch insurers. I could get a healthcare insurance for every country on earth except the USA! Luckily, when I married, I got Medicare and social security benefits through my wife. But they found out only after a few years when a state representative was helping me to get insurance. In the end I got almost $30000 in back pay for benefits and also almost $2000 back from the fines for not having insurance under Obamacare. I'm quite healthy so I have a very simple health insurance that is good for some medicine and some doctor visits. The rest is up to Medicare.

I hope it will work out well, Uncle Al, despite the crazy system.