OT: a debate on US health care

[ChemoMan]

Hi Don

Now thats funny

[brainman]

LOL Don... very funny indeed

[joepet]

Seriously...I will be shocked if Don can read this and still hide behind the question "How are we going to pay for it?" as a justification of avoiding insurance/health care reform.

http://trueslant.com/rickungar/2009/...rophy-patient/

The only thing more appalling than an insurance company having the balls to try something like this is that a court ruled it was legal to do so. I guess in America, a contract is only valid if it makes financial sense for the company.

[pbj11]

Health reform of the insurance industry is desired by everyone. Moving into gov't run healthcare is not.

Funny how people never hear that industry reform is wanted by all. Seems to be a black hole in the public consciousness.

Nothing has been presented to date, by any of the various committees, that bends the overall cost curve down over the next ten years. The critical issue of increased premiums for private insurance has not been addressed in any of the plans.

For the cost estimates of nearly a trillion dollars, I'd say there is far more that needs to be accomplished before they can justify putting this overwhelming debt burden on our kid's shoulders. Especially when I see that the latest version of a plan, passed this week by the Senate Finance Committee, will still leave 15+ million uninsured when all is said and done.

[joepet]

Here's another example of providing better health care does not have to cost more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/he...i.html?_r=1&em

It can hardly be called un-American, since it is happening in Hawaii...

"But the Hawaii experience suggests that overhauling health insurance before changing the way care is provided could work, eventually. With more people given access to care, hospital and insurance executives in Hawaii say they have been able to innovate efficiencies. For instance, the state's top three medical providers are adopting electronic medical records " years ahead of most mainland counterparts."

[jasonbond]

We personally were VERY fortunate and had a fabulous Oncologist who knew the in's and out's of how to do things and get them approved by Medicare. We also had extraordinary supplemental coverage -- earned by my husband's 35 years at one company. A review of his treatment easily tells a far different tale than would be told in many other countries. (Caveat: Nothing I'm saying is meant as a knock to those countries or people in the least -- just about the health care and tax system. Shocked ) Canada is a province by province system. Good some places, not so much in others. A treatment my husband was receiving three years ago has only recently been approved in England after a valiant fight by private citizen's lobbying efforts.