I write this now, not to be incendiary, but to hopefully try to inform.
There is a lot of "Talk" about healthcare reform. But very little actual fact. Even most news outlets don't highlight the statistical facts, and only concentrate on the YouTube worthy clips of people shouting, and a bunch of "talking heads" trying to tell you who's right and who's wrong.
Our Healthcare system is a joke. we rank 37th on the World Health Organizations' (WHO) list. Just below Costa Rica (#36) and barely ahead of Slovenia (#38) and Cuba(#39). Cuba is almost a third world country with an international boycott of goods and services to their nation, and we barely rank better than them? This shouldn't be possible, but it sadly is.
Almost every other industrialized western nation has a National Health Care Service. In Canada, they rank 12th in life expectancy, we're 24th.
A lot of people complain that if we get a national system that hard working men and women will be paying for everyone else's healthcare. but the truth is, YOU ALREADY DO! When people without health insurance need to see a doctor, they go to the emergency room. In fact, they flood these departments. When they can't pay their bill, the hospital doesn't just turn and say "Oh Well!". No, they raise the costs on everything so that the people with insurance cover their lost expenses. So now you, with the healthcare plan that costs you or your employer a small fortune each month, need to be seen in a hospital. And they thermometer costs $150, and 2 band aids are $45. And since you have insurance, they decide to run not just the MRI, but they decide to run it twice. Once with Contrast, once without. You probably didn't need that test done. But they know they can get at least most of that money from your insurance company.
Now, after your insurance company has paid the hospital the 65% of the bill it's obligated to, you need to pay the rest out of your pocket. Including those extra, bullshit charges for tests that pretty much told the Doctor what he already knew. And of course the insurance people notice that they've been getting the shaft on "extra" tests. And they're not about to lose profits (it's all about shareholders, you know) so they raise your rates.
Now, we get to you. The guy who's been working hard and paying his bills. You pay $300 a month for you and your wife to have health insurance ($500, if you have kids). Your wife had an anxiety attack once when she was 15, so she gets dropped from your plan, unless you pay an extra $50 a month. The insurance industry has decided to pass on costs to you. Now you've gone and cut your hand while working out in the back yard. You think it probably needs stitches. if you go to the hospital you'll have a $50 co-pay, which you really can't afford right now, because your mortgage is due, and there hasn't been any overtime offered at work for awhile. You decided to just clean it with soap and water, and wrap it in a clean towel your wife just handed to you. You know that with out stitches it'll leave a scar, but hey! Chicks dig scars, so it's cool. The next day you look at it and see yellow puss oozing from it. Uh Oh! Now you have to go to the hospital. Seems your cut got infected and you are now running a fever. So you get admitted. Now you spend three days in the hospital. You are missing work, so you are not getting paid. They had to give you the super strong Antibiotic, but it turns out you were immune to it, because every time you had the flu your doctor gave you an antibiotic instead of an antiviral, and it never worked anyway. So they had to give this new drug the pharmaceutical rep has been pushing. But because it's experimental your insurance won't pay any of it.
Now, you are home from the hospital, but because you are on light duty for a week, your boss only gives you 20 hours (not to mention the 3 days you missed from last week). And your hospital bill has arrived. Isn't it neat how it almost seems to be home before you? So, the three day stay, meals, tests, drugs, including the one not covered by your insurance, comes to a grand total of $5000. But you can't pay it. Your mortgage is due. But then you fall behind on that, because eventually, you try to chip away at the hospital bill and all of it's late fees. But then your mortgage (and a few credit cards you've been using to help get by) start getting paid late, and they start building up late fees too. Before you know it a year has passed, and your buddies are helping you move your stuff into a storage container, because the bank just foreclosed on your home. You'll be moving back in with your mom and dad (At 35!) because you can't afford anywhere else. And besides, they've had some big medical bills lately too, and could use a little help paying for stuff around their house
Now as you've read this you are probably thinking "Geez. What hyperbole!" But the truth is, I didn't get any of this information from CNN, MSNBC, Fox News (which isn't really news), or any other talking head network. My info came from real experiences to real people that I have met, or someone close to me knew. the statistics come from the World Health organizations website.
True story, I walked into Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center With Chest pains late one weekday evening. Now, Johns Hopkins is consistently listed as the #1 hospital in the country. But it is plagued by the same problems any other hospital (especially in an urban area) has. It is overflowing with people. I explain to the nurse that I have a sharp pain where my heart is, and some tingling in my left arm. They sign me in, run a quick ekg, decide I'm not dying and send me to wait. After 5 hours I go up to the triage desk and ask how much longer it will be. The nurse informs me it'll be at least another 8 hours to be seen by a doctor. FOR CHEST PAINS! Frustrated and angry I look at my wife and decide I will just go home. If I drop dead, I instruct her to sue Hopkins. The nurse tells me that I should come back in 6 or 7 hours, as my place on line will still be there, and most people check in and go home. Most people go home and then come back? This waiting room is so full people are sitting on the floors, or on the laps of each other. I leave, take an aspirin when I get home and go to sleep. I survived what ever it was.
A week later I get the bill. They billed my insurance $550. They billed me the $50 co-pay. $600 for an ekg, and a seat for 5 hours.
Let's simply look at the facts here folks.
You pay for all of this stuff already. In fact, you pay for it at a premium, and get a product that's, at best, coach class.
There are no "Death Panels" for old folks.
Yes your taxes will go up. About $200- $300 a YEAR.
Your Healthcare premiums cost you $200-$300 a MONTH.
The number one cause of foreclosure in this country (and what lead to all these banks failing, and all the bailouts) is healthcare expenses.
My employer (who will remain nameless) has agreed with our union to spend $2,000,000 a year for 3 years on Health Care Reform.
Big business' actually want this reform because it will take out a huge expense from their bottom line, and therefore free up more income for things like, oh..I don't know, Wages and Benefits!
You can continue to listen to these talking heads. Have them tell you what you want to hear. but after all these years of their "Infinite Wisdom" none of them has actually fixed anything. Have they?
You have, basically, 2 options here folks.
1) Keep believing the scare tactics and that nothing needs to be changed, or at most, only an agreement of reform needs to occur...........and then reap what you have sown. A healthcare system worse than the one we have now
2) recognize that universal health care has improved the quality of life for every citizen, of every country, it has been implemented in (Yes, you can find a horror story anywhere. But not from a majority of the people in those countries). And push to make our lives better as a whole. For EVERY one of us.
You decide. I just hope you chose that right choice. My kids lives depend on it.
There is a lot of "Talk" about healthcare reform. But very little actual fact. Even most news outlets don't highlight the statistical facts, and only concentrate on the YouTube worthy clips of people shouting, and a bunch of "talking heads" trying to tell you who's right and who's wrong.
Our Healthcare system is a joke. we rank 37th on the World Health Organizations' (WHO) list. Just below Costa Rica (#36) and barely ahead of Slovenia (#38) and Cuba(#39). Cuba is almost a third world country with an international boycott of goods and services to their nation, and we barely rank better than them? This shouldn't be possible, but it sadly is.
Almost every other industrialized western nation has a National Health Care Service. In Canada, they rank 12th in life expectancy, we're 24th.
A lot of people complain that if we get a national system that hard working men and women will be paying for everyone else's healthcare. but the truth is, YOU ALREADY DO! When people without health insurance need to see a doctor, they go to the emergency room. In fact, they flood these departments. When they can't pay their bill, the hospital doesn't just turn and say "Oh Well!". No, they raise the costs on everything so that the people with insurance cover their lost expenses. So now you, with the healthcare plan that costs you or your employer a small fortune each month, need to be seen in a hospital. And they thermometer costs $150, and 2 band aids are $45. And since you have insurance, they decide to run not just the MRI, but they decide to run it twice. Once with Contrast, once without. You probably didn't need that test done. But they know they can get at least most of that money from your insurance company.
Now, after your insurance company has paid the hospital the 65% of the bill it's obligated to, you need to pay the rest out of your pocket. Including those extra, bullshit charges for tests that pretty much told the Doctor what he already knew. And of course the insurance people notice that they've been getting the shaft on "extra" tests. And they're not about to lose profits (it's all about shareholders, you know) so they raise your rates.
Now, we get to you. The guy who's been working hard and paying his bills. You pay $300 a month for you and your wife to have health insurance ($500, if you have kids). Your wife had an anxiety attack once when she was 15, so she gets dropped from your plan, unless you pay an extra $50 a month. The insurance industry has decided to pass on costs to you. Now you've gone and cut your hand while working out in the back yard. You think it probably needs stitches. if you go to the hospital you'll have a $50 co-pay, which you really can't afford right now, because your mortgage is due, and there hasn't been any overtime offered at work for awhile. You decided to just clean it with soap and water, and wrap it in a clean towel your wife just handed to you. You know that with out stitches it'll leave a scar, but hey! Chicks dig scars, so it's cool. The next day you look at it and see yellow puss oozing from it. Uh Oh! Now you have to go to the hospital. Seems your cut got infected and you are now running a fever. So you get admitted. Now you spend three days in the hospital. You are missing work, so you are not getting paid. They had to give you the super strong Antibiotic, but it turns out you were immune to it, because every time you had the flu your doctor gave you an antibiotic instead of an antiviral, and it never worked anyway. So they had to give this new drug the pharmaceutical rep has been pushing. But because it's experimental your insurance won't pay any of it.
Now, you are home from the hospital, but because you are on light duty for a week, your boss only gives you 20 hours (not to mention the 3 days you missed from last week). And your hospital bill has arrived. Isn't it neat how it almost seems to be home before you? So, the three day stay, meals, tests, drugs, including the one not covered by your insurance, comes to a grand total of $5000. But you can't pay it. Your mortgage is due. But then you fall behind on that, because eventually, you try to chip away at the hospital bill and all of it's late fees. But then your mortgage (and a few credit cards you've been using to help get by) start getting paid late, and they start building up late fees too. Before you know it a year has passed, and your buddies are helping you move your stuff into a storage container, because the bank just foreclosed on your home. You'll be moving back in with your mom and dad (At 35!) because you can't afford anywhere else. And besides, they've had some big medical bills lately too, and could use a little help paying for stuff around their house
Now as you've read this you are probably thinking "Geez. What hyperbole!" But the truth is, I didn't get any of this information from CNN, MSNBC, Fox News (which isn't really news), or any other talking head network. My info came from real experiences to real people that I have met, or someone close to me knew. the statistics come from the World Health organizations website.
True story, I walked into Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center With Chest pains late one weekday evening. Now, Johns Hopkins is consistently listed as the #1 hospital in the country. But it is plagued by the same problems any other hospital (especially in an urban area) has. It is overflowing with people. I explain to the nurse that I have a sharp pain where my heart is, and some tingling in my left arm. They sign me in, run a quick ekg, decide I'm not dying and send me to wait. After 5 hours I go up to the triage desk and ask how much longer it will be. The nurse informs me it'll be at least another 8 hours to be seen by a doctor. FOR CHEST PAINS! Frustrated and angry I look at my wife and decide I will just go home. If I drop dead, I instruct her to sue Hopkins. The nurse tells me that I should come back in 6 or 7 hours, as my place on line will still be there, and most people check in and go home. Most people go home and then come back? This waiting room is so full people are sitting on the floors, or on the laps of each other. I leave, take an aspirin when I get home and go to sleep. I survived what ever it was.
A week later I get the bill. They billed my insurance $550. They billed me the $50 co-pay. $600 for an ekg, and a seat for 5 hours.
Let's simply look at the facts here folks.
You pay for all of this stuff already. In fact, you pay for it at a premium, and get a product that's, at best, coach class.
There are no "Death Panels" for old folks.
Yes your taxes will go up. About $200- $300 a YEAR.
Your Healthcare premiums cost you $200-$300 a MONTH.
The number one cause of foreclosure in this country (and what lead to all these banks failing, and all the bailouts) is healthcare expenses.
My employer (who will remain nameless) has agreed with our union to spend $2,000,000 a year for 3 years on Health Care Reform.
Big business' actually want this reform because it will take out a huge expense from their bottom line, and therefore free up more income for things like, oh..I don't know, Wages and Benefits!
You can continue to listen to these talking heads. Have them tell you what you want to hear. but after all these years of their "Infinite Wisdom" none of them has actually fixed anything. Have they?
You have, basically, 2 options here folks.
1) Keep believing the scare tactics and that nothing needs to be changed, or at most, only an agreement of reform needs to occur...........and then reap what you have sown. A healthcare system worse than the one we have now
2) recognize that universal health care has improved the quality of life for every citizen, of every country, it has been implemented in (Yes, you can find a horror story anywhere. But not from a majority of the people in those countries). And push to make our lives better as a whole. For EVERY one of us.
You decide. I just hope you chose that right choice. My kids lives depend on it.
This article is to long for me to bother reading, though it may have some good points, maybe I will read it when I have more time
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