[pickledpepperRN]

If Dick Cheney Were Anyone Else, He'd Probably Be Dead By Now
By Rose Ann DeMoro


...Imagine if you had the Vice President's health history. Four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, angioplasty, an implanted defibrillator, and just recently, an emergency procedure to treat an irregular heartbeat.

Take that chart to Blue Cross, UnitedHealth, or Aetna and try to get coverage or even continued care.
If you already have one of their policies, they'd probably drop you like a hot potato or raise your premiums - or if you are part of a group plan, your group's premiums - to an amount higher than the national debt.
Or perhaps they'd just demand you re-pay them for your last bypass surgery because they discovered you once chipped a tooth you'd never disclosed on your application form.

Not that we're wishing him more misfortune. We just think everyone should be entitled to the same guaranteed, first-class health care that Cheney and other government officials receive today....

http://www.calnurses.org/media-cente...w.html?print=t

[ingelein]

Originally Posted by ZASHAGALKA

Except that the idea of a gov't program coming in on time and on budget is an urban myth.

Just as much a myth or more that 'close enough for gov't work' will provide me with increased efficiency.

Or, that the gov't will look out for me. Sure, ask anybody in New Orleans about that.

Does anybody really trust the gov't that much? When it comes to my healthcare, if there's even a ONE PERCENT chance that gov't will operate as it normally does, instead of in this pollyanna world imagined, then I'd just assume the gov't kept its hands off my healthcare.

See, the very thing about this proposal that is so troublesome is its promises of great, beneficial, cheap, friendly gov't care that can't be tested until AFTER it destroys any alternative.

But the way you can tell the real scoop: if it's so darn great an idea, why not make it voluntary? If it's so pie-in-the-sky, then why do I have to join, at the point of a gun? That's what I thought.

~faith,
Timothy.

At the point of a gun??I will continue to see a future for our government, anarchy is not a acceptable substitute. We still have the vote, we CAN and should use it to change what we dont like in our OWN government.

[Spidey's mom]

Originally Posted by ingelein

At the point of a gun??I will continue to see a future for our government, anarchy is not a acceptable substitute. We still have the vote, we CAN and should use it to change what we dont like in our OWN government.

He was using hyperbole to make a point. He didn't mean a real gun. Just that why do we have to be forced into this universal health care plan?

Some of us believe there are certain obligations that the gov is responsible for and others, not so much. And taking over health care is not one, imo.

steph

[Jolie]

Originally Posted by Baptized_By_Fire

Isn't that our current problem with managed care?

It is part of our current problem with private insurers. But at least with the current system, you have a choice, and can find other alternatives for healthcare coverage. That won't be the case with national healthcare.

[BBFRN]

Originally Posted by Jolie

It is part of our current problem with private insurers. But at least with the current system, you have a choice, and can find other alternatives for healthcare coverage. That won't be the case with national healthcare.

Yes we can find other alternatives for health care coverage, but our choices are forced to be made by which one is the most affordable- and all are too expensive. Then you add in the fact that the ones that are cheaper cost less because they cover less. This is one way that access has been decreased. This is also why market competition doesn't work very well when it comes to insurance companies as far as increasing the quality of what they deliver.

[ingelein]

Originally Posted by stevielynn

He was using hyperbole to make a point. He didn't mean a real gun. Just that why do we have to be forced into this universal health care plan?

Some of us believe there are certain obligations that the gov is responsible for and others, not so much. And taking over health care is not one, imo.

steph

Stevie, I was well aware that he was using hyperbole, so was I.

[Spidey's mom]

Originally Posted by ingelein

Stevie, I was well aware that he was using hyperbole, so was I.

I know . . . .


steph

[pickledpepperRN]

What choice would a person have if they didn't like their current insurance plan?
I mean a person who has suffered four myocardial infarctions, the first in his thirties, episodes of a potentially lethal arrythmia requiring an implanted defibrillator, a pacemaker, and still needs cardioversion.

What are this persons choices?

[ingelein]

Originally Posted by stevielynn

I know . . . .


steph

Oh well then OK!, just like Roseann Roseanna Danna said, "never mind".

[justpoorfect]

Originally Posted by ZASHAGALKA

For the record, I suspect my daughter's current bill will end up being somewhere north of half a million dollars. My out of pocket maximum cost will be 3 grand. For me, THAT is what health insurance does. But see, THAT kind of expense is what insurance is SUPPOSED to cover: a protection against a catastrophic loss. Health Insurance today, in the main, can't really be called insurance: it is pre-paid healthcare. ...

~faith,
Timothy.

I am sure Timothy has contingency plans in place for his daughter's coverage, so please don't think I am attacking him, but if this pre-term birth were visited on a "regular" person who is depending on employer-based insurance, their options are then limited, especially if the baby develops chronic complications. There may be a lifetime cap, no? What about if the company folds? Can the employee even contemplate switching to another employer? As far as I can see, that person is now obligated to continue with that original insurance policy, at whatever price, as long as there may be any lingering need for coverage, unless they have the means to pay cash for all care. What if the employee is hurt/dies/goes to prison?? The possibilities are too many to plan for, as a "regular" person!!