The United States National Health Insurance Act establishes an American-styled national insurance program.
The bill would create a publicly financed, privately delivered health care program that uses the already existing Medicare program by expanding and improving it to all U.S. residents, and all residents living in U.S. territories. The goal of the legislation is to ensure that all Americans, guaranteed by law, will have access to the highest quality and cost effective health care services regardless of ones employment, income, or health care status.
Does anyone know what country(s) without government healthcare of some kind have good healthcare?
How does it work? Is there a system?
All countries have government healthcare, by virtue of sanctioning the providers of it, with licensing, laws of regulation, etc.
Not all countries sanction insurance companies that make billions of dollars from forced participation and profiteer CEOs, with less benefit by consumers of healthcare.
Canada has a wonderful system called "single payer" ("a _________ by any other name is still the same". Physicians and medical economists run it well. I saw it conceived by 7 physicians in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, in 1962 and have relatives (some elderly) all over Canada benefiting from it now. You won't find luxurious facilities and furniture there, with decorator driven lobbies, and each one with its own "state of the art" diagnostic machines (those are distributed to regional centers wisely, according to population figures, as competition for them isn't needed). Some day, I'll go back unless we can get something here of equivalant quality.
IF it's so wonderful, why do our Canadian friends come to the US for care? The wait for an out-patient c-t or mri is outrageous. And one couple's son and daughter-in-law are physicians! I love Canada and visit as much as I can. But for medical care, I'm very thankful I live in the US. I know Tony and his wife are fabulous, caring doctors (he's rehab and she's pediatric trauma) but as soon as the children are old enough, they want to emigrate to the states. Right now, they're pre-school and my friend is back-up babysitter.
I just read back over the thread and noticed that Clee1's insurance is similar to the change I made. I pay the first $2,000 and then my coverage reverts to exactly what I had before. I'm feeling pretty heady over that decision because I've found out there's a 20% discount for cash. Also, I've learn to check with different imaging centers because their cost vary GREATLY. I just paid $125 for x-rays and that included the radiologist's fee. The first center wanted $195 for the x-rays and the radiologist billed separately at a later date. Hope the ortho also gives a discount for cash! We see him tomorrow to evaluate the fracture. I'm feeling some of Clee's POWER!
Being sick or injured is never wonderful. We will all die someday.
All we can work for is to do the best we can to ensure Americans are as healthy as possible.
I wish I had been as sophisticated the first time my shoulder was injured.
It took 18 weeks for me to get treatment. Waiting for authorization to see an orthopod and then waiting for authorization for the MRI, to see him again, and finally to start physical therapy had me disabled for months.
No one told me I could just go pay.
And I was too sleep deprived, in pain, or just stupid to just go to a specialist.
I did that the second time, 6 years later. It cost more than $500.00 but was well worth it. Then I started PT and took several years to get the insurance company to reimburse me but it was worth it not to suffer in pain unable to work.
IF it's so wonderful, why do our Canadian friends come to the US for care? The wait for an out-patient c-t or mri is outrageous. And one couple's son and daughter-in-law are physicians! I love Canada and visit as much as I can. But for medical care, I'm very thankful I live in the US. I know Tony and his wife are fabulous, caring doctors (he's rehab and she's pediatric trauma) but as soon as the children are old enough, they want to emigrate to the states. Right now, they're pre-school and my friend is back-up babysitter.
It seems odd to me that physicians couldn't find a way to have the diagnostic tests they wanted, as my niece (a palliative MD) knows enough people, and has earned enough respect in her field, that what she wants for herself and her patients, she gets. As with our system, it's all about who you know, and clout.
If I were to guess, I'd venture that they bought health insurance for Canadians visiting the USA (which my sister does every year, to winter in Palm Springs at a cost of $2500 for 4 months!). Then they wanted to know the availability of CT scans and MRIs here - readily available, as each hospital and some radiology offices have their own.
In Canada, it's a matter of acuity that dictates how quickly things are done. My brother-in-law had both his knees replaced in Toronto while he was in his 60s (he's 80, now) - no problem having it done by the son of an orthopedic surgeon I knew from my nursing school days in Montreal. The father was a "die-hard" patient advocate, and woe to the nurse who didn't change his patients' sheets daily, without a crease, or left out something from his orders (which were exacting!).
The son was a different sort, we found. My brother-in-law Ed couldn't stand his roommate in the rehab hospital's moaning from pain, and noticed that the nurses never gave it in time or answered his call. (By the way, patients transfer to "rehab hospitals" for PT following those surgeries, so they actually do the prescribed exercises for a whole week, and equipment can be utilized by many, all the time. No private rooms exist there.) When a nurse responded to Ed's call, he asked her why she hadn't responded to his roommate's one. She responded nastily that the roommate hadn't said "please". ???%
Infuriated, Ed called the supervisor that evening, but she didn't respond, calling his doctor instead. The doctor (the son of the one in Montreal) arrived hastily and blasted Ed for "bothering HIS nurses with trivialities". When they told me about that over the 'phone, it was all I could do to resist the temptation to arrange for that doctor's loss of his license. The roommate was moved to a different room........
Different priorities.
Now to hazard a guess about the physicians you wrote about in Canada who want to emigrate to the USA. They may have wanted to look at the availability of work, the money they could make, etc. You haven't said if they actually needed the MRI and CT scan, I hope they did.
Most Canadians resort to care in the USA if they are not getting what they think they need as fast as they think they need it, in Canada - and have the funds to support coming here. Doctors there are quite willing to do tests our doctors here would put off, due to the cost and the possibility that their patients' insurance would balk at covering it, if it wasn't absolutely needed (or if a non medical insurance evaluator thought the patients' situation/age/prognosis didn't warrant the expense).
Many medicines that aren't available to us, are OTC in Canada (such as codeine for pain), so doctors' visits aren't their only option when they have a severe headache or sprained ankle. Fewer Canadians than Americans are addicted to codeine, and with rapid symptomatic relief available, they function sooner and lose less time at work or school. Preventive medical care and education lowers the morbidity and mortality rates there, especially for infants.
The educational system is far better in Canada (OK, I'm chauvanistic about it), and since students are examined at the end of each year on all the subject matter taught the whole year (not just one semester), there is greater retention of information taught. In the last year of high school, all the subjects taught for all 5 years could be on the final exam. American college students have a hard time at Canadian Universities, and usually go back to the USA to get their degrees.
What passion, such angst! Yet little concern for others, made this country full of megalopases, instead of villages where compassion and kindness are prevalent.
Many people don't realize that Medicare is not free. There are premiums - close to $100/mo that is deducted from an already modest SocSec check. Medicare only pays 80% of covered procedures. The first day of hospitalization has a "copay" of hundreds, it was almost $800. the last time I checked. If you buy Medigap insurance, the premiums can cost $3 - $4 hundred a month, and often does not cover meds, that is a seperate, and mandatory, policy. A chronic illness can wipe out your savings. Medicare is in danger of running out of money, we may not even "enjoy" it. THe bottom line is that unless we work at making healthcare delivery less expensive, Univeral HC simply will not work. It will cost too much.
I just read back over the thread and noticed that Clee1's insurance is similar to the change I made. I pay the first $2,000 and then my coverage reverts to exactly what I had before. I'm feeling pretty heady over that decision because I've found out there's a 20% discount for cash. Also, I've learn to check with different imaging centers because their cost vary GREATLY. I just paid $125 for x-rays and that included the radiologist's fee. The first center wanted $195 for the x-rays and the radiologist billed separately at a later date. Hope the ortho also gives a discount for cash! We see him tomorrow to evaluate the fracture. I'm feeling some of Clee's POWER!
Insurance companies would say "anyone who has been ill or has a disability".
Anti illegal immigration folks would say, "anyone who isn't here legally".
Young people might say "Anyone old who expects free care after incontinence sets in", forgetting that older folks took care of them when they were incontinent........
Those in need of psychiatric care, especially when expensive medications that could keep them more sane are unaffordable (some are $9./capsule, and the daily dose is 3-4 capsules, or hospitalization is required - those wards/units are on the streets of American cities.
Those who are unable to get/keep jobs, as health insurance companies charge employers $1500+/month for employees over 55 years of age, and when they could get Medicare at 65 years of age, charge more, by not allowing Medicare as the primary insurer.
Those committing violent acts due to genetic predisposition, do get free heallthcare - usually in jail, with other inmates.
Those who fake job related disabilities do get free healthcare.
Now children will have free healthcare, but may have to go into foster care when their parents become seriously ill or disabled, (due to having gone without healthcare too long because of lack of health insurance).
It's not been my friend's experience to get an MRI in a timely manner......scheduled for weeks after the injury. She hobbled onto a plane. But then she's never been one to try to "pull rank" or use her son (besides he lives in another providence) or daughter-in-law for special treatment. She's a wonderful person! Yes, they can very well afford to pay for treatment in the US. I'm sure they do have a policy since they own a very big company that does business here. I'm sure their employees here receive health benefits.
But the impression I'm getting from your posting is that you CAN get a speedy c-t or MRI IF you know the right people. Surely, that's not what you're saying, is it?
The physician son is frustrated. Sometimes speedy care (not saying it's not expert care) is needed for him (as a rehab doctor) to have the best patient out-come.
I did watch a program (60 Minutes? 20/20?) about a man with a brain tumor. Anyone else see it? He couldn't get the imaging done for 2 months! He went to a "broker" who got him into a neurosurgeon in NY. Within a week, he was diagnosed and operated on. It showed he and his wife talking about how to pay for it. I think the outcome is that he's suing the providence (maybe Ontario?) to recover the money. I believe they got a second mortgage.
So, why would there be these "brokers" who find a place in the US for people to receive prompt care, IF the Canadian system is so great?
You can praise the system there all you care to, but I can testify to the veracity of my friends. In many years, I've never heard them exaggerate anything. I'll take their word for it.
Many people don't realize that Medicare is not free. There are premiums - close to $100/mo that is deducted from an already modest SocSec check. Medicare only pays 80% of covered procedures. The first day of hospitalization has a "copay" of hundreds, it was almost $800. the last time I checked. If you buy Medigap insurance, the premiums can cost $3 - $4 hundred a month, and often does not cover meds, that is a seperate, and mandatory, policy. A chronic illness can wipe out your savings. Medicare is in danger of running out of money, we may not even "enjoy" it. THe bottom line is that unless we work at making healthcare delivery less expensive, Univeral HC simply will not work. It will cost too much.
Medicare D isn't mandatory. The problem with it, is that pharmaceutical companies dreamed it up, to make more money from suffering patients. Only HMOs provide meds (most with a co-pay), and cost more than medigaps, which don't. They used the typical sales pitch, saying that if people didn't sign up for their plans, their monthly cost would be higher later, than it would be for the "lucky" others who signed (paid up) immediately. HAWGWASH! Obviously I didn't go for that, and I beg samples from every MD I know, as 2 of my meds are each $9./capsule.
In order to get the meds you need, if you're on several, they're usually not made by one company, and you have to pay monthly charges to each company from which your meds come. I'm on 4 meds, all made by different companies, so when Medicare D first came out, they let people calculate the costs of 20% of their charge for the meds (required) + the sum of the monthly charges for a year. I did that, compared the costs of just buying the drugs in Canada (from my sister's neighborhood pharmacy - not a "drug mill"), and found that with Medicare D, my costs would be twice as much! Now that our dollar has decreased in value, my savings aren't as great in Canada, but it's still cheaper to buy them there.
Some doctors in the USA are virtuous thinkers and won't give samples of meds away, as they have the mistaken belief that doing so keeps the retail prices of them high. They're wrong! The packaging costs more than the manufacturers' cost to make them, as they're making them anyway, in huge batches. They'd like us to think that the high costs are due to research costs they've paid. However, they all get grants for the research and by charging so much, they're "double dipping".
By the way, if you can get your doctor to order twice the dose of your medicine in a tablet, it costs less, as the tablets that have twice the dose, cost the same as the ones with half the dose, so taking half a tablet saves you half the cost.
Even the companies that have manufactured faulty meds and had huge lawsuits once the patients harmed sued them for millions, they don't go out of business. The reason is that they make tons of money. Even the company in England that had contaminated vials of flu vaccine, is still in business! Don't weep for them..........
lamazeteacher
2,170 Posts
The problem with our healthcare system NOW is insurance companies... you really want a gooberment-backed one to be running the whole show?
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"gooberment-backed", is not government run! :angryfire