Sad day in the USA

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Thinking about how sad it is in the USA today that we provide free medical care for all these folks who have never worked a day in there life, but when it comes to the elderly who have worked everyday of their life can't even get their prescription medications or have to pay out large amounts just to get a little bit of medical coverage. Although the free medical care we provide to non working baby making machines, I call it the American Express Card that we provide to the folks who have never worked really isn't free you and I pay for their free medical care. I would rather pay for my parents medical care then for someone who comes in saying I don't have tylenol or motrin at home for my kids while pointing their newly put on fingernails or calling on their cell phones or having that pack of ciggs in their pockets, when my parents who have worked all their lives and should be living the best days of their life won't even turn on the air in their home because of the cost and not being able to afford medical care or medications!! If they had to pay a nice co-pay for non-emergancy visits to the ER then we could really see the people who really need emergancy care. Sorry just venting and wondering how everyone else feels about this sitution??

If anyone has a "feeling of entitlement" right now, it's you! Look at the tone of your post and how you referred to basic human rights/needs in quotation marks. I'm guessing you HAVE health insurance. Are you going to school full time and working full time to keep a roof over your head or are you getting help and support from a parent or spouse? If so then you don't have much room to resent people for getting public assistance. A lot of posters on this thread seem to think that they're better or more deserving than other people and I don't know where that's coming from.

I know there are people who don't care, who take advantage of the system. But if not for that, they'd find some other way to act like scumbags. And you are going to have to pay taxes no matter what- if they take Medicaid away it's not like they're gonna give the extra money back to you so you can get your flat screen TV or trip to Hawaii... they'll just take it and spend it on something sketchy.

I am always amazed at how quick people are to make PERSONAL attacks at people that they do not agree with. For your information I work full time in addition to be being married (my wife works part-time, lass than 20 hours per week), and going to school full time. I do have health insurance because I WORK HARD for it. I came from a middle class family, but my parents haven't given me a dime for my college education. Please do not assume that I am dependant on public assistance or that I feel I am better than others.

My thought is that anyone can have insurance if they want it bad enough. The house keeping staff at the hospital I work at have the same insurance that I have (which is very good and less than $100/month for a family). The problem is a lot of people go into professions kniwing it will not provide insurance and they find jobs like housekeeping below them and won't do it even if it means they get insurance.

This is not always the case. I do think we need to help those who are disabled and are considered uninsurable. I just don't buy the "I can't find insurance" bit from healthy people. Those who want a socialized medicine will find out it isn't as good as it is made to sound. I also do not understand your demonizing saying I would spend my saved money on a "flat screen TV or trip to Hawaii". I think I would rather buy a house or save for my childrens education.

One more thought. You said "And you are going to have to pay taxes no matter what- if they take Medicaid away..... they'll just take it and spend it on something sketchy" Why as American's do we tolerate such people in office?

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Those are needs, not rights, and proper health is also a need.

So where does that leave us? Does the gov provide needs for us or do we do it ourselves? Housing, food, health care, etc.

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Man That was harsh! I went to school and I still had to beg for any kind of help for 4 years.

I do feel for you in your situation, but your is not typical. I think health care does need some help. The government taking over and providing socialized health care isn't the answer.

As I said above we do need to help the uninsurable. We also need to reduce costs in health care. Where is all of the money going? I know I am not getting a raise this year! Is it administration? Is it high tech expensive equipment? One increase has been the increase in private room hospitals. For infection control, privacy, and patient requests we have been doing many additions to hospital to increase the number of private rooms. That surely increases costs as hospitals are expensive to build, not to mention the extra staff required to operate larger buildings. American's also need to lose weight. Obesity is a major health care cost in America.

Any thoughts on where the increasing cost of health care is coming from?

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
Well, when there is so much talk about rationing healthcare, even potentially initiating a "duty to die" for our elderly, I have a bigtime problem with the baby-making machines. No, we need to attack our population/demand problem from the other end: Let the baby-making machines have one child, two at the very most - then, it's automatic sterilization right after the birth of the second child.

I know that sounds a bit Nazi-like, but I think it's much more practical than hastening the deaths of our elderly.

I strongly suspect that IF rationing did occur, those "baby-making" machines will be hit also. And there HAS BEEN NOTHING about a "duty to die" for our elderly in ANY bill, or hastening.

There was a provision, a very good one about permitting payment for MDs to discuss the ramifications of end life care, and formulate a plan with patients regarding THE PATIENT's wishes for end of life care. For those of us that have family members THAT SPECIFICALLY requested DNR status at end of life and then had their MD refuse to write a DNR order when they are dying, because it was "against their beliefs", and try to force intubation/vent on them, this would have helped them. My late father and also my late Grandmother could have made better decisions on what MD to trust their healthcare with, given their wishes.

Families often make Living wills, with absolutely no clue as to the medical ramifications of them. They deserve to be able to have a consultation with their MD to fully discuss end of life care....one that can last more than 5-10 minutes in a hurried hallway, as the staff is running for the Intubation tray and getting the code cart. One where the full medical ramifications of "having everything done" can be discussed in a calm matter.

No one wants to hasten the deathes of the elderly. But when a fully demented 92 year old, contracted in a fetal position, who cries with pain everytime they are moved, develops met. pancreatic cancer and the family insists on chemo and wants a whipple done..... it would be nice if we had some idea of the patient's wishes and whether s/he would have wanted that done.

I personally would love to see some rationing based on some lifestyle issues. Such as if you are a drinker and develop pancreatitis repeatedly. Three hospitalizations/three detoxs. Then if you come in complaining of pancreatitis symptoms, you have to test negative for alcohol use to get treated. And anyone that is noncompliant with orders (especially the NPO order....no sneaking in food, then complaining of pain and getting your narc shot), , if they are physically stable, show them the door.

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it is also a "right" to eat, drink, and have a house. should the gov provide that as well?

the government helps provide food and shelter in the form of food stamps and subsidized housing...at least they do where i come from.

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Specializes in dialysis (mostly) some L&D, Rehab/LTC.
Part of the problem is the skyrocketing cost of healthcare. And part of that problem are "non-emergency visits to the ER".

And alot of the problems are sorry lazy people that think they should be given everything w/o working for it!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Parish Nurse, Hospice.

As said before, not everyone can go to school - college, and just because you do doesn't guarntee a job and or health insurance. On the other side of the coin, we need people in this country to do all types of work. Not everyone can have high paying jobs. Some one has to do the work that others don't want to do- cleaning toilets etc. As a nurse, I am not usually aware of the person's financial status. I think I treat everyone the same and try my best not to be judgemental. I do agree that there is a healthcare crisis in this country. I don't have the solution to the problem.

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I know people on warefare can see their Drs anytime they want. My family insurence is about $1100 a month. I just had annual physical with blood tests. Cost me over $200 on top of my normal premium I pay. ( I am scared to death about getting sick)

I deal a lot with warefare single moms and let me say they have better insurence than I do for free.

One thing I wish is that there should be condition for to qualifying for government warefare (I am not talking about insurence)

These women (I mostley dealt with single moms) should have a removable birth control implanted. If receipient is in a financial situation without needing the warefare and wish to have the birth control removed that the warefare agency would remove without cost to the person. I personally saw young mothers having more kids while being on warefare. If these young moms can't support the kids without needing warefare, well I think they shouldsn't have kids.

I hope there would be other options for me to have insurence other than the greedy insurence company.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Parish Nurse, Hospice.

"Any thoughts on where the increasing cost of health care is coming from"

it is not coming from increased wages for health care staff. In my humble opinion part of the problem is care that is given to those who will never get better. I am not saying that I think assisted suicide or putting people to death is right. But often millions of $$$$ are spent keeping corpses alive because families can't make the decision to allow a peaceful death, have not been given hopsice options or their MD does not belive in allowing a peaceful death. My family had to make the decision to take my father of the vent when we knew he wasn't going to get bettter. His life would have been on a vent, with a trach and tube feedings. Luckily for us, he had told us this was not the life he wanted, had the needed documents and we could act in his best interest. But this is just my opinion. As a nurse, I will support whatever the patient and family decide.

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The welfare system doesn't work. There are no provisions in it for getting out of it. For example, I know a single mother of one child who was trying like crazy to go to school and get an education. She wanted to get a part-time job, but was not able to due to the fact that if she did, she would lose her housing and other aid. If she had a job, she would lose her ability to get medicaid, and she would lose her financial aid for schooling. She would have made maybe $250/week, lost all her food stamps, housing, and medical, but would still not be able to pay for it out of pocket. How is that someone taking advantage of the system? Welfare is designed to keep people in the system by penalizing them for trying to get out of it.

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"Any thoughts on where the increasing cost of health care is coming from"

it is not coming from increased wages for health care staff. In my humble opinion part of the problem is care that is given to those who will never get better. I am not saying that I think assisted suicide or putting people to death is right. But often millions of $$$$ are spent keeping corpses alive because families can't make the decision to allow a peaceful death, have not been given hopsice options or their MD does not belive in allowing a peaceful death. My family had to make the decision to take my father of the vent when we knew he wasn't going to get bettter. His life would have been on a vent, with a trach and tube feedings. Luckily for us, he had told us this was not the life he wanted, had the needed documents and we could act in his best interest. But this is just my opinion. As a nurse, I will support whatever the patient and family decide.

So what do other countries (that supposedly have cheaper health care costs) do with patients in your example? Do they stop the vent w/o family permission?

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it is also a "right" to eat, drink, and have a house. should the gov provide that as well?

the government helps provide food and shelter in the form of food stamps and subsidized housing...at least they do where i come from.

"helps" is the key word. socialized health care isn't helping by subsidizing the bill. the gov covers the whole bill.

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