Universal Health Care... what would this mean...

[nurseyNJNYC]

hypothetically, how would universal healthcare affect us as nurses? the demand? our salaries? ive had a taste of the whole universal healthcare thing with the movie Sicko coming out and the upcoming election... but i dont know enough to say anything... any ideas?

:cheers:

[scottlgarrett]

Well buddy, we do live in the United States of America. As citizens of this country or any other country we have be responsible for ourselves.

Personal Responsibility!!!

[burnoutward, BSN, RN]

Ok, my 2 cents on universal healthcare.

First off lets face the facts we are 1/2 socialized. Medicaid/Medicare are forms of socialized medicine, and I do not know if you have ever had to find places that accept either but you either have a longer wait time or have to wait forever to get in (more common with Medicaid). Physicians in America get under paid for services when they can make a lot more from private, considering they have to drop big bucks for malpractice insurance and med school bills, because we live in a country where you can get sued or accused of anything.

Taxes are higher as well for socialized medicine. Because we are covering the vast majority of people and since we are going to insure everyone that means more money coming out of pockets. So again less money which is why people don't have insurance in the first place. The government with insurance companies have screwed up healthcare with DRGs and HMOs. I have little faith in the government.

What I feel would be better is requiring all jobs to offer healthcare and not allow insurance companies to refuse to insurance persons. Make it so insurance is readily available to everyone to come straight out of their paychecks.

Get rid of frivolous law suits in health care if there wasn't a sentinel event then the hospital pays out of pockets to fix whatever happened cased close.

Have more access to clinics that run 7 days a week with late hours instead of unnecessary visits to ED.

We might not have the best healthcare system in place but I would rather be seen in an American hospital than most. We are actively researching and improving quality of care.

[fronkey bean]

This is an assertion not supported by evidence:

http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_health_of_nations

Tell that to the soldiers at Walter Reed

[RNontheroad]

At the risk of this turning into a political debate, which is certainly not my intention, I would like to share an article that I came across the other day when looking at the political canidates and thier views on certain issues. Like all of you, healthcare and its future is at the top of my list of concerns.

The article who is written by Mitt Romney and was published in The Wall Street Journal. It is his solution to the issue of insurance coverage for everyone.

After discussing it with DH, I am really not sure if it would work or not, but it is an interesting proposition.

Again I am not trying to endorse any canidates or thier viewpoints...this is just "food for thought".

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008213

[fronkey bean]

My husband and I were recently in the same position with insurance. Fortunately , we stayed healthy until it kicked in!

But, I do remember making Home Health visits at one job several years ago and having diabetic patients trying to decide between food or prescriptions. Food usually won!

Someone should have hooked this guy up w/ the drug co.s. Everyone thinks their heartless b/c they have to turn a profit but most have programs in place for those who can't afford their meds. Also, many hospitals have programs in place to help provide meds and services to those who can't afford it (it is cheaper for them to do this than have pts who can't afford to pay their bills return to the hosp. in distress b/c they couldn't afford their meds. ).

[jojotoo, RN]

Well buddy, we do live in the United States of America. As citizens of this country or any other country we have be responsible for ourselves.

Personal Responsibility!!!

Scott - This pretty much sums up MANY problems that we have in this country today. When did we (as a nation), turn into such babies and start expecting to be taken care of?

[Woodenpug, BSN]

Personal responsibility and common sense are interesting concepts. When a modern day snake oil salesman tells desperate people that taking a "colon cleanser", with cascara, will cure them of virtually any health problem: are they lacking personal responsibility by not buying the product or lacking common sense when they do? We can improve this with better patient education, if they had access.

Many people work pay check to pay check at two or more part time jobs. Not only do they not have health insurance, they do not have PTO. Not everyone's life circumstances allow them the opportunity for trade school or college. Not poor personal choices.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Waiting times for health care are longer in the US than almost any other industrial country. See: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/chartcartcharts/chartcartcharts_show.htm?doc_id=436191&cat_id=1355

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

tell that to the soldiers at walter reed

walter reed is an army/dod hospital. the article i linked to makes a very clear distinction between walter reed and the va system.

the veterans health administration

the mistreatment and poor conditions at the walter reed army medical center were a front-page story recently, and they were rather conclusive in showing the system's inadequacy. but don't be confused: walter reed is a military hospital, not a vha hospital. poor reporting inaccurately smeared the quietly remarkable reputation of the best medical system in america.

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

Threads merged.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

One of the things that gets bandies about is the inefficiency of government. I think that the figures from Dean Bakers Book The Conservative Nanny State really call this charge into question. Consider the following:

The Efficiency of Social Security: Simple and Old-Fashioned, Like the

Wheel

In the recent debate over privatizing Social Security, proponents of

privatization would often ridicule the existing Social Security system as being an

old-fashioned one-size-fits-all program. They were largely right in their

description, but they were wrong about its implications. The Social Security

system might be 70-years-old and simple in design, but it is also cheap to

operate. The administrative costs of the Social Security system are less than 0.5

percent of the tax revenue that it takes in each year.1 By comparison, the

administrative costs of the privatized Social Security systems that were held up

as models for the United States, like the ones in Chile and Britain, are between

15 - 20 percent of annual payments into the system.2

In fact, the difference in costs is even greater when the cost of issuing

annuities – turning the money accumulated in private accounts into a monthly

flow of income in retirement – is factored into the equation. Private insurers

charge fees that range between 10-20 percent of the accumulated funds for

issuing annuities.3 This means that the share of workers’ payments into private

accounts that get eaten up by fees from the financial industry can run as high as

30-40 percent. Fees of this size will substantially reduce the amount of money

that workers have left for retirement. By comparison, the administrative costs of

Social Security, at less than 0.5 percent, is a bargain.

at: http://www.conservativenannystate.org/cnswebbook.pdf.

We see a similar phenomenon with our health care dollars. Medicare is administered for about 5%. Supposedly efficient private health insurance is administered for about 15%. It is at least three times more expensive under our current system. Once in awhile simplicity and ease of use should govern system design. A well designed universal care system will give us better care and access.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

HM2Viking: I was unable to quote your post (technical problem?), but if I understand it correctly, you are citing a study that compares VHA to Medicare and other "managed care systems". And VA came out ahead. Is this the same VA that in recent years has been the subject of 60 Minutes investigations? I only know a few nurses that work for the VA, and the stories they tell don't sound any better than stories I hear about other hospitals.

I was unfamiliar with NCQA and had to look it up. NCQA states that it is a private not-for-profit organization. I was unable to ascertain how they were funded. Are they like JCAHO (which basically extorts money from hospitals)? I know that if you speak to most nurses and doctors, they will say that patient care has not improved with JCAHO.

Would the same nurses and doctors say the same about NCQA and their studies and guidelines? This is an honest question that I invite responses to - I don't know the answer.

I would like to see some studies that compare outcomes from managed care to outomes from private health insurance.

I don't think that we need to do comparative studies between managed care and private insurance. The outcomes from the world stage in countries with UHC are so much better that IMO studies are just a waste of time and money. The commonwealth fund has extensive data available for review as to health care quality and effeciency. See http://www.commonwealthfund.org/chartcart/ .