What are your feelings about the present state of health care in the US?
My feelings on the present state of health care in the US is that we are very blessed and very fortunate to live in a country that provides such great health care. Health Care in this country is very good, it is the coverage of health care services and health insurance that is the issue. I am in total agreement that there is a huge need for reform. We must come up with a way to hold insurance companies responsible when they deny claims that should be covered or refuse insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions. There defiantly needs to be legislation that can stop insurance companies from providing Erisa plans that are not governed by the department of insurance or any governing body. Erisa plans look like health care coverage and often cost the same as health care coverage, but much to the surprise of those that they cover, they are NOT health care coverage. Erisa plans are the majority of the problem when denials for services occur and because of the wording in these contracts there is no room for negotiation once a claim is denied. Most people are completely unaware of this type of plan that a lot of employers provide to decrease costs. I do not agree that we adopt universal health care and trust our health, the MOST important thing, to the government.
For those of you that have health insurance I would like for you to think about your last doctors visit. Did you have to wait 30 minutes or longer just to make an appointment to be seen? When you got to your appointment did you have to wait 30 minutes or longer to be seen? Did you have confidence in the physician that was seeing you? Did you trust their opinion? Did you leave feeling more knowledgeable about the current state of your health?
These questions were probably pretty easy to answer because for most of us that have insurance we can make an appointment in 5 minutes or less. Although we have all had times in which we have had to wait a long time to be seen by the doctor, that is not the case EVERY time we see a doctor. If it was, most of us would choose a different doctor to go to. Most of us do have confidence in the physicians we see, if we don't once again we would have the freedom to choose a different doctor to see.
These examples come from Government run health care. Surprised??? You haven't even heard the best part of it yet. Not only is this what happens when government controls aspects of health care, this is the coverage we provide for those who fight to make this country free. Yes, this is the Veterans Administration. Did I read this in some study or an article? Not quite, I have seen it first hand from the man I live with and soon will be married to. After serving 8 years in the Army, 1 1/2 of those years spent at War in Iraq. He gets treated as a number when going to the VA hospitals and doctors offices. Although there is documented proof of his back injury, related to events that happened during his service in Iraq, no VA doctor will recommend surgery because the government would have to pay for it and cost control is #1. We have gotten 3 other opinions from doctors outside of the VA, all have recommend surgery and physical therapy within 6 months. The VA writes a prescription for Advil.
I have no doubt that trusting our health care to the government will decrease the quality of care we receive as consumers. For those of you that work in the health care field as I do, do you really want the government dictating to you what services you can provide to your patients. I know I sure don't. I encourage all of you to get all of the facts on the reality of universal health care before promoting it. I think you will be surprised by what you find out about the regulations of the government run Medicare, Medicaid and VA programs we already have. I think you will also be surprised that countries, such as Germany, that offer these programs tax pay checks close to 50% to provide health care and retirement.
Let's work to make a change in a way that still allows us the freedom and high quality health care we deserve.
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My husband was in the Air Force so we were given free healthcare as a result. I was able to have my child free of cost and get a number of tests and treatments for asthma and allergies. Thank you for reminding me:)I had somehow forgotten about that.
ReplyDelete:-) the coverage is GREAT while they are still in. Once they get out, it's a much different story!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that I would want for the government to take over my health benefits because there is the fear of not getting all the attention my illness and me a person will be getting. I think that we might not see the same physician in every visit and to have to re-explain symptoms and give your health history over and over would definately be an inconvenience. At this point am very happy with our health care insurance because we do not pay any copays or deductibles until the insurance pays for their portion then we are billed. Also, we do not need any referrals to see our specialts one the other hand there are times that we have to wait any where 10 to 30 minutes but it is bearable, depending on the illness so far we have been lucky with every physician I have chosen for our medical needs.
ReplyDeleteIf we are to change the statistics of health care we need a serious change. Canada, and Asia are perfect examples of a Universal Health Care system. If they can make a change and offer all of their citizens health care so can we, and they can pick their own doctors as well. When anyone talks change it makes people nervous because of the unknown but I think that this system can work. What amazes me is some of the health care reform is from a republicans view so why do we still fight about it we know that if the republicans had something to do with it it will not be government controlled. I think that they want to fight anything that President Obama proposes.
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