The Health Care Panic
By katran
@katran (585)
United States
June 15, 2009 1:39pm CST
I have been reading through discussions in the politics section today, and it seem like every other one is about health care. I am amazed at how panicked people are that things might be changing, and it seems like no one really knows what is going on. I have seen a lot of hypocritical and strange comments that are making me scratch my head and wonder where America's brains have gone.
First of all, can I just ask that we put partisan politics aside for a moment? Just because Obama is spearheading it does not mean it is an inherently evil plan. We are all grown-ups here, people. Let's quit acting like children with grudges. I despise most of Obama's policies so far, I have to say, but I HATE it that people are so blinded by partisanship right now. You are ALLOWED to agree with him SOMETIMES...EVEN IF YOU ARE A CONSERVATIVE! *gasp*
Anyway, one thing that people are stressed about is that this will be "socialized" medicine. It's not. I repeat that: it is NOT socialized medicine. Socialized medicine would mean doctors are getting employed and paid by the government. That is NOT what will be happening. Your doctors and hospitals will still be private industries. In fact, so will most insurance companies. In fact, in countries with national health insurance, doctors often have MORE clinical freedom.
Another thing that stresses people out is that this will add more bureaucracy. Well, our health care system is already the MOST bureaucratic in the world, with about 31% overhead costs. Compare this to a 3% overhead for Medicaid and a 1% overhead cost for other countries with nationalized insurance and I think that should speak for itself.
Next problem: Won't doctors be deterred because their salaries will go down? Answer: No, this has not happened with most other countries that implemented health care reform, simply because any hit to their income would be compensated by the fact that they would not have to pay money to a bunch of bureaucracies or administrators.
The biggest thing I have heard is that Obama's plan is going to be taxing the "rich" to give to the "poor", and this is just plain, blatant, stupidity. There is no other way to put it. Yes, Obama is going to roll back the tax cuts for those making over $250,000, but I guarantee you he would do that whether we have health care reform or not. But that fact aside, I will tell you, my family made over $250,000 a year when my dad got sick with cancer. I can also tell you that if we had not had insurance, his medical bills over the years would have wiped out our entire savings in less than a year. Even thought the government considered us rich, we would not have been able to afford health care if we did not have insurance. My dad would have been dead within months and my mom, my sister, and I would have been left with hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills we could not pay. If you think you can afford health care the way the system is set up now, think about what might happen when you get laid off from your job because of the way the economy is and you no longer have health insurance. Oops. You will no longer be able to call yourself "rich" if you ever get sick! You will lose everything you have so fast it will make your head spin. It happens to other people on a daily basis. You are not immune.
Honestly, people. Wake up and grow up. This is not about "us" vs. "them". This is not about "Democrats" vs. "Republicans". This is not about "rich" vs. "poor". We are one of the richest nations in the world and we have one of the worst health care systems. It is downright despicable. I am literally embarrassed for us, and I think you all should be as well.
Do you think that just because you personally are okay for now that we should not worry about it?
2 people like this
6 responses
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
15 Jun 09
Actually, I am not personally okay for now. I don't have health insurance since I became disabled and cannot afford it. So I can be rather more objective than you may imagine.
National health care is probably a very bad idea just because the federal government never, ever, manages or administrates anything without enormous cost, waste and inefficiency. Ask someone in the UK how well the NHS works and see what answer you get.
The plan calls for $600 billion in taxes right off the bat. That is just the initial increase in the tax burden, it is bound to increase. With the economy failing and the unemployment rate rising, increasing taxes to fund a plan that will eventually cost trillions is unconscionable.
The plan calls for cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. $75 Billion cut from prescription reimbursements for Medicare members. $200 billion cut from hospital payments. Severe restrictions on diagnostic imaging. They will cut back on services and payments for the elderly and the disabled to pay for health services for others. This is absolutely criminal, considering those retirees receiving Medicare have spent a lifetime paying into a system that increasingly wants to refuse to pay back in the services they were promised.
Talk to those who live in countries with national healthcare plans. Those who can, carry private insurance on their own. They do this so that they CAN get the care they need when they need it, because the national health care plan often will not cover necessary treatment. The same will happen here. These people will pay for healthcare twice, once in taxes and once in premiums to their own private insurance.
Obama has already decided to have a clearinghouse for medical records and to have your doctor, my doctor, any doctor monitored to make sure that the government agrees with his plan of treatment. I don't want the government deciding if I need diagnostic testing or medication.
We don't have the money. The country is bankrupt now. To embark upon this plan now will just put the final few nails in the US economy's coffin.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
16 Jun 09
Well, guess I will just have to annoy you one more time, because your answer in #3 above is not really an answer, it's an accusation. You said "I have noticed that a lot of people who are complaining about the cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are the same people who complain that they exist at all". It's never persuasive to call your audience ignorant and annoying, by the way.
I find this interesting as well: "Insurance companies will not have to go out of business, but they will be expected to be nearly non-profit, just like the government." Well, taking a for-profit business and making them a non-profit business IS putting them out of business.
It's a little difficult to accept your bi-partisan outreach when you use phrases like "conservative propaganda".
It's a nice idea to construct a discussion based on facts and not on partisanship but I don't think this one falls into that category.
@katran (585)
• United States
15 Jun 09
The government will neither be running nor administrating the health care system. In fact, the government is running and administrating the health care system more NOW than they would be if our system changed. As I pointed out somewhere above, 31% of our medical costs in this country go to bureaucracy and administration. In Canada, that figure is only 1%.
The UK is not the only country with national health care, and it is probably the worst example. I suggest looking up Japan or Switzerland, because their plans are more like what Obama is proposing. It actually really is beginning to annoy me how little people know about how other health care systems work. That tells me that people are listening to anti-universal health care propaganda and not looking up the facts or developing an understanding themselves.
You can read some of my responses above for some explanations as to why our taxes probably won't increase that much.
Also, they are cutting back on Medicare and Medicaid to make way for a better system. Those people will get benefits under a reformed health care system the same way that anyone else would.
1 person likes this
@katran (585)
• United States
16 Jun 09
I feel I can use the term "conservative propaganda" because I AM a conservative. And I don't think that's a nasty term anyway. Propaganda exists and both sides use it. It just happens that this particular policy is something most conservatives are against, so it is conservative propaganda that mostly comes into play.
I am not necessarily trying to be persuasive. I am just trying to draw attention to the fact that most people ARE ignorant of the options for universal health care. I don't mean it in a "you're stupid" kind of way. I mean it exactly as the definition implies - they don't know enough about it to have informed opinions. A lot of people do not do any research on this...or ANYTHING that goes on in government. They simply listen to what the media tells them or what their favorite pundit tells them and take it as cold, hard fact. This is something that people on both sides do. I myself am ignorant on some things to do with Obama's health care plan, so I try not to comment on those things, like the taxing of health benefits. I am not sure what that entails or whether it makes sense, but I plan to look in to it more.
As for the Medicare/Medicaid thing, you are right. I did not answer it. I really can't give an answer I suppose, other than the answer I gave you: the people covered by Medicare/Medicaid would also be covered under a universal plan, so these organizations might not be needed at all in the future.
Also, non-profit businesses are businesses just as much as any other business. Insurance companies SHOULD be non-profit anyway, and I don't know why they aren't to begin with. A non-profit business is simply a business that ends with a zero balance. They can still make money and pay their employees and CEOs, but they must use the rest of their money to pay out claims. There is no reason an insurance company should make a profit anyway. All their money comes from the people and all that money should go back out to the people. That is their job - to cover the people who need it.
@cbjones (1147)
• United States
15 Jun 09
Katran, you should be the leader of the GOP. They need somebody to put all the whiners and crybabies in that party that have nothing constructive to add in their place. Solution based thing on both sides would be great.
i don't know enough about any of the proposed plans yet to have a strong opinion about any of them. I'm too worried about the much needed DMV reform this country in lacking. I swear, it takes all freaking day to make progress in that place. It's madness!
1 person likes this
@katran (585)
• United States
15 Jun 09
Lol, thank you, cbjones! Maybe I will run for office someday, hehe. I am thinking I would just make too many people mad though. No one wants to find a middle ground any more. All they want to do is fight with the other side. Compromise is a foreign word to most people.
DMV as in Department of Motor Vehicles? That's another inefficient bureaucracy for you!
@spicysweetie21 (2573)
• United States
18 Jun 09
I agree with you on so many points....my parents know about what can happen if you don't have health insurance, when i was like 14 my dad didnt have insurance for us because his employer had a very dumb and expensive insurance plan so for a time he didn't have insurance for us, and thats when i got sick, found out i had asthma and was hospitalized for a week, my parents only paid the bills off 2 years ago, it took them 6 YEARS to pay the bills off
And THANK you so much for talking about "pre existing" conditions because thats the reason I can't get health insurance for myself and not through an employer, im going to school but because im not meeting the unit requirement because im taking computer classes where 1 unit is 3 hours of class time and about 6 hours of total time so to get benefits id have to do 80 hours of class and homework to get the health benefits......
I just know that the health care system needs to be SERIOUSLY reformed and it doesn't look like most of the people in the senate are going to be for letting us "little people" get a break"....and like you said, do i think its freem no i dont but i hope its not my only option of $50 for a rescue inhaler which keeps me breathing, ......................but god forbid I get a break because thats not fair and will only lead to ruin *rolls eyes*
@katran (585)
• United States
18 Jun 09
I am sorry to hear about the struggles you have been through! You would think in one of the richest countries in the world we would have a better system that doesn't force people to choose between eating and curing their illnesses. In fact, you would think in one of the richest countries in the world people would feel ASHAMED that we have such terrible health care and would want to do something about it! But apparently it's just a little too much to ask to part people with their money. You know what they say. "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven."
@piasabird (1737)
• United States
15 Jun 09
Well, amen to them never making any medical decisions for us! Because I'm just worried that if treatment is too expensive they'll say, "Let 'em die!"
@saffrondreams (596)
• Canada
18 Jun 09
Yay, an intelligent post about healthcare reform! :o
I agree with you 100%, I couldn't have said it better myself.
@xoxcharityxox (567)
• United States
16 Jun 09
I really want national healthcare. I have went without medical insurance for awhile now and just worry about something happening and not being able to get any kind of treatment. Everybody has the right to have medical care (humanity speaking). I have seen the way other countries, such as Canada have that. I would very much like to see all these unfortunate families get some help. If it means people making that much money paying a tax then so be it. Every working American pays taxes, they are still ahead of somebody making say 50,000 a year.
@katran (585)
• United States
16 Jun 09
Amen. It is a shame that compassion like that is not an acceptable or desired trait in this country any more. People hear that a little of their money may get taken away, and all of a sudden it is like their world is coming to an end. Apparently the idea of a decent health care system is un-American.
