You Are Really All Alone In This

Responses to Tuesday's message entitled "Healthcare Concerns That Deserve An Answer" brought many heated comments - mostly concentrating on listing more problems with the current healthcare system.  A sampling of the variety of these responses is below. 

 

I hope we can switch the dialog from one of stating problems to one of backing the solution - the basis of which is for people to take responsibility for their own expenses for routine healthcare coupled with a high deductible insurance policy that can be bought across state lines for catastrophic events - deductible determined by each person based on their own assessment of their financial condition. 

 

It is everyone's right to determine what is important to them & many people today have prioritized by choosing having a cell phone & wearing designer clothes over even thinking about the need for a healthcare plan.  These types of people who walk around with no healthcare insurance but say that healthcare is a universal right really mean that it is their right for someone else to provide it for them. 

 

It is important for us all to realize, no matter how unfair it may seem, that we are really all alone in this.  The insurance companies are interested in making money by controlling expenses, the politicians in getting reelected by promising something unsustainable, & many doctors practice defensive medicine driving up medical costs for fear of being sued.  The sooner we realize that we ourselves have to control who we deal with directly re medical matters the better off we will be.

 

I urge everyone to get behind the above solution given on www.returntoexcellence.blogspot.com in the recent posting on the left hand side entitled "The Solution To America's Healthcare Problems."  In this regard John Mackey, Co-Founder & CEO of Whole Foods, wrote an op-ed in the WSJ on Wednesday that mirrored about 80% of this piece.  Mr. Mackey debunked the idea of Universal Healthcare by pointing our correctly that all countries that have such a system don't provide the kind of service many Americans envision by the term but rather operate by government bureaucrats telling citizens what healthcare treatments they are eligible to receive & when they can receive them.  

 

We must change the healthcare system to something sustainable & that was the purpose of my writing the above mentioned piece - using both the Whole Foods & Safeway plans as examples of similar self-responsible ideas we have a chance to get off the employer-based healthcare system to one of a consumer-base.  If you go to a town hall meeting or contact your elected reps during this healthcare dominant congressional recess (& I don't know why you wouldn't with all that is @ stake) it is more helpful to present a positive solution than merely angrily & cynically complain as though you had nothing to do with the solution yourself. 

 

---Response #1---

 

Keep up the good work. It takes time.  I have to give you credit for all the work and research you did for the article.

 

People in general want something for nothing, or close to it.

 

---Response #2 - right out of the piece on the blog---

 

Doug

Two thougths:

1. Whatever happened to paying the doctor directly, and just carrying insurance for catastrophic illness and hospitalization? Years ago, my family doctor ACTUALLY treated the entire family - gave me my vaccinations, my mom prenatal care, delivered babies, treated my grandparents, etc. There was only ONE dr for the whole family, so he really knew what was going on with all of us, it was all in context. There was no special pediatrician, ob/gyn, geriatric care, etc. They only sent you to a specialist if you needed surgery for a slipped disk or were in an accident and needed emergency surgery, or had cancer, things like that. And we payed him per visit. HIM. not an insurance company. no paperwork to fuss with, so his overhead was limited to office rental and malpractice insurance (the premiums on which, due to frivolous lawsuits, drove him to retire before he was ready). What was wrong with that system? NOTHING. And that system is GONE, except for the handful of doctors who have had enough of the insurance companies dictating their practice and will only accept direct payment, no insurance at all.

2. Why do we need to burden employers, especially small employers, with the requirement to provide health care insurance? Younger employees, we are certain from our own personal experience and that of our employees, would rather have the money we spend on premiums in their paycheck than the insurance policy. Most of the companies we've worked for, if we were to opt out of the insurance plan, it did not translate to an increased paycheck, so we were essentially were forced to accept their health insurance plan.

Why can't individuals buy insurance ...or not? Just give me my darn paycheck, I"LL make the decision whether or not to buy insurance and which plan I want if I do.

Same thing with payroll taxes, -- why does the company have to pay it? Let companies pay their employees and let them worry about their tax bill. But that's another argument for another day.

PS Looking forward to meeting you and hearing you speak in Perth Amboy 9/5/09.

---Response #3---

I sent this to my doc and asked for his thoughts.  I also told him to guess which comment was mine

---Response #4---

Isn't tort reform done on a state level?  Missouri has had tort reform.  We have lost our insurance, or have been notified by the company that they are terminating health care as a benefit to employees.  Other than finding another job right now My children are not old enough to secure a job and get their own health care.  For everyone who opposes affordable access to health care, could someone tell me what we are supposed to do now?  I just had a daughter who was taken to the ER for a terrible kidney infection, and we had to have home health care come to our house and give her IV antibiotics.  You would not even want to know what the amount of the bill we just received for that service.  Yet, what do I do - let my daughter die from sepsis because her kidney infection went untreated?  This is really awful, and I cannot believe for being as wealthy as this country is, we are one of the worst as far as health care.  Even health care professionals are leaving here to go to India where they can practice new and innovative procedures and treatments - here, the insurance companies won't pay for them!  Sorry to go on, but I am at my wits end and really, if Gary got a job offer in another country, I'd gladly go there.

 

---Response #5---

 

Most people who lose their homes due to illness do so because they become so ill that working is no longer an option. Hospitals, doctors med/surg supply companies charge 300% more when billing an insurance company then they do when billing private pay. If you go for an upper GI, the hospital will bill the insurance company for several tests (not performed) related to GI problems. The largest population that depletes our medical resources and cost us the most are illegals. No questions asked and nowhere to send a bill. All of the above can be managed without universal health care.