A Note on Health Care Reform

A reasoned and well-tempered column. I think there is a good chance incumbent Republicans will misread the results of this mid-term and think that voters are suddenly swinging right. It is spending money the government does not have that irks and chafes people in the center of the country. It is giving money to special interests and large corporations (including health insurance conglomerates) that will come under attack. Sound fiscal policy will be voters first concern. If this requires another look at coerced health care coverage, so be it. Nobody got to read the bill before it passed, not even most of the politicians who voted for it. It may include some wonderful provisions, but it needs a thorough review. If it delivers it will stand up to scrutiny, no?

The process, however, reeked. This is surely a valid point of contention. The disparaged older voter is less convinced of political argument costumed as crisis. Experience is on their side.

Everything needs a calm and extensive review. And voters have the right to demand this at the polls. The country does not want to go careening recklessly from hyped up crisis to hyped up crisis. Dems tried that for two years with poor results.

Voters are not fearful or unenlightened.

They are just tired of being ignored.

What I dislike about Obamacare is that everyone who voted for Him thought it was a great platform of change! Change for who? The only change that anyone would see is that it will force prices up for everyone. And I hate the idea of paying more so someone else can get FREE Healthcare or better healthcare at my expense. If they want it free, qualify for Welfare! They already have a provision for those who cant afford healthcare! Its call Medicaid! Don't we pay enough in our taxes so those poor persons can get health care? They are not denied it, they just wont get the same quality of Healthcare as those who WORK for it or PAY for it!
The people are already overtax by the Government with their ardent expectations from the Democratic voter whoa re mostly educated on the lower end of the fulcrum yet will demands for BETTER or free healthcare! Because much of their care is general care like many HMO's, only preventative. But those on Obamas side make a demand the same kind of Healthcare yet will make overuse of Emergency care visits to the Hospital and raise the cost of hospitals. I might most visits to the Hospital by those on Medicaid were not of an emergency need, but for many common sense injuries that could have been taken care at home (like nose bleeds and bumps on the knee)! In other words, "Not life-threatening" visits! And is a great demand on our Hospitals as well as the tax payer to pay for such visits! A waste in my opinion.
If that is not harsh enough many will see their health insurance has already changed in reflection to the demands of Obamacares threat! They wont be doing business as usual and it has only hyped up the cost of Healthcare, but insurance's and Hospitals are giving less healthcare. HMO or POPs they should revamp other things like controlling the cost of Healthcare not raising the cost. They should have a freeze on cost from the Insurance Companies and any related cost to the consumer for Healthcare! Putting a freeze on such services from Drs. hospital and on Healthcare on how much they can charge, and not just ignoring the needs of the few over the masses. But making it possible for everyone to see a DR or go to the Hospital without worry of going to the Poor house! I feel if cost was more convenient, perhaps everyone, those with or without insurance should be able to pay on a sliding scale of fees, and get what they NEED without insurance is more conducive to real Healthcare; by putting CARE back into the quotient of honest healthcare! Not just that, but organization on how insurance and DR and Hospitals work together. There is no real cooperation. They should make it easier to deal with all and not double dipping and overcharging and such that brings up the cost of insurance and DR bills! Because I have seen these unfair practices where they will charge different cost to the consumer if they have an insurance they pay versus one that does not pay. But if they don't pay what the Hospital or DR list the patients sometimes is forced to pay what is not acceptable or charged even though when the agreement in the contract between the insurance company and other parties is a final price, many Drs. will add that price they want on to another bill forcing the patient to pay more for the actual procedure, because the Drs. wont take what is provided from the insurance. It gets very complicated, but I have seen where some Drs. will ask for the difference even though most insurance companies have this clause that they cant charge the patient more than the agreed upon amount. But the Drs. will! I have seen it, especially with foreign Drs.! And they give you the spiel that they can and will charge you the consumer for that which is charged and deny knowing about the contract with the insurance companies! I have seen it! But most people are ignorant of those charges and will gladly pay it if asked by their Drs. because most patients are not aware of that minute agreement with Insurance companies! To me that is double dipping by Drs. and other services and they been getting away with it!
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And also, if you go to the Hospital for surgery, say Gall bladder surgery, the Hospital will do similar charging; you will be billed your premium plus a fee or bill from each DR. And get another charge for each service within the Hospital, not counting your TV and newspaper and phone privileges! They will have a compiled list of bills for you by the time you had your surgery! One fee for the anesthesia DR, one for each surgeon on the staff that is in on the surgery and that does not even count your premiums for each Drs.
And fees on top of those, as added expenses you wont know about many times until the Drs. done with the insurance companies. That's what I keep seeing. They have a fee for this and a fee for that test and a fee for that procedure which the hospital did not get payment from the Insurance companies. That does not even count the cost of the Hospital room or the surgical units cost! One for each! You don't get one price for the whole surgical cost, but you get each individual prices and charges for each service that is connected to your stay in the Hospital. Each DR gets a cut and will bill you separately besides the DR for the same Dr. which I don't quite understand! Paying twice? It happened to us when my Husband had Open heart surgery! Plus the Drs. who does the anesthesia, he will charge you an additional cost and bill you too besides the Hospital for the same. And you also get a bill for each individual service you get while your in the hospital. I say why cant they just make it one bill when you go in for a procedure? I was amazed at how many bills I ended up paying. I thought the bills would never end! So much your expected to pay and then you get a bill for more than your told it will be after you thought you paid every thing! What's that all about? And on top of that you have to pay for parking if your too dumb to request a dumb stamp. Did not know that for most of the hospital stay! I see it all as run away inflation and how Drs. Hospitals and Insurance ad the pharmaceuticals get rich on what? YOU the consumer. Not having a full detail list of what its going to cost up front is what I see as a means for Hospitals and Drs. ripping off the patients; and what's worst many have created more problems when they don't even allow you to know, "Do you really need surgery or not for such things? Like a gall stone? No, you don't, unless its so huge it wont pass! But do the Drs. and Hospital warn you of the consequences of some surgeries? No, they do not. I knew this one gal I worked with who had that "surgery" Liposuction and guess what she was educated about the procedure and even knew many of the risk, she was a Nurse for G*D sake! But she died anyhow. Sad because she had a few kids, but do you think any DR talked her out of it? To all of us who worked with her she was not really that FAT! But she had the procedure done anyhow. And died as the results of it! If you knew you would die, would you do it to yourself? Probably not, but many Drs. don't go into all the risk, if they did many would elect to not have many of the surgeries that are performed on a daily basis at Hospitals on an assembly line fashion as many are done these days. I saw 5 persons lined up in a hall the same time my husband was to have Open Heart surgery and was amazed that any DR would do more than one a day! To me that was a High risk surgery, but they had 5 lines up for Open Heart! Unbelievable sure would have hated to be the fifth one! You'd think they were opening a can of peas!
I avoid gall bladder surgery twice. And my best advice is if you want to live, avoid Drs. and surgery at all cost, because many times those very surgeries will cause you to get even more surgeries! Because I have seen people go in for Gall bladder surgery and a month later end up with all kinds of complaints, and go back in the hospital due to a hernia or adhesions from that Gall bladder surgery (its what happened to my own Father, and I believe its was due to adhesions after he had Gall bladder surgery) And I also have a friend of mine who had two surgeries after she had Gall Bladder surgery. What's this about Gall stones? They do melt if you eat enough acidic foods, or even drink coke which will melt anything and it can help prevent gall stones <believe it or not. But Drs. wont tell you that! They prefer to OPERATE! >
But if they were told their chances of recovery were the same with or without surgery would they choose surgery? It would be nice to be able to choose. But many times they tell you that you will end up in worst health if you don't have surgery, but what I really heal is people who have had surgery end up worst than if they went without having such so called minor gall bladder surgery. (I will stick to taking artichoke and drinking a glass of coke now and then to prevent gall stones!) (I avoided gall bladder surgery twice.)
You would be best to think twice before having any surgery? Because there is more risk today with those medical students who went thru the 60's and 70's drug scene who may have become a DR; I would not trust any of them if I had a choice! And Medical school has not made it any safer to have surgery! I fear many of those who been coming out of Medical school may have brain lesions due to their Hippie Lifestyle of Free Love during their College days! I sure don't want any Hippie DR performing any surgery on me.
And the things I dislike about mostly about Hospitals, Drs. and Insurance, they are not really out to give you what you really need, but only comply with each others ideals to make their own selves rich at your expense. Because they have inflated their cost so their executives can have a lavish lifestyle! Its not their intention to keep you alive but to assure their lavish lifestyles, because if Drs. and Hospitals and Insurance companies did not make a buck or two they would not be in business. Believe me, because when California Hospitals went on strike and Drs. went on strike years ago, they saw less people die in the care of Drs. and Hospitals than when they were functioning! Thousands died less that year!
But the thing is that many People have been programmed to believe in Healthcare since the 60's. That its good to be healthy. But Healthcare has a lot of flaws and has not proven to me to be a good thing when many people are forced to give up food and housing in favor of "having" it! A visit with a DR is not all that its cracked up to be. No status symbol when there's no real honest need for some of those health measures they do in favor of health benefits to the DR and Hospitals. They wont be honest with you! They don't steer you to have the correct procedures because the insurance doesn't want to pay for them, but will steer you to have many procedures and they always push you to be more incline to have those ones they see as preventative even if each one could bring you closer to death or destroy your health for having them, like a Colonoscopy! Many people have died after having them because of the drug reactions or having bled to death because of carelessness.
Look at X-rays, they want you to believe they are a safe test, but in reality if you have a klutzy technician, and he gives you too many dangerous levels of rays outside the norms of the xray, which can actually fry your brain with the X-ray! And MRIs, they may be seem safe to some degree but sure can cause havoc on your nervous system, but they don't tell you that it can scramble the nerve cells and cause you to lose your bowels or have tremendous headaches from the vibrations for weeks! And "do you really need that gall bladder operation to remove a stone that can be melted by drinking a can of coke now and then? " No, because they can melt if you eat the right foods, or drink coke (coke is good for taking the paint off your car so why not get rid of a gallstone and avoid surgery?" But will Drs. and Hospital tell you those things? No! Because it would short change their paychecks! Instead they have you convinced that you need that surgery! And if they have the power to get more from you, they will.
For instance, and I have seen this with my own eyes... If there is two patients, one black and on welfare and one white from the working class in the emergency room, they will choose to take care of the black person for fear of radical profiling and perform surgery on the black person before they will do it on a white person who does not have the best insurance for Gall bladder surgery, because they know the Government / welfare agency will guarantee payment for that surgery for that person whose of color! But a white person who does not have the best paying Healthcare they may not operate! Even though the white person has good ethics and would not think of NOT paying! The Hospital and Drs. would prefer to operate on the black person because they know the Government has always paid their fair share! <But that may reverse when Healthcare bellies up!)
And the white educated person may want the surgery just to end the pain, but is it really needed? But if the Hospital has a choice they will give the black person the surgery because if you refuse them help, they will sued you for noncompliance and discrimination! But the best thing for anyone is to avoid having any surgery because your better off if no one intrudes into your body. You not only live longer and its been proven. You wont need to pay such high prices for Healthcare. So if you want to live longer avoid Hospitals and Drs.! Take control over your own healthcare, because your the only one you can trust to really take care off YOU!
Take better care of yourself by eating well balanced meals and exercising everyday and you can avoid a lot of health issues. Because many health issues pop up when your overweight, underfed or careless about your health or been in an accident. Avoid being out on the road and avoid especially going out on the weekends when drunks are driving drunk!
People back in the 50s did not go to the Hospital or to see a Drs. as much as they do today; and for the very reason of ill health, its mostly due to the way people eat and take care of their health. They live careless lives. Eat JUNK food all the time! Yet they want and expect Healthcare to correct all those mistakes! But will a DR recommend you stop eating junk? Or lose weight? Very few! No, a DR would rather give you some medications for your out of balance blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, or arthritis etc. Because he makes money on what he provides or suggests from the Pharmaceutical companies! They get a payback. Do "You" get the picture? Because the Pharmaceuticals is what is really runs your healthcare and its the only way they all can get rich is by charging you high prices for these drugs. They are re the one that are making you dependent on DRUGS. (Don't get me started on Psychiatrist and how they want to control everyone who comes thru their office) But our society has been pushing for a drug induced society since the 60's and it is the Drug Companies that really push it and run Healthcare! Not the Drs. or the Hospitals even though they add to the burden to the consumer. Its really the Drug Companies who control the strings! But will you see it? Probably not!
So if you think one man can plug up the dam and make Healthcare better for you, your misinformed. Only YOU can truly take control of your own HEALTH by living more in tuned with Healthy choices! Obama is not G*D and he is not responsible for what you put in your mouth, so don't expect Government to come up with the perfect solution for Healthcare. It wont happen! Because if they cant make money on it, it wont happen!

Joe - you suck.

Health care is a personal responsibility. Health insurance is a business that offers a contract for specified services. The more services you want the more you pay for. Government bureaucrats do not belong in either theater. "Healthcare" never needed "reform". "Healthcare" is just another political scam to take over more rights of United States Citizens. Back off!