The future of health care.

[GoredHusker]

How can you honestly say the free market is deciding the price of healthcare?  Here in our rural hospitals, there's typically 1-3 patients in the entire hospital.  However, the gov't has laws that the hospital have to retain a certain amount of people on duty at all times.  Does it really take 15-20 people in a hospital to give care to 1-3 people?  Then, we must also look at what it costs a doctor for malpractice insurance because most states won't put a lid on exposure.  The average cost per year in 2009 for malpractice insurance for an OB/GYN was $64,000.  In Nevada, an OB/GYN could be facing a malpractice insurance cost up to $142,000.  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03702.pdf

Isn't this a great country where you can go to your local McDonalds, order hot coffee, spill it on yourself, then be awarded by a jury nearly 2.9 million. 

[r3020]

What is amazing is you big government proponents admit we have rationing now with a third party payer system. Yet instead of looking for a better way you want more of the same. Rationing is fine as long as the rationing is done by government. We can do better. The more free market we can incorporate into the system the more affordable, more productive, and more accessible it will become.

 Health care was affordable before the invention of the great society.

[dagwud]

it won't be a decade or so in the US. CXongressman Ryan is already proposing strong cuts to medicare which will transfer a larger percent of health care copst back to senior consumers. I wonder if he is reforming the insurance plan that he cartries. Oh I guess that a congressman deserves health care and not a taxpayer that has paid into Medicare since it's inception in the 60's.

Don, I believe Ryan's plan would not effect anyone that has been paying into Medicare since it's inception.

Canuck, you seem to be happy with your country's health care system.  I am curious what Canadians biggest complaints are with their system?  Yesterday I was talking with a neighbor farmer in his late 60's that has been wintering in Arizona the last few years.  He says that in the winter housing area he stays there is a large number of Canadians that winter there as well and he has become acquainted with several of them.  He told me that during discussions about our country's recent health care reform that his Canadian friends were warning him about allowing the U.S. system become like Canada's system.   Seems they are very unhappy with long waits to get tests and specialized care and that they don't see that in the U.S. when they have needed medical care there during their winter stays.

Is that the biggest complaint with Canadians?

I do think there is a lot of money that could be saved by stream lining the billing and record keeping in U.S. hospitals and clinics.  My local town with a population of 2500 has a hospital and clinic as do two towns of equal size both less then 19 miles away.  My town's hospital and clinic employ well over 100 people with the majority of them not being doctors and nurses but being secretaries to handle billing and record keeping.

[GreaTOne_65]

Tell, me dagwud? Your neighbor wouldn't be a Repbulican would he?

Of course the reason I'm asking, is I to have friends and neighbors who are Canadian, in our park. The only complaint they have is having to go back every 187 days, they'd rather just stay here for 6 months like we do. The fact is the people I talk to can't believe we've put up with our system so long, they would never go back.

[kraft-t]

It doesn't matter whether it is me at my age or you at your age. One day you will be my age and gutting the program before then will very much affect you and my kids which are probably your age.

It is assuming that medicare which they claim the taxpayer can't afford, will be easily afforded by individual retirees. Think about it. Government can't afford it, but you are supposed to afford it without government involvement.

Congressman Ryan thinks that government can afford his health plan but the taxpayer cannot afford ours.

We should demand a wage and benefit cut on their own compensation package before they cut anyone elses.

Any canadian I have talked to in the Rio Grande Valley think that americans are nutz to tolerate our current health care system. But then I haven't talked to many. You would think as many of our canadians friends that visit here there would be many of them condemning the canadian system if it was that bad.

[schnurrbart]

You and the others like you are the only ones saying "rationing" and you are just assuming it.  You don't know it and you can't prove that it will happen.  You just THINK it will and that is mainly because a president you don't like and don't believe to be legal has proposed it.  Why haven't you been raising cain about the current rationing?  Do you like it?  Maybe you do since it is a big corp and you love those people!

[BA Deere]

Let me help you with this baloney the liberals been feeding you.  Canada has 34 million people, we have 310 million, nearly 10 times more.  what country do we import the most oil from?...Saudis? No, it`s by far Canada.  Canada has very rarly had a trade deficit, we run $200 billion/month trade deficits like clock work.  In the whole NAFTA deal the US got screwed and the Canucks made out like bandits.  So, when they say "why can`t we have a health system like Canada???" and "Canadians wonder how we live with such a crappy health system" and "Candians would never ever ever go back to a health system like ours".  Of course, they`re making money hand over fist with just 10% of our population!!!   It`s like two families making the same money living next door, one family has 10 kids the other only have one child.  Who will have the most to give their kids?   Obviously, the family with a only child, they can buy him a new car for his birthday, buy Abercrombie clothes, send him to Ivy league school.  Where the 10 kid family has to budget budget budget, shop at Walmart and go without many things.

[schnurrbart]

Which is exactly what you are wishing for seniors in this country!!!

[hobbyfarm2145365]

The Ryan plan as you state makes you eligble for Medicare along with anyone now  working regardous of age as long as they have paid in.     

[Canuck_2]

You will get all sorts of complaints from the 'care' they got when they were in the hospital to the waits to the attitude of staff to the waste in the system etc..

Most people will get to their own doctor with little delay.

Specialists you could get referred to may be booked ahead some time.

Also it may depend on the specialist your doctor chooses to refer you too.

Some are busier than others (the best I suppose) and so you wait longer than if you went to a newer specialist or a less reliable one?

The other thing to remember is if it is a non life threatening 'condition' you can get bumped and delayed while they deal with those who are truly sick and all get into the system not just those who can afford insurance.

In one of your elections there was a Canadian used in adds to show how poor our care was. She had to go to the USA to get a lump removed since she deemed the wait to be too long in Canada.

Investigations later found that yes she had too wait because her lump was not malignant and non life threatening so no rush.

I guess that is the biggest problem if you think you have the money to pay for it and you think you should always be at the first of the line then you will not be happy that someone with nothing gets ahead of you even if they needed the help more.

The majority of Canadians can not afford to go south every year even for 1 week.

A big cost for a senior is the medical insurance needed to cover the additional cost of your health care. Our system pays to Canada's rates for care outside Canada but your care costs so much more that insurance for the difference is prohibitve especially for many seniors with medical conditions.

BTW it is an issue in the election we are in, about cuts to health care, and all parties are quick to say they will not cut since they know they are unelectable if they try to change the system we have.