Gimme a real reason to not scream...

What is the real solution to affordable health care?

Why am I paying $300/mo in costs, as well as $30 co-pays and just shy of $500/mo on my child's medications? When your child's life depends on the medications being administered, you don't qualify for state assistance based on income calculations that don't make sense according to your true cost of living, every option has failed, what do you do?

What do you tell your child? How do you explain to your employer that you cannot afford to work the full-time hours it takes to become eligible to carry insurance for your family? Sounds a little odd until you're sitting there, trying to justify skimping on the utility bills just to make sure your child's well-being is intact.

In the state of Oregon, if you have had private insurance within the last 6 months, you cannot qualify for a state-funded program. Nor can you quality for the CHIPS program. You cannot come up with the brilliant idea to request medicaid as a secondary to your private insurance, once your income meets that standard of "liveable".

Anyone have any straight answers?

Pitches

no. Our health care system is F'D UP period.

pitched by : BitchAss

reply to this pitch

You know, this is something I really wish I new more about. I am glad you brought it up.

The question is, what are we willing to do to get it done?

Here's a brief explanation on Universal Healthcare for anyone who isn't familiar with it.

Of course, we all hear about it but, do we know what it means and what it will *really* take to get something better in place (besides rhetoric)

Universal health care, or universal healthcare, is health care coverage which is extended to all citizens, and sometimes permanent residents, of a governmental region. Universal health care programs vary widely in their structure and funding mechanisms, particularly the degree to which they are publicly funded. Typically, most health care costs are met by the population via compulsory health insurance or taxation, or a combination of both.

Universal health care systems require government involvement, typically in the forms of enacting legislation, mandates and regulation. In some cases, government involvement also includes directly managing the health care system, but many countries use mixed public-private systems to deliver universal health care.

In the 1880s, most citizens in Germany became covered under the mandatory health care system championed by Otto von Bismarck. The National Health Service (NHS), established in the United Kingdom in 1948, was the world's first universal health care system provided by government. Universal health care is provided in most developed countries and in many developing countries. According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care.^[1]^[2]

here's an interesting story.

http://tinyurl.com/59po9s

pitched by : aronado

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reply by : aronado

Everytime a politician mentions Universal Healthcare every flips out becuase it would jack up our tax rates. I don't have healthcare, nor do I want it.

My wife has an auto immune disease and we were spending the 500+ dollars a month on medication to do nothing but mask the problem. Until we find CURES for the diseases that plague the country the only people getting rich will be the drug companies who in my opinion are worse than the kid down the street selling dime bags of marijuana.

Seek out doctors who care about you as a person, and want to fix the problem, not mask it.

reply by : cjgraphix

I'm a dual national (Canadian) and also lived in England for years so I have experience with all of these medical systems. I also have , from childhood on, serious and complex medical problems.

I do think that the Pharmaceutical industry holds this country (and much of the world) hostage (and one of the huge flaws in the American system is the power of the lobbyist ).

It also is a complete mystery to me why people in this country are not out on the streets protesting in droves. I have seen untold misery caused due to lack of insurance. The people in this country deserve a plan like members of congress have and certainly a universal plan needs to be worked out. It is the height of hypocrisy that elected officials are well taken care of while the people truly suffer. The best of all systems could be incorporated.

The Canadian system is still outstanding although aspects are eroding. I can give you a personal example of the runaway costs (salaries to CEOs of HMOS, administrative out of control) in the American medical system contrasted with Canada.

I needed a simple out patient procedure (cervical conization... I'm a DES daughter among other things . I'll spare you the gorey details but suffice to say they involve years in hospital as a child (kidney malformation, surgery at age 4 ), MS, brain tumors...a long chain of possibly connected DES related problems) . At the time, I had no insurance in the USA (and once again don't have it now) and was quoted between $10,000 &$12,000 for this. I continued to pay into the Canadian system (scaled to income) and so had to have the procedure there. Cost: $450 and this is what the cash out of pocket cost would have been if you paid outright there.

Ever looked at a hospital bill's itemized costs ? It's like the Pentagon and the Bradley Tank or the $100 roll of toilet paper.

Doctors have a cap on income in Canada. When I had neurosurgery there a couple of years ago, I asked my surgeon , who had been offered a major position at UCLA Medical Center, why he stayed in Canada. He said that it was the quality of life for his family. Granted some doctors try to have clinics for profit on the American side while continuing to work in Canadian facilities.

The costs to the American public are outrageous and this is true when you look at hidden costs as well. The immigration issue, say in Southern California, is a hot button...but, if we don't care for the people who are here , regardless (and who do all of the work that others won't do let's not forget and BUILT the wealth of this State in agriculture) , we have things like public health crises. At one point there was an outbreak of cholera in Tijuana. If we think that there is some invisible line at the border where disease stops, well, think again.

One further thing: I'm a musician & arts organizer and deal with artists all the time. Artists , are an underclass who provide so much value to our lives and communities, and yet have a huge struggle with something like medical insurance. We are a member of Fractured Atlas (NYC) and there is some attempt through FA to organize group plans, but still the costs are sky high.

We try and band together to help each other if someone is in need (like Victoria Williams' Sweet Relief organization), and I would also note that we are always called upon to give to charity, our communities, fundraisers etc...and we do so gladly. How does this work though, when so many live at subsistance levels?

The entire system is flawed ...everywhere you look from prisons, the War on Drugs, foreclosures at record levels, the war in Iraq, gas prices...who benefits? I'm for a system based on humanist principles at the core, but we are so far from that now. Greed rules the day.

Until WE THE PEOPLE decide that greed , fear, excess consumption, war and poverty DON't represent our vision of the world we want to live in, we will get what we have. The sad thing is that we affect the lives of many all over this planet.

It starts at home right in your own neighbourhood. We are all responsible.

There...my rant for the day .

reply by : anodyne2art

anodyne2art

You covered alot of territory. Thank you so much for sharing your background and insights with us.

you said: "It also is a complete mystery to me why people in this country are not out on the streets protesting in drove"

I think it's come to that. I think this is why we are here on this forum. The DO-ing is the awesome thing about all this.

Let's talk very very soon.

thank you again! I learned a few things from your post and am fired up about this subject.

Aronado

reply by : aronado

anodyne2art