Doonesbury Say What?

[thewayne]

"Destroying the best health care system the world has ever known."
-- Sen. Richard Shelby, on Obama

Yeah, in what version of reality? I know people who can't get insurance, who pay $600-1000 a month for coverage that has a $10,000 annual deductible, I know someone who flew to Thailand to have her gall bladder removed because it was less expensive than having it done in Phoenix, AND she took a friend with her!

There's a very easy way to fix the health care system. Take all of the Congresscritters and put half of them on Medicare, the other half in an HMO system. It would be reformed within a year.

Elizabeth Edwards was on The Daily Show a few weeks ago shilling her new book. She said that one in every $700 spent on health care (I'm not sure under that HMO or nationwide) was going to the salary of the CEO of the HMO that she was in. I'd really like to see the salary breakdowns of those guys, I can't believe that one was making that amount of money.

There is no way I could afford the tests that we've had done with my spate of illnesses. And the credit card industry and health care industry have gotten the bankruptcy laws changed so you cannot get medical debts discharged, so you can easily get doubly-screwed in that situation. It's definitely a messed-up situation, I don't know that a nationwide health plan is the answer, but something radical has got to be done to change things.

Comments

[silveradept]

I've been hearing that argument. "Best" apparently means "we can get anything we want, if we're rich enough, and right when it comes out as a treatment/pill". It means nothing at all about the quality of coverage or the cost of it. So this "wrecking" is basically a "Well, if we're going to pay for it through taxes, we want the best bang for our buck, so no, those super-experimental treatments will probably not be covered in the public option." And they cry "waitlists!" when they should be saying "not enough doctors!"

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Speaking of not enough doctors, when I've gone job hunting on government web sites, I always see ads in El Paso for dentists, saying that the city qualifies as an underserved area for some sort of tuition reduction benefit. Pretty sad.

I'm about to encounter that here, I'm going to be spending an hour or two trying to find another lung doctor. Not terribly looking forward to it!

[silveradept]

Good luck on that - perhaps we should start also offering not just "we'll forgive loans when you're done" but actively start saying "we'll help pay for the whole thing if you'll complete the program."

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Apparently there are "we'll help pay for the whole thing if you'll complete the program" such programs, a friend of mine's niece is going through a government-sponsored nursing program along those lines.

Apparently the Department of Health Services, or whatever it's called now, is organized somewhat along the lines of the military. In the late 80's/early 90's I was working for the Arizona agency that implemented Medicare/Medicade and one day I took an elevator ride with a guy in an officer's uniform, but I didn't recognize the service. I asked him and he said he was DHS. So the Surgeon General is actually a sort of General!

[silveradept]

Oh, good. Sounds like we need more, then, to get the doctor and nurse amounts up to what they should be for our society and populace. Good to know the Generals in DHS do have some weight to pull with their rank.

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

Yup, change definitely has to happen. Otherwise we're going to end up with a LOT more people in bankruptcy...and worse. Having a bunch of people with severe medical problems losing their homes because of those changes in the laws is going to make for a nightmare in the not-too-distant future.

[emerald01.livejournal.com]

*hugs*