Posted By: John Handforth on Thursday, November 27, 2008
Yes, I can see it now...Medicare, sadly, is now my primary insurance, which costs me $1200 a year. My secondary insurance costs my former employer $8800 a year. I am just a man that worked 38 years in the same industry. My employer changed four times, but that was partly due to government interference and then to mergers afterwards.Essentially, I worked for the same employer, even though the name changed. We were not as smart as the UAW, though, because we gave up many wage increases for better medical coverage. That will be taken away through government interference, because I am a senior citizen and not important enough in the political environment.You can bet your bippy that no member of Congress will be denied any procedure because they are so important to the Country. Can't you just see it now? I'd be denied prostate surgery, but Joe Biden could get a penile implant if he wants one. I'd like to perform that surgery, but I'd probably put it in the wrong place.
Posted By: Ken Busch on Sunday, November 30, 2008
I prefer our present system where a doctor or clinics' staff haggle with an insurance company until they give give up & the patient then continues the haggling until the unlikely event of payment or the patient's exhaustion and exasperation kick in. Those without insurance get charged several times what the insurance companies haggle the hospitals for which leads to the uninsured going bankrupt & the gov't & the insured pick up these tabs which leads to higher insurance costs on the "lucky" insured. All this stress also makes all of us sicker but at least the insurance companies don't need a bailout.
Posted By: K. Quinlan on Sunday, November 30, 2008
For a while there, I worried that Mr. Blankley would agree with Sen. Daschel. Here are a few of my complaints with the book. He acts like that 2000 WHO study in which the U.S.A ranked 37th in health care is meaningful.It is based on certain opinion criteria only. It is questionnaire based! - patients, doctors, experts opinions. That is, no out come data, no facts. Here is some outcome data The U.K.'s 5-year survival rate for breast cancer is 50% ours. Yes, 1/2 ours. Prostate Cancer: U.K. 57% of those diagnosed will die. USA 19% die, Germany 46%. France 44%. Facts and outcome data - more useful for decision making any day. One payer health care is socialized medicine - Europe and others are backing off from it and privitizing what they can. U.K. got the point and now has 300 private hospitals. Copenhagen has privitized 1 hospital and is in the process of privitizing the other 7 in the capital city. U.K. has 1/3rd the people per l00,000 in dialysis as we do. Only 1 in 50 of the over 65 year olds ever get surgery for their lung cancer. All this this comes from a book by 3 economist who study this for a living. Lives at Risk - a Survey of Single Payer Health Care around the Globe. Goodman, Musgrave and Herrick, 2002. National Center for Policy Analysis. A major eye opener, worth the time.
For a while there, I worried that Mr. Blankley would agree with Sen. Daschel. Saw him present the book on CNNs Book TV. He acts like that 2000 WHO study in which the U.S.A ranked 37th in health care is meaningful. It is based on certain opinion criteria only. It is questionnaire based! - patients, doctors, experts opinions. That is, no out come data, no facts. Here are some outcome data. The U.K.'s 5-year survival rate for breast cancer is 50% ours. Yes, 1/2 ours. Prostate Cancer: U.K. 57% of those diagnosed will die. USA 19% die, Germany 46%. France 44%. Facts and outcome data - more useful for decision making any day. One payer health care is socialized medicine - Europe and others are backing off from it and privitizing what they can. U.K. got the point and now has 300 private hospitals. Copenhagen has privitized 1 hospital and is in the process of privitizing the other 7 in the capital city. U.K. has 1/3rd the people per l00,000 in dialysis as we do. Only 1 in 50 of the over 65 year olds ever get surgery for their lung cancer. All this this comes from a book by 3 economist who study this for a living. Lives at Risk - a Survey of Single Payer Health Care around the Globe. Goodman, Musgrave and Herrick, 2002. National Center for Policy Analysis. A major eye opener, worth the time.
