Please explain the healthcare issues to me

M

mikieson

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I am very uneducated when it comes to politics and our healthcare here in the states.

I have read a couple things and Im watching the news right now. BUT can someone explain things to me like im the dummy I am?

No political party fighting please. Just plain and simple, what is the problem with things?????
 
mikieson said:
I am very uneducated when it comes to politics and our healthcare here in the states.

I have read a couple things and Im watching the news right now. BUT can someone explain things to me like im the dummy I am?

No political party fighting please. Just plain and simple, what is the problem with things?????
Click to expand...

Well, to keep it as apolitical as I can, here are the problems with the current situation:

1. 20% of all Americans currently have no health insurance. Some by choice, but usually because it is not offered by their employer and private plans are too expensive. More often than not, these people rely on emergency rooms for their basic needs. Emergency rooms are required to provide a basic level of care, regardless of insurance and regardless of capability of paying, so these ERs end up charging those who can pay (those who can afford it and insurance companies) more to offset these non-payers. This raises the prices of healthcare.

2. In my case and in the case of most people over 40 and certainly over 50, we have some pre-existing condition that mean we have to stay with our current over-priced policy as we cannot get insurance from other companies. Those who work for large employers often have clauses that exclude pre-existing conditions but some don't.

3. Many, many people file bankruptcy every year because of medical bills only.

So, I think all agree affordable health insurance is a plus for everyone. That was the easy part. The tough part is how to resolve it. Here is one plan being floated by the Democrats. Apologies if my facts are off.

Require all employers to provide insurance. If a person doesn't have health insurance, they pay a insurance tax. For those who are self employed or work for very small companies, have a government run program, like Medicare, that they can enroll into.

The drawbacks:

1. The cost. This is a big number, that varies from plan to plan, but is definitely hundreds of billions.

2. The government's role. Some don't want the government involved and think this should be handled by the private sector exclusively.

3. If all employers are required to provide insurance, some will shut down.

A recently released Republican plan is much smaller but I am not familiar with its details.

There will be some compromise struck.

That's my understanding, but I'm no expert.
 
1. Most Americans do not take basic care of their own health.

2. Then, when they get a chronic disease as a result of years of abuse/neglect of their health, many of them don't want to pay for it.

3. They think the government should pay for it, even though the government is already in debt up to their eyeballs, even though the government gets almost half of our money.

Sorry, I know I sound bitter. :-\
 
People don't have insurance. Some folks what to provide it and have everyone pay. Other folks do not feel we should have to pay more for the unfortunate because enough programs currently exist.
 
Just think about your current health care, and instead think government run health care that everyone can have.

I'm unsure how they plan to pay for it, but I'm thinking that it's going to be proportional to your income/tax bracket.

The big questions are the five W's. Who is going to pay for it? What is going to be covered? Where can one go when they are ill or just want to see a doctor? When can someone get an appointment? Why would poor/homeless/illegal immigrant be covered freely?
 
I am definitely no expert on health care. However, the problems with health care now are tremendous.
1) Doctors have to cover themselves by giving patients extra tests and procedures that are not necessary. This is because people will sue at the drop of a hat if something goes wrong medically. Furthermore, doctors have to employ people just to handle the extreme amounts of paper work that there profession requires. That problem is being discussed and is known as "tort reform".
2.) There is fraud in the insurance companies. The media demonizes insurance companies probably more than they deserve, but i'm not exactly a fan. I've heard a politician on Bill Mar(however you spell his name) say that the health industry and the food industry are "trying to make us sick". I personally find that rediculous. At any rate, insurance needs to be reformed.

What you hear on the news:
Since there is a democrate in office and a democrate majority in congress, they are trying to push government health care, in which they favor.

Problems: The governement is incredibly in debt. We are on a fiat currency which is basically paper money supported by no comodity such as gold..anotherwards, the value of our paper money is determined by how much of it exists(supply and demand in a sense). The problem is, we are 7.9 trillion dollars in debt(last time I checked) Therefore, we can not afford to fund something as vast as government run health care.

Government run health care will deminish competition. America has come up with some of the most fantastic advancements in medicine. Money is the motivation. We profit from them profiting.

Furthermore, since our currency's value is supported only by its supply, our dollar's value should depreciate exponentially considering we have a lot of governemnt print off and loaned money that WE will have pay back with interest. Therefore, we should have mass inflation which could probably lead us into something like the Weimar Republic or Zimbobwe. In otherwards, our dollar will have no value forcing us to pay more for things. This is another reason why we can't afford government health care because we should be focusing on bigger issues.

(Skip this section if ya want..it's the bitter politics part. I couldn't resist. Read the sections after though)
Moreover, you hear the arguement, "Do you think it is right for people to profit off of the sick." I'd agree, in those terms, no. However, it would be very naive to think our government(looking at its history) would not profit off of this implemented system. I don't mind paying someone who specifically goes to school to resolve my health problems so I can continue on living. I do not mind forking out money that i've worked for that insures the highest quality of health that can be provided. Why should I care if a doctor gets money for saving me. He/she deserves the money. Politics are annoying because it is speculative thinking. But I can only speculate the worst when looking at this issue because the governments history of providing quality is practically non-existant, especially in the age of corruption. Furthermore, I would say it is morally incorrect to profit off of the dead (Death tax) and then profit off of the money that goes to the families after that particular person just died(Inheritance tax).

I went to the hospital uninsured with heart problems after my dad lost his job. In my name is a 25 thousand dollar hospital bill. I don't hate doctors for it and I don't hate insurance companies for it. However, I do hate that the government has continuously let illegals flood the border. So much so that they, single-handedly, closed down a hospital in California for requiring help and then fleeing from the bill. I do hate how the government has made it difficult for doctors to practice medicine because they're to worried about covering their skins. I also hate how we have systems like medicare that are practically bankrupt, yet our same government, who allegedly funds this, are trying to distill the same thing but to the whole 360 plus million of us.

There is a lot more out there. Read, ask your parents, look on the internet, read books, try to gather information from all the news stations rather than one. I will go between Fox and CNN most of the time. I rarely watch tv though. Most importantly, when you have reached a conclusion. Write your senators.
 
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A benefit is a health care service or supply that is paid for in part or in full by Medicare.The amount of your coverage is also dependent on whether you have coverage under Medicare Part A, Medicare Part B, or both. Medicare Part A typically pays for your inpatient hospital expenses and Medicare Part B typically covers your outpatient health care expenses including doctor fees.There are substantial uncovered costs that a supplemental policy can help with.
 
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First off, this OBAMACARE isn't health care reform, it is HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM...

The quality of health care is going to get worse. Fewer doctors (I already know 3 people who have dropped out of med school), and muuuuch longer waits since soo many more people will have insurance.

That being said, I still do think we needed to reform how health insurance works, just NOT how Obama did it. I think he was under a lot of pressure to make some big moves since he promised so much to people, and he rushed this. He just wants to put another feather in his cap.

The real great thing to do would be make it EXTREMELY hard for people to file malpractice lawsuits against doctors for every little thing...that's why medical costs are so high..
 
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