I don't want INSURANCE - I want HEALTH CARE.

If my kids are sick, I want to take them to the doctor without checking the family budget for co-pays, deductibles, and prescription coverage first.

When my baby cuts her finger, I don't want to agonize over whether or not she needs stitches - I want someone trained in emergency trauma situations to FIX IT NOW.

If my mother is having chest pains, I want her to get in the ambulance without worrying about whether or not it is "life threatening" as opposed to having her die in the car because she was afraid of the potential cost.

If I find a lump somewhere, I don't want to negotiate whether or not it is "immediately life threatening"; I want tests and any required surgery scheduled immediately, and then I don't want to worry about how much the follow-up meds are going to cost or how I can afford them.

Kindly note in each of the above examples, I am NOT discussing "insurance". I am talking HEALTH CARE.

And *THAT* is what I want the folks who are spending my money in Washington to do -- make sure my ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE isn't dependent on were we work, whether we are offered affordable benefits, or even if we have 'pre-existing conditions.'

I don't want INSURANCE. I want HEALTH CARE. And I want EVERYONE ELSE to have it, too.

Any questions?

:dem:

-Laelth

While there are some things we can control about our health, we can't control them all. We can't control if we were born into poverty, raised in an environment with heavy smokers, or with a predisposition to diabetes. We can't control if we are female and need a mammogram once a year or not. These are not factors you "insure". You insure your choice to buy and drive a vehicle, or to own valuable property, and so on.

I don't think our health should be victim to the crap shoot that is the insurance industry.

I have insurance. It pays for my care. Its that simple.

Its also single-payer public insurance.

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Socializing all healthcare may be a noble goal, but meeting in the middle for Medicare for All in the meantime isn't a bad pathway there.

Insurance Industry = Death Merchants

Death Merchants HARM & HINDER Health Care. Insurance Companies are only parasites sucking the life out of people, and nothing more. That is the point.

if they have a preexisting condition that is outside of her or his own control? Like the woman Howard Dean references who was dropped by her carrier because she was diabetic?

That's what insurance does. It minimizes risk. The insurance companies make money off denying claims, not paying them.

They have not proved themselves the least bit worthy of our money. They don't choose to keep us healthy and solvent.

I haven't had a mammogram in 10 years. Why? The hurdles. I have to go to a doctor first (I don't have a regular doctor) and pay money for that appointment just to get scheduled for a mammogram. That's BS. It involves multiple appointments, multiple copays, and no quick results. I'll have to go to two or three different places. You like that model? Good for you but I think it sucks.

And preferably, there is but a single company in any region covering basic health needs.

In such a scenario, there is no motivation to deny claims. They are motivated to keep everyone healthy, as to lower overall long-term costs.

My wife has Aetna through her employer and they are great.
They cover with ZERO co-pay the following:

Yearly Physical including full blood workups
2 Dental Exams
Mamogram
Pap Smear
PSA (Prostate)

We get 3,000 a year in a fund to start with, everything we do other than the above comes out of the 3,000. Once that is exhausted the next 650.00 is out of pocket. Then from that point up to 2710.00 it is a 90/10 split, then it goes back to 100% coverage. IF you do not use the full 3,000 then it rolls over to the next year.

They just approved the knee injection Synvisc for me, all it took was a phone call to the insurance company to find out what was required to get it covered, all it needed was the correct diagnosis code and it is approved. My wife just had a procedure called a discogram done on her spine to find out which disk's are shot, now we just have to decide when to have the surgery to fuse her spine. I am facing a partial knee replacement, I have not checked but I imagine it will be covered as they covered my previous knee surgery that was a pre existing condition.

for one thing only. Profit. The less they give you the more they pocket. Many people out there at this very moment are fighting for their lives to get their insurance company to pay for needed care which was denied to them for the purpose of filling the coffers of CEO's and stock holders. Until the profit is removed from the health care system we will continue in this quagmire.

Single Payer Insurance exists to benefit a society, no drain it.

any doctor visit? If the answer is "yes", then NO, it doesn't work.

When I or a loved is sick, I do NOT want to spend hours on the phone negotiating with anyone about how much of a bill is going to be covered, whether a procedure is going to be covered, whether someone I've never met/who has never met me thinks it is necessary, or any of half a dozen other ridiculous paper pushing piles of crap.

I should not have to have a medical degree so I can discuss the correct terminology of a test, whether it was "coded" correctly, or whether I exercised good judgment by taking my son to the emergency room because I thought he had swallowed something / was "wheezing" when he breathed, only to find out his throat was swollen because of a previously unnoticed virus -- that will be $300 for the emergency room visit, $115 for the x-ray, $475 for the emergency room physician -- all billed by different departments/companies even though all of the treatment took place in the same hospital. At no point in time does anyone say, "if I talk to you, that will be $XXX" and even if they did, I wouldn't care -- if the doctor says its necessary, I believe him/her.

Ive never dealt with my insurance at all. Ive never been on the phone with them, aside from paying my premium. Everything is pre-approved.

Single-payer insurance is wonderful. Its something to strive for. Don't hate all insurance.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I DON'T NEED INSURANCE!!! I NEED HEALTH CARE!!!!

we don't need health INSURANCE, we need health CARE.

cut out the middleman insurance industry, and pay the hospitals and doctors directly.

is more profitable.

taking a step in the right direction. Without a public option, it'll be business as usual.

it gives me a TERRIBLE sinking feeling -- as if we are all so completely screwed, it isn't even funny. :(

I don't want to hear the words.."you are out of network!" to get care for my family!

eom

Canadian doctors don't work for the government and their hospitals are, like in the US, a mixture of nonprofit and for-profit.

I think the British system of government actually running the health care system is better than the Canadian system, but not by much.

That's exactly how I feel on the subject. Fuck insurance. We need healthcare that's not dependent on being able to pay premiums so that we can be denied coverage when we need treatment.

Everyone needs to eat but people are ok with grocery stores if they have a variety of quality products that don't break the bank.

The argument is that the insurance industry cannot or will not do the job.