<p>I’m paying almost ten percent of my salary, which is 25% of the premiums, to pay my share of insurance. the college I work for is paying the rest of the premium. For me and everyone else who works here.</p>
<p>So, first, figure in the amount that most of us not lucky to have “free” insurance pay–even before copays, deductibles, etc.</p>
<p>Then, figure in what cost is added to everything we do–businesses we go to, stores we shop at, colleges–like mine–we send our kids to. </p>
<p>We’re already paying the taxes–they’re just disguised as part of the cost of, well, living.</p>
<p>I’d rather take it all out in the open any day, and eliminate the enormous profits, plus the enormous inefficiency of scores of competing, overlapping plans.</p>
<p>The whole horror of our current insurance system was one of the main reasons my H left medicine.</p>
<p>1of42, it appears that you are a college freshman. I am 48 years old. I have lived in both countries, and have shared some of my experiences. I’m not going to divulge any more details about my husband’s health, and you are free to believe me or not, as you choose. But I have no incentive to lie on this forum. Neither does anyone else. I don’t doubt that mini’s experience is true – I’ve just never known anyone in this country who had health insurance and had to wait 8 months for treatment. But it is rather bad form to suggest that other posters are lying.</p>
<p>My point wasn’t that you were lying, but rather that making flippant dismissals of others’ experiences doesn’t actually constitute a valid argument or even a useful comment, merely a restatement of beliefs (i.e. you believe that US coverage is better than Canadian, therefore clearly you would think that mini’s terrible US experience is an anomaly). It doesn’t contribute anything.</p>
<p>I never said or even implied that you were lying, merely that your statement to mini was blatantly devoid of any argumentative value.</p>
<p>Finally, while it may be bad form to suggest that others are lying (which is irrelevant, since I wasn’t), it’s equally bad form to make ad hominem attacks, which is the implication when you compare our ages - i.e. “I know better than you, because I am older”, or conversely “you don’t know as much as me, because you’re younger.”</p>
<p>This cracked me up (in a twisted, bitter way). My cat and I each had hysterectomies in the same year. Both of us were anesthesized, spent one night in the hospital and came home with stitches. Hers cost $75.00, mine cost over $10,000.</p>
<p>I contribute more to have less and less covered every year, at an ever-shrinking list of physicians who will take my insurance. And I work for a good-sized hospital system. Most of our own docs won’t take the insurance because the reimbursement is so low, but we get charged extra for going out of network. It’s very easy for working families with insurance to find themselves in financial difficulty over deductibles, copays, and surprise non-covered fees. I hit my healthcare FSA limit in four months this year on such bills and that was for rather routine stuff.</p>
Those who have good insurance through their employer or the government
Those who are thrown to the wolves</p>
<p>For the most part, the 1’s like our system, the 2’s don’t. Go figure. Just understand that a 1 is not immune to becoming a 2 and a 2 can usually become a 1 at a certain cost. I do not like being stuck in my job or choosing my job based on health insurance. I am willing to pay for my insurance, but I want to be granted access to it. I want my artist husband to continue to be able to paint his wonderful paintings instead of having to have a corporate job to have access to health insurance. Our system discourages the arts and small businesses. There has to be a compomise.</p>
<p>There are also people who buy Britney Spears music, but we should not base our decisions on them! There are people who don’t wear seat belts too. As a society we should do what is best for the majority not a few exceptions.</p>
<p>“There are also people who buy Britney Spears music, but we should not base our decisions on them! There are people who don’t wear seat belts too. As a society we should do what is best for the majority not a few exceptions.”</p>
<p>I object to the governmental imposition aspect here. There needs to be freedom of choice in healthcare, not just reproduction. My healthcare needs are different from my 22-year-old niece’s and my 80-year-old mother’s. I do think people should be able to opt out and then suffer the consequences.</p>
<p>Here’s the problem. Every low cost consumer opting out of the health care system pushes a high-cost 80 year old mother out of the system.</p>
<p>And, of course, there is no true “opting out of the system”. Your 22-year old niece breaks her arm and the emergency room treats her, passing along the costs to the rest of us. We are paying for universal health care now – our total per capita health care expenditures dwarf every other country on earth. We just are paying for a hideously inefficient system.</p>
<p>Clinton’s plan offers unlimited consumer choice:</p>
<p>I’m probably the only person on this list who:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Was an employer with employees on both sides of the border, who paid for health care on both sides of the border, and dealt with sick employees on both sides of the border.</p></li>
<li><p>Has been enrolled in both private health insurance and self-ensured single-payor in the same state, which, by law, offered the same set of services. (I was “thrown to the wolves” through “good insurance” provided by my employer. Besides pain and suffering, it probably, and unnecessarily, cost my daughter a $200k athletic scholarship.)</p></li>
<li><p>Spent ten years analyzing health data provided to both Governor and Legislature on health-related matters, and specifically analyzed health care options for a statewide health care commission. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>You can discount it as you like, but I know, very personally and analytically, from whence I speak. But if you don’t believe me, ask that left-wing fanatic, the CEO of Aetna.</p>
<p>All three??? Which single-payor did you have?</p>
<p>We watched in my wife’s oncologist’s office as patients were prescribed courses of chemo with known 10% higher reoccurrence rates, and 11% higher mortality rates. When we asked for the regimen known (with 25 years of data behind it) to have scientifically established better results, the very first question was, “which insurer do you have?” Quick sigh of relief when the single-payor was named. Same thing happened when dealing with next round of chemo, and attempting to avoid long-term neuropathic symptoms. </p>
<p>We’ve seen through our friends what happens when they, with the same or similar conditions, are consigned to the private insurance hell.</p>
<p>id makes a very good point, namely that it may be cheaper for society as a whole to provide health care to everyone, due to the preventive vs. curative medical cost differences.</p>
<p>“id makes a very good point, namely that it may be cheaper for society as a whole to provide health care to everyone, due to the preventive vs. curative medical cost differences.”</p>
<p>Please define everyone and tell me (if you don’t mind) what would you cover and for whom?</p>