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<p>She’s always broken away from Arnold, politically speaking.</p>
<p>Tega, I also lived in a country that had universal health care. I got shafted because the GP thought my sciatica was all in my head. I found out that her diagnosis was intended to avoid prescribing, so as to cut down on costs. I knew people who had to wait years for a hip replacement and other “non-essential surgery.” Since then, the NHS has gotten even worse.
Please bear in mind that I do not mind paying higher taxes so that as many MA residents as possible can be insured. I just worry that there’s going to be a backlash among MA taxpayers as the costs keep going up (doubled since the plan was introduced last year). More to the point, I just don’t see the willingness in the country to follow MA’s example. Hillary’s suggestion that salaries may be garnished is not going to get much support from the general population. I’m not even sure that Obama’s plan will pass; but it has a better chance than Hillary’s because it is (a bit) more modest and it does not coerce (nothing more calculated to raise hackles).</p>
<p>I agree that it’s easier to tell people to change than to get them to change. He’s not proposing “to change them.” But he’s also telling people that government can’t do it alone; schools can’t do it alone. If they want change, if they want to close the achievement gap, THEY have to do something, not wait for the government or the schools to do it for them.</p>
<p>I was not entirely happy with the education my kids were going to have (partly because I was not born and educated in this country). So I got involved, and I did get a few things changed. When my S complained about what he (and some of his classmates) thought was a really stupid assignment, I told him to stop complaining to us–we were the wrong audience for his complaint. So he drafted a petition that half the class signed on. The half who did were excused. The rest, who had been too timid to sign, had to do the assignment. Boy, were they sorry!</p>
<p>I see that Obama will be in Boston tomorrow, Marite… any plans to attend the rally?</p>
<p>I am originally from a country that has health care. It is not perfect and there are waiting list for non emergency procedures. However when my Dad had first a major medical situation where his legs were both amputated (they were gangrenous before he was found as he had just moved) followed a year later by a massive stroke the NHS was brilliant. His treatment over here would have been hundreds of thousands if not millions. A few weeks ago my elderly Mum was diagnosed with cancer - the diagnosis and treatment was quick and excellent. In neither case did they have to worry about how they were going to pay for it. Nor do seniors in the UK have to choose between buying their prescriptions and buying food. </p>
<p>Yes it has its problems. The system here terrifies me. And we are one of the ones with good health insurance. Still cost us several thousand out of our own pocket when my husband was seriously ill.</p>
<p>“Tega, I also lived in a country that had universal health care.”</p>
<p>I live in a state without universal health care, and supposedly had the best private coverage available from the highest rated HMO. When my d. had a knee injury, my primary care doctor was paid NOT to make a referral. When the referral was finally made (8 weeks later), it was to their “athletic specialist”, who turned out not to be an athletic specialist at all. Six weeks after that, my d. had her first operation, that failed. When she tried to get another MRI, the MRI was broken for three weeks. They finally brought a portable, in a mobile van, and made my d. wait outside in sub-freezing weather to line up to get in. The second operation was botched. The HMO had a true athletic specialist (from the University of Washington Sports Medicine Clinic) listed in their service. They refused outright to make a referral. We went for a consultation on our nickel. We changed to the single-payor option that I get as a government employee. The doc performed the operation at 5:30 a.m. on January 3rd (the first moment possible under the insurance). My d. was back in the gym in two weeks. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the waiting, “underwriting”, and “managing to care less” of my older insurance cost them more than $100k. It likely cost our family almost $200k in an athletic scholarship. </p>
<p>The CEO of Aetna (that flaming radical) now says that waiting lists for cancer surgery for those who have insurance in the U.S. are longer than for elective surgery in Canada. He ought to know - he is PAID to know.</p>
<p>When my wife was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, we asked for the standard treatment used in Europe for more than 25 years, and which has been shown to reduce recurrence by 11% more than the standard treatment used in the use, and reduce mortality by 10%. The first words out of his mouth were: “Which insurance do you have?” We were lucky - we have the single-payor option. Many don’t - and, at least statistically - some die as a result. This is the “best quality health care in the world”. </p>
<p>Both Obama and Hillary’s plan essentially are giveaways to the private insurance companies that already provide “the best quality health care in the world”. Add another 50 million people to their rolls, people who are generally sicker than the rest of the population, and watch the quality get even better.</p>
<p>Yeah, right.</p>
<p>Want universal health care? We can do it right now, for everyone, at no greater cost than we as a society pay today. But it requires three elements:
- Everyone gets covered; no exceptions for any reason;
- No insurance companies paying for advertising, underwriting, and managing to care less; instead, free competition among health care providers based on quality;
- Strictly regulate drug companies as the public utilities they really are.</p>
<p>Momof2inca: I went to one in December. </p>
<p>Swimcatsmom:</p>
<p>I’ve had major surgery twice in the US. Each time, I had second and third opinions, and follow-ups at regular interval. I saw the bill for my latest surgery: it was in the order of $50k. I paid exactly $15, the amount of my co-payment for doctor’s visits. I did not have to pay anything for follow-up care, which was extensive. Of course, I have great health insurance; my HMO has been rated #1 consistently.
My MIL has coverage through the same HMO that is specific to seniors. Some years ago, she had some respiratory problem that necessitated a hugely expensive treatment, on the order of $20k per year. She had it for the whole year. It did not cost her a penny. This is the kind of health care MA is trying to achieve for its residents, but as I’ve written earlier, the cost has doubled since the plan was introduced only last summer because the state had grossly underestimated the number of uninsured people. And this is a wealthy state.
The idea is not whether to have universal health care, but how to pay for it. My taxes in the US are lower than what they were in the UK. Of course, the NHS is not cost-free. The costs are borne by the taxpayers. I just cannot see the American people being willing to have their salaries garnished in order to pay for health care, nor to have choice.
EDIT: Mini, I had my surgery within a couple of weeks of being diagnosed. The two weeks were spent getting second opinions; they were not due to scheduling delays.</p>
<p>I’m definitely voting for Obama, and I’m excited to do it. He’s the most eloquent and genuine candidate this election – and he actually has a chance to win (sorry Ron Paul). I couldn’t bring myself to support McCain. I don’t want to vote for Hillary because her campaign disgusts me. I hope Obama wins the primaries. Change, not monarchy, not neo-conservatism, is what America needs.</p>
<p>Obama for 08!</p>
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<p>Marite, I agree. I think garnishing wages is a bad idea. Make insurance available and make it mandated for children because children don’t have a choice. </p>
<p>You are fortunate about only paying $15 for surgery and follow-up. I very recently had surgery and have an excellent PPO through my employer, but with a $400 deductible and needing to pay 10% of total costs, it’s adding up to a couple thousand dollars out of pocket. I’m not complaining because I received excellent care and we chose the PPO over the HMO years ago because we wanted to have the ability to choose doctors and go straight to specialists without getting approval or seeing a primary doctor. We will be able to pay the bill, but the surgery came unexpectedly and on the heels of the holidays, at the same time as college tuition for 2nd semester, with property taxes and income taxes looming, and some unplanned car repairs this month, we’re feeling it!</p>
<p>“Mini, I had my surgery within a couple of weeks of being diagnosed. The two weeks were spent getting second opinions; they were not due to scheduling delays.”</p>
<p>Lucky you. For my d., getting the right treatment took 8 1/2 months. And for my wife’s cancer, if we had not elected the single-payor option, I don’t know for sure that she ever would have gotten it. </p>
<p>But these are all anecdotes of course. I would think that the data from the CEO at Aetna is a little more authoritative.</p>
<p>At any rate, throw 50 million more people into our current “best in the world” health care mess (as Obama and Clinton propose), and see where we end up. (It ain’t gonna be pretty, except for the insurance companies and their lobbyists.)</p>
<p>Don’t read me wrong: I’m voting for Obama. But it doesn’t have much to do with his “substantive” stand on the issues, relative to Hillary.</p>
<p>Going back to Marite’s post #30, there IS a difference between the educational accomplishments and I actually think it comes in the area of leadership. </p>
<p>Yale Law School and Harvard Law School may be comparable, but being the President of the Harvard Law Review is the absolute pinnacle of law school accomplishments. To get invited to compete to be on the law review, you have to be tops in grades and a writing competition. It is notorious for being the most selective competition and most lofty achievement. <a href=“http://www.harvardlawreview.org/membership.shtml[/url]”>A.B. 1766, 2021-2022 Leg., Reg. Sess. (Cal. 2022) (enacted) - Harvard Law Review. </p>
<p>And to win over that group of constituents to be the president, you also have to be tops in leadership and consensus-building. And, to be the first African-American elected to that post as well, speaks volumes about his abilities in all of those categories.</p>
<p>I think that both candidates are outstanding public servants. Where I see the difference is in attitude, ability to win consensus, ability to lead, and to inspire hope and service on the part of Americans; and everything I have seen so far is that Obama is far superior in all of those categories. I see Clinton being fabulous as a top cabinet member, but not as President. I think she will be a hard worker but she will not be a transformative leader and I think he has that capacity, and I am not, therefore, going to go with the safe bet.</p>
<p>Patient:I agree with everything you wrote.</p>
<p>Momof2inca: I wish everyone had my HMO! No deductible, great doctors. I love my internist.</p>
<p>I just think America does not want to continue the Bush-Clinton dynasty.</p>
<p>“He has also managed to convince us that we can get involved in our government, how our government is run, and we can make a difference. Call me jaded, but I honestly don’t think that will ever happen, except on a very local level”</p>
<p>How do you explain the civil rights movement and the other progress this country has made in the last 50 years? We had 2 female senators in 1991, and we have 14 today. Ten years ago, zero states recognized same-sex partnerships in any way; today 8 do. It was only 45 years ago that black people in many states were effectively barred from voting; today, in every state, they can register and vote if they choose. And on and on. Where did all these changes come from, if not from ordinary people getting involved and making a difference?</p>
<p>Good point, Hanna.</p>
<p>And what is wrong with improving citizen involvement at the local level anyhow? Most people are not going to make an impact at the national level of anything, but a lot of people working to change the local level can change the big picture, over time. </p>
<p>The attitude in the quote above would be like dissuading your kid from playing a sport on the JV team because they might be disappointed that they won’t make the Olympic team. Sorry, but the benefits of playing the sport at the local level far outweigh any possible disillusion that might come as the kid recognizes his limitations.</p>