<p>We need to lobby our lawmakers to get Single-payer National Health Insurance passed!! Remember the drug companies and the Insurance Companies have lobbies to get what they want. Check out this web site.</p>
<p>"Our Mission: Single-Payer National Health Insurance</p>
<p>Greg Silver, MD (Fl.)
The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $7,129 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison and still leaves 47 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.</p>
<p>This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans."</p>
<p>I think a lot of people shy away from nationalised healthcare because of what I call the “American Crap” mentality. Our system may be ****, but at least we’re not copying France type thing. But yeah, France, the UK and Canada all spend less than half per capita on healthcare and the WHO ranks all of them higher in the US in overall healthcare quality. Satisfaction ratings are significantly higher in all 3 countries (40% in the US vs. 57-80% in the UK, Canada, and France).</p>
<p>5 on this end, based on my experiences in the UK, and the one time I tried to get emergency medical attention for my wife in a British hospital. Her - open head wound, seen by 3-year resident one hour after arriving, and only because I became an “ugly american” and complained that they were seeing people ahead of her who were only refilling prescriptions. Then the lone resident on duty asked me to ASSIST with the procedure by helping her with the stitches since the only nurse on duty was busy with the people in for cold medicine!</p>
<p>we have " great" health insurance.
Well not really, the medical ins is through H’s employer and they self insure.
He is with a union, each union has a different contract although not every one at the company is with a union. ( depends on the job-)</p>
<p>Each contract- which is negotiated every three years, losing a little coverage each contract( the last contract expired a month ago and our ins ends on Tuesday- and this months income was only around $1000. next months about 500. before taxes- can’t really afford to replace it & many jobs here do not offer health insurance.</p>
<p>We dont go to the dr much, partially out of anxiety and partially because we cannot afford the co-pay and deductible. Out of an emergency room visit because of tooth pain recently to get a scrip for antibiotic, one that I saw a PA not even a Dr, was $300, after our insurance paid. ( I was also billed apparently by the physician who wrote the scrip even though he didnt examine me)</p>
<p>If dental coverage was affordable, I wouldn’t have had to go to the emergency room. Even though they gave me a list of low cost dentists, when I looked at it- I couldnt use it.
All the clinics required that the patient be under 18, over 65 or pregnant.</p>
<p>Working for a multinational, this often is the topic of discussion when colleagues from different countries get together. I would say - it depends on what form of socialized medicine. </p>
<p>The UK system, where majority of my colleagues are using private medical insurance to avoid having to go through the public system - no thanks. Typical situation as described by multiple colleagues - same doctor runs two practices - one under each system. Want to see him under public health - next appointment is in 3 months. Want to see him with private insurance - how about next Wednesday.</p>
<p>The Canadian system, on the other hand, seems to work much better - I’d like to see us find some way to adopt aspects of that system.</p>
<p>You can’t judge a whole system by one bad experience. Everywhere has bad hospitals and good hospitals. Our local hospital here in the US has a bad rep. My daughter’s triple ankle fracture was misdiagnosed there as a chip fracture where the ligament had pulled away from the bone. It was that plus another clean fracture plus the bone that sticks out on the inside of the ankle was 3/4 broken off and it was twisted and sticking into the joint. Surgery that should have happened swiftly was delayed because of the misdiagnosis making it a much more serious surgery plus putting her at risk of growth plate damage. </p>
<p>I stopped to help a lady that was in a car wreck and she was going in and out of consciousness and every time she would be conscious she would beg me to not let them take her to the local hospital.</p>
<p>I am from the UK. Have had, on balance, good experiences there. But also a couple of bad ones. I have never known a hospital in the UK where you filled prescriptions in the ER.</p>
<p>Just my opinion, but it seems to m that a lot of people are forgetting a significant problem that makes health care un-affordable for a lot of Americans, and that s th ecost of health care in this country as compared to other nations.</p>
<p>I’m off to do a little research: 1) what is the average cost of health care in America compared to the other industrialized nations? 2) How much is health care cost here in America driven up by insurance rates hospitals and doctors here have to carry. Is it time for tort reform for the medical industry? 3) What impact does the amount of medical research conducted here in America have on the costs for health coverage? </p>
<p>I have some genreal feelings and opinions on the matter, but I would like more detailed info before I go off on a soap box, spewing opinion on the internet versus facts…</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, just relaying my experience in a UK emergeny room (Banbury) on a Sunday afternoon. One doctor, one nurse, overwhelmed and seeing people on a first-come, first-served basis instead of severity of illness / injury. I still get a laugh when I remember my wife’s expression when the doctor asked me, “mind putting your finger here and holding this for me?” (pointing at a spot where here skull was visible) . My response: “anyone a little more qualified you can find to assist you?” Imagine the lawsuit that would have occurred in an American emergency room over THAT procedure!</p>
<p>Bullet - Not saying it is a perfect system by any means. There are hospitals in the UK that have excellent reputations and those that have very poor ones. As there are here. </p>
<p>In retrospect maybe I should have sued the hospital that messed up my daughter’s diagnosis. But that is one of the reasons costs are out of control. But to be fair they tried to make up for it - by telling me my wrist was broken when it wasn’t. I didn’t see how it could be as I had not done anything to break it so went to my daughter’s ortho for a 2nd opinion. Lets just say that, unless we will die before we get there, we go to the hospital in the next town 50 miles away. But the next time my daughter injured her ankle (she is accident prone) we went to the local hospital because she was in such pain. There was a locum doc from another town on duty - he was most put out that they were out of air splints and he had to unearth some older style of casting which he had not used in years. He was muttering away to himself. Then he wanted crutches for her. They were out of them too. (and she had outgrown her previous set). We had to go ■■■■■■■■ round all the pharmacies trying to find a pair and ended up ordering them from walmart because they could get them in the quickest.</p>
<p>Had we not had single-payor health insurance (I’m one of the lucky ones!), my wife would have been treated with a breast cancer regimen with a 10% higher mortality rate, and an 11% higher reoccurrence rate than the standard of care used in England for the past 25 years.</p>
<p>Most drug formularies are rather open. The VA has a closed formulary. Also, most hospitals have one too. Instead of all the statins being covered, only one from each class would be. Good bye to all the metabolite drugs such as Lexapro and Clarinex. For each class, you might have only two drugs i.e. of all the beta blockers only metoprolol and carvedilol will be covered.
Unless you are a provider, you wouldn’t notice the economic side of it. These will be built into protocol and formularies.</p>
<p>I have government-funded single-payor health insurance. Unlike my colleagues receiving their health care through private insurance, I have a very open formulary - on that has made a very real difference in the care my family has received.</p>