Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Healthcare reform

The healthcare system is broken. There are those that may have great healthcare like our elected officials but what they fail to realize is that the system as it now stands can not stand for much longer. They can throw all the scare tactics they want at the American people that any change to the status quo would be some evil form of socialism or whatever objection they might come up with but it will not change the fact that the system will collapse in very short order. To say that we as a nation can not afford such an expensive endever is to ignore the future expense of having fewer and fewer covered individuals. With fewer paying into the private system rates have no choice but to go up. Then of course you have those without insurance who will have no other option than to go to emergency rooms where the bill is covered by taxpayers. At what point will it become so expensive that it will begin to drag on the rest of the economy. With the sheer number of people set to hit medicare age the time frame is five years or less. But in order to deal with the problem we can not wait that long as it takes time to develop a new system. As we've waited until the last minute once again to deal with this problem we are now forced to do a cram night and hope for the best. Any action at this point is far better than no action because we can see what will happen if nothing is done.

Seventy five percent of Americans want a new system. I personally had great coverage when I had it but I am more than willing to forfeit that for the benefit of the survival of the system as a whole. What use would it be to have good coverage knowing that that coverage might be short lived because an employer could no longer affort to offer it? We're beginning to see the start of this downward spiral with increases in insurance premiums. With increases in premiums, co-pays and deductables coverage will become something you may afford to have but can't afford to use. What good is that?

So what sould Obama do about this? I'd say he might want to give some hard figures as to what the costs will be going forward if nothing is done to remedy this problem. I'm convinced that it will be far more expensive than the 1.5 trillion dollar price tag being bandied about.

UPDATE: I was in for some regular lab work today and got to talking to my pharmacist/blood tech. She said the problem won't be so much the loss to the insurance on the premiums but with increases in the volume using medicaid. The drain on hospital emergency rooms is going to get quite ugly. Something needs to be done and very soon. That was her professional take on it.

12 comments:

jmsjoin said...

It really pises me off. If you listen to the Repiblicans we are scaring the hell out of people.
Those bee hives are and I am sick of the fear mongering to get their way.
We have to have it to set the foundation for our economic recovery.

Tom Harper said...

I hope Obama kicks ass in his speech tonight. He really needs to grab those Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats by the collar and shake the shit out of them (figuratively of course).

I'm assuming his speech will be about the health care battle.

Holte Ender said...

Obama didn't kick ass tonight, he just did the job of congressional democrats, they don't deserve a leader like him, he carried them to a majority, and they still can't back him 100% He shouldn't have to go on prime time and beg for support or explain himself every few weeks.

Demeur said...

Holte I don't know what more he can do at this point. With insurance companies backing many of the senators you know how they'll vote.
Obama is scheduled to do more pr at the Mayo and the Cleveland hospital tomorrow.

S.W. anderson said...

"At what point will it become so expensive that it will begin to drag on the rest of the economy?"

I think we've been there for at least a dozen years.

Obama did well in his speech to point up the real costs of keeping the status quo. I think most people get it that our system is broken and won't fix itself. What many don't get is how much worse things can become in a few years if nothing is done. I was glad to see Obama emphasizing that.

People need to be scared, not of change, as Republicans would have them be scared, but rather of going along as we are now.

jmsjoin said...

Demeur
I wrote about my nightmare in the emergency room over a year ago. They were bragging it only took 6 hours in the waiting room.
What they didn't brag about is they ended up stitching me with no Novocain. I didn't like that at all! Wait until we have a real disaster the system could not handle it!

S.W. anderson said...

". . .they ended up stitching me with no Novocain."

Where were the stitches put in?

jmsjoin said...

Hi SW

I forget what it is called but My thumb, I almost cut it off stupidly compacting rubbish and didn't know my wife put a broken bottle in there. I don't do that any more.

Anonymous said...

So now, my insurance annuities will go belly up, my hospital will go broke, my doctor will become a DJ at the local radio station.....scarey as hell. We're not set up to handle the influx of hospital patients with no available doctors. Of course, I'm sure that Chrysler will share some of the bailout money to help find a solution for the rest of america.

Lily said...

I understand you want it and you as the American people have every right to have it, BUT the problem is it's absolutely no use!

once you've got a system that will satisfy all of you, you will find out it anyway only covers BS-treatments which make people more ill.

here in denmark we've got a basic free health care/insurance and it's very expensive indeed and you get nothing at all of value for it, only herassment, even higher taxes for the poor, lots of ill people and the economy destroyed! It's so unbelievebly sad and such a liability and I can only advise everybody to get educated in the subject of health and not to see any doctors unless he finds some private specialists who're not in it just for money, power and corruption but who actually genuinely do wish to help. there are a few like that around, but naturally, no insurance coveres there, you have to always pay privately. Good news, eh?

S.W. Anderson said...

Average Patriot, there is a kind of local anesthetic that is best not used on fingertips, tip of the nose, edges of the ears, eyelids, etc., because it reduces circulation and can cause tissue damage.

That didn't have to be an issue with your thumb. It's why people who know what they're doing do a nerve block far enough up the line that end-point tissue damage won't be an issue. Likewise, a squirming, screaming, cursing patient won't be an issue.

Letting a laceration go six hours and then sewing it up is dangerous and way out of line. I don't know where you went to get Civil War field-grade care (minus the whiskey, I'm sure) but I wouldn't go near there again.

jmsjoin said...

He S.W.
They gave me a shot but by the time they got to me it wore off. I never really felt it kick in anyway. They were trying to manage patients and cut costs. I am very concerned when we have a real emergency. We will never be able to handle it!