Government Run Healthcare

I think it's a great idea,I want to be on the same plan Congress will be on, after all "All men are created equal" and since my kid is going to have to pay,Im sure nothings too good for the old man

Oh I know Rodger,I was just being sarcastic.

If the government truely wanted to insure the un insured ( which wqas he premise of the healthcare bill in the first place) they could buy all the uninsured a policy and have spent less money. It is all about power and payback to contributors (law firms). They have already started a sample by suggesting that mammograms and prostate tests need not be done as often and they even are taking away home breast exams. Damn! I love home breast exams! I've done them at home, in the car, and have been for years. Now the government tells me they are unnecessary.

I Pay a lot for healthcare coverage now even with my HSA and a $5000 deductable. If this goes through I expect what I pay to at least double because I am a small business owner (target). This bill will be good for someone, but not me.

If the government says it will cost $2 Trillion, it will probably cost $10 Trillion+.   This is just a pure power grab. Taking away the private sector and replacing it with the government. Get ready for run-away costs, and a shortage of poor service.

This will be like going to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles to get your physical exam. Fast, friendly, efficient service

I just got this in my email 5 minutes ago, please let me know what you think.




UnitedHealthcare Mammography/Cervical Screening Guidelines
Remain Unchanged

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently released new guidelines for mammography screening based on a review of the medical literature. As a result, the USPSTF is recommending that regular screening for breast cancer in women begin at age 50. The previously recommended age to begin routine screening was age 40.

Our coverage for mammography and cervical cancer screening is unchanged.

Mammograms
We consider mammography an important screening procedure, one that has resulted in the ability to detect and treat breast cancer at earlier stages of the disease and save lives:

    * UnitedHealthcare will continue to offer coverage of mammograms for women covered by a UnitedHealthcare insured plan when recommended by their physicians.
    * Customers with a self-funded plan may modify coverage based on the recently reissued guidance but must provide us with specific instructions prior to the implementation of any coverage changes. However, we strongly recommend customers follow our policy and continue with the coverage for mammography unchanged.

Cervical Cancer Screening
In addition, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recently changed its recommendations for cervical cancer screening, advocating less frequent screening for women in their 20s. However, UnitedHealthcare is not changing its coverage policy on cervical cancer screening. As is true for mammography, we recommend that women discuss with their physicians how frequently they should undergo cervical cancer screening.

An employee communication template outlining this issue is included for you to use with your employees, as appropriate. If you have questions, please contact your UnitedHealthcare representative.

Whole lotta if it aint broke dont fix it talk here about what a great job the private sector is doing providing us health care yet we spend way more than the rest of the world and we don't live the longest. In 2007 the US paid $5711 per person and I don't know anyone in the us who loves thier plan, in Japan it was 2249 and they live longer and none of my Japanese friends have any problems with thier coverage. They started about where we were in the 80s and then began to closely regulate what the insurers could charge and what the doctors and hospitals could charge. They don't do everything right but so far they are doing a lot better than we are.

People can talk about market forces all they want but when your dying the private sector can charge you anything and your are going to pay for it, or youll go bankrupt and I will pay for it. That is by definition not a free market.

So now that some of you have read the 2057 page bill and decided to believe the people that are telling you that it will increase your health insurance costs what are your solutions to bring down health care costs so I don't watch my plant move to mexico next year.

If you can do it without increasing government regulation of some sort I am all for it, you will be the first in the world to have done it.

you must understand, they are not coming in and taking over, they are creating laws to stop the monoplies and inflated costs, the same thing they did with natural gas companies. the savings that will be created will be from gouging. the private sector would let it ride the way it is because it is very profitable...thats why the gov needs to step in....read Joe's post
the same cocept with Madoff, someone stepped in and stopped him. we dont have great helthcare in this country we have a system that includes uneeded tests, malpractice suits that inflates the system...they need caps on things like this to "regulate pricing"
ITS broke and it needs fixed, who else is going to do it

Eric, tort reform isn't part of it and testing equals early detection which saves lives and money.

I'd feel a whole lot better about it if the members of Congress and the Senate were going to have the same plan, but for some reason they're choosing to be exempt from it.

Some people no doubt will benefit from it, but I get the feeling the middle class is going to end up pay more for less coverage.

Eric, I repeat, tort reform is not part of the deal. And when has government involvement ever streamlined paper work? I've got to wonder why the unions, which generally represent the Dems, are going along with it? One of the big bennies unions offer is health insurance. I don't see this benefitting the unions.

Over 500 buck a month premiums...for CRAP insurance, dont think I've ever had a claim.   Haven't been to a doctor in almost 20 years.. at age 55, I really should have a complete physical.. cant really afford it right now.

I asked the insurance company, since I havent had any claims, why dont you pay towards a physical every 5 or 6 years? (probably less than one months premium) I figure it could be good preventative medicine. Their response was I can use the physical's cost, that I pay out of my pocket, towards my deducable for the year... LaDeeeDaaaah...

Guess they would rather pay for a given disease after its a bigger problem, than to do preventative?

75 stang wrote:    If you also take the Japanese example where costs went down for the individual, it most likley went up for the employer or something like that. End of Rant...

Absolutely not the case, my company has employees in both locations and we pay more than three times the cost for healthcare per employee in the US than we do in Japan and the Japanese employees have far lower deductibles. Health care here simply costs more.

Because lawyers support democrats and take money out of the pockets of big businesses like drug companys and insurance companies when they screw you over rich people that make money owning stock in those big businesses support people who like to get on the TV and blame it all on lawsuits. Of course even the most aggressive studys say that lawsuits contribute only 5-9 percent of the cost of health care in the US, (the studys done by economists that examine states with and without caps on lawsuit amounts show no real difference in costs). You want to go back and fix that later be my guest but its not the big problem.

So again as we pay almost twice as much as the next most expensive developed country pays per person, closer to three times as much as soe counties like Japan that are healtier than us. For thier money everyone gets insurance and for ours 15% get left out which really drives up the prices for everyone else since they still get treatment and just dont pay so what do we do?

One side proposes doing nothing, another ten years of that and health care will double in costs and there won't be any US.

Those of you arguing against the government plan taking over the country all at once are talking about something that doesnt exist or is even proposed in either of the houses of congress, somebody spent enough money somewhere to get you fired up though...

So in Austrailia they spend per capita about half as much as we do (that includes both government spending and spending on private insurance). Mark about how much is it typically for the private insurance?

It suRe wasn't the private sector or the free market that took us to the moon or that won ww2.   

The innovations of the american people have done great things, but we need the whole people not just the ones that have the money to buy influence to protect thier investments.. ..We didnt have halliburton to feed and house the troops back in WWII, the government did it, who did a better job?.

I am not argueing for any plan I am arguing that it is insane to no recognize there is a problem. Dismissal of the rest of the world as being irrelevant is far fetched. Even with the private insurance costs austrailians pay factored in they pay on average less then half of what we do for health care that allows them to live longer and better than we do.. are they healthier in thier lifestyles no doubt, by a factor of two .. no way. The fact of the matter is no country pays close to our costs and we are no where near the top of the quality heap and that can't be waved away by the fact that we are too fat.

We have one side here saying that the current private sector does a great job and we shouldnt mess with it.. no arguement cant even talk about it government regulation all bad.. cant possibly be a solution.   Yet who in this country likes thier health insurance, no one that pays for it. If your company pays 9000 a year and you pay 1000 maybe you feel like your getting a good deal but really you would be getting paid 4000 a year more if we had costs inline with the rest of the world. This is a problem that will kill manufacturing in this country without a solution..

Let us as a country debate solutions, to say we accept the current system says that america cant do any better than mediocre care at unbelievably extraordinary costs. I believe we can do better and should talk about how. Further I doubt we could do worse..