This is one of the better articles I’ve seen showing how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are out of step when it comes to universal health care–even though they dance the dance.
Call me a pessimist, but I don’t think any real universal health-care proposal is going to make it if either of these candidates win. And one damn sure won’t if a Republican wins.
According to Michael Moore’s newsletter, both Hillary and Obama receive large donations from health care corporations.
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2008.
If Clinton and Obama won’t be able to make universal health care a reality, who will? Edwards? Kucinich?
The problem with the whole “universal health care” debate is — who really understands all this? It’s such a sticky wicket.
The article you cited, from the Rhode Island paper, eventually points out that even having health insurance doesn’t mean anything if the health care is no good (which seems to be the case for a lot of people nowadays). Why is health care so poor? Aren’t doctors and staff being paid enough, or trained well enough? What has broken down there? Too many patients?
Another problem with insurance is that it doesn’t often cover much. I have comprehensive car insurance, but even a small fender-bender set me back a $250 deductible and the cost of a rental car for a week. Then the insurance company’s body shop charged my insurance company a ridiculous $1,300 charge for a small dent fix and repaint job. Where did that money go? I thought I smelled a kickback scheme.
The same for dental insurance. Having dental insurance doesn’t mean jack squat if your insurer is an HMO. I went in for a check-up and the dental office wanted to charge me $1,500 for a teeth cleaning (the kind where they get under you gums) even though I floss daily and had a cleaning just a couple years ago. What the hell is the point of having any insurance at all if they’re going to ream you for $1,500 for a minor procedure? HMO’s suck. Not to mention the fact that the woman trying to get me to get this procedure sounded more like a used-car salesman than a dentist. Watching her patronizing shpeil was like sitting through an informercial.
God forbid I need a real doctor. Last time I had a serious problem, a small ER operation charged me over $250 for some stitches and another couple hundred for the lydocaine injections.
Another issue is that many employers are being let off the hook for having to provide health benefits to their employees. Not just small businesses, but medium and large businesses are getting more breaks. Median salary drops, less people are insured, and then individuals are expected to make premium payments just so they can have a doctor force them to get naked and inspect their testicles while telling them his favorite website is ABC News’s “The Note.”
Then some chipper nurse makes you sit there and wait to have your blood taken, and you’re sitting there, just knowing that the big-ass needle is going to be poking into your arm any minute now. And you’re waiting, and waiting, and you know….the needle is coming. Where is the needle? It’s coming. Any minute now. And so the nurse is laughing at you as you sit there uncomfortably, with your sleeve rolled up, and you say, “it’s not the pain, it’s the anticipation of pain,” and she draws you into a philosophical discussion of “what is pain?” and before you know it you’re having a philosophical discussion of mind/body dualism and while you’re pontificating on the works of Descartes, she JAMS that needle into your arm, and you turn away so you don’t have to see the blood gurgling up into the tube. Oh man, I hate that gurgling blood, just pumping right up there, like some bubbling liquid you’d see in a scientist’s lab in a movie. But no, it’s your freaking BLOOD. And you realize, hot damn, my body is full of juicy red liquid! What the hell!? I’m like a water balloon!
Sam,
I knew you would chime but who knew you were so afraid of needles?
The whole problem with the health insurance debaucle is the administration of it. Go to the doctor and there are no less than five people processing paper. That adds to the cost.
The other problem is pricey pharmaceutical drugs. The drug companies have brainwashed and bribed doctors to prescribe pricey pharmaceutical drugs for a hang nail. That’s why I like naturopath doctors; we have the same belief systems. I paid $12 for a vial and put it under my tongue 2 times a day and my symptoms went away.
Priceless.
I have a pre-existing condition that requires a podiatrist. I went to a podiatrist and they quoted me a price. I asked if I pay cash, would I get a discount? Yep, 10 percent. Cash is almost unheard of in a medical office.
Years later, I went to another podiatrist and told them at the front desk that I was paying with a credit card. The nurses or assistants did the procedure. The doctor came in and told me I needed 5 tests now. I looked at him and said that I didn’t have health insurance and he said, “Oh.” I overheard him in the hall prescribe the same 5 tests to another patient.
Some people think if they don’t have a test they haven’t been served. I don’t need no stinkin’ tests. That’s another thing that drives up the costs.
Enough for now…
“What the hell is the point of having any insurance at all if they’re going to ream you for $1,500 for a minor procedure? HMO’s suck.”
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There’s a fascinating episode of ’20/20′ out there where John Stossel looks at this. The medical industry sees insurance companies as a big wallet to take from, so prices are high. Because of this, higher yearly costs trickle down to the consumer. If we make government universal health care a reality, then I fear the medical industry will see our government and your tax money as a giant wallet to take from. Kind of like how some governmental contractors behave — the old “charge ’em $50 for a hammer” mentality.
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The point is there is little in the way of a marketplace economics with non-alternative medicine — you need a procedure and the insurance gets billed hefty amounts. As the Stossel program argues, if the prices for medical expenses were upfront and in our face — especially for those paying out of pocket like Karyn experiences — we would be outraged and be more likely to shop for our medical needs. The outrage also might kickstart government control on pricing for consumers. It’s the medical industry’s prices, stupid.
Not “stupid” like you’re stupid — “stupid” like the same vein as “Keep It Simple, Stupid”. Figured a clarification was in order.
Hi Karyn, thanks for the thoughtful reply. I am glad your feet are doing well and yah corns ain’t hurtin’.
Sounds like bureaucracy and doctors who run their offices like a Jiffy Lube are partly to blame for medical woes.
IPH, I didn’t take it to mean you thought I was stupid.