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What's bleeding heart about reform?

posted by  Volvodad on  Fri Jul 31 00:43 CST 2009
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last visit: Thu Mar 18 22:13 CST 2010
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Anyone remember the long ago PBS special on US and CDN health care systems narrated by (the late, great) Walter Cronkite? One clip showed a big Detroit hospital, and across the river, an equally big Windsor, Ontario hospital. Next they showed a large building beside the Detroit hospital which was their administration department eg: bill collecting. Then they showed 4 rooms in the basement of the Windsor hospital - that was their admin department, which only bills one payor - the government health insurance plan.

My two several-year work periods in the USA - despite pretty good employer paid health plans, involved a never ending fight to get the insurance Co. to pay Dr.'s. Frequently I had collection agencies chasing me because the Ins. Co. was so slow. My Dr.'s had to waste a lot of time writing letters backing up my claims - and we were a healthy family with only routine claims. We got good medical care, but no better than here in the Great White North.

Yes, you may have to wait a long time for (say) a hip replacement in the Canadian system, since it's not usually a medical emergency, and resources are oriented to more serious, 'right now' stuff. But you'll get there. We don't have lots of big hip-replacement wards full of high tech gear and staffed with a crowd of surgeons waiting for someone to limp through the door. That's inefficient.

When I quit my job there and had a trial run at retirement in a small town in far-northern California, my 2003 monthly premiums for COBRA extended medical coverage to duplicate what we had been getting from my employer cost me $800 per month! And I was still paying out a copay for every Dr. visit, and $35 per Rx. And they would only cover up to a certain limit of medical expenses - one serious problem and we would have watched our savings wash away. There was more to it, but after a year, we moved back here.

The CDN system isn't perfect, lots of room for improvement, but unlike our friends to the South, 51% of our (relatively low) personal bankruptcies are not because of medical costs. The USA system as it now functions sees absolutely unconscionable amounts of money going to middlemen and administrators - nothing to do with delivering actual health care service.

I'm lucky to have many American friends; wonderful people, generous, shirt-off-their-back types, and proud of their country. But as we all age and become more vulnerable to health problems, I hope that a USA health system develops that properly and fully cares for those who have spent their younger years helping build their country, as well as those still doing it.
--
Bob (son's 81-244GL B21F-M46, dtr's 94-940 B230FD, my 83-244DL B23F-M46, 89-745(LT1 V8), 98-S90, 77MGB and four old motorcycles)




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