American Health Scare Care

Under McCain’s plan, a family is given a $5000.00 tax credit. Ooooh. But if you’re single or don’t have kids, you only get $2,500.00. Your employer gets taxed under McCain’s plan which means that the overall costs of your insurance (if you think it’s bad now) is going to go up! Now, if you are the type of person that gets a cold once every two years and indigestion once a year, you should be fine. But if you have complex and/or serious medical problems, you are (as they say in France) shit out of luck.

If you are currently unemployed, looking for a job, in between jobs or whatnots, and you are looking for an insurance company with pre-existing health problems, once again, you’re shit out of luck.

Obama isn’t proposing a UHC (Universal Health Care) program. He’s realistic enough to realize that it doesn’t work – especially in the US. It doesn’t really work just right all the time in Canada either. What may work for us is a private-public system that is in Europe. France is rated for having the best health care in the world. And they have the closest system to ours, believe it or not. The only difference is that for those who have pre-existing conditions that can’t afford health care, it is available as Medicare is available right now for the elderly.

The majority of Americans have health care (over 250 million). Those people wouldn’t be effected. They will be able to get the best quality care because they can afford it. However, those who don’t have insurance, will be able to receive it at a lower cost and without having to worry about pre-existing conditions as a road block.

I am open to the possibility that I may be wrong as to whether the French health care system would be fitting for the US, but just to pick your brains, what do you think about this information?

Private for-profit health care is twice as important in France as in the U.S.

The Health Care System I want is in France

The French medical system explained to right-wingers

Are you worried about “slavery” aka Socialism? We are already somewhat socialized if you look at the police, the fire department, public schools, school buses, the ER for those with no health care, the military, the president, the senate, the house, the department of state, the local government, the mayors, the city council, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Disability, the VA, Welfare, Public Library, The Judicial System, Roads, highways, traffic lights, jails, and prisons.

All that’s coming out of my taxes too!

I used to live in Japan where they had nationalized medicine and I was very pleased with the service. Quality service – that is. People in Europe claim to find that nurses and doctors are nicer and helpful. It’s easy for me to believe, and here’s why.

I have multiple medical problems. And the meanest, most absent-minded, ignorant and bitter people I’ve ever met were those in the medical community. Not to place all medical professionals under the same umbrella, but I’m certainly not the only one to notice that only half of the time can I find someone who knows their stuff and won’t treat you disrespectfully. I am talking from 40 years of experience. Now, with common everyday issues like having a cold – that’s a different story. But if you’ve got a complex problem, things are difficult here. You win top notch care if you have a PPO and some money in savings. You lose if you have an HMO with barely any money to spare regardless of how hard you’re working. HMO = Help Me Obtainqualitycare, in case you didn’t know.

I pay taxes for other people’s care. But I want to pay taxes for other people’s care. Why? Because if I run into trouble, I want them to care for me. I find that system more civilized – civilized being the operative word here.

Naturally, too much of anything is bad. But don’t you agree something needs to be done about our system?

I believe that you would find (and this theory is quite borne out throughout history) that if people are free, they WILL take care of one another. And the care will be much better than you can ever dream of getting from forced labor from the impersonal government.

According to Orge and many other conservatives, the above is their philosophy.

I replied…

Aaah… I see what you mean, but I just don’t trust my fellow man to come through for me if I can’t afford a surgery that will save my life or if I’m dependent on dialysis. I think we are a cut-throat dog-eat-dog society of jaded people who, for the most part, only think of themselves. Kind of a pessimistic way of thinking, isn’t it? But that’s how I see too many people. It’s taking a risk to wait for someone to come through for you or to even ask for help – which is very humiliating!!

The Fear of the Unknown: Will private charities really come through for me when my family won’t?

I mean, even as our society exists today, there are many genuinely helpless people out there dying and rotting away from our current system. Private charities are great, but they are either usually donated overseas or to those who attend church regularly.

I fear that if all socialist programs were to die out, the quality of life for those making low wages will get even worse. How do you expect people to be productive at work if their health is running ragged? You don’t have to be dying of cancer to call out a low quality of life. Sometimes it could just be someone who cannot afford their insulin that will get lost in the shuffle. And once again, I’m talking about people who work for a living!

While I was living in Japan, I had root canal done. I got excellent care and service (the Japanese are updated with America). The cost for all three visits were about 40-50-ish dollars total. My aunt had root canal done in NY for 950.00 out-of-pocket! But even if her root canal had cost 400 dollars, that’s nothing like what I paid for excellent service in Japan. I went to college with the Japanese and every time one had a problem with their teeth, it was more cost-effective for them to fly back to Japan to get their dental work done!

We only think that we have the best quality health care in the world because

1. Someone else said so, and
2. Because people from other foreign countries come here for care

Fair enough. People fly to M.D. Anderson in Houston, TX from different parts of the world to receive treatment for cancer, brain surgery, and heart problems because it’s the best. We’ve got the Mayo Clinic, John Hopkins, and all sorts of medical facilities that top the charts with the best quality doctors in the world. And that’s true. People come here from all over the planet to our universities to get degrees and get trained in the medical field. We are allowed to boast about this. But! What many don’t realize is that most Americans cannot afford care at these top notch facilities. Their HMO’s require them to only see doctors on their respective lists. So, naturally, they’ve got dolts taking care of them. Oh yeah. Every once in a while, an HMO doctor will know his stuff and actually send you off for tests despite how taboo it is. (They actually get bonuses if they don’t often send patients to specialists or for tests if necessary.)

Doctors are the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Yes, in the “Greatest Country on God’s Green Earth”!

France may be in economic hard times, but the US economy is worse as at least with us, it’s trickled down to the people. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer doesn’t say too much about our economy, does it? The extinction of the middle class mirrors that of developing countries. Even “socialist” Canada is doing better than the US economically.

If “slavery” was truly what other countries were experiencing under a private-public health care system, wouldn’t you think they’d be unhappy people? If you think they are all miserable people, the statistics beg to differ.

I have something to compare America to: Japan. I even got better treatment over there for just having a fever. In Japan, they gave me a shot. The fever went away instantly, and I was able to return to work. In the US, you take aspirin and pray that it goes away fast. Sometimes you’re in bed for a few days. Even those “flu pills” take forever to kick in. Not in Japan. Like all other countries, Japan’s system wasn’t perfect. You realistically have to expect something wrong with every system out there. But if you ask me, to say America’s system is flawed would be an understatement. Why do you think others all over the world mock our system? Becaues they’re jealous? I hear testimony after testimony from those living abroad (in other 1st world countries) that they are happy with their care. Could they be lying?

Canadians sometimes visit us. So, instead of waiting for 3 months to get an MRI, they come to the US to get it done within a week. If you have Cushings Disease, America’s the place to be, but our HMO’s don’t pay for those specialists who give the best treatment here. I am in remission from Cushings disease right now, so I know many people who have it. My friend cannot get her brain surgery to cure the disease because she has to pay out of network for the specialists and the best neurosurgeons as they are few are far between here. She doesn’t have the money. And she’s getting sicker and sicker.

Some people from the US go to Germany, Japan, Mexico and other countries to get dental work and surgeries done.

I really think our government’s wanting to take away socialized services is not because they care about our freedom but because they want the money for themselves to “nationalize” with. Look how our elite classes are catered to hand and foot, but the little people must mind “personal responsibility”. Why can’t everyone be personally responsible? Or. Why can’t everyone be socialized?

I honestly don’t think our government cares about the welfare of its citizens.

I just ask myself – why are Americans complaining about health care, and those in other countries aren’t? You have to look at the complaint rate in all other developed countries.

Something needs to be done here, and McCain’s health plan depresses me in more ways than one.