The following article by Kyle Wingfield was submitted by Dr. Tommy Hopkins.
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Much has been made of President Obama’s repeated promise that under Democrats’ health care reforms, as he restated just Monday, “If you have health insurance, and you like it, and you have a doctor that you like, then you can keep it. Period.”
The point is crucial to his claim that a taxpayer-funded health insurance program will be just a single, solitary, tiny, unobtrusive new option that you can totally ignore if you wish.
It’s a claim that’s utterly false.
This healthcare is scary like the cap and trade. I can proudly say I didn't vote for obamma and we all need to change congress next year if its not too late.
President Obama is the best and only good thing we have going for us as a nation. You may not know you live in the armpit of ignorance but I do.
Please don't squash my posts because I paste a link for anyone who may be interested in educating themselves on current events.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html
There needs to be more accountability. There should be limits on amounts that people can sue Ins co's, Insurance companies should have to send the patients explanations of benefits when they pay a claim and doctors offices should have to give you, the patient a copy of the superbill ( itemization of charges) when you leave their office so you can make sure that the Ins co is billed the correct charges. That could probably save $$BILLIONS a year of making the dr's or Ins co's correct erroneous billing.
ACCOUNTABILITY WOULD GO A LONG WAY!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a patient advocate and help family and friends with sizable billing errors quite often of thousands of $$$$$$$$.
move to Canada or England--Why are they coming here
to get operated on? Beacause the lines are 6 months
and longer. And if you are over 60 it doesn't matter
what you need done, they give you an asprin.
Do you realize that in January 2000 when President Bush was sworn in, we were in a recession? I never heard him blame Bill Clinton. September 11th took an incredible toll on our economics. Yet the Bush administration pulled the economy up for over 6 years. So stop with this 8 years of economic toil crap. So you should stop the name calling and vitriol and you should realize that about half of this country are fed up with the taxes we pay. Not because we have to pay taxes, but because our tax dollars are being squandered. There are a lot of things we can blame President Bush for. (Hurricane Katrina response for example), but you sir propose a failed argument.
My HMO plan costs about $13,000 a year. For that my eyes are excluded (because I had concussion damage to my left eye retina) and my reflux or anything related to my esophagus (like cancer) is not covered.
I have one good eye that is better than normal vision, but anything that happens comes out of pocket. I could be blinded if I didn't pay for my own treatment.
People in the USA now pay more for health care costs than any other country in the world, and our system is not anywhere near the top. Last I looked we ranked 37th by WHO standards.
Health care goes up much faster than the rate of inflation year after year. The cost breaks the backs of businesses. My health care, when deductibles and non-covered items are figured in, costs more than a 40 hour minimum wage worker would pay.
I went to an ear and throat specialist in Barnesville who did not have the correct x-rays forwarded from Thomaston, and he billed Blue Cross and me for an office visit. All he said during that visit was he did not have the x-rays and could not tell me anything.
I had similar x-ray problems with a specialist group in Griffin. It took weeks to get in, and several weeks to try their cure. After failed results and no reasonable ability to talk to the doctor to decide what to do, I wanted to change doctors. It took another few weeks to see a new specialist. I faxed a request to have my records transferred several times, but nothing was transferred.
This is typical of our system.
On the other hand a buddy of mine in Australia had an injury and they picked him up right away. He was transported to a hospital and treated, and it was all over in two days time.
His cost was a few dollars. Mine was several hundred dollars.
It amazes me people want to defend a system that ranks 37th in the world and costs more than any other system in the world. I think most of the defense is rooted in misinformation funded by the broken industry.
Rather than make this a hateful argument attacking people, someone should propose how to fix the system. What we do in this country, and it is killing us as a nation, is to use hate and lies to manipulate voters.
It's like the national sales tax. That tax would be a tax primarily on the middle class. It gets a lot of mileage on blogs and Internet and other places because many people are just not able to reason through simple concepts. If I made millions of dollars a year or was on welfare I'd want a national sales tax. As a middle class person, I know I would be shafted.
The same is true for our health care system. If I had it handed to me I'd be happy with it, no matter how bad it is. Since I pay for it, I have a more realistic view. I get irritated when a doctor gets the wrong x-rays and then charges me for the visit where all he says is "sorry, the hospital sent the wrong x-rays". I get irritated waiting a month to see a specialist when my friends in other countries get treated right away.
Socialized Medicine has FAILED in other countries. You are concerned about waiting a month to get into see a specialist, well on the Gov'ts system it wont matter. if it is anything serious, then you will really be in BIG TROUBLE. I've heard it takes months and months TO BE SEEN. I spoke with an American Nurse that her daughter and grandchild live in Canada. The child was Dx'd with Autisium. The Canadian doctors told the mother to put him in a home, that he was "useless". The Am Grandmother researched and found a doctor in Florida that had success with treating these children. She made the arrangements and flew her grandson and daughter to Florida. The doctor after running tests, etc decided he WAS a canidate for treatment. Well, Today the child is a HAPPY, HEALTHY child in School making good grades and is PERFECTLY NORMAL. Do we want this lack or care in our society? I think not!
I use to be a hardcore Republician. I am not a Democrat or Republician. I am a Conservative Independent.
You are complaining about being inconvienced alittle, but you could have saved yourself alot of grief if you had called ahead of your appt and made sure they had all the records they needed. You could have even picked up your records to take to your appt. You have to take some responsibility!
looking under HR 3200
I am worried that we are going to throw even more money into a system that will continue to be dysfunctional and in the end everybody goes down. I don’t believe we can get it right this time because of the huge lobbing influence the pharmaceutical and medical industry has in Washington.
We are in a real dilemma and it’s a shame we as a country has gotten ourselves in this fix. It’s going to hurt no matter what direction we move in. Hang on and try to stay healthy if you can.
Page 425 of Health Care Bill - Listen to this interview Fred Thompson's Radio Show interviewing Betsy McCaughey (pronounced McCoy). Or look it up on www.fredthompsonshow.com, under interviews.
On page 425 it says in black and white that EVERYONE on Social Security, (will include all Senior Citizens and SSI people) will go to MANDATORY counseling every 5 years to learn and to choose from ways to end your suffering (meaning your life). Health care will be denied based on age. $500 Billion will be cut from Seniors healthcare, the oldest and the sickest will be cut first. Paying for your own care will not be an option. You will NOT be allowed to keep your private health insurance policy Now, CALL YOUR PEOPLE IN WASHINGTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell them to read page 425 if they don't read anything else. Surely some of them have parents.
People with terminal illnesses such as Alzheimer's or a child with cerebral palsy will be denied basic health care.
here is to the plan: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102656758062&s=92809&e=00179Htj1UOWorF52lpmw-duJ9ZAze5nnI5aSfBMcZL9nAGLGiKtHFyaqlil595fi1i83-E6Cak5OXyL_FuaDgQSB4KAD9RPko67j6ilAYdn2HUeSqwhQr-Qr4CluB6kgju3tjAqvXrlmJVFojgJfvZ35s7SAarlkQJslWibz8VfetD6WpsjHI548Py-Z1Efl4V4J3lm_T4bm0aAdYc3b28b-Idi_9V-aQM