ABC Health Insider

We already have health coverage for all, otherwise there would be bodies dead in the street from complications due to a broken arm. We just have AMAZINGLY inefficient health care for all. For example, if you can't afford $20 of antibiotics you have to wait and hit the ER when your fever spikes, then you'll get a "free" couple of days in the ICU rather than being left to die.

Interesting to hear that it sounds like consensus plan is being pursued with all players at the table, as opposed to a blanket government dictate.

If I thought the Government was any better at it than private firms I would be for it. This current situation with the economy proves to me that they mess up more than they fix so no, Government should stay away....

Universal healthcare is a utopian fallacy simply because we cannot just add 35% more people to the system and expect the supply (Drs, Hospitals, HC providers) to handle that. There will always be those that get the healthcare they need and those that don;t The only thing we will change is who gets to decide who gets what service...the government will decide vs the free market forces that operate today including Drs/Patients/Insurance Cos..those will now all be subject to a Washignton Beuaracrats direction.

"Interesting to hear that it sounds like consensus plan is being pursued with all players at the table, as opposed to a blanket government dictate. "

Sadly, all those at the table have something to gain.

1. lobbyists representing consumers
**thought: I figure these consumers are the ones WITHOUT insurance.
2. physicians, hospitals
**thought: getting tired of NOT being paid by those in #1
3. big insurance companies
**thought: See ALL those in #1 as MORE MONEY FOR THEM

I particular don't trust ANYTHING an Insurance Co. is ON-BOARD with. They want to make MONEY. Could care less about you and I, except taking our Money.

I agree with David.. our Government is A MESS. They screw up most of everything they touch.

Read the f--ing so-called stimulus bill.

Health care rationing administration is in there, under another name.

It's about TIME>
My Mother is dying because she can't afford healthcare. She's been doing menial jobs her entire life - never taken a dime from the government and now she can't get healthcare for her lung issues and heart problems. Why is that OKAY? There should be healthcare for all, it's a human RIGHT to be able to live - it's not only for the people rich enough to afford it. How would you like it to sit here watching your mother die while you and your siblings work long, hard hours trying to afford medicine for her when doctors won't take her without medicine. She's literally gasping for air and hospitals turn her away because she can't pay upfront. There's something wrong with anyone who thinks that is okay. She still works every day taking care of your children being paid a pittance and no she's not illegal, her family has been here since the Mayflower. If she were mexican or illegal she'd get free healthcare from our "government"

"There should be healthcare for all, it's a human RIGHT to be able to live - it's not only for the people rich enough to afford it."

Everything you say is correct. There are people who have worked very hard and don't get what they SHOULD get from the Government due to the ass that is getting over on the system and collecting (like the illegal aliens you talk about) our tax money.

Why can't we get rid of the leeches in our society before we start handing out money.

"Why can't we get rid of the leeches in our society before we start handing out money."

Because an unfortunate fact of democracy is that those leeches get a vote, and lots of leeches equals lots of votes equals lots of people put in power and kept there by leeches. What kind of people do you think a leech votes for?

Even people with adequate health care coverage may be getting short changed. You might think that any group coverage would always be less costly with better overall benefits than an equivalent plan from the same carrier. Much to my surprise, I found just the opposite in a very big way. It seems as though either the corporations offering the group plans or the carriers or both are finding new ways to rip off their unwitting subscribers.

There is a lot of waste in the medical system. A single payer would help with the billing nightmare that multiple insurance companies cause and cause some oversight on the vast amount of waste regarding medical care choices by physicians. I have seen doctors prescribe expensive brand name medications to patients because "they have insurance", instead of the generic medication which would work equally well. My doctor couldn't find the results of one of my blood tests, so she just repeated it, leaving me to pay the additional bill. Instead of being able to have my miscarriage treated for 300 dollars at an abortion clinic (The baby had died inside me and needed to be removed surgically...basically by an "abortion", or D&C. I was turned away by protesters who verbally attacked me - that's horrible to do to a woman who just lost her child!), I had to go to a hospital and have a procedure that has cost me $5000 so far (and I HAVE insurance, this is what they didn't pay) and I keep getting bills even though it happened last May. For the same thing that could have been treated for $300, I have paid $5000, with no difference in the end result. I found out later that there are some pills I could have taken to make my uterus expel the baby, and that would have only cost $50, but this option was never offered to me...probably because I have insurance (therefore, my doctor thought they would pay for the expensive procedure). I'm sure I'm not the only person to have endured unnecessarily expensive medical care when there was a simpler, less expensive alternative. Multiply what I spent by the number of people having medical procedures done...huge amounts of money are being wasted.

I have worked in the healthcare field for 20 years. The government run programs like Mediacre and Medicaid are so incompetently run,so laden with fraud, misuse and waste that God help this country if they put everyone under that coverage. Say goodbye to having the best healthcare system in the world(no matter what the Michael Moores tell you, it's only good in other countries if you're 100% healthy with absolutely no problems). And they will deny care to the elderly and to those they deem terminal as a cost cutting measure. It's in the bill.

First of all, a big player seems to have been left out -- the American people! Second, if you are going to mandate that everyone buy insurance in THIS economy, it had better be damn cheap! Third, if you try to construct universal health care with the same paradigm as we have currently it will look like the same old system with the same old inefficiencies. You must remove the 800 pound gorilla first -- the managed care providers and insurers who are responsible for 80% of the health care markups this country has witnessed in my lifetime. Reducing it to health care providers and patients will go a long way to reining in health care costs. That is a role the government could play -- by providing the "management", leaving the actual health care to the providers. Imagine - 100% of your health care costs actually flowing to doctors, nurses, and other direct care providers -- instead of the non-medical fat that is currently clogging the arteries of our health care system in this country!

As it is now the hospitals just charge more for those without insurance and can barely (but do) pay their bills. They are the ones getting screwed now. I believe that they will be the ones who will continue to face the most burden in any new mandatory insurance plan. They can't afford insurance now. How can they afford it when it is forced upon them?

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(1) Health care needs to be the same for everyone and not discriminate on the basis of medical condition, economic status or insurance level.
(2) Accepting credit cards to cover medical bills must be replaced by a zero interest system that caps the annual amount you can be billed to a percentage of your income. (3) Sending unpaid bills to collection agencies must be stopped. (4) Medical expenses need to be a straight tax deduction and not dependent upon a percentage of adjusted gross income. (5) A federal standard medical data exchange needs to be created to streamline medical information communication. (6) The amount of pretax dollars families can reserve for a medical spending account needs to be tripled since it hasn't increased over $5K since 1998 while medical expenses have at least tripled.

Are you Kidding me just look to our neighboors and I mean relly look dont take the goverments word or the word of the press they are bought and paid for. If Canada and Cuba can do it instead of giving away our futures to remedy the failing economy "please whose idea was this" put it toward health care reform and get some people involved that dont stand to make money from our current health care industry. Put in a few good patients and Doctors who believe in the oath that they took.

I have a private health plan which I pay out $400.00 a month for. That is just my premium/then I have a $7500.00 annual deductible. I cannot afford to go to a doctor, and am too afraid to go get my cholorestrol checked even. My insurance company could drop me over any little thing. They are in the news all the time and do it to people right and left. They pay people to cherry-pick,especially if someone puts in a claim.

I have a pre-exsisting condition (breast cancer) & I cannot get anything else. I was on SSI, which was nice while it lasted. When I got some money I was thrown off which is understandable. Now that I'm trying to get my own work related record I can't get that. I would get less money even, but I would at least get medi-care, and that is far from perfect.

Medi-care would hardly cost me anything though compared to what I pay and don't get now. I would only being getting it a few yrs earlier than most, my god even cancer can't qualify me for it! I'd much rather not have cancer!

This is so far from being fair, I pay huge amounts of money out for property tax, so I'm far from a burden on society. I ask for nothing but the little I earned when I was able to work. I worked many years, now I can't get it just a few yrs. early. Will it even be there in a few yrs. to get, if I'm lucky enough to live until then?

If devoloped countries like those in Europe and Canda, and tiny and underdeveloped ones like Costa Rica and Cuba have health care for all of their citizens, while the United States can not do the same....Is it not shameful for us?

It is because of money? well, let's start by cutting down on this huge military budget full of fraud and unnecessary expenses abroad and concentrate ourselves in our domestic priorities.

Sick people in need of medical care should not be looked at as "CONSUMERS". It's inhumane the way America treats the sick. Crimes against humanity.... Stop looking to China to carry that banner. Americans and the religious right with their mindset on homicidal capitalism are guilty of crimes against humanity.

Hey! Don't abort a baby cuz it's wrong. And if you get cancer, get a job and work for that healthcare.

I blame the religious right and the Republicans...yes... in general. oooohhh.

We have health care for all -- all who can afford to pay for it that is. People who lose their job and cannot pay COBRA to keep their health insurance are out of luck. People who work low paying jobs can't afford health care insurance and the programs set up by the State to "help" low income people are understaffed and ill equipped to help even themselves ! Of course we have Medicare - a system that legally kills of senior citizens as it pays very little for the treatment Medicare DOES pay for and they deny all too many necessary treatments.
If a senior citizen can't afford to pay the copays they don't go to the doctor in the first place. We need socialized medicine - get rid of all the fat cat insurance companies who deny patients benefits - I would like to see the CEO's of health care companies have to struggle to get health care like the working class does and socialized medicine would even the field for all of us - it would be better than what we have now.