Obamacare delay would send rates soaring

[bacpacker]

T, I hate to hear your story. It sounds all to familiar. A friend of mine who lives near Vienna Austria had a motorcycle wreck and messed his knee up badly and required 3-4 seperate operations. This drug out over 4 years and a lot of his story was almost identical to yours.

The thing with this health care crap in the states and the cost issues is only the first step to Obamacare. It is certainly changing the cost structure to our health care. Next comes folks losing their Dr's. On top of that, many Dr's are retiring instead of sticking around and dealing with this as it drives it into the shitter. Next to come will be a severe degradation of our care (which in my opinion has been second to none). And seeing as how our congress passed the bill so that as Nancy Piglosi so proudly stated "We have to pass this bill so we can see whats in it", who knows what else is going to take place.

IMO, it won't be but just a few years if that and our health care system from top to bottom will end up being the same solcialized medicine that lots of the rest of the world has. Just one more way the US is being torn apart.

[helomech]

Wow. financially, I feel sorry for you guys. I certainly wouldn't want to pay that kind of coin! But allow me to put US vs. Canada health care into perspective on a non-financial point.

My brother's son (living in the US as dual citizens, and with healthcare) buggered his knee skiing. Ambulance to hospital, xrays, ultrasound, MRI, casted, spent the night, and released.
all costs picked up by insurance, premium paid.


Me, in Canada, buggered my shoulder at work. drove to hospital, waited for 7 hours, saw doctor, waited for 4 hours, got x ray, waited for 4 hours saw doctor. sent home. (Ultra sound ordered)
5 weeks later (while I've been off work on 55% compensation, I go in for an ultrasound, go home.

3 weeks later, go see the doctor. ultrasound was inconclusive, MRI ordered, sent home.

4-1/2 Months later, MRI. .. go home

2 weeks later, see doctor. torn this, torn that, referal to surgeon, go home

6-1/2 months later see surgeon. Yep need surgery, go home
3-1/2 months later, go in for surgery, go home
2 weeks later see surgeon, start physio.
...


In total I was off work collecting 55% for 19 months before I was cleared to go back to work on light duties.

Your care may be expensive, but I woul gladly have paid it to be fixed in a reasonable time.
perspective, not counting the overtime that I regularly worked, I was out of pocket over 40K. You seriously don't want to know how much it would have been including OT

So no, our health care may be free (it's part of the taxes that we pay), but the standard of care certainly isn't the same. If I could have gotten my doctor to refer me, I would have happily drove down to the Mayo clinic and paid to get it fixed.

Wow, we have a great hospital near us. My son wrecked his 4 wheeler and was acting weird. I put him in my truck and drove him to the hospital that we had never been too. I was greeted by the nurse who took him straight to triage. My wife started paperwork. Went straight from triage to ER bed. Doc came in and looked him over and ordered MRI. Wife got done with paper work just in time to go with him to the MRI. Got results and where released in 1 hour and 20 minutes.

We have a doctor near us that does not take insurance at all. Refuses to process it, but his rates are cheap, and he is a good old fashion doctor.

[bacpacker]

Helo your Doc is exactly what we need more of. Damn insurance companies are the biggest part of the health care problem in the first place.

[Gunfixr]

Wow. financially, I feel sorry for you guys. I certainly wouldn't want to pay that kind of coin! But allow me to put US vs. Canada health care into perspective on a non-financial point.

My brother's son (living in the US as dual citizens, and with healthcare) buggered his knee skiing. Ambulance to hospital, xrays, ultrasound, MRI, casted, spent the night, and released.
all costs picked up by insurance, premium paid.


Me, in Canada, buggered my shoulder at work. drove to hospital, waited for 7 hours, saw doctor, waited for 4 hours, got x ray, waited for 4 hours saw doctor. sent home. (Ultra sound ordered)
5 weeks later (while I've been off work on 55% compensation, I go in for an ultrasound, go home.

3 weeks later, go see the doctor. ultrasound was inconclusive, MRI ordered, sent home.

4-1/2 Months later, MRI. .. go home

2 weeks later, see doctor. torn this, torn that, referal to surgeon, go home

6-1/2 months later see surgeon. Yep need surgery, go home
3-1/2 months later, go in for surgery, go home
2 weeks later see surgeon, start physio.
...


In total I was off work collecting 55% for 19 months before I was cleared to go back to work on light duties.

Your care may be expensive, but I woul gladly have paid it to be fixed in a reasonable time.
perspective, not counting the overtime that I regularly worked, I was out of pocket over 40K. You seriously don't want to know how much it would have been including OT

So no, our health care may be free (it's part of the taxes that we pay), but the standard of care certainly isn't the same. If I could have gotten my doctor to refer me, I would have happily drove down to the Mayo clinic and paid to get it fixed.

I got some good friends who have lived in various places around Europe, dealing with socialized health care, and this post pretty much sums it up. There were more details given to me that were even worse than this. Like stitches given without any pain meds, to save the extra costs, crap like that. Major surgeries that weren't considered really necessary put off for long periods, leaving people suffering from whatever conditions.

You know, originally, health insurance wasn't designed to be the way it is. You were supposed to just pay your doctor for more standard visits, like you did before there was insurance. Health insurance was only to be used for big things, like hospital visits, surgeries, stuff like that. People were just supposed to pay outright for regular visits and regular prescriptions. Somewhere along the line, someone figured out how to get the insurance to pay for the smaller stuff, and it just spiraled downward from there.