Private healthcare

[meaghanchan]

The same arguments keep getting re-interated over and over, and I know no one's interested in changing their minds (that goes for me, too). All I can say is I've lived in countries with socialized health care, and in countries without socialized health care, and I know which I prefer, and I have an opinion on which seems better for the community as a whole. Socialized health care means much more than health care: It means more people happier, doing what they want to do in life rather than just doing what's required to get health insurance. It means better arts. It means better culture. It means fewer people getting married partly so they can be covered under their partner's benefits (Is that good for a society? Cause it happens a lot.) Yeah, tax time hurts a little bit more. But we already pay A LOT in taxes. There are too many people who pay taxes to cover other people's health insurance, who can't even afford health insurance for themselves. Socialized health care isn't perfect, but having lived with it and without it, my opinion is that it's the best alternative.

[mehmeh]

Well as much of a scum as Bill Clinton could be, he tried to pass a very forward-thinking socialistic health-care bill and the as of yet-to-be-turned-back Republican-led Senate shot it down. Oh well. Of course, at that time, 'The era of big government is over' talk was very popular, and still permeates to this day so it is what it is.

[VJW]

Originally Posted by jmjj215

There needs to be more, case-by-case research on this oft-touted 'fact'.

Jesse,

It’s indeed a “fact”, and has already been studied five ways from Sunday:

US STUDY: MEDICAL BILLS MAIN CULPRIT IN BANKRUPTCIES

Ruinous health-care costs, not profligate spending, are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy among Americans, a new study has found.

"The American middle class is solid and secure and prosperous -- we are unlike anything ever known in history -- yet American families live just one illness or accident away from complete financial collapse," one of the study authors, Elizabeth Warren, said yesterday.

About 500,000 people sought bankruptcy protection in the United States last year because of the crushing burden of medical expenses, says the study, to be published next month in Norton's Bankruptcy Adviser, a specialty periodical for lawyers. The number equals about half the one million Americans who filed for bankruptcy protection last year.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/042700-03.htm

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[Bruce Wayne]

Maybe those 500,000 could be invited to this forum so they'd learn how to save for such unforseen events

[VJW]

That will be a good trick with most of them having their Standard of Living going backwards the last five calendar years.

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[CRFSaver]

While I am still up in the air about government supplied healthcare, I will say the people I know up in Canada absolutely love it. It is not perfect but what is? From talking to other people (nothing scientific), the general medicine is wonderful but you have to wait for a lot of specialists. Is it true that the doctors up there are government employees and not private contracters?

[VJW]

I don’t know of any federally elected official in this country who has advocated “government supplied healthcare”

No, Canada does not have a ‘Socialized’ healthcare system like Britain, where the physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers are employees of the government.

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[CRFSaver]

So what happens, do people just go to the doctor and the doctor/hospital/clinic bills medicare/medical agency?

[pennywise]

Yes, this is what happens. If a person has Medicare or Medicaid they go to the doctor, clinic, or hospital and they (the provider) bills the insurance. With high copays people will not go and have to wait to go to ER which increases costs. Our system is poor. The middle class is stuck with all the bills and they can't get healthcare for themselves. No I will not pay for what others get for free, I will continue to legally move assets as they belong to my daughter not the doctors (who are very greedy). All should have healthcare or return the system to all pay for healthcare. The pyramid schemes only work for a few.

[VJW]

I’m assuming CRFSaver’s query was in regards to Canada ?

If so, yes, in Canada, you have private-sector physicians and hospitals, but the costs are covered by a single -payer insurance plan, which is run by the federal government. Not unlike what the majority of the American Fortune 100 corporations do by self-insuring, Canada basically self-insures. No billing, no paperwork, no premiums. They eliminated entirely the huge billing departments of their hospitals.

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[CRFSaver]

So the only concern I have with a program like that, is how are new procedures and medicines approved? Part of the cost increased in healthcare have come from advances in health care (medicine and procedures). And I am asking this because I have no clue how it works. How do you ensure that new procedures and medicines get into the system? I believe even in medicare things enter private sector medicine before they are allowed and paid for in medicare. How do you provide a large enough return to justify the R&D for medical device and pharma companies. No I dont mean big Pharma like Pfizer but the smaller shops that come out with specialized products.

[VJW]

Originally Posted by CRFSaver

So the only concern I have with a program like that, is how are new procedures and medicines approved?

By the medical community, the same as it is here.

Part of the cost increased in healthcare have come from advances in health care (medicine and procedures). And I am asking this because I have no clue how it works. How do you ensure that new procedures and medicines get into the system?

Same way they are here. It's private-sector medicine.

I believe even in medicare things enter private sector medicine before they are allowed and paid for in medicare.

Are you referring to experimental procedures ? I assume that would be handled in Canada the same way it is handled by Medicare here. Medicare is a single-payer insurance program as well.

BTW, bone marrow transplant surgery came from Canada, as did many other break-through medical procedures and drugs.

How do you provide a large enough return to justify the R&D for medical device and pharma companies. No I dont mean big Pharma like Pfizer but the smaller shops that come out with specialized products.

Perhaps I failed to make it clear. Canada’s medical system is pretty much the same as in the U.S., it’s the health insurance system that is different.

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[CRFSaver]

I thought they had price controls on prescriptions though?

[VJW]

Indeed they do, as they protect their consumers. The pharmaceutical companies still make healthy profits, but without the price–gouging and exploitive profiteering that we’ve seen here in the U.S.

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