Healthcare Reform in the USA

[CaveMum]

Last night President Obama's healthcare bill was passed.

Surely I am not the only person to be shocked at the level of vitriol being aimed at Obama and this Bill in the US?

I cannot get my head round the fact that people seem to think that healthcare for everyone is a bad thing!

I know the NHS is far from perfect, but at least everyone gets treatment. I've heard some of the downright lies being spouted in the US about the NHS : "People over 75 don't get treated" and of course the classic "All Brits have bad teeth", and I am appalled.

I'd be interested to hear how other people feel on this topic.

Welcome to the civilized wod America, we've been waiting for you.

Gee I am no liberal but I feel sick at the facebook status' i'm reading, some from members of my family (kind of, my sister appears to have married a red neck).
And their perception of our NHS system is that we all que out the door to see a Dr and maybe drop dead waiting

Oh, expat I know. That is all I have heard, though until this AM when thEY quickly explained some major points of the bill. BTW, i am just SE of Houston. Even if it DID fund abortions... I assume right now that even if it is medically necessary you can't get one but am not quite sure.

'some from members of my family (kind of, my sister appears to have married a red neck).
And their perception of our NHS system is that we all que out the door to see a Dr and maybe drop dead waiting '

Oh, my sister is probably married to your BILs' brother.

'some from members of my family (kind of, my sister appears to have married a red neck).
And their perception of our NHS system is that we all que out the door to see a Dr and maybe drop dead waiting '

Redneck? Oops - another family member heard from!

madamdeathstare yes, those I have spoken to in the states that are against it have all mentioned (complained about) having to pay the extra taxes

Triggles, you must know lots of people making over 500k!

Well, I used to be quite sympathetic to the anti-healthcare bill folk, but have done an abrupt about-face.

The objections are all doom-mongering stuff about changing the constitution and big government, which normally I'm quite sympathetic to, but the NHS is one of the best things about this country, and I can't see that it would be a bad thing for the US to have people treated who couldn't normally afford it.

It just seems like compassionate common sense to me.

I mean, how can it be better to have a healthcare system run by profit led insurance companies. Makes no sense to me.
So many Americans must live in fear of illness and debt.

i support healthcare for all, and think the best way to provide is probably through a government-run system, supplemented with private offerings.

but specifically addressing 2old4's comment, there are compelling arguments for market forces to make systems efficient. Plenty of people think profit-led education works better than state-led, for example.

What ultimately matters is how the cost is borne by the users. Americans have not just been handed free healthcare, sadly. (Their "low taxes" would also look a lot higher if they factored in the cost of services we get for "free.")

I had to check every travel insurance policy we looked into to make sure it covered the US. A lot of the ultra cheap ones didn't, for obvious reasons!

I left Houston in 1989 because I found it too Conservative. I'd visit often enough (from Colorado) but never enough to hang around long.

This is the longest I've been back in a very, very long time.

There is also the HMO option. I had this in the US (Kaiser) and it worked quite well, and is a sort of half way house between fully private insurance where one has a choice of doctors, and county option.

Employer paid and prescriptions were capped at $7.00 or so.

I had Kaiser, too. BUT, it would have been very costly for a family of 4.

When I looked into private insurance about eight years ago, it was close to $2000 per month for a single adult (varying of course with level of deductables, etc.) It looks as if the new healthcare bill, through adjusting and regulating the above mentioned market forces, will create full-coverage insurance options in the neighborhood of $2000 per year. That's 1/12th of what it was!

$2000 per month for a single person!

I know someone who spends $1400 on it for a family of 4. And it's very good insurance as she works for Charles Schwab, a rich corporation.

It doesn't include vision or dental, either.

She pays another $200/month for those for the family of 4.

That's $1600/month, people.

To put it into perspective, my mortgage (and keep in mind most mortgages there are not trackers but fixed rate for 25 years) was $759/month.

Indeed expatinscotland, and that's not counting the portion that Schwab pays on her behalf; I believe employer contributions are around 50%. So the true cost of her insurance is over $2800 per month. And that's considered cheap because her employer has bought a group policy.

She has a $500 deductible, too.

Mayorquimby, the healthcare debate was on the horizon during the whole presidential election process, and everyone knew it was coming. The result of the presidential election showed that US voters support healthcare reform. The Republican party supports insurance companies and big business in general -- and it really shouldn't be supporting the insurance companies here, because the insurance-based private healthcare 'system' is actually a millstone around the neck of American companies, especially small companies. Competitors of American business don't carry the costs of insuring their employees, while American companies spend a huge chunk of profits every year in health insurance and benefits that are covered by taxpayers elsewhere. In effect, health insurance carriers levy a huge and ever-increasing tax
on their customers because government up to now has not played a part in the provision of healthcare to any but the poor and the elderly.

The shrill opposition of the Republicans to all things Democrat since Obama took office is, imo, thinly veiled hostility to a black president. The Joe Wilson outburst during the State of the Union Address was nothing but the unabashed voice of the old Confederacy. Most of the seething nature of the opposition to Obama can be put down to racial prejudice.

Riven, I agree completely with your stringent observations on the American insurance system (which is by no stretch of the imagination a healthcare system). It really is weird how Americans can blithely accept the diktat of insurance companies; Sarah Palin and her death panel remarks made me wonder if she had ever thought of the hundreds of thousands of Americans denied coverage or medicines and sometimes, in effect, condemned to death by faceless insurance bureaucrats. There is a blind, senseless fear of 'socialism' in America. I can't imagine what the US must have been like during the 50s and 60s, the height of the Cold War. Probably very like the USSR in a good many ways actually.

My exFIL, who is now retired from a long career in a medical specialty in the US, was all for banning private insurance completely. He blamed it for driving costs in hospitals sky-high (who will quibble about a charge of $10 for changing sheets if the insurance company waves it through?), making huge amounts of unnecessary testing the norm, (because patients don't have to fork over money out of their own pockets many don't question the need for so much bloodwork, etc.) and taking many major decisions about patient care out of the hands of doctors (this was his biggest issue with insurance companies).

Perhaps this explains why so many Americans are uninsured. They can't afford it, and hope they don't get sick or hurt.

And to add insult to injury . . . here is a story detailing how insurance companies can drop your insurance at a whim, or seek to find reasons why they shouldn't pay out on your behalf DESPITE the fact that you've been paying them thousands of dollars a month.

The new bill 1) organises insurers into exchanges so that people can afford to insure themselves, and 2) lays down some fair play rules around what insurers cannot do, such as refusing to pay a claim or refusing to insure someone.

What were the objections again?

zazizoma I know a few, but they're not willing to part with any of it for the government (or give it to me, which would alleviate that problem for them, right? )

Goodness Triggles, I was half joking with my post about your friends and relations!

If I were in this category I could imagine being miffed at my income tax going up one or two percentage points, but I can also imagine that I'd get over it in that it's only 5k out of half a million in income. Still, I'm not there yet so who can say what I'd really feel.

'Perhaps this explains why so many Americans are uninsured. They can't afford it, and hope they don't get sick or hurt.'

I am sick to my marrow with people who think we are mad for living here in the UK (imagine that, seeing as that my husband and children are Scottish; what's wrong with loving your country?) and the constant 'When are you moving back?' remarks (I'm the only American in the family and now have dual nationality with Britian), as if it's just a quick flight and everything's hunky dory.

If they had any idea what it is truly like to live there, with the insurance crap, the standard 40-hour work weeks (which you are usually expected to exceed by at least 10 hours), the lack of paid time off and morons like Palin running their mouths everytime you turn on the TV or radio.

Oh yes expatinscotland, but I do miss the SPACE.