Health Care in the U.S.

[tclema]

Isn't that supposed to change now too with the Military? I thought spouses will be required to pay for Tricare coverage.

And I believe children should never be uninsured. Doesn't matter what the parents are doing or did.

[OldSquidNewNurse]

Please elaborate. I'm not understanding your example/rationale? BTW, I'm not referring to the battlefield. I'm referring to CONUS healthcare for active duty & retired military.

Everyone in the military more or less has the same level of care and availability. The "playing field" is much less even in the civilian world. The military does on excellent job in preventive care.

[Grandma-RN]

"Everyone in the military more or less has the same level of care and availability"

Maybe some tips from them for the civilians? Perhaps?

It is possible to have health care as a right.

[J4TheBoys]

Wow! Health care in the US is a touchy subject. Different countries have different ways to approach this. Being different in our approaches to health care can teach us all different things. However, some countries have better care than others. This can be due to many things, especially available resources. Some countries do brilliant things with their limited resources too.

But back to the subject at hand. Although I do believe we, as one of the most powerful countries in the world, should have available health care to everyone. This doesn't necessarily mean that everyone would use it. But, I do believe that all should have access. How we come to this is something I am unable to answer, but I believe that it is something we should be able to provide. I mean, seriously, we can give out economic stimulus checks to everyone. We can spend billions on other countries and on wars. Why can we not provide health care?:rolleyes:

[Grandma-RN]

"Wow! Health care in the US is a touchy subject"

Maybe only third to politics and religion.

"This doesn't necessarily mean that everyone would use it.?

Exactly. But the ones that does use it and have means to it is better than not having it at all.

Thanks, for your reply.

Now, we all who are for it have to come up with some plans.

[tclema]

Well, here I go again, I am actually from another country where healthcare is available to everyone. It is a costly issue to the government however, but I think it is more costly to have your workforce sick and unable to perform their job duties to the best of their abilities.

Basically, we have a state health insurance system, with different carriers and a private health insurance system. If you earn big bucks or are self employed, you can sign up for the private health insurance, that are usually more costly but cover more. If you are a regular middle-class employee or unemployed or live on state money in any other way, you will be covered by the state health insurance. Your employer pays half by the way, it's law.

In the beginning, we didn't have copays, but that resulted in people running to the physicians for every little thing and blocking resources for others, who really needed to get help. With small copays (it is currently 10 Euro per visit) this has been helped to some degree.

Another issue we had is preventive care. A while back, preventive care programs have been cut, due to an attempt to improve budgets. Not a smart move. I expected healthcare costs to rise after a while and voila - they did. Now preventive programs are reintroduced.

The health insurance covers different health and fitness programs, such as back excercises, diet and nutrition classes etc. Of course the trainers and classes have to meet certain requirements and have to be approved by the state health insurances, but hey, where can you go and take a Qi-Gong class paid for by your health insurance?

Also, holistic and naturopathic medicine is utilized frequently.

Not saying, that my home country has the best system ever, there are still a lot of issues and problems, but a little peek at other countries health care systems might help.

So, do i think healthcare can be made available for everyone in the US also? I believe it can.

[amberdouglas]

So, what about the children of poverty level parents? The parents may be lazy but do we have the children suffer for it by refusing them healthcare?

So, what are you saying? that just becasue someone is poor they are lazy too? Your logic eludes me...

[OldSquidNewNurse]

I went to hear a lecture given by Shannon Brownlee. She brought up many good points (a couple a which I already knew). Her book "Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Americans Sicker and Poorer" should be read by all with serious intention of bring healthcare reform.

Here are her 5 myths on our sick healthcare system:
1) America has the best care in the world
2) Somebody else is paying for your health insurance
3) We would save a lot if we could cut the administrative waste of private insurance
4) Healthcare reform is going to cost a bundle
5) Americans aren't ready for a major overhaul of the healthcare system

All Articles of 2009 | The New America Foundation

Then there's Dr. David Eddy "Even today, with a high-tech health-care system that costs the nation $2 trillion a year, there is little or no evidence that many widely used treatments and procedures actually work better than various cheaper alternatives."

A great many doctors and health-care quality experts have come to endorse Eddy's critique. And while there has been progress in recent years, most of these physicians say the portion of medicine that has been proven effective is still outrageously low -- in the range of 20% to 25%. "We don't have the evidence [that treatments work], and we are not investing very much in getting the evidence," says Dr. Stephen C. Schoenbaum, executive vice-president of the Commonwealth Fund and former president of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc.

Medical Guesswork

[suebird3]

This subject has and will be debated for years. Glad to see that the thread has been civilized.

[tclema]

OldSquidNewNurse:
Great input!