Posted on 03/29/2009 6:28:56 AM PDT by nuconvert
The insurance companies go too far, though. Gallbladder disease, for example, is not a life-threatening complication. Just about everyone in my husband's family has had their gallbladder removed. His dad just turned 70 and is fit and active. What's going on here is that the insurance companies are maximizing their quest for the almighty dollar.
This is why healthcare can never be completely free market, because there's no profit incentive in taking care of the sick. On the other hand, the moment government involves itself in healthcare, only the foundational limitations of that government's intrinsic power can stop it from taking over everything and destroying it.
So the real discussion of healthcare should be about whether we have any effective checks on the government left to us (hint: Britain doesn't, and that's why it's state healthcare system is a nightmare - no recourse).
Where we are headed, looks a lot like Nazi Germany.
1. Britain's leading moral philosopher looks forward to the day when licensed euthanists can put old people whose existence is a burden on the welfare state out of their -- er, our -- misery:
The veteran Government adviser said pensioners in mental decline are "wasting people's lives" because of the care they require and should be allowed to opt for euthanasia even if they are not in pain. She insisted there was "nothing wrong" with people being helped to die for the sake of their loved ones or society.
The 84-year-old added that she hoped people will soon be "licensed to put others down" if they are unable to look after themselves.
Either we have a respect for life, or we don't. Maybe you don't remember the Third Reich?
Would you care to explain how you inferred a my statement to be a comment on abortion?
Care to answer why you think my comment inferred anything at all about abortion?
My statement was meant to say; We either respect human life or we don't, everything in life has a cost, trying to amortize health are as a business only makes a statement.
Hospitals were originally set up in most communities by churches, and were non profit, today they are all owned by corporations. Corporations have no heart, or obligation, other than to the bottom line.
Refusing to take pre-existing conditions is going to buy us government health care. Wait and see.
Or don't create a record in the first place.
You can get meds from other countries, like making a trip just over the border to Juarez or Algodones, Mexico (where prescriptions aren't required) or at various places in Canada or the Caribbean.
Or you can use an untrackable prepaid Visa card to shop on the Internet (using another name, and having packages delivered to another address, like a friend or a UPS store).
How common is this, and how does it shake out by white collar vs. blue collar, or by state?
Last time I was hired (white collar) the company didn’t do a physical at all. Only a screening for illicit drugs or abuse of Rx drugs (i.e. habitual usage at higher than normal prescribed dosage), and the screening company only gave the hiring company a Yes or No.
Originally the idea must have been something like, if you’re well enough to work a steady job, the average benefit can’t be outrageous. Except with families that’s a dicey assumption.
I’ve never had a hospital not tell me where to visit a patient if he or she is in a normal room, or refuse to connect my call to the room. They would be more touchy about somebody in intensive care.
I only have knowledge about Michigan, so I don't know about other states.
Every job I've ever had, blue or white collar, had similar pre-employment physical questionnaires that had to be filled out.
Flood and wind insurance in hurricane prone areas works a lot like that.
Someone told me 5 years is how far back they go. I don’t believe that. If they can find out you ever took some medication, you cannot get private insurance you can afford ... maybe not get it at all.
At some point it becomes cheaper to pay out of pocket and go without insurance. As more people lose their jobs, the insurance industry will be losing so much in premiums from all the people who are no longer covered.
At which time time they will either change their policies to get more customers ... or ask for government ‘bailout’ for lost revenue.
Probably the latter.
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