The Healthcare system in this country will collapse in about 4 years

[bleedingheart]

You heard it here.

The trend as I see it is that most employers will put the entire healthcare tab in the hands of the employees. At that point the people will have to decide between paying healthcare and rent/mortgages and based on the fact that healthcare premiums are steep...people will gamble...they will opt not to take health insurance or take some form of catastrophic coverage and the major insurance companies will collapse upon themselves as revenues shrink dramatically....

[2Design]

1. haven't had health care since 1997

I figured if I bought it and something bad happened, I wouldn't be able to work, I couldn't pay the premiums, so they would drop me and not pay my medical bills, because I wasn't paying the premium...

I would have wasted my money.

So it makes no sense to give them money when they would drop me anyway ...when I really needed it....

so......that is the way it is...

[bleedingheart]

4. I take it you don't have short or long term disability

that would cover your salary while you are sick...but it is becoming a costly add-on for some individuals as well...

[2Design]

14. employment is varied.....and all as temp or part time

the disability would cost more than I make......


doing college again to be able to get student loans to be able to pay rent.....

old computer people......don't have much of a chance in the marketplace....

[JDPriestly]

2. You are absolutely right!

And at that time, we'll suddenly decide to start a national healthcare plan -- probably using the same healthcare companies and hospitals we have now -- similar to the plans the other developed countries have. I've lived with small children in countries that had those plans. We enjoyed great healthcare. I was even able to get alternative healthcare for my child when conventional healthcare failed -- and our insurance paid for it.

[bleedingheart]

7. I worked in the Healthcare industry a while back...and you are right

they will set up the National Insurance plan the way they have Medicare set up currently...or some variation of it.

The country will be broken into regions and those regions will be awarded to the healthcare companies that can offer the government the most cost effective managment of the system....

[tom_paine]

11. You say "like other developed countries"

But Imperial Amerika is no longer a "developed country" except perhaps infrastructurally compared to Benin.

Imperial Amerika is without doubt a Third World Country.

Media
Justice System
Electoral System
Checks and Balances (WHAT checks and balances)

And so forth.

It doesn't make sense for a Third World Nation like Imperial Amerika to emulate things the Free World ("developed nations") do.

The Imperial Subjects of Amerika are slavish, ignorant, apathetic, disinformationalized, drugged, and weak. Why give anything to such as those, is undoubtedly how the Imperial Family considers it.

That sad truth is: They might be right. Amerika may be getting (through the Imperial Family Tyranny, NOT 9-11 or anything like that) just the kind of nation it deserves.

[qb]

3. My copays went from $5 to $20 in one year.

I flipped out when the pharmacy charged me a $30 for a month's worth of Prilosec. Then the pharmacist pointed out the fine print that showed what Proctor & Gamble charges the uninsured: $408.

I agree. This fucked up system can't last.

[Cleita]

5. My premiums already doubled in one year.

I'm thinking of dumping it until I qualify for Medicare.

[bleedingheart]

8. I got a long way to go and with outstanding medical conditions

like asthma in my family...I gotta have it...but it is costly and it is the reason I have never moved from my current home since it is so affordable.

I now pay about $6000 a year in premiums and I have to pay 10% of any healthcare bill I receive.

[Cleita]

15. That's highway robbery.

I hope once we get some liberals into our government that we can mobilize a grass roots effort to change this.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. I am glad I live in Maine, but the Dirigo health plan

is still a ways away from covering everyone.

If it weren't for the fact that we are poor enough to be covered by MaineCare (medicare) we'd be screwed.

[Tyler Durden]

9. TOO LATE!

It has already STARTED collapsing, we are only watching it in slow motion, like an automobile accident on TV.

Brace Yourselves.

[bleedingheart]

10. It's going to be about 4 years until it really collapses.

[Veggie Meathead]

12. The health insurance industry has got the right prescription for

you, me and everybody!.They are going to outsource all health care to India! This is no joke. Recently, I read (sorry, do not have the link)
how people from Europe and Japan are flooding India's many excellent
medical centers to get procedures done at a fraction of the cost in their home countries.What we may not know is that India has one of the world's largest number of medical practitioners and their medical colleges are on a par with ours.They also have a large number of nurses and technicians who provide XRays, MRIs, bloodwork and what have you, again at a fraction of the cost over here.It should not surprise you in the near future for your insurance company to insist that you take an allexpense paid plane trip to Bombay to get any procedure done.And it would not surprise me to find that you will be visiting your doctor in New Delhi by videoconferencing and getting a diagnosis done and prescriptions written and dispensed with drugs manufactured in India at a fraction of the cost in the U.S.This should normally result in lower premiums but don't bet on it.It will serve to increase the profits of the insurance companies.

[wadestock]

13. Retirement and Social Security is soon to follow....

if Bush gets in again.

The democratic campaign message should be "NATIONAL PREVENTATIVE HEALTH CARE".

Edwards got me reved up with the concept of preventative health care...and explained how it would be a nice first step to get the ball rolling.

Kerry should seriuos co-opt this concept and explain in blatant corporate language if necessary just how capitalistically sound the concept is. Nobody can argue that it saves money overall.

Implement it on kids up to a certain age as the first step.

[ArkDem]

16. Blatant corporate language, huh?

[wadestock]

17. Yes

And sorry I couldn't edit in time....should read....nobody could argue it DOESN'T save money.

I would take that strategy.......turn the argument around....since the neo-cons have made it a slippery slope to all out socialism....I'd attack based on the sheer capitalistic sanity of not throwing money away.

Make the health care argument into an economic argument....and you might have a chance...it's never succeed as a "social engineering" project.....

[Ugnmoose]

18. You are so very right.

I believe that affordable health care is the number one domestic issue facing us today. We American have just about reached the breaking point. For example, I am a small business owner and my premiums just went up 37%. The cost for my wife and I totals more than my monthly mortgage payment.

How can we expect to have an economic recovery when someone gets a 3% salary increase (if they are lucky) and then gets a 37% increase in health insurance premiums?