What do you like most about our current health care system?

[ck4829]

Poll question: What do you like most about our current health care system?

"Health-care reform must preserve the things Americans like about our health-care system"
- Max Baucus

What do you love the most about the system we've got?

[tabbycat31]

1. other-- the airwaves flooded with medical advertising

i can't turn on a local radio station without hospital ads.

[goclark]

3. K and R ~ I hate the ads, hate them

All day long we are reminded of all the illness we can and will have and are told that Medicine is the answer.

MSM is owned by the Phama industry and we are owned by them as well.

Get off my TV with the "cute" ads ---- I'll see my own doctor!

[RufusTFirefly]

6. I just LOVE those ads!

I really want to thank advertisers and marketers from the bottom of my heart for helping me to make sensible choices!

They've even invented new syndromes that I would never even have realized I had without their selfless assistance.

They really are our modern-day saints!

[CTyankee]

2. Other: all of the above. nt

[dana_b]

4. the pharmeceutical lobbying

and their high prices. Especially the fantastic ads for Viagra and cholesterol lowering meds with the mounds of terrifying side effects.

[MADem]

5. The co-pays and uncovered expenditures, and tiered quality of care

(despite being promised "free --ha!-- medical care for life") requiring monthly deductions from my pension to get the "better" option.

And compared to most, I'm in the catbird seat....so I shouldn't complain.

What's worse is that there are people who don't get any help at all in this rich country.

[lib_wit_it]

8. I can't speak French. Can I still move to France?

[dysfunctional press]

7. you might want to edit number six...

to add the word "no".

[stray cat]

9. The fact that my employer pays the bulk of it for me

[zipplewrath]

10. What I don't really get

This whole "primary care physician" schtick. It seems all backwards. Diagnosis is one of the hardest things to do, and a wrong one can be disasterous. So they demand that I go to a general practitioner for a preliminary diagnosis. Then I go to a specialist for treatment. For many of the more common issues, I'd be better going to a specialist, determining an initial diagnosis, and then going to a general practitioner for treatment. I can't tell you how many times I've gone through treatments, only to end up going to a specialist because the original diagnosis was wrong. Conversely, I've been sent to specialists for treatment for rather mundane issues. Most competent doctors can follow a treatment plan. It is the initial diagnosis that is important.

[Greyhound]

15. You weren't supposed to notice that part.

It's that damn "House" show that is fucking it all up.

[SPedigrees]

11. That health care insurance cos have empowered themselves to deny claims

thus imposing death sentences on those who they do this to.

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. OTHER -

.
.
.

It's south of our border

:silly:

[Horse with no Name]

13. My FAVORITE part is that our government cannot tell us what to do!

Seriously.
I mean, my benevolent healthcare insurance allows me to change physicians anytime I want to--even after I have gone to the same one for 20 years and they have decided to "break ties" because of reimbursement issues. I mean, adventure in finding new healthcare providers after 20 years is a pleasant experience when you have a chronic condition. Whew. I am SOOOO happy that the government isn't directing my healthcare!

[tnlefty]

14. Other.

All of the above.:sarcasm:

ETA the sarcasm tag if needed

[Mimosa]

16. GREAT POLL!

I really appreciate this poll. It should be used as a basis for a commercial on TV to combat the new anti-health care ads.

[TahitiNut]

17. Houses don't cost an arm and a leg now. But operations on an arm and a leg will cost you your house.

:crazy:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

18. the waiting - I've been waiting 6 years for access to health care system

since losing employer subsidized insurance.

[csziggy]

19. Even with coverage not knowing what your copay will be

I go in for a shoulder operation next Thursday. So far I've gotten estimates from the surgeon and the outpatient clinic. Nothing from the anesthesiologist. I'm not sure who else I'll get bills from.

I know what my deductible is and my copay % but my estimates of how much my share will be never match what I get billed for in the end.

I guess I will just have to be happy I am pretty much covered.

[LooseWilly]

20. Other: We have a Health Care System?...