Is it true that people want to keep their present insurance and what percentage is that?

[Cleita]

For any lurking radio and other media people out there who are bringing up health care reform on their programs, I have a serious question for you to ask any Congressperson or Senator you interview about this matter. To a one, every one of them bring up the mantra that we have to have private insurance in the mix because many people want to keep their present insurance. The only person who was honest about it was Maxine Waters who claimed that most of the corporatists in Congress are speaking with forked tongue. When I do my own informal survey among family, friends, acquaintances and patients where I work, I don't know one who would keep their present insurance if they had a choice for a comprehensive plan like HR 676 (Medicare for all) instead.

Please ask them if there is going to be any effort to make an official study to document just exactly how many people, if given a choice, would keep their present insurance? There seems to be no such study to document this? I'm sure there will be those like the 13% that think George Bush did fine job as President who would say yes, but I would bet my own insurance plan that a majority would rather have a public option like Medicare. Please ask them if any one has documented this claim with actual facts and figures and if they intend to before going off crafting a plan without knowing what plan the people want?

[CTyankee]

1. Two things: my experience (limited) in talking with non-ideological people

about their health care is that they fear that a socialized system will give them less than what they've got now, not that they WANT what they have now. This is partly because they buy into the idea that Canadians don't really like their system and are forced to come to the US for stuff we get ordinarily.

Secondly, when I heard Hillary Clinton present her health care plan back in the fall of 07, she herself referred to focus groups that her campaign staff had done and was told by the groups that they wanted the choice of keeping their health care if they wanted it. I was surprised, but I heard it out of her mouth so I presumed it was the truth. But I think the fear factor was lurking behind the whole argument.

[Cleita]

2. Canadians coming here to get our medical care is one of the biggest lies

out there. We are actually going to Canada to get cheaper drugs when we can get away with it because the Republicans passed laws preventing us from doing this. Also, there are times that Canadians will be referred to one of our large Medical centers like John Hopkins or the Mayo Clinic for a specialized procedure that maybe only a few doctors in the world perform. But the Canadian government pays the bill. They pay nothing.

[AllyCat]

3. Not a radio personality, but I would drop my "cadillac" plan in a second

for a single-payer option. We have really good insurance negotiated by my kick-a$$ union every 4 years. That said, we still pay $350/month in expenses (premiums, co-pays, stuff not covered, and meds) for a healthy family of 4 (we have one son born with a birth defect that has been surgically corrected, but requires follow up with expensive specialists). Every week I get a call from frickin' Engenix, the subrogation firm representing my insurance company, trying to verify that all our son's follow-up stuff is really coverable. It makes me nuts.

If I could pay that $350/month into a plan that covers everyone in the US and gives us some relief from the hassles, I would do it gladly.