Well, no. The problem of quality is a problem to a much lesser degree, but it's still a problem. Except for people on Medicare and in the VA system, even most American people with nominally good access to health care end up with worse health care results on average than in other countries. Few Americans have caps on out of pocket expenses--which are higher for insured Americans than for insured people elsewhere--or are genuinely secure in their coverage at a time of high unemployment and employers dropping coverage all over the place. Even insured Americans underconsume preventative care, and even insured Americans are at much higher risk of medical bankruptcy than people anywhere else and accordingly avoid major procedures.
seems there was a bill way back when (Jimmy Carter was Pres) that there Was a bill to cap out of pocket expenses. It was defeated by Teddy Kennedy - because it didn't "do more" Seems to me baby steps, doing this, would have helped a hell of a lot more than the "start up steps" this behemoth bill (has anyone ever read every last page of it yet?) will.
What sucks is when some big corporate hospital moves in and buys out any other hospitals in the area, thus ensuring they have a monopoly. Then it tends to cost quite a bit of money to see a doctor for even just a few minutes, standards tend to slip, and more people end up dying from post-op infections. It really isn't cool that insurance companies are basically given monopolies in each state, thanks to interstate competition between them being banned and all. Be nice if people couldn't sue doctors for huge fucking amounts of money, thus driving up the cost of malpractice insurance.
We have 2 corporations in this area that have bought up almost every hospital in a 100 mile radius and they have done exactly that. Care sucks, MRSA and other nosocomial infections are rampant in their facilities. Their OR's must be like petri dishes. We used to have good care here until they fucked it up. Now you pretty much have to go to Knoxville to get decent care.
Yes, I agree with that - and it's a shame that there isn't a way to stop that without having Big Brother Government stepping in and "correcting" the situation. Yes, I agree, it would be nice if insurances were allowed to have access to all states with nearly the same coverage in every state. What would be better is if folks were told by lawyers that just because your belly button isn't exactly where it was before the surgery is no reason to sue the doctor - he didn't get fat and need the tummy tuck; you did, get over it and wear a gorgeous one piece that makes everyone hot and bothered (and there are some). That said, why the hell isn't the Government fixing THAT and seeing if that won't fix the problems? As I've said before, the man is throwing the baby out with the bath water; not seeing what needs fixing, fix one step and go from there. No, he has to throw EVERYTHING out and come up with "new" system that effectively screws everyone equally.
He's really clueless. It's interesting just to see how warped and skewed Chummus' interpretations of my life are, but almost nothing he said is even vaguely accurate. If the rule operates on intent, then he certainly violated it, but he failed pretty epically at giving out my personal info.
