Americans want universal health coverage

[REWahoo]

From CNN:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government should guarantee that all Americans have basic health insurance coverage, says a committee set up by Congress to find out what people want when it comes to health care.

"Assuring health care is a shared social responsibility," says the interim report of the Citizens' Health Care Working Group, a 14-member committee that went to 50 communities and heard from 23,000 people.

The committee describes its recommendations as a framework. The recommendations don't say who would pay for universal health coverage or how much it would cost...

The group's findings will be officially presented to the president and Congress in the fall, but first comes 90 days of public comment....

Martha, didn't you attend one of these community meetings?

 

[Martha]

Not for this group.

Good on the committee though for getting out there and looking at this issue.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Americans want universal coverage

- As long as they don't have to pay any more taxes and that their relatively good medical coverage they now have isn't degraded.

 

[Cool Dood]

MasterBlaster, what's your avatar spelling out? Your first, middle and last names, plus your alma mater and your degree?

That's a lot of bum-shaking!

 

[d]

it cost $5.5MM for a government study to find that Americans want free health care?!  i would have been happy to tell them than, for ... 1/2 that.

 

[bosco]

Americans want universal coverage

- As long as they don't have to pay any more taxes and that their relatively good medical coverage they now have isn't degraded.

not to worry. If recent history is any indication, Bush will sign a health care bill and another tax cut on the same day.

 

[maddythebeagle]

it cost $5.5MM for a government study to find that Americans want free health care?!  i would have been happy to tell them than, for ... 1/2 that.

n/k... what good is this study

 

[Nords]

MasterBlaster, what's your avatar spelling out? Your first, middle and last names, plus your alma mater and your degree?

I think I've figured it out but I'd like some more time to verify the spelling...

 

[Cb]

not to worry.  If recent history is any indication, Bush will sign a health care bill and another tax cut on the same day.

LOL!

Cb

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Re: the 5.5M...there are a boatload of people afraid to state the obvious in fear of someone in opposition popping up with THEIR 5.5M study that says they're wrong.

When I first started at my last j-o-b, the schmoe running a program I worked on wanted us to develop software and a database to gather information on our desktop pc's with the sole intent of being able to support his point in a presentation that the company had a very diverse collection of hardware on the desktop.

No **** sherlock.

He's a vice president now, by the way.

I'd love universal health care. Honestly I dont see that i'm receiving any sort of superior treatment right now on the BC/BS plan and seeing one of the better doctors in the area, who is friends with my wife and works with her. We get maybe 7 minutes instead of 6. Appointments get regularly forgotten about or rescheduled at the last minute. Getting the insurance to cover some prescriptions is like pulling teeth with your fingers. The pharmacy wont call me if they havent filled the prescription due to stock issues, customer load issues or some miscommunication with the insurer or doctor - they wait until you get there to tell you they couldnt do it, so sorry we wasted your time. Picking up the phone for 20 seconds would just be too much effort.

Now what exactly am I going to lose by getting universal health care?

 

[justin]

CFB, sounds like you need to find a better doctor and pharmacy.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Best in the area on both, according to multiple sources.

 

[justin]

I've been pretty happy with Walmart. For prescriptions, not doctors

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'm using sams club, who uses the same prescription system.

It appears that the pharmacies - at least our local ones - are severely limiting quantities of meds they are holding in inventory to cut costs, preferring to "almost just in time" inventory filling that takes a couple of days. They've also in unison decided to severely reduce customer communications, waiting for you to show up in the pharmacy to tell you something didnt get filled.

The combination is a bit problematic.

I'm going to solve the problem by using BC/BS's own pharmacy system. You have to give a form to your doctor and they have to mail it to precisionrx (BC's 'in house' pharmacy, sort of). You refill by web site, pay online with a credit card, and they mail it to you. The good part is they do 60 day supplies for the same co-pay as a 30 day supply at a regular pharmacy for letting them cut out the middleman and his profit. The bad part is it takes 2-4 days to get your prescriptions in the mail. At this point, that bad part doesnt matter much, since it now takes 2-4 days to get a prescription filled at a B&M pharmacy around here

Precisionrx sucks for a common prescription fill you need right now, like an antibiotic or antifungal sort of thing, but its good for regular monthly meds - cuts your out of pocket co-pays in half.

If this 'not quite in time' inventory system and cutting costs by not talking to your customers hasnt come to a "pharmacy near you" yet...just wait...invisible inflation is still nibbling.

 

[lets-retire]

Bunny--If my doc and pharmacy treated me like that, they'd be fired.  It's my insurance, I'll go to another approved doc  and pharmacy. I'd also let them know why I'm changing.

As far as unversal health care goes, it's pie in the sky.  Look at how much you all compalin about how the government is run.  Do you really think they can run a medical system adequately?  The treatment I received in the military was substandard and that was one of the reasons I left.  I am not against universal coverage, but I know the government will screw it up. I don't want them to vote in another expensive entitlement program that'll do nothing but increase taxes and decrease services.

 

[razztazz]

As far as unversal health care goes, it's pie in the sky. Look at how much you all compalin about how the government is run. Do you really think they can run a medical system adequately? The treatment I received in the military was substandard and that was one of the reasons I left. I am not against universal coverage, but I know the government will screw it up. I don't want them to vote in another expensive entitlement program that'll do nothing but increase taxes and decrease services

I am so glad to hear somebody else mention this.! Yes if more people were in the military and had to deal with the "Company Dr" there'd be no discussison of Gov Run Medical Care!

What I want is for the advocates of the staus quo.. and even worse free-marlet medine to answer the qustsoin of WHY arent 100% of eh people able to access 100% of the medical care they need 100% of the time? I wnat their real M<F'in answer. Then I want them to solve in. They won't becaus ethey can't. Not without flipping everybody off with "We cant afford it" or that "life ain't air" crap, thus undermining the system they love so much.

But it's not a health care problem and the incessent conflation of health care with paying for it is designed to obfuscate and undermine any cure. As a retired military guy I have a meical insurance plane with deductables and co-pays BUT the cost of the plan is underwtitten by the gov, they have to pick me up, and they cant ever drop me.

I like it. It has kept me from going broke and living or dying in a dumpster or an alley somewhere. And the gov doesnt run the heath care system. They just help me pay for what I need. Because pure capitalism will never make that much money available to enough people.

 

[Indexter]

I wish my HMO would give me a plane, but hey, life ain't air! I'm guessing you wrote this on a government-undertitten PDA??

 

[dory36]

I conducted my own study, and found that cruising boaters wanted free beer.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

And your dog wants steak.

 

[Cool Dood]

I conducted my own study, and found that cruising boaters wanted free beer.

n = 1, +/- 99.999%

 

[VoyT]

It appears that the pharmacies - at least our local ones - are severely limiting quantities of meds they are holding in inventory to cut costs, preferring to "almost just in time" inventory filling that takes a couple of days.  They've also in unison decided to severely reduce customer communications, waiting for you to show up in the pharmacy to tell you something didnt get filled.

    That's happened to DH twice in the past 2 months, from 2 different pharmacies. (one of them WalMart's) Both times it was, "Sorry, we had to order it. It'll be in xxxday."  He was so happy to waste time and gasoline....

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Seems to be the customer disservice du jour. I've had several delivery companies in the last few years just not show up to deliver a tv or appliance and when I called at 5-6pm to see if they were coming got "oh, we were out of those so we cant bring one", "the truck bringing those to us broke down so we couldnt deliver it" and "the salesman said we'd deliver that today? Well, they have to be manufactured and that takes three months."

When I've asked why they couldnt make a 20-30 second phone call to save my entire day of waiting, I get "Oh, we dont do that..." or "We used to do that, but we dont anymore".

I've found that not buying from those people and going to others nets me the same quality customer service.

I think I know why prices arent rising faster than they are. Customer service has been cut to the point where a 20 second phone call is too expensive/time consuming, or the quality of people and what they're paid are at a level where it never occurs to them to provide any sort of quality service.

 

[Cool Dood]

CFB, you seem to have a rather deep pool of unfortunate experiences with customer service departments. Personally, I hardly ever use the things, I guess I grew up from a point where the assumption was pretty much that it's not going to be worth the time or effort... I can only think of one phone call I've placed to customer service in the last five years, and that was when I was helping an old man install a printer from a company whose products I'd never even think of using, and there was some weird error that neither I nor the phone rep. could resolve.

In general I guess I usually just figure the thing out on my own, plus I don't buy that many products in the first place. These days I think e-mail probably gets a faster and better response, but I seem to recall you had a few (probably exaggerated ) horror stories about e-mail customer service, too. Well, I guess there's no perfect solution... you're probably right about most companies' service sucking completely, and there are people like me who'd generally rather pay five bucks less for the end product than have it come with good customer service that I'll never use.

For someone who seems to have a pitch-perfect memory of every subpar experience from the last twenty years, do you have any personal experience with organizing a customer service department, or a nifty approach that would resolve their big problems? Or do you have a dismissive one-liner that chalks it up to cheap, stupid, immoral companies and brain-dead corporate culture?

 

[VoyT]

CFB, you seem to have a rather deep pool of unfortunate experiences with customer service departments. Personally, I hardly ever use the things, I guess I grew up from a point where the assumption was pretty much that it's not going to be worth the time or effort... I can only think of one phone call I've placed to customer service in the last five years, and that was when I was helping an old man install a printer from a company whose products I'd never even think of using, and there was some weird error that neither I nor the phone rep. could resolve.

In general I guess I usually just figure the thing out on my own, plus I don't buy that many products in the first place.

   Could be worse, Dood, I could be listing my 25 years worth of crappy service stories  ....  I'm guessing you live in an apartment? Or maybe you're just more mechanically inclined than I am.

     I don't really expect much service for most products -- it's become easier to throw it out and buy a new one if I can't fix it myself.   But if I pay someone to provide a service,  like repair my washing machine or satellite dish, or deliver my refrigerator or install my cable,  well, call me picky, but I damn well expect them to show up when they say they will.  And if my doc calls in a script for a drug that needs to be ordered, I'd like to know that too ---  so I can order it from Canada next time,  so I can get the doc to call it into another pharmacy...             

   

 

[Nords]

Could be worse, Dood, I could be listing my 25 years worth of crappy service stories...

Oooh, me first! I actually expect "customer service" to fulfill both parts of their job description!