Health Care for Retirees Eliminated

[laurence]

I have two coworkers who are a combined ~250 lbs. overweight. One was saying to the other, "man, my snoring/sleep apnea is getting so bad, I wake up gasping for breath at night!"

The other replies, "oh yeah, I had that, went to the doctor and got a big ass breathing machine I hook up to my face every night, pushes the air right through that pack of hot dogs that passes for my neck!"

O.K., so that wasn't an exact quote, but the thought of say, LOSING WEIGHT, never occured to them.

If health insurance was more like car insurance, i.e., you only used it when the cost would crunch your budget, we'd be better off.

 

[Marshac]

The other replies, "oh yeah, I had that, went to the doctor and got a big ass breathing machine I hook up to my face every night, pushes the air right through that pack of hot dogs that passes for my neck!"

They're called CPAPs.... Imagine hooking that thing up after your hot date 

 

[haha]

I would anticipate lots of exclusions unless government got involved and said policies had to cover x, y and z.  There is some of this going all already, mostly on a state by state basis.

This is similar to the market for medicare supplemental insurance. I am starting to look into that, since I will be eligible within the next year.

I believe the only reason the 65 and over market is more rational than the health insurance market as a whole is that this group was formerly uninsured, and thus provided almost no revenue for the medical-insurance-hospital cabal.

The principles governing Medicare should be ported down the age scale; maybe by starting with children under 18. Premiums should be mandatory, and paid by increasing taxes, and then offering offsetting tax credits so that all could buy it. The IRS already exists as a low cost efficient collection agent; just fold medial insurance into the tax system. If any of the idiots in Washjington can understand foreign languages we might get lots of hints as to what to do and what not to do, as most of the world has raionalized their health delivery systems.

No country has medical care than costs anywhere near as much as ours. Bodies are pretty much the same the world over; so this cost gap means that our system could be made much more efficient. And with no loss in outcomes, since the USA is pretty low on any international ranking or health indices. We are easily bested even by some countries with per cap GDP less than one half of ours.

Not every market is free or even can be free. And as I think Cut-Throat said, the last thing any business person wants is a free market. Sick and frightened people willing to pay whatever they can get their hands on for their child's or husband's or wife's survival. Ah, a dream come true for the "Health Care" industry!

Reminds me of a story I read recently about a woman in Bangladesh I believe, trying to sell one of her eyeballs to get money to care for a sick baby.

Mikey

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Reminds me of the bar scene in 'Star Wars'. Also reminds me
of an "internet date" I had back when I was single. For
those single and looking...........always get an up-to-date photo

JG

 

[Mr._johngalt]

I guess I'm wired wrong.  I hate going to the doctor.  Hell, he gave me a form to go get a fasting blood test 6 months ago and its still sitting on my desk.

I have a lot of trouble with that 'fasting' part...by the time I remember I'm supposed to go, I've got 2 cups of coffee in me.  Without the coffee, it never occurs to me...

Well, if you're weird, so am I. I have "test kits" laying around unused,
prescriptions I never filled, and appointments I never kept. I'm happy that
good health care is available (somewhere). It's just that most of what has
afflicted me over my lifetime has not been helped much by all of the time and
money spent on the problem. I learned a lot, but as far as cures and relief
from symptoms................not much in the way of positive results. This is in no
way an indictment of the medical profession. When you need them, you need
them.

JG

 

[Eagle43]

Don't like going to the doctor. Don't like taking pills. Never have. And, essentially, I've had free medicine from military/corp sources for 45 years. After 10 years of being cajoled, I finally started taking blood pressure pills. I'm still not convinced I have it, as my monitor at home reads normal 3 out of 4 times.

I do believe in preventive medicine, like eating right, lots of exercise, keeping weight down, and some vitamins. I get a physical yearly; due this month, in fact. It's usually painless, until he puts on that glove.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Don't like going to the doctor.  Don't like taking pills.  Never have.   And, essentially, I've had  free medicine from military/corp sources for 45 years. After 10 years of being cajoled, I finally started taking blood pressure pills.  I'm still not convinced I have it, as my monitor at home reads normal 3 out of 4 times.

I do believe in preventive medicine, like eating right, lots of exercise, keeping weight down, and some vitamins.  I get a physical yearly;  due this month, in fact.  It's usually painless, until he puts on that glove. 

I've had many a physician comment on my excellent prostate. Nice to have a
feature left which inpires compliments, its location notwithstanding

JG

 

[MJ]

About 5 years ago, I started extensive regular excercising (weightlifting, cycling)and found a cardiologist instead of a internist to do my annual checkup. Besides the normal exams and lab tests , he gave me a an echo gram and stress test which was performed in his office. The insurance covered the $2k in cardio-vascular tests that he charged. The first time for the tests was because I just started exercising. Sounded logical. The following year he had me do it again. The 2nd time was because I was heavily exercising and he thought it was necessary. The 3rd year when he wanted me to take these tests again, I asked him why, he gave me a unsatisfactory answer and was very annoyed when I refused to take them. Even though the insurance would have covered it, I didn't like the idea that (1) I would have had to injest a radioactive material as he upgraded his test, (2) it would have cost me 2 half days and (3) it seemed like a waste of money.
I figured unless I have a concern, I would take a stress test every 3 or 4 years since my BP is perfect, my resting pulse is under 50 and I am bicycling 4k to 6k a year.

MJ

 

[runnerr]

M, good for you I too don't believe we need test to confirm what we already know:that we are healthy. Great job getting going with the excersie program. I too fell thaere are way too many test given. I say damn g......d the medical man. might be showing my era.

Runnerr

As for fasting .black coofee is ok just no milk or sugar. stright black

 

[P.S.]

Wow MJ . Unless things have changed in the last half hour when I was out at lunch, there is no indication for routine/regular exercise stress tests, especially those augmented by injected materials. Especially in an athlete. How would he have explained to a court if you had a life-threatening reaction to the injectate, especially in the context of two normal studies in the two prior years?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Fasting on my coffee is a no-go. It could be more or less described less as coffee and more as cream and sugar with a little brown liquid added to tint it slightly...

I saw an interesting study once that said that excessive or overly extensive testing can lead to a lot of stress and anxiety. In particular the "whole body scans" that are being pitched to well-to-do senior citizens. They cruise my dads "Sun City" a couple of times a year offing both CAT style and ultrasound style partial or full scans.

The study said that like any machine, there are 'flaws' and 'concerns' in everyones body, almost at any age. For most people, they'll live and die with those flaws and never suffer any problems from them.

Show someone in their 60's or 70's the growths, arterial blockages, calcium buildups and all that stuff and they start worrying. The worry creates more problems than the flaws.

My dad couldnt stand it and had them do a bunch of the tests. Gave him a nice cd-rom full of videos. He has 9 "areas of concern". Showed them to his doctor who told him "Thats probably low for the average person, and these are all things to look at and be aware of, but nothing I'd do anything about or be concerned over.". He worried about it and talked about it for 2 years even though I provided plenty of reading materials that backed up what the doctor said. Hasnt mentioned it in a year or so although he still makes some noises from time to time about wishing he had a PPO plan instead of an HMO so he'd have more access to a variety of specialists without having to go through the HMO 'traffic cop'.

I suspect that would lead to a lot more expensive tests, perhaps some invasive procedures, and the net-net of the whole thing would be a negative...

 

[Spanky]

Why can't the U.S. provide nationalized medicine or health care? I understand there are problems associated with socialized health care. One problem is access to the health care system. Patients may experience long waits to see a specialist, get diagnostic tests and undergo elective surgery. This kind of problem can be resolved by committing funding to such program. The question is: Will the public willing to pay additional tax for such program? I think most people will say, "No!, we are already paying too much tax." The second qestion will be: Why don't we just stop so much money on military expenditure? Just image the 200+ billion spent on the Iraq War can do for health care.

 

[steinj]

I agree Spanky - as a Canuck with a national medical system, it's worth every penny in higher taxes. I lived in the US for many years and fortunately had good healthcare from my employer but then I watched said employer layoff more than half the workforce. These people then had zero health coverage and were very panicked to find another job - any job - with coverage. If something bad happened to their health between jobs they were toast. I also remember the 'joy' of getting caught in the middle of arguments between the hospital, the doctor and the HMO over who owes what and if one didn't pay the other, they tried to ding me for it.

Eventually, as the population ages, national medical care in the US will happen IMHO. It's already a larger % of your GDP than nations with national healthcare. Not sustainable.

JoJo