More Health Care Scare

Yah, my HMO plan at work pays through the nose for me, merely because Im over fifty.
I've used it little, but now have had a hernia operation, my cost:$340.
BP meds! $90 a month!, Then here, try these, $60 a month! With my deductable payed they will only be $25 now, but guess what? Im going back to the VA, and they will be free. My plan=No vision/dental. VA=small co-pay, compllete coverage worth it!

Insurance problems are not the real problem with health care . The real problem are the charges over and above what the insurance pays . Public option and single payer are insurance programs and with them the bankruptcies will continue because it is not the insurance companies billing the patients . It's the health care providers who know what the insurance covers and bill the patients beyond that amount . If the single payer or public option does not cover the complete provider billing then this will be an effort in futility .

My company pays 100% of my health costs, and were hit hard when I became 55. I refused to have anything taken out of my pay for it, and as such, do not get a raise anytime soon. Luckily,{maybe, maybe not} I still have VA coverage.
Letting "the big boys" hash out this "reform" is a joke. THEY are the ones who caused all this rampant excessiveness in the industry because they all have a piece of the pie! Doctors feel they are entitled, and "owed" the exobitant feesbecause of all the hard work and stuff they had to go throiugh. You wanted the job, so be the good doctor, and stop "needing" so much!

Hah! I love it when people say getting a nationalized health care plan will result in long waits and rationed care. I've got Blue Cross through a large, prestigious university, and when I had a fast-growing lump near my lymph nodes I was told it would be over a two month wait until I got an appointment. Health care is "rationed" already by the insurance companies who deny claims whenever they can! It's time to take the profit motive out of medicine (or at least out of insurance). And I don't want to hear about how horrible "socialized" medicine is in other countries; when I was in Germany and fell ill, I was seen the same day by a physician who didn't charge me my life's blood just to be seen.

So, the 'health insurance' industry could be put out of business by real competition from a public plan. Many would say, So, what? For a half century, these enterprises have held the American people hostage to what amounts to the greatest protection racket in history: A monopoly so perfectly constructed as to force the american people to pay ruinous premiums to these gatekeepers or face the 'choice' of death or complete ruin in the event of a major illness or injury. Particularly amusing is the scare tactic proffered that 'government bureaucrats' would be making heath care decisions:And who do we suppose makes them now? Corporate bureaucrats, whose sole purpose is to deny claims, that's who. The business model
depends on it : Maximized premiums-minimized claims=profit. The rest of the western industrialized world has long recognized this extortion scheme for what it is, and at a minimum, provided public competition (France, Germany, et.al), and at a maximum, (Canada), given this criminal enterprise the legal status it deserves. The time has long since passed that we catch up with the civilized world and develop a health system whose purpose is delivery, not denial. Contact your representative in congress and demand that he/she support the President's proposal to provide real competition to this cartel with a public plan.

So, the private 'health insurance' companies could be put out of business?. Many would say, So What? For the last half century, these people have run what amounts to nothing more than a legalized protection racket: A monopoly so perfectly constructed that every American is forced into a position where they must pay the ruinous 'protection' to these gatekeepers or face a choice of death or complete ruin when faced with a major illness or accident. Particularly amusing is the scare tactic claiming that health decisions would be relegated to 'bureaucrats'. Who do folks think make these decisions now? Legions of corporate bureaucrats whose primary purpose is to deny claims---This is a function of the very nature of the business model: to collect the maximum premiums possible while minimizing claims paid=profit. The rest of the western world has long since put this scheme in it's place, by, at a minimum, offering a public option, as in France and Germany among others, and more comprehensively, Canada, which has given this criminal enterprise the legal status it deserves.
It is time for the public to finally stand up to these extortionists and demand that their representatives support the creation of a 'public option' whose purpose is the delivery of access to health care rather than serve as an obstacle whose sole purpose is to extract profits.