Thread: Universal Health Care

Originally Posted by SoySoldier

Originally Posted by HuntnJade

Originally Posted by SoySoldier

Originally Posted by HuntnJade

Originally Posted by -Sauso-

hold on let me sign up and make a blog..and spew out numbers with no hard facts. :9

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20040920/us-tops-canada-in-post-heart-attack-care

Well that is great except that people die less frequently from infarction in Canada. It might be because of preventative medicine. I admit, the US has some incredible procedures for post infarction/metasticism and other nasty situations after the fact. But in canada they live longer and healthier for less cost due in large part to preventative medicine and public awareness. Really their rates of drinking and smoking are marginally lower than ours, but not statistically significant. They simply provide better preventative healthcare. So while we have better post infarction treatment, they are better at preventing infarctions.

Source: WHO database, go look through it..you might be surprised.

How can anyone know if that is because there is better preventative healthcare or if people just choose to be more preventative in their healthcare? Lots of people choose not to do preventative health care testing/screening and such that doesn't mean it isn't available... Do they actually factor that in or no? I am really asking a question here. Let's use colonoscopy as an example- at a certain age they begin recommending you have one as routine healthcare maintenance but MANY people choose to forego it anyway... Talk to me!

When preventative procedures cost you an arm and a leg even with a copay, or worse, your insurance does not want to cover them, you are less likely to take advantage of them. And those who have zero insurance are simply never going to have preventative health care.

My father was diagnosed with lung cancer is stage 3b. Two years prior to that his insurance company decided to remove chest X-rays from what they would cover for standard checkups (preventative right?) because the "rate of discovery" did not make the cost worthwhile (to an insurance company...which is a business more than a protective service). Well right about that same time is when the cancer developed. In other countries, at his age, a yearly checkup includes a chest X-ray...they would have likely found his cancer in stage 2 and it would be MUCH easier to deal with.

Luckily he was a prison warden before he retired and has uber insurance...it only cost him 50k out of pocket instead of the 350k it would cost someone without insurance. Funny thing is, the person without insurance still would have gotten treated despite our lack of universal healthcare, we just would have had to pay it in full instead of what the insurance company has to pay plus the payees out of pocket (which is in total typically far less than what those without insurance pay).

I have no clue what you consider an arm and a leg but my very average BC/BS coverage is company based not a private policy- I have a co-pay of $25 for office visits and 20% for any lab work. I have a major medical deductible of $500 and I consider this pretty good coverage. It has covered all "preventative" health care I have ever chosen to do.
On the chest x-ray issue... many other countries use full body x-ray and sonogram for preventative medicine but the radiation you subject yourself to in these procedures drastically increases your chances of getting cancer and who knows what else. This is the reasoning behind that not being a method of normal preventative care in the U.S. If your Dad was having any symptoms at all the procedure for chest x-ray would not have been preventative, but diagnostic- and therefore would have been covered. Believe me- I do not think insurance is wonderful... remember I am the one who said cut out the middle man all together as a possible help to this whole situation. I do believe that better understanding of insurance and how it all works could help out many. We pay for it and have very little understanding of what we actually have access to...