Resistance to healthcare changes in the U.S

Hello,

I've recently found myself having to explain why there is so much resistance to the proposed changes to the healthcare system in the U.S.
There I was covered under my company plan but I rarely used it, but when I did there were long waits for doctors who didn't seem to care.
I can also relate my uncle had a heart bypass and it was a big problem. He could only go to in-network doctors and had to travel +50 miles although other options were closer to where he lived. Also, his lipator and other medications were not fully covered and this put him in financial difficulty.

Now that I live in Germany, I have had occaison to visit the doctor and it was quick, friendly and informative. My medication is covered and
costs only 10 Euro which was not covered on my plan in the U.S. and cost over $160 there.

My personal impression is that the medical system here is far better than what I had in the U.S. and find hard to understand all the resistance lately when it seems like it would be benifical to all. I have seen the reports showing these townhall meetings being taken over by those against claiming that this would be Socialist and nobody would have a choice of doctor etc.

I'd like to hear others take on this and curious if a similar health plan like here in Germany could work back home??

What exactly is the difference between the German and the US system then?

I pay 15% of my wages to a health insurance company and can choose which doctor I go and see for what ever is wrong with me.

Some things that I may elect to have done may cost me a small (to large) sum but the normal stuff is covered.

How does the US system differ?

The right wing nutjobs have been disseminating enough lies that the average idiot (which your average human is) believes all the misinformation.

Although my PPO back home was better than my private plan here, but thats because I was lucky to have an employer that provided a kick ass PPO.

If you have a pre-existing condition and a job that doesn't provide health care, you are fucked.

USians seem to be dead scared of the dreaded socialism. A throw back to the cold war, no doubt. Imagine if other socialised systems like the police force and fire service were privately run for profit systems. It just doesn't make sense to have such an important and vital institution to be run for profit.

[media]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=vKI9be55N00[/media]

The irony being that with Medicare/Medicaid it already is somewhat socialized, and since the costs of uninsured people using the emergency room like a free clinic are passed on to those who can pay, we are already subsidizing health care as is.

health insurance in the US is big business and there is a lot of vested interest in maintaining the status quo and keeping the state out of the mix. Consequently there is a lot of money being put into "scare" campaigns - Rush Limbaugh said the reforms were Nazi the pother day and there are now people picketing Obama and comparing him to Hitler. Other scare tactics are to massively exaggerate deficits in the NHS in the UK, claim that the reforms are 'socialist' (shudder) or make out that Obamas reforms will actually mean that the quality of care deteriorates for all those on cover. These are all the pushbutton tactics that have become the basic fodder of rightwing campaigns in the USA it would seem. Deptrressing that it appears that public opiniopn is being swayed be them.

. . . a benefit which, as you know, can be rescinded any time your employer wants to cut costs.

I could write a book about the hash Congress is making of trying to put together a health care plan that will benefit everybody and upset nobody. Utterly depressing. All I can muster up the energy to say is that the loudmouth right-wingers with the microphones are truly proving themselves to be attention whores rather than people who have any interest at all in improving the lot of your average American. And the Democrats are, for the most part, cowards who refuse to stand even for the principle that universal health care would go at least a little way towards fairness for all Americans.

If my (Republican) representative holds a town hall meeting this summer (which I have not seen scheduled as of yet), I plan to go with a sign saying "I [heart] Public Health Care."

Well I was under contract so they couldn't take my PPO, but I agree with your central point.

I find myself caring less and less every year the poebel keep electing these ponces back in, democrats and republicans alike.

It will. Initially. The health system is already struggling to keep up with the demand. Add 50 million more patients to the mix and you can look forward to less time with your doctor (if you can even get an appointment) and just a general downgrade.

I'm interested in this debate because I really never had to deal with health care coverage in the U.S. initially i was covered through my dad who was with the navy and then as a college student, I used the campus clinic for basic stuff (yearly pap smear, check-ups, colds or flu, few x-rays) where i had basic, cheap student health insurance as well. i have been fortunate not to have any real issues and no one in my family either. also my aunt had a stroke (at 52), never worked but my mom doesn't seem to worried. apparently she has medicaid (???) and all seems well. but who knows really.

I have stopped reading about the health care debate in the US because the level of misinformation about 'socialized' medicine makes me angry.

My partner's cousin had a serious head injury at age 18. She got superb care that couldn't be bettered - until the day her insurance ran out. Her mother was told to come in and pick her up from the hospital and she was given a photocopied sheet of instructions on how to care for her daughter. No one will insure her so she is effectively without cover for the rest of her life. Her well off family have now run through their assets and are resorting to bake sales to raise money for their daughter's physiotherapy and so on. Fortunately, they have enough money and time to make sure she gets the best care and she's made a near perfect recovery.

Without that money, she'd still be unable to speak properly.

What's that if it's not health care rationing of the most brutal kind?

Right, Milton. One of the most egregious claims made by opponents of meaningful reform is that there will be "rationing" of health care, and the government will be in charge of deciding who gets care, for what, and how much.

As if large insurance corporations don't make those decisions for us now. Or the government, for those on Medicare. I would consider that everyone getting some kind of coverage, "rationed" or not, would be an improvement over millions without any coverage at all.

The bill is publicly available for viewing. Read it. It doesn't talk about a lot of the things we're hearing in the media at all, and Sarah Palin is downright lying about some of what she has stated about it (so she's either not read it, or maliciously spreading disinformation).

It's difficult to compare because what's available to different people in the US varies from the sublime to the ridiculous whilst leaving a sizeable chunk on the side with no coverage.

We lived in the US before moving here.

As a Legal Alien it took me 6 months to actually find an insurer willing to cover me.

For which I - none earning - had to cough $500/month (1999).

I'm a healthy soul which is fortunate because, when I needed treatment I flew back to the UK to see family quicker - and saw my old NHS doctor - than I could get an appointment with an 'in coverage' doctor. The wait for an appointment was 6 weeks. To see the equivalent of a GP/Hausarzt.

Appointments were always hideously late, doctor would only discuss 1 issue per appointment, far more medicine and tests prescribed which is where the co-pay comes in and you realise that the $500/month is just to get you in the doctor's door.

Ooh, I could go on but I've tried to blot the experiences from my mind - let's say the first experience of seeing the receptionist behind bulletproof glass took me back a bit, by the time I left I could see why. I guess they didn't do the customer service training.

Smittyboy, there are two bills out there, but neither has passed either house or been reconciled with all the other stuff the special interest groups are going to get inserted in before a vote. So you can have a look at the bills, but they're probably not terribly close yet to what we'll end up with.

As for whether Palin is being clueless or malicious with her "death panel" scare tactics, I'll take C) Both. She goes in the company of people I mentioned above who have more interest in gaining attention for themselves than in bettering the quality of life for average Americans.