Our health care system is seriously screwed up. I am a RN and I see it daily from the inside as well as being a patient and seeing it from the outside.
Last year I was out of work for 6 mo to have both thumbs reconstructed due to arthritis damage. Not fun.
But we have dual coverage. We both work and have great coverage. Now 15 months later the insurance companies are still fighting about who pays what. i spend hrs on the phone with the ins companies and with the facility where my surgery was done.
I seriously spend enough time on the phone to keep 1-2 employees busy 40 hrs a week. And our premiums are not cheap! They are just trying to pass the buck to each other and it end up back to me to pay the outstanding balance which should have been covered. Shameful!
Our system is totally screwed up!
I am hoping that the Affordable Care Act will clear some of this crap up. We already have done away with denial due to pre existing conditions, and with life time max. coverage.
Last year we went to Australia and talked with many couples our age. They have nationalized health care and LOVE it. In their 50's many will also take out personal coverage, but non of them felt that they did not get treatment when needed or were denied the best of care.
They were all perplexed as to why our system is so screwed up and why nationalized health care is so controversial. They compared it to tax dollars paying for schools, police and fire protection. It was really eye opening.
I personally would much prefer a single payer system. I blame much of our problems on the insurance companies and The Afforadable Care Act puts too much control in the Insurance industry's hands as far as I am concerned.
Hopefully we can learn form all the other industrialized nations who have single payer systems and much better health outcomes. If you look at our outcomes it is very embarrassing. We could do so much better. But American pride does not allow us to learn from others, we have to design it ourselves and spend years figuring out why it isn't working right before we evolve to a system that will work. Most of us will be dead and gone by then I am afraid.
|