Just now on CNN there was a commercial from Conservatives for Patients Rights tossing out the ‘loss of freedom/health care rationing’ schtick.
I’m old enough to remember the first time this came about back when Clinton became President. You remember the married couple: ‘Oh, my! If HillaryCare passes, the government will decide if we’ll live or die! The government will kill us!’ Well, we’ve seen how that went. Insurance premiums have risen, and benefits have declined. I guess it’s OK when a for-profit business rations health care and allows people to die.
If I were making ads to counter the the CPR (heh – get it?) ones, I think I’d compare the new ad to the old ones, and remind people how they’re paying more for less.
… You are either very young or not paying attention, Old news.
… Yepper, really young and IMO timely health care, or not, has not bit you in the butt yet… so to speak…
… Here does the favorite South American pass time again. This is not the best so lets tear it down and rebuild with more government control. That works for you huh?
… Yeah, made your point look much better and I do think you are cute. ::: simper / fawn :::
No, I’m old. I started working in the '80s. Back then, my employers paid for insurance, and I could go to any doctor I wanted to. Now I pay a percentage of the premium and I can only go to doctors that are ‘in system’ and my co-pay is higher. The last time I used my insurance (different employer, eight years ago) the limitations were such that I nearly wound up in ER.
‘Old news’? Maybe. But this is the first Scare The Public To Increase Our Profits commercial I’ve seen on this issue this round.
Two words for anyone who thinks more government involvement in health care is a good thing:
Veteran’s Administration
In other words, the U.S. government can not even take care of a small and relatively homogeneous population. VA hospitals are some of the worst in the country and veterans wait months to receive basic care.
I hear this a lot and don’t really understand it. Satisfaction scores are significantly higher for the VA than for private hospitals (cite: http://www.bus.umich.edu/NewsRoom/ArticleDisplay.asp?news_id=4305). Money quote for those that don’t want to click the link:
And anecdotally my wife is a resident physician and both VA and private hospitals and claims that the overhead expenses are lower and level of patient care higher at the VA hospital.
Do you have any cite for your claim that VA hospitals perform worse than private ones in the US?
I’m not old enough to remember this, but I’ve heard that, here in Canada, when the debate over universal health care was going on, people were scared that the government would be looking at their personal health records.
Were those satisfaction ratings compiled before or after the mass exposure of VA patients to HIV through contaminated endoscopy equipment?
I don’t think VA care is overall that bad, but in my experience it’s nowhere near the model for health care that some advocates like Paul Krugman have claimed.
I haven’t seen the ad referenced in the OP, but in general it’s perfectly reasonable to make the argument that any big expansion of government-subsidized health care will have to be paid for through 1) big across-the-board tax hikes, 2) rationing of some services, or (more likely) 3) both.
I’m not a fan in general of Charles Krauthammer, but his recent take on this unfortunately raises legitimate questions.
In my view it’s inevitable and desirable for all Americans to be guaranteed the health care they need by the government. It’s a pity that the process of getting there is going to be strewn with evasions and outright lies about cost and coverage - and it won’t just be conservatives responsible for this, by a long shot.
Data is not useful unless it’s used. How would the government use the data to the detriment of a patient? I don’t particularly care if the government knows I had spinal meningitis when I was two, or that I lost part of a patella through injury. I have to list any significant medical conditions, any operations, etc. whenever I apply for an FAA medical certificate. It seems to me that having a patient’s medical history is a good thing, as the data might be useful for treatment.
OTOH where I lived when I was in L.A. the general opinion was that if one needed medical care, don’t go to Brotman Medical Center (which was just blocks away). Get an ambulance to take you to Cedars, UCLA, or County. A neighbour called Brotman ‘The Death Hospital’. Anecdotal, yes; but any hospital can have problems. Remember the people who went into a hospital for one procedure and had limbs or the wrong limb amputated because of an error?
While the rate that Medicare pays docs is extremely low, and it can be hell figuring out what some of the regs (created by legislators, not medical people) mean, IME Medicare has the most efficient processing in the nation.
They were one of the first (if not the first) to go electronic. They’ve had standard turnaround of under 21 days for many years. Once they’ve decided on how to interpret the regs, they’re consistent (unlike most payers, who seem to use a magic 8 ball to decide whether or not to pay claims).
If you want to wail and shriek about government inefficiency and incompetence, the VA and Medicare are not really a good place to start.
This was my point, and the point of the study I posted a link to. I’m not claiming that the VA and Medicare are perfect, or that there isn’t bureaucracy. What I am claiming, and what all the statistical evidence I’ve seen supports, is that both overhead costs and patient satisfaction are higher at these government-run health programs than at private institutions (whether hospitals if we’re discussing patient care or HMOs for overhead and claims issues).
The discussion of the fear-based advertising during the development of Canada’s system is enlightening since AFAIK there is no serious movement to repeal the public health system in Canada (or in any country that has one like it). So clearly the fear was misplaced (at least in the minds of the current majority of Canadians).
I was just giving an example of the scaremongering that was going on up here. It just sounds creepy, thinking that some public official knowing all the stuff you tell your doctor. Of course, that’s not how the health care system works, but just like people in the US are trying to scare people about universal health care today with scenarios that obviously aren’t going to happen, the same thing was going on up here.
Of course, then you have folks like my dad, who has nothing but praise for the excellent medical service he receives through the VA, but who has nothing for scorn for government-run health care, because that’s socialism and we all know that socialism is atheistic and evil.