[Justin]

Originally Posted by Kathy Earhart

Justin,
I hope you didn't think I was saying that I believed in the for profit legal killing of people they are doing now.

I'm really slow...I'm embarrassed to say this, but I'm not sure what you are referring to here. See, I told you I was an "idiot."

I completely agree with everything you said.

I think that Obama's idea/plan of rewarding people with insurance and penalizing people without insurance is a good idea. The system has to have healthy people in it to work. And you and I are prime examples of young and healthy people, aside from our backs. Yet, we ended up needing major care, luckily I had insurance. My brother on the other hand, decided to buy a Mercedes and a new house and not have healthcare. He was diagnosed with cancer 15 months ago. He now is paying the price for that decision, he needs a massive tumor removed and can't afford the surgery. He took a gamble on his health and lost.

K-I'm so sorry to hear about your brother. Has he had any treatment at all?

I know there are a ton of people who truly can not afford health care and we do need to take care of these people. But there are alot of people , like my brother, who can afford it and choose not to. They choose new cars, clothes, bigger houses, etc. This is where I think Obama's plan would help give these people an incentive to have health care, thus adding healthy people to the system.

Like always, I agree with you. There are people that call an ambulance to take them to the hospital because they don't want to pay for a taxi. People will come in to the Emergency Department to get a script for Motrin to save $3 bucks, while Medicaid is billed $500. What really gets me is the people that come in with new jacks, shoes, clothes, have the latest cell phone, etc. but expect that their care and treatment to be free.

I also think that the goverment needs to make laws to better govern the health insurance industry. Where insurers have to offer everybody, regardless of medical history, health insurance. For the same price and the same coverage as someone else of the same age would get. I also think that they need to not be able to charge older people as much as they do. My mom is 53 and pays $500, for just her private insurance (and not great coverage). Older people on fixed incomes can not afford these kind of rates, that just go up as they age. They need to mandate that FDA approved surgeries, drugs, procedures, whatever is covered by insurance. Now, the obvious problem with all of this is, if everyone is pulling out of the system and there are not enough healthy people in the system, it will go bankrupt. Especially if people can get insurance, regardless of health history. What would stop someone from not having it, then they get diagnosed with something, so then they get coverage. Kinda be like wrecking your car, then buying insurance to pay. Well, it wouldn't take long before no one would have coverage and just wait till they got sick. Hence the need for something requiring people to have care.

These are great points. I am pretty sure I would be uninsurable right now if I had my 2-level ADR through my insurance in 2003 (which was not possible at the time). The number 1 reason people claim bankruptcy in America is due to medical bills.

Anyway, this too is oversimplified. I don't know the answer to the problem; but do know it is a problem. There is not any oversight, it is like the Wild West, the insurers can do whatever they want. In many cases, legally killing people, by denying them life saving treatment and they are getting rich while doing it. I don't know how they sleep at night. It is disgusting how sick and crooked our system is. I think we need more people, like yourself, willing to talk about it. If we all put our heads together we can come up with something. Yeah, people are going to disagree, you can't please everyone; but it can't keep being the elephant in the room either.

Thanks for your kind words. The really great thing about Obama (my opinion, of course) is that this discussion is even happening and that he is making it a priority. He might not have all the answers and people might not like the guy, but he sure is trying to tackle all of the major issues that are on his plate right now.

We really do need to talk about this issue, even if people disagree which is a given. Dialogue is key.

A really big challenge in the near future is that the baby boomers are getting older and very few young physicians are going into geriatrics. The primary care specialties (pediatrics, internal medicine and family practice) are being hit hard with fewer and fewer medical school graduates going into these fields. Why? Income. After 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of medical school, at least 3 years of residency with at least $200k of school loan debt / plus giving up most of your 20's and or 30's.......$120k a year is not very attractive to new grads.

Graduates are picking specialties primarily on what they will make as a result of insane increases in tuition. Loan forgiveness needs to expand and school tuition needs to be regulated in some way...