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Congratulations, ernstge, on a wonderful outcome! It is truly amazing what medical technology can do.
Clayton, with all due respect, health care has always been rationed by governmental programs and, equally or moreso, by commercial providers. Any time that a need is determined not to be covered under somebody’s policy, care is rationed. Any time a payer drops a policyholder whose health has deteriorated, care is rationed. Any time a policyholder reaches his or her annual or lifetime limit of coverage, care is rationed. Any time an insurer declines to offer coverage due to pre-existing conditions, care is rationed. (Shall I go on?)
The real question vis a vis rationing is more basic: Who would you rather have rationing your care? The choices are two: You can have your care rationed by a bureaucrat working in a private, for profit, organization which organization is primarily motivated by that profit motive. (You’re not really naive enough to think that private insurance companies exist to serve the public, are you?) That’s one choice.
The other choice is to have your care rationed by an equally qualified but less well paid (I promise) bureaucrat who works in a public, non-profit organization. Yup, their rationing is driven by budgetary constraints, but those restraints are far removed from the individual decisionmakers/bureaucrats.
So, regardless of who pays for your care, the private sector or the public sector, your care will always be rationed. Trust me.
The real question is whether our choice should be limited to one or the other. Having been exposed to both, I’d opt for the public bureaucrat anytime, but that’s just me. If you want to pay your premiums to a private company so that their executives can fly the corporate jet to their golf outings while their employees ration your care, go ahead. And if, as some fear, the public option poses a risk to the viability of the private insurers, then maybe the privates’ business model isn’t so great after all. Survival of the fittest, you know.
One thing’s almost certain. ernstge wouldn’t have gotten his cochlear implant under any private policy he could afford.
Edited on Sep 03, 2009 14:24
Thanks Jan Hart and as always, David. Of course our care is rationed! My insurance companies have always “rationed” my care. What really frosts me is that under the current system most of worry if we ever will get truly ill and then have a pre-existing condition and then not be able to be insured at all. I really don’t know anyone who doesn’t worry about this and other untenable realities under the current insurance system. Further, we need to be examining costs. Holding costs in check necessarily means what I would like to call rationale rationing. The system currently isn’t rationale. Why does it seem so impossible over the last many years for citizens to quit (as my Dad used to say) “making sh*t up?!” (Scott – how to make this phrase not offensive????)
And Jan Hart – maybe you are near the north central valley – where we will “land”!
Just an offhand tale of my first visit to a doctor here in Costa Rica. I live in San Isidro de El General and shortly after I arrived last December I experienced a bout of pneumonia. Having no medical insurance I went to my local 24 hour clinic on a Friday evening. No one was there except the doctor and a nurse. A hematologist was called to take my blood and run some tests and I was sent across the street to have chest X-rays. The english speaking doctor was wonderful – first asking the nurse give me a shot of something to ease my pain so that I would be more comfortable while I waited. I was astounded! Then, when the blood tests and X-rays were finished, he studied them and called me in to his adjoining office – to see the X-rays and discuss my care. The antibiotics and other medications he prescribed were available right there. My entire bill? $140 – for everything. I’m working on getting my Pensionada status so that I can apply for national health care here. Again I hope fervently that the U.S. finally joins the rest of the civilized world and provides affordable health care for its people. It is critical.
check out ICH.com. check out project censored at sonoma state university, find out what the msm is not telling you. are they biased, sure, somewhat but it’s truth you’ll never hear from the controlled propaganda outlets that pass for information in america. read atlantic monthly, nation, harpers, mother jones, foreign newspapers. see the other side. as far as the post office, require fed-ex etc. to deliver letters and advertising and see where there profits go or the price of delivery. no other country can match us in cost and efficiency (like your costa rica service?). fanny mae? well look back to the deregulation installed from clinton thru bush. they unleashed the beast of selfishness and greed rampant in the private sector. my experience in mexican and canadian health care shows good service and literally 1 tenth of the cost.i’m not mexican or canadian. i also play international softball on a canadian team, and my team-mates give me an entirely different picture of their health care. you’re being lied to, prpagandized. they complain about taxes, naturally, but wouldn’t trade for our system. if i could type forever i’d have lots more to say, but….
p.s. don’t blame me, i voted for nader. check his positions,they’re the ones’ you voted for obama to see, but won’t! sorry for the cynicism, but there’s no hope.
clayton that’s a far-fetched prediction based on nothing real. name one (just one, that’s all) country that has universal health care where that’s true. or has been bankrupted for that matter. one thing is true tho, i have no health care coverage because i can’t get it because i used to smoke years ago. and i just got from the stanford senior games with a gold medal and a 7th place finish (20 competitors)which i qualified for with 2 silver medals and 1 bronze in the st. george international senior olympics. i compete in softball, long jump,50 and 100 meter dash. but i’m too sickly to get coverage i’m willing to pay for? that’s REAL rationing, bubba! can’t wait til i’m 65.
Really?,I’m 60 and a 5th degree black belt in Tang Soo Do Karate (still active),working on my 6th.I live in Connecticut.I smoked for half my life.quit ooo 29 years ago and never had a problem getting insurance.I am self employed also…
congratulations, that’s a hard road. i did a bit with chuzo kotaka(ken-po) in hi. but not enough dedication (discipline). track and softball’s easier for me. i got timed out after o long typing session and lost it all. so… kaiser foundation in s.f. area says”unfavorable smoking history”. after 40+years as a member thru employment. other plans? high costs and highly restricted coverage. pre-existing conditions. well, a 60 year old (let alone career carpenter) seems likely to have pre-existing conditions of some import.not covered. hopefully our health care “reform” will address this issue. yes there are options, but not enough better than nothing to be worth it. and i don’t complain about paying my tax share, because there’d be less projects for me work on if people didn’t have money to spend. current events makes that obvious. hey all i want and ,i believe, most people, is access afordably like every other western. industrialized and some 2nd and 3rd world countries can manage.
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