United States Has The Best Healthcare in the World

[Bfgrn]

Yup...It's official...You're boring the hell out of me again.

I'm sorry, I misplaced my babysitting schedule...I didn't know it was my day to watch and entertain you...

But we must make sure YOU are mollified...

 

[Contessa_Sharra]

And because we have rich people who pay a great deal for the best healthcare, enabling research and development, the end result is that this brings costs down and makes treatment affordable for everyone, even in socialist countries.

SO what happened? what went WRONG? Why didn't this happen here PC, as you say it should have....?

Care, when you say 'here' I have to presume you refer to your own state of residence. You should get out of Maine and look around at what is available elsewhere and at what cost. Thank God most of us don't have to put up with what's available in your otherwise great state. And as long as we don't have the system proposed in the current bills we can avoid your fate and will have real choices, and actually have somewhere else to go.

MaineCare Eligibility

MaineCare services

1.1 Health care services covered by full benefit MaineCare

Health care services covered by full-benefit MaineCare include:
Doctors' Visits

• Well-child check-ups
• Sick care
• Specialist care, including surgery
• Prenatal care

Dental Services: Full coverage for children (with limits for adults)
Hospital Care: In-patient, out-patient and emergency room
Long-Term Care: Coverage for care in a nursing home or other residential care. Services may also be provided in the home.
Services

• Shots to prevent illness (immunizations)
• Prescription drugs
• Mental health services
• Substance abuse services
• Lab and x-rays
• Medical equipment and supplies
• Ambulance services
• Transportation to medical and counseling appointments (Get list of Transportation Agencies)
• Chiropractic care
• Eye exams and eye glasses (with limits for adults)
• Hearing tests (with limits for adults) and hearing aids (for children age 20 and younger)
• Family planning
• School-based health centers
• Interpreters

Therapies

• Speech therapy
• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy

Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment
Federal Medicaid law requires States to cover Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) services for children and adolescents under age 21. EPSDT covers four separate screening services—medical, vision, hearing and dental—and includes immunizations, laboratory tests (including lead blood tests), and health education. Each type of screen must be furnished at pre-set, periodic intervals (periodic screens) and when a problem is suspected (interperiodic screens).
The treatment component of EPSDT must include any necessary health care, diagnostic services, treatment, and other measures, described in section 1396d(a) of the Medicaid Act, to “correct or ameliorate” physical and mental illnesses and conditions, whether or not such services are covered for adults in the state’s Medicaid program. EPSDT also includes outreach and informing to notify children and their families of EPSDT and the importance of preventative care, and to offer appointment scheduling and transportation assistance, if needed.
If a service that a child under age 21 needs is for some reason not available under MaineCare, or if the child requires more services than MaineCare may cover, then the child’s provider can file with the Office of MaineCare Services, a request for Prior Authorization for what is called “Optional Treatment- EPSDT Services.”
And More...
This is just a partial list of services covered by full-benefit MaineCare. It is important to note that all children with MaineCare receive the same full-benefit coverage, whether their coverage is through the CHIP program (the children whose families pay a monthly premium) or through straight Medicaid, which includes the Katie Beckett benefit. For more information, call MaineCare Member Services at 1-800-977-6740 (if you are deaf or hard of hearing and have a TTY machine, call 1-800-977-6741).
Important note about copayments: Except for small copayments, doctors and other health care providers cannot charge members in addition to the payments they get from MaineCare. There are no copayments for services provided to children. If a MaineCare member cannot afford to pay a copayment, the provider must still provide the service. The provider may bill the member, but may not deny services in the future due to non-payment of copayments.

This is considersbly better than what is available in California. Not just services, but requirements.

 

[Care4all]

SO what happened? what went WRONG? Why didn't this happen here PC, as you say it should have....?

Care, when you say 'here' I have to presume you refer to your own state of residence. You should get out of Maine and look around at what is available elsewhere and at what cost. Thank God most of us don't have to put up with what's available in your otherwise great state. And as long as we don't have the system proposed in the current bills we can avoid your fate and will have real choices, and actually have somewhere else to go.

MaineCare Eligibility

MaineCare services

1.1 Health care services covered by full benefit MaineCare

Health care services covered by full-benefit MaineCare include:
Doctors' Visits

• Well-child check-ups
• Sick care
• Specialist care, including surgery
• Prenatal care

Dental Services: Full coverage for children (with limits for adults)
Hospital Care: In-patient, out-patient and emergency room
Long-Term Care: Coverage for care in a nursing home or other residential care. Services may also be provided in the home.
Services

• Shots to prevent illness (immunizations)
• Prescription drugs
• Mental health services
• Substance abuse services
• Lab and x-rays
• Medical equipment and supplies
• Ambulance services
• Transportation to medical and counseling appointments (Get list of Transportation Agencies)
• Chiropractic care
• Eye exams and eye glasses (with limits for adults)
• Hearing tests (with limits for adults) and hearing aids (for children age 20 and younger)
• Family planning
• School-based health centers
• Interpreters

Therapies

• Speech therapy
• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy

Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment
Federal Medicaid law requires States to cover Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) services for children and adolescents under age 21. EPSDT covers four separate screening services—medical, vision, hearing and dental—and includes immunizations, laboratory tests (including lead blood tests), and health education. Each type of screen must be furnished at pre-set, periodic intervals (periodic screens) and when a problem is suspected (interperiodic screens).
The treatment component of EPSDT must include any necessary health care, diagnostic services, treatment, and other measures, described in section 1396d(a) of the Medicaid Act, to “correct or ameliorate” physical and mental illnesses and conditions, whether or not such services are covered for adults in the state’s Medicaid program. EPSDT also includes outreach and informing to notify children and their families of EPSDT and the importance of preventative care, and to offer appointment scheduling and transportation assistance, if needed.
If a service that a child under age 21 needs is for some reason not available under MaineCare, or if the child requires more services than MaineCare may cover, then the child’s provider can file with the Office of MaineCare Services, a request for Prior Authorization for what is called “Optional Treatment- EPSDT Services.”
And More...
This is just a partial list of services covered by full-benefit MaineCare. It is important to note that all children with MaineCare receive the same full-benefit coverage, whether their coverage is through the CHIP program (the children whose families pay a monthly premium) or through straight Medicaid, which includes the Katie Beckett benefit. For more information, call MaineCare Member Services at 1-800-977-6740 (if you are deaf or hard of hearing and have a TTY machine, call 1-800-977-6741).
Important note about copayments: Except for small copayments, doctors and other health care providers cannot charge members in addition to the payments they get from MaineCare. There are no copayments for services provided to children. If a MaineCare member cannot afford to pay a copayment, the provider must still provide the service. The provider may bill the member, but may not deny services in the future due to non-payment of copayments.

This is considersbly better than what is available in California. Not just services, but requirements.

When you read the eligibility rules:
Adults, even in poverty adults, ARE NOT ELIGIBLE for mainecare for themselves.

Mainecare will cover their children or a senior citizen, of which, we are neither....

What do you mean by looking for insurance in another state? Can they legally cover me in Maine, or would they want to?

 

[Political Junky]

So we have been told that the United States is listed at number 37 in world ranking for health care. Here is why only fools and America-bashers attribute any significance to this rating: WHO/UN states that their data “is hampered by the weakness of routine information systems and insufficient attention to research” and when they couldn’t find data, they “developed [data] through a variety of techniques.” WHO accepts whatever governments tell them, including reputable regimes such as Castro’s Cuba.
WHO | Message from the Director-General

The oh-so-political WHO/UN is not thrilled with governments like the US, as they have determined that we do not have a progressive-enough tax system. This is one of the criteria for judging our healthcare.
WHO, “World Health Organization Assesses
theWorld’sHealth Systems,” press release, undated,
http://www.who.int/whr/2000/media_centre
/press_release/en/index.html.


Here are the rating categories:
1. Health Level: 25 percent
2. Health Distribution: 25 percent
3. Responsiveness: 12.5 percent
4. Responsiveness Distribution: 12.5 percent
5. Financial Fairness: 25 percent
http://www.cato.org/pubs/bp/bp101.pdf

After an intensive survey of over 1000 respondents, half of whom were members of UN staff, they designed a measurement of healthcare in which 62.5% of the criteria of their healthcare study on some type of “equality!”
WHO | The world health report 2000 - Health systems: improving performance

Note that the United States suffers in the WHO/UN healthcare ratings due to a definition of fairness which reads: “the smallest feasible differences between individuals and groups.” Does that mean that a poor nation that does not have our level of expensive or experimental treatment, and therefore lets all suffers die, would have a higher rating than the US?

This is not to imply that only the rich in America can get the ‘expensive’ treatment, since there are many options such as a)getting a loan, b) asking a family member or a charity for help, c) find a doctor, hospital, or drug company willing to work at a reduced rate. All are common.

And because we have rich people who pay a great deal for the best healthcare, enabling research and development, the end result is that this brings costs down and makes treatment affordable for everyone, even in socialist countries.

How to judge US healthcare?
life expectancy: many people die for reasons that can’t be controlled the medical profession, such as auto accidents, murder, etc., and once you factor out care crashes and homocides, the US ranks number one in worldwide life expectancy!

“One often-heard argument, voiced by the New York Times' Paul Krugman and others, is that America lags behind other countries in crude health outcomes. But such outcomes reflect a mosaic of factors, such as diet, lifestyle, drug use and cultural values. It pains me as a doctor to say this, but health care is just one factor in health.

In The Business of Health, Robert Ohsfeldt and John Schneider factor out intentional and unintentional injuries from life-expectancy statistics and find that Americans who don't die in car crashes or homicides outlive people in any other Western country.
And if we measure a health care system by how well it serves its sick citizens, American medicine excels."
Dave Petno » Canadian Doctor Describes Canadian Socialized Medicine

Cons will go to any lengths in an attempt to disprove facts that they don't like.

 

[Douger]

Lordy, lordy, what fools you people are! Do you actually think that the Cato Institute has any credibility with anybody other than the most braindead of Conservatives?

The Japanese, Germans, French, and even Costa Ricans have a much better average life span than we do here in the US. All have far lower infant mortality. All spend far less on their health care system, and cover all citizens, which we do not.

So we are paying a Cadillac price and getting a Yugo. And you people are perfectly happy with that.

And then there is the matter of hundreds of thousands of American families going bankrupt every year because of medical bills. And none doing so in the rest of the industrial nations. Not in even little Costa Rica, most definately not an industrial nation.

Costa Rica . That's an island right ?

 

[PoliticalChic]

So we have been told that the United States is listed at number 37 in world ranking for health care. Here is why only fools and America-bashers attribute any significance to this rating: WHO/UN states that their data “is hampered by the weakness of routine information systems and insufficient attention to research” and when they couldn’t find data, they “developed [data] through a variety of techniques.” WHO accepts whatever governments tell them, including reputable regimes such as Castro’s Cuba.
WHO | Message from the Director-General

The oh-so-political WHO/UN is not thrilled with governments like the US, as they have determined that we do not have a progressive-enough tax system. This is one of the criteria for judging our healthcare.
WHO, “World Health Organization Assesses
theWorld’sHealth Systems,” press release, undated,
http://www.who.int/whr/2000/media_centre
/press_release/en/index.html.


Here are the rating categories:
1. Health Level: 25 percent
2. Health Distribution: 25 percent
3. Responsiveness: 12.5 percent
4. Responsiveness Distribution: 12.5 percent
5. Financial Fairness: 25 percent
http://www.cato.org/pubs/bp/bp101.pdf

After an intensive survey of over 1000 respondents, half of whom were members of UN staff, they designed a measurement of healthcare in which 62.5% of the criteria of their healthcare study on some type of “equality!”
WHO | The world health report 2000 - Health systems: improving performance

Note that the United States suffers in the WHO/UN healthcare ratings due to a definition of fairness which reads: “the smallest feasible differences between individuals and groups.” Does that mean that a poor nation that does not have our level of expensive or experimental treatment, and therefore lets all suffers die, would have a higher rating than the US?

This is not to imply that only the rich in America can get the ‘expensive’ treatment, since there are many options such as a)getting a loan, b) asking a family member or a charity for help, c) find a doctor, hospital, or drug company willing to work at a reduced rate. All are common.

And because we have rich people who pay a great deal for the best healthcare, enabling research and development, the end result is that this brings costs down and makes treatment affordable for everyone, even in socialist countries.

How to judge US healthcare?
life expectancy: many people die for reasons that can’t be controlled the medical profession, such as auto accidents, murder, etc., and once you factor out care crashes and homocides, the US ranks number one in worldwide life expectancy!

“One often-heard argument, voiced by the New York Times' Paul Krugman and others, is that America lags behind other countries in crude health outcomes. But such outcomes reflect a mosaic of factors, such as diet, lifestyle, drug use and cultural values. It pains me as a doctor to say this, but health care is just one factor in health.

In The Business of Health, Robert Ohsfeldt and John Schneider factor out intentional and unintentional injuries from life-expectancy statistics and find that Americans who don't die in car crashes or homicides outlive people in any other Western country.
And if we measure a health care system by how well it serves its sick citizens, American medicine excels."
Dave Petno » Canadian Doctor Describes Canadian Socialized Medicine

Cons will go to any lengths in an attempt to disprove facts that they don't like.

And this would be, what, your best counter-argument to the data that I have provided?

See, this is why your public school teachers always wrote "works to ability" on your report cards.

So it seems that sometimes the even the public schools get it right.

 

[Old Rocks]

Funny thing about stats (thus why I usually don't respond to them ) they can easily be interpreted and altered. Personally, I don't think there is such a thing as "the best health care in the world" ... just the most preferred system, and each person should be allowed to move to the country with their preferred health care system instead of trying to force what they think is best on an entire country.

It is just as much my nation as yours. And I have a peice of paper that say Honorable, a dd214, do you? I have as much right to try to change my nation for the better as you have to resist all such changes.

 

[Care4all]

After reading some of the posts on this issue I can see some have a good idea of what is going to happen NOW with this boondoggle health care BILL. Those who passed it don't even have a clue of all that is in it or what the end cost will be.

I can say this, as much as I would hope it would function like a Swiss watch, it will NOT. I know some doctors that have left, retired earlier than they had planned on. And others that are in the process of making the decision to stay or leave. The massive amount of paperwork required now will be increased beyond reasonable proportions along with increases in threats, fines, laws with their mandatory guidelines issued by our most 'esteemed' government educated buttheads.

We are going to lose many talented physicians and specialists I can't even begin to mention.
One Interventional radiologist I know has hung it up and moving to Santa Fe NM along with a few of his collegues, surgeons etc. It's just the tip of the iceberg that will shake the health care available today in America to it's collective knees. If this exit of long time qualified doctors increases, we'll be looking at the system taking just about anyone from medical schools from just about anywhere, from the minimumly qualified or............?

Cost wise, there will be an intolerable increase for those already paying through the nose making it very difficult for most to continue receiving their present coverage. Mandatory government rationing of health care is almost a certainty regardless of what some in Washington D.C. are saying.

Many think $700-800/month now is high for say, two people, with middle of the road far from premium coverage, along with co-pays both hospital and prescriptions adding another $2-3000/ year for meds, stand by, $700-800 will be a bargain in a few years.

There are pages and pages I could blog on about this, so I must stop now and wait for others to comment. I just can't believe we have 'leadership' such as this in the United States of America today. They in D.C. for the most part are floundering around like netted fishes on the deck of a trawler, what a disgrace.

I am presuming you recognize that there is a problem when 2 healthy people, non smokers in maine, mid life, would like to buy individual health care insurance but can not afford the $25,000 A YEAR it is for the policy, plus another 5k out of pocket/deductions....each year.

but my question to you is, how would you fix our health care problems in this country...what is your solution that would be superior to Obama's and better for all of us?

care

 

[PoliticalChic]

After reading some of the posts on this issue I can see some have a good idea of what is going to happen NOW with this boondoggle health care BILL. Those who passed it don't even have a clue of all that is in it or what the end cost will be.

I can say this, as much as I would hope it would function like a Swiss watch, it will NOT. I know some doctors that have left, retired earlier than they had planned on. And others that are in the process of making the decision to stay or leave. The massive amount of paperwork required now will be increased beyond reasonable proportions along with increases in threats, fines, laws with their mandatory guidelines issued by our most 'esteemed' government educated buttheads.

We are going to lose many talented physicians and specialists I can't even begin to mention.
One Interventional radiologist I know has hung it up and moving to Santa Fe NM along with a few of his collegues, surgeons etc. It's just the tip of the iceberg that will shake the health care available today in America to it's collective knees. If this exit of long time qualified doctors increases, we'll be looking at the system taking just about anyone from medical schools from just about anywhere, from the minimumly qualified or............?

Cost wise, there will be an intolerable increase for those already paying through the nose making it very difficult for most to continue receiving their present coverage. Mandatory government rationing of health care is almost a certainty regardless of what some in Washington D.C. are saying.

Many think $700-800/month now is high for say, two people, with middle of the road far from premium coverage, along with co-pays both hospital and prescriptions adding another $2-3000/ year for meds, stand by, $700-800 will be a bargain in a few years.

There are pages and pages I could blog on about this, so I must stop now and wait for others to comment. I just can't believe we have 'leadership' such as this in the United States of America today. They in D.C. for the most part are floundering around like netted fishes on the deck of a trawler, what a disgrace.

I am presuming you recognize that there is a problem when 2 healthy people, non smokers in maine, mid life, would like to buy individual health care insurance but can not afford the $25,000 A YEAR it is for the policy, plus another 5k out of pocket/deductions....each year.

but my question to you is, how would you fix our health care problems in this country...what is your solution that would be superior to Obama's and better for all of us?

care

Perhaps your version of this thread deleted post #35.

Or is there some reason you have chosen to ignore it?