Women's health care is unnecessary.

[Luissa]

medicare is now denying hormone treatment for those that really need it, and it is also denying Nexium even when other drugs do not help with erosive esophagitis.

Prilosec is pretty much the same thing by the way, also Protonix worked well for my mom. And what hormone therapy are they denying?

it does not work for severe cases, period. She is now on another prescription that they will pay for - can't remember the name- and has had to add zantac as well and is still suffering. She has tried all of it, in other words and nothing but nexium actually takes it away.
Sorry I don't know the name of her hormones.

Nexium and Prilosec are almost exactly the same
Drug companies way of getting around generics.

 

[Dragonlady]

I get such a laugh reading posts by Americans concerned about the health coverage under the ACA.

First and foremost: Your health care is already rationed. The insurance companies are rationing it by refusing tests and treatments, capping your benefits and denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

I live in Canada. When anyone in our house gets sick, we go to our doctor. We picked him, not the government. His office was right across the street from where I worked so it was handy. No co-pays, no paperwork. If the doctor orders test, I go to the lab for tests. Again, no co-pay, no paperwork.

To fill my prescriptions, I have a swipe card from our insurance company (OHIP does NOT pay for prescriptions). There is a $5 co-pay but no paperwork. We pay $25 each per month for OHIP, and $180 per month for our supplemental coverage (prescriptions, dental, and things like chiropracters, physio therapy). The dentist and the pharmacy use the swipe cards to submit claims.

The important thing is that NOBODY comes between me and my doctor. I don't have get pre-approvals for ANYTHING. If I get sick, my focus is on getting better, not filling out insurance claims and fighting over what's covered and what isn't.

 

[dblack]

I get such a laugh reading posts by Americans concerned about the health coverage under the ACA.

First and foremost: Your health care is already rationed. The insurance companies are rationing it by refusing tests and treatments, capping your benefits and denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

That's not really rationing. At least not anything you can compare to government imposed rationing. Currently, until the ACA goes into full effect, we are free to dump insurance that isn't serving us satisfactorily. Short of rebellion or leaving, you can't 'dump' your government.

 

[Katzndogz]

Canadians come here for medical care?

 

[Luddly Neddite]

I get such a laugh reading posts by Americans concerned about the health coverage under the ACA.

First and foremost: Your health care is already rationed. The insurance companies are rationing it by refusing tests and treatments, capping your benefits and denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

I live in Canada. When anyone in our house gets sick, we go to our doctor. We picked him, not the government. His office was right across the street from where I worked so it was handy. No co-pays, no paperwork. If the doctor orders test, I go to the lab for tests. Again, no co-pay, no paperwork.

To fill my prescriptions, I have a swipe card from our insurance company (OHIP does NOT pay for prescriptions). There is a $5 co-pay but no paperwork. We pay $25 each per month for OHIP, and $180 per month for our supplemental coverage (prescriptions, dental, and things like chiropracters, physio therapy). The dentist and the pharmacy use the swipe cards to submit claims.

The important thing is that NOBODY comes between me and my doctor. I don't have get pre-approvals for ANYTHING. If I get sick, my focus is on getting better, not filling out insurance claims and fighting over what's covered and what isn't.

Its amazing to me that so many STILL have not even read the FACTS about ACA.

You're right about insurance companies - they have controlled and decided who gets care and for what conditions and they've gotten very wealthy denying treatment.

Insurance companies control which doctor we can see. If you need to see a specialist whose office is located outside the arbitrary area the insurance has decided on, tough. The insurance company will deny that claim even though you have paid your premium.

ACA mandates that 80 cents of every dollar of premiums paid go to patient care. That's why insurance companies are now paying out refunds. Its also (partly) why doctors will benefit from ACA.

In the past, Americans have had to go to Canada and Mexico for procedures and drugs. The insurance companies put a stop to most of that some years ago. Even $arah Palin went to Canada for health care.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

I get such a laugh reading posts by Americans concerned about the health coverage under the ACA.

First and foremost: Your health care is already rationed. The insurance companies are rationing it by refusing tests and treatments, capping your benefits and denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

That's not really rationing. At least not anything you can compare to government imposed rationing. Currently, until the ACA goes into full effect, we are free to dump insurance that isn't serving us satisfactorily. Short of rebellion or leaving, you can't 'dump' your government.

Obviously, the reality is that US citizens cannot just dump their insurance coverage. Sure, they could but they don't.

But where in the world did you get the idea that ACA forbids choosing/changing your health insurance company?

I think you rw's must have a different ACA than the rest of us.

 

[Katzndogz]

If your insurance company mandates that you see a doctor in the company's network, then you have an HMO. Change policies and get a PPO. You won't have that option with government insurance so enjoy it while you got it.

If your insurance company unfairly denies you coverage, sue them. You won't have that option in government insurance either.

 

[jillian]

If your insurance company mandates that you see a doctor in the company's network, then you have an HMO. Change policies and get a PPO. You won't have that option with government insurance so enjoy it while you got it.

If your insurance company unfairly denies you coverage, sue them. You won't have that option in government insurance either.

if you're getting into government health insurance, it means you don't have ANY.

do you think being in a network is worse than having NO insurance?

AND YOU CAN ALWAYS PAY PRIVATELY!!!

idiota

 

[Big Black Dog]

This is old news. Although I don't expect someone who doesn't have breasts to know about it

Although I don't have breasts, I am very familiar with them.

 

[jillian]

How much lower will rw's go?

katzen - SHAME on you.

The problem is... he is right in the larger picture.

no.. he/or she or whatever has never been right about anything.

hey, syrenn.. say someone's spouse has a great job... with great health coverage and that spouse suddenly loses his job .... along with health coverage. after COBRA runs out (assuming they can afford COBRA) what do you think happens to these people if one or the other of them has a pre-existing condition... absent the ACA. of course?

 

[gwennie]

I get such a laugh reading posts by Americans concerned about the health coverage under the ACA.

First and foremost: Your health care is already rationed. The insurance companies are rationing it by refusing tests and treatments, capping your benefits and denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

I live in Canada. When anyone in our house gets sick, we go to our doctor. We picked him, not the government. His office was right across the street from where I worked so it was handy. No co-pays, no paperwork. If the doctor orders test, I go to the lab for tests. Again, no co-pay, no paperwork.

To fill my prescriptions, I have a swipe card from our insurance company (OHIP does NOT pay for prescriptions). There is a $5 co-pay but no paperwork. We pay $25 each per month for OHIP, and $180 per month for our supplemental coverage (prescriptions, dental, and things like chiropracters, physio therapy). The dentist and the pharmacy use the swipe cards to submit claims.

The important thing is that NOBODY comes between me and my doctor. I don't have get pre-approvals for ANYTHING. If I get sick, my focus is on getting better, not filling out insurance claims and fighting over what's covered and what isn't.

Granted the current insurance companies deny medical care and can decide who gets what kind of care....or none at all.....but govt run health care isn't going to be any better. obama isn't planning our health care system under the same guidelines as Canada......our idiot president has put 12 bureaucrats in charge of the entire healthcare system and they WILL decide who gets what kind of care and who doesn't. It's no secret that they will be rationing care for anyone older than 65 or those in any other group that they find either undesireable or unworthy. In fact, govt run programs that we already have......Medicaid, Medicare, and the VA......ALL of them ration care and many people who need even some basic care often don't get it because either there are no doctors in the area who will take those patients because of the pitiful reimbursement rates or because that type of insurance doesn't cover that particular procedure. Not only that, but those of us who still work will have to foot the entire medical bill for those who don't......hardly a fair deal for those of us who are already struggling to try to take care of our own families, but now face major tax hikes so we can pay for someone else's care as well. The elderly, disabled, and children....those populations are a no brainer to cover....but for those who make a life out of generational welfare, the disability cheats, etc...they are the ones who need to get kicked off the system and forced into the work force. I don't care if they are picking up garbage in the parks or taking care of animals at the humane society or raking leaves/shoveling snow for people in the neighborhood.....they should be doing some sort of actual work to receive welfare benefits. Otherwise it's just plan theft from everyone else's paycheck. So, no, the govt is NOT the answer to our healthcare delivery problems. They suck at managing just about everything. And if they really want to get rid of excessive profit for insurance companies, they can do that without having the govt take over healthcare as a whole. All it is is a power grab by the govt. And if Canada's healthcare system is so great, then there would be absolutely no reason why Candadians would constantly be coming to the US for medical care and there certainly wouldn't be several months long wait times for cancer treatments....particularly for women....among other things.

 

[Katzndogz]

This is old news. Although I don't expect someone who doesn't have breasts to know about it

Can you guarantee I haven't had a double mastectomy?

Have you had a double mastectomy? Have you had regular mammograms or ever discussed mammograms with your doctor?

I'm waiting for you to tell me what I did.

 

[Katzndogz]

The ACA will provide superb coverage, as long as you don't need medical care. If you want vaccinations (some of them not all are covered. The flu shots are covered, shingles shots are not), or have something minor, government health care will suit you just fine. If you are seriously ill, then you will get pallative, or comfort care, until you die, as quickly as possible.

obama told a woman whose mother needed a pacemaker that she shouldn't get a pacemaker, just take a pill.

That's obamacare.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Can you guarantee I haven't had a double mastectomy?

Have you had a double mastectomy? Have you had regular mammograms or ever discussed mammograms with your doctor?

I'm waiting for you to tell me what I did.

How can someone else know what you do not?

 

[jaymiewilson]

This has been a big debate.

 

[henrywilkins]

Its human tendency, when you know that you are suffering from some disease then you tend to feel it more. If you don't know then you are simply happy fighting with it unknowingly.

 

[koshergrl]

Actually, lefties have been trying to force abortion clinics down our throat by pretending pp provides all these life-saving mammograms...the abortions are just a tiny fraction of what they do, sillies...

What a joke. Mammograms are as idiotic as colonoscopies for fun.

 

[Dragonlady]

And if Canada's healthcare system is so great, then there would be absolutely no reason why Candadians would constantly be coming to the US for medical care and there certainly wouldn't be several months long wait times for cancer treatments....particularly for women....among other things.

They're not going to the US for care in large numbers. I personally don't know anyone who has ever gone to the US for medical treatment. I know people who have gone to the US on vacation, gotten sick, sought emergency care, and then returned home for treatment, but that's not the same thing.

A lot of Canadians travel to the US on business or vacations. Thousands of retired Canadians spend the winter in Florida and Arizona. Some of them get sick. The number of Canadians who are treated in the US may seem high, but studies indicate that three quarters of them went to the US for other reasons and happened to need health care while there.

Also there are no waits for cancer treatment for women. This is a flat out lie told to frighten Americans off of the single payer option. Cancer treatment is one of the big success stories in reducing waiting times. Every province in Canada is meeting the government's for prompt cancer treatment. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with colon cancer about 8 years ago. She's in her mid-80's now. She had surgery within a week, and started chemo about 6 weeks later - when she had sufficiently recovered from the surgery. That was followed by radiation as soon as she was sufficiently recovered from the chemo. She's had no problem since. My husband's 90+ year old grandmother had surgery for cancer even though she had advanced Alzheimer's and wasn't not expected to live much longer in any case.

You might want to read this blog written by an right-wing Republican woman who lived in Canada for a time. She was adamantly opposed to government run health care when she moved to Canada:

How I lost my fear of Universal Health Care

Canadians LOVE their health care system, myself included. Love it. It's not perfect by any means and will always be a work in progress, but Canadian will fight to the death to keep it. Several of my American friends have had occasion to be treated in Canada while vacationing or studying here and they have nothing but good things to say about our health care. One is a recently retired nurse who told me she wishes that the US had our system.

Recently there was a vote taken to determine who Canadians believe to be the greatest Canadian who ever lived. The winner was Tommy Douglas and Tommy did not win this honour because he's Kiefer Sutherland's grandfather. He's the man who started Canada's health care system.

 

[Dragonlady]

So, no, the govt is NOT the answer to our healthcare delivery problems. They suck at managing just about everything. And if they really want to get rid of excessive profit for insurance companies, they can do that without having the govt take over healthcare as a whole.

Everything my friends tell me about Medicare and Medicaid leads me to believe you're right. Our health care system works precisely because the government stays out of the delivery end of things and just writes the cheques, leaving doctors and hospitals to make decisions about testing, diagnosis and treatment. Patients get better care because medical staff are able to focus their attention on the patient, not dealing with the approval process and overall costs are reduced because we aren't paying actuaries and underwriters to screen every patient and pre-approve procedures. In Ontario, OHIP's administration costs are 1% of their total budget.

The American system seems to be predicated on the notion that doctors, hospitals and patients are all conspiring to fleece the payer so abuse must be prevented at all costs. As a result, every treatment has the added costs for the time your doctor, hospital or any of their staff spend dealing your insurance company getting treatment approvals. As well, the insurance companies have the added expense of the salaries of the insurance company people who issue the approvals. Then there's expense of the third party billing companies which adds another layer of cost.

Do we have fraud and waste? Yes, but not as much as you think. And the advantage of a single payer system is that it's not hard to spot. A doctor was charged with fraud a few years ago after OHIP accountants looked at his billing records and determined he would have had to be seeing one patient every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a year, to earn that much. From 1990 to 2003 there were 15 prosecutions for fraud and 12 convictions. The money lost is certainly a lot less than the cost of reviewing, questioning and pre-approving every patient treatment that goes on in the province.

The Ontario Conservative Party is currently convinced that there is massive fraud going on at OHIP and the Liberals are ignoring it, but the Conservatives were in power from 1995 to 2002 and they sure didn't find much.

I wish I could remember who said this because I like to give credit where it's due, but someone said that everyone wants health care that's good, fast, and cheap, but that's not possible. You can have two out of those three but you can't have all three. We have health care that's good and it's cheap, but's not fast. You have health care that is good and fast, but it sure ain't cheap.