Right now I feel my healthcare is a privilege. My husband’s employer isn’t required to provide healthcare, but it does. And it is a very good plan. Working for years in the medical insurance industry, I know that healthcare insurance is really expensive. Many people feel it is overpriced and that the insurance companies are making a huge profit, but actually the majority of insurance companies lose money on the healthcare side (the moneymakers for insurance companies are homeowners, life, automobile, credit insurance and personal liability such as dram shop and malpractice). The government acutally hires out administration of Medicare and other Federal insurance. And these organizations administer it according to the way congress passes laws on what to pay under for instance Medicare. These Congressional people are the ones who control what gets paid and what doesn’t. I would much prefer to be under a program like Canada or the UK. My dream is to have everyone covered. I know that is far fetched for right now so for a start I feel there should be price controls put on the doctors and hospitals and other providers which would control what can be charged for healthcare. Right now these providers enter into contracts with HMO’s, PPO’s and others which are for much reduced charges for the specific medical service. Sometimes these reductions are 30.%.40% or even 50% reductions. Why not begin with having lowered charges so that everyone benefits. Believe me, the enactment of a national healthcare plan will not be easy and will not come fast. There are just too many things involved. People are much better off with insurance oriented specific organizations doing the administration rather than the Feds stepping in and doing this. Neither political candidate’s plan is truly a national healthcare plan. These two proposals are biscuits without the gravy. In my opinion, by far the Obama plan would be less costly, cover more people by virtue of an employer tax break and benefit more people. Even though some people think McCain’s will give them a windfall, people should study this carefully before being totally gung-ho. Many might be left out in the cold with no healtchcare at all, and they definitely will never see the $5000 tax credit in their hand as cold cash.

I voted for other as I think it’s all three of the choices. I think it’s a “right” in the sense that as a country we have an obligation to see that health care is accessible for people who want it. I think children should be insured across the board. I think as individuals it’s our responsibility to make choices that put us in the best possible position to insure ourselves. I think it’s a priveledge of a country and a society that has wealth. I don’t believe it’s a government responsibility to simply provide health insurance for everyone. I don’t. Anymore than i thought it was a government or societal responsibility to make sure that “anyone” can own a home. I think there are things that need to be worked for on some level. However… I do think it’s also the responsibility of people like Wal-mart and McDonalds and Denny’s and Circle K’s and the Widget factory down the street to provide accesible insurance for their employees. I don’t think there should be a company anywhere in this country whose owners or shareholders or whatever are getting rich whose employees don’t have health care. And by affordable health care I don’t mean that they offer it but the employees portion of pay is such a big piece of their wages they can’t afford it. That’s Wal-mart’s plan. They pay virtually nothing in terms of wages, then offer a health care plan that takes out something like 90 dollars a pay check for people to participate in. Ridiculous. I think our laws need to be reformed to make practicing medicine more affordable for physicians and hospitals. I think that’s another government responsibility. I think insurance companies themselves need to have their asses kicked and their goals readjusted FOR THEM. But I do not think that tax payers should simply foot the bill for a government run health care system. And… I don’t think either candidate at this point has a truly viable health care plan for this country.

This is a tough question. Health care is absolutely vital and the cost is out of control. Insurance companies and drug manufacturers make big money while average folks struggle desperately if a major illness occurs. I have no solutions to provide better, lower cost healthcare. Somebody more knowledgable about the options needs to push for changes to benefit all of us…rich and poor.

The only way to lower premiums and eliminate pre-existing limitations is to expand (greatly) the risk pool for the insurance companies. That means that literally everyone must be covered and share in costs. All employers and employees need to assist with premium costs Medicaid must be eliminated. Medicare and all special plans, such as the child coverages in many states could also be eliminated. Save administrative costs so that doctors and hospitals can lower costs At present the hospitals, through their emergency rooms, are going broke because so many can’t, and often just won’t, pay medical bills. Property taxes go up to help the community hospitals from closing. Most treatment must be given via a doctors office… not the ER Perhaps an HMO type where patients elect a local doctor and the doctor receives a monthly fee. It’s becoming more difficult to find doctors that will take any medical plan due to reimbursement levels, especially medicaid and increasingly medicare One last thing must include education for the citizens. It is truly amazing what they consider to be an emergency. If they are not required to make at least a co-pay, they will continue to go to ER’s with colds that still cannot be cured.

Decent health care is a right, a privilege and a responsibility of the individual to do as much as he/she can to stay healthy. I started medical office management in 1976, and I can say that medical care has changed so much since then. Back then, the doctor made the decision on patient care, with the patient’s best interest at heart. Doctors weren’t under the microscope of the insurance industry, and if they had a medicaid patient that needed an expensive procedure or treatment for a chronic illness, they would take what they could and write off the rest of the balance. Back office nurses and assistants were not necessarily aware of the insurance/payment arrangements we had with the patient, so that all of the patients received equal care. When the Medicare laws changed as technology developed, and the Diagnostic Codes and Procedural Codes became the criteriae for what kind of coverage and what would be paid for, medical care changed dramatically. And, what most people don’t understand, as medical insurance evolved the doctors lost their automony with their patients. I can’t tell you how many temper tantrums I have seen from doctors when someone on the telephone tells them that they are no longer allowed to conduct a test or a procedure because it’s either not covered or “an unnecessary” procedure. A good example is a routine chest Xray. Back in the old days, a doctor would order one for patients—say over 40—, especially if they were smokers or there was heart dx. running in the family. Then, insurance companies nixed them. I once asked my personal physician, when is it indicated to get a chest xray…when you are coughing up blood? Medical care nowdays has become so impersonal, both at the expense of the patient, but also the doctor. Most doctors get very frustrated because they don’t have the automony to run their practices any other way than the gov’t. and the insurance companies dictate. And, most doctors are very serious about the Hippocratic Oath; first, do no harm… At the same time, it is incumbent for us to be responsible for our own bodies. If you smoke, quit. Drink? go to AA. Weight problems?…lose it. Very difficult challenges to be sure, but it is a fact that if we could develop a way to practice preventitive medicine, it would save billions, not only in insurance dollars, but also in hours and dollars in the workforce. For those of us that have terrible medical conditions, illnesses, chronic diseases; those things that happen that we have no control over, it is inexcusable that our rankings are so low as compared to other industrialized countries. Other countries take care of their sickest citizens, and there must be a way we can too. Because they have decided that a healthy nation is a more productive nation, a happier nation and a wealthier nation. As far as children’s medical care, that’s a whole other subject. They have no choices; they are at the mercy of the rest of us. There are ways to do universal health care systems that will benefit this country. We need to look at all options. But, I can say that the best medical care we ever had in this country was in the days before the insurance companies were running things.

I have a question…If a company offers lower healthcare plans to those that need it and to the point where most can afford it…Great awesome, BUT if 30% of those people become ill and the cost of Dr’s visits and tests wouldnt that bankrupt that Insurance Company? So its more than just giving someone health care…Dont we need to check at costs of stuff also? My family owns a lot of pharmacies and trust me, sometimes its cheaper to pay cash for your Rx then it is to run it through your insurance company…Ask before you pay, you never know…