What to tell someone afraid of government deciding our medical care.

[SmileyRose]

The fact is THEY ALREADY DO!!!!

Medicare is government. Medicare standards for care are what nearly every insurance company uses to determine what treatments they will cover and which they won't. Medicare pricing also is the standard insurance companies use to determine their "allowable charges". It's not always exact, but it's the basis. Your state also uses Medicare standards to pass laws that require the medical insurance companies that operate within the state to function they way they do (as in Georgia passing a law specifically requiring insurance companies to pay for reconstructive surgery after breast removal for cancer).

Between medicare, medicaid, state insurance programs, community funded indigent care at local hospitals, the VA and active duty military care, government workers medical care - probably almost half the citizens of this country are directly on government medical care. And it determines what the rest of us who are lucky enough to have medical insurance can get.

This fear of government paid medical care is unreasonable and not based on reality. No one is talking about government clinics. We are talking about government paid, not for profit medical care, provided by private providers (yes you can pick your own doctor just like you do now) that anyone in America can access if they need it. There's nothing to be afraid of.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Exactly!! Why do Americans so easily swallow the Repuke Kool-Aid ideas about

socialized medicine being bad, when our country is already dying from our bad capitalistic health care?

[Crazy Dave]

3. Plus the big lie about how bad medical care is in Canada, UK, France, etc.

I know people from nearly every continent in the world and not only do they get great health care in their own countries, they pray to God nothing happens to them here on vacation. We have a family down the street from Mexico who goes home during the holidays and gets all their medical, dental and prescription needs taken care of during that time.

If a poor country like Cuba can afford it, so can we.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. Exactly. Americans always have their tongues out ready to lick that Republican Kool-Aid

Why, is what I have yet to find out.

[SmileyRose]

5. Cuba

is not the world's policeman. If I remember anything from civics class a million years ago it was the guns vs butter argument - that being a superpower sucks a lot of resources up that can't be used for other purposes.

All that said, if we can afford ipods, plasma TVs, $5 cups of coffee etc, then we can surely afford basic medical care for everyone -- especially when we are wasting so many medical care dollars now that for about the same money we can give everyone access to basic medical care and prescriptions.

[elocs]

12. 91% of Canadians like their healthcare system:

http://blogs.e-rockford.com/sweenyreport/category/canada-poll

U.S. politicians — Republican variety — love to disparage Canada’s national health care system with the fact-free observation that Canadians come here to get vital operations so they don’t have to wait in line in Canada.

Because I’m a frequent visitor to Canada, and I actually talk to real people there, I’ve replied to these Republicans that Canadians I’ve talked to say they wouldn’t trade their health care for anything else, especially America’s roll-of-the-dice nonsystem of private insurance — “maybe we’ll cover you for that, maybe we won’t.”

Now I have data to back up these informal conversations: In a new, bi-national opinion poll done by Canada’s CTV television network and the national newspaper Globe & Mail, 91 percent of Canadians said they preferred their national health care system over America’s pseudo-private system.

Ninety-One percent. In the world of scientific opinion polling, that’s about as unanimous as you ever get.

Also, 45 percent of Americans surveyed preferred Canada’s system, and 42 percent preferred to stick with what we’ve got.

[Lasher]

2. I have no problem with the government making these decisions.

It's better that having them made by insurance companies.

[jody]

6. Why then is Obama signing into law programs for Comparative Effectiveness Research?

Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER)

I understand UK's NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) uses a Quality-adjusted life years model to determine whether a patient receives a given procedure, i.e. a cost benefit analysis.

I'm not sure of the threshold, it could be 20k-30k pounds per year, that is UK would pay that amount for a procedure that would add one year to a person's life.

[SmileyRose]

7. This is not new.

I have no idea if the naming for the program is new, but the government has been determining what treatments work and will be covered under Medicare, and which don't, which won't be covered under Medicare for decades. Medicare will not cover a heart bypass on a 90 yr old with end stage cancer now because someone somewhere has determined that is not an effective use for medical care dollars.

[biopowertoday]

8. "Best Practices"--research based has been used for years.

[jody]

10. I did not say it was new. My point is under any universal health plan there will be limited funds.

OP asked "What to tell someone afraid of government deciding our medical care. The fact is THEY ALREADY DO!!!!"

The answer ignores the fact that under any new health care plan, there will be greater emphasis on health equity and IMO that means implementing some type of cost-effectiveness model using the quality-adjusted life year.

I found most interesting the thoughts presented in papers at a recent conference,
"Toward Health Equity and Patient-Centeredness: Integrating Health Literacy, Disparities Reduction, and Quality Improvement. Workshop Summary"

[MindPilot]

9. "It's a good thing that you 'keep government out of health-care' types weren't around

when we were eradicating polio."

That's what I tell 'em.

[elocs]

11. Practically speaking, my healthcare provider already tells me where I may go for care.

Since they are a hospital/clinic they want me to go to them, their network. For more money I could go outside the network, but in real life I cannot afford that. In the past I had to give up my doctor of 30 years because he was out of network.

I have some Republican friends who scream about socialized medicine and like most they are clueless as to what "socialized" really is. I told them that we already have socialized medicine and it is called VA Healthcare where the government owns and runs the hospitals and clinics and everyone there works for them. Since they are retired and are under Medicare they are the beneficiaries of a single payer health plan and the government is the single payer. Coincidentally, Canada's healthcare system is called "Medicare" and like our Medicare it is not socialized medicine, but single payer.