If I Didn't Have to Worry about Private Health Insurance

[Joanne98]

I'd see the doctor more often.

I'd have all the Dr. Recommended tests done, without worrying about not being able to get into a plan because of pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure or high cholesterol -- yes, yes, I held off on those because my wife's job was in jeopardy last year and I knew I'd have to buy private insurance some day.

I wouldn't worry about losing our house and becoming homeless if one of us got seriously sick.

I wouldn't put off medical concerns for fear that it would destroy my family financially...

...And I wouldn't feel stupid about going in about something that turned out to be nothing at all, while having to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket just to have a doctor glance at me.

Muskegon Critic's diary :: ::
If I didn't have to worry about private health care...unemployment in the family would be a lot less stressful.

If I didn't have to worry about private health care, my wife's second pregnancy would have been more joyful and less stressful. And the new baby wouldn't come into my hands with my worrying how we're going to afford to pay for the delivery.

I wouldn't have to make call after call after call about why this or that wasn't covered or reimbursed, only to get half responses, put on hold for a half hour, and then just dismissed out of hand.

I wouldn't have to appeal and be denied my claim for coverage because the private insurance company pulled a bait and switch.

I wouldn't have to meet with a parade of health insurance agents who each reassure me that they're working for ME, and each confidently tell me that their insurance will follow through on its promises...despite the small print.

Continued>>>
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/13/731018/-If-I-Didnt-Have-to-Worry-about-Private-Health-Insurance

[annabanana]

1. We might go on a real vacation one day.....n/t

[ejpoeta]

12. it sounds like people in countries that have universalhealthcare

(and more vacation time)go on vacations. in sicko, i believe there was a couple that went around collecting sand from their vacations. i don't go on vacations. we went to florida last year, but it was because my husband's father was sick. it was NOT a vacation. the most we get is if we can go up to watertown for the 4th of july. i wonder what it would be like to actually be able to take a vacation.... a real life vacation!

[Lorien]

18. Same here. No vacation at all since 2000

this is no way to live. No way to live at all!

[leftstreet]

2. K&R

[FiveGoodMen]

3. K&R

[nichomachus]

4. When I was afraid of getting laid off

I was talking to my insurance agent and mentioned I might soon be looking for private health insurance. He told me to go to my doctor, have him take me off all medications and put a note in my file that I no longer needed any of them.

He said, otherwise you won't get any kind of insurance you can afford.

Two-plus years later, I was looking for private health insurance. As it was, I was turned down -- for having hay fever. Turns out that is an automatic disqualification.

[AllieB]

8. Turned down for having hay fever?

:wtf:

That would probably disqualify 70% of folks-including myself-who take medications for allergies. What a crock. This has got to stop!

[nichomachus]

9. Yup -- and the clerk in the office was the one who told me

She said they wouldn't bother submitting the 27-page form I had to fill out. She showed me the book -- Hay Fever - automatic disqualification. They could, however, put me into a plan that would have meant out-of-pocket expenses of $16,500 a year if I ever used the plan. As I was unemployed at the time, that seemed a little steep.

[Oregone]

5. Im so used to rationing my own health care...

that since Ive been on single payer, Ive rarely gone to the doctor. My family, on the other hand, has utilized it.

The fear about health care and personal finance in America is disheartening (insured or not).

[progressoid]

6. "I'd see the doctor more often."

Hell's bells, I can't get into see a regular doctor now. I'm lucky if I can see a PA let alone an actual doctor.

Where is this mythical land where patients get to see doctors?

[izquierdista]

7. Cuba

[nichomachus]

11. I don't mind seeing a PA or an NP

I find they spend more time with you, actually listen to you, and are fully capable of first-line treatment.

If you go in with a rash, you're going to get one of two creams -- a PA can guess which one as easily as a doctor. "Try this. Let me know if it works."

If you go in with a sore throat, they're both going to take a swab and prescribe an anti-biotic. "Try this. Let me know if it works."

Why should you wait to see a doctor for that?

In fact, in some places in Europe, both of those can be done in the pharmacy for just the price of the meds. Pharmacist are trained to make those low-level decisions.

[progressoid]

14. Didn't work so well for me.

3 trips to the PA and $4000 worth of needless tests and no answers. Eventually the pain gets so bad he decides I should see the doctor. Duh.

$120 office visit and the Doc figures it out in 10 minutes.

I don't see doctors for sore throats or rashes. But if I did, I probably wouldn't mind seeing a PA for that. But it's hard to see or talk to a Doctor for anything.

[nichomachus]

15. That's the jar-lid effect

The doctor was probably able to figure it out so quickly because of the tests and workups done by the PA.

It's like when I try to open the jar lid and then hand it to my partner and he pops it right off. He thinks it's because of his superior strength. In know it's because the jar lid was weakened by everything I did.

There's a good chance that the doctor would have gone through the same workup as the PA did. That's how diagnosing works. You start with the most likely things and then rule them out one at a time. You probably would have had the same $4000 worth of tests -- which aren't really worthless because they tell you what it isn't.

If you come in with chest pain, you're going to get an EKG. That may show you're not having a heart attack. It doesn't mean the test was "worthless" -- only that they had ruled out the most likely cause. Then, they will do other tests. They too may show nothing. Again, it doesn't mean they're worthless -- just that they're running down their list of most likely causes and ruling them out one at a time.

[progressoid]

17. Nope.

In fact, I asked him about the other tests and he fumbled around until he realized his office had ordered them. He tried to apologize but didn't have much time. In fact after he scribbled a prescription, he told me to Google my condition. Seriously. Google. Then off to the next patient.

The idea that we would all be able to see a doctor and get better health care is a great idea. We just need to import more doctors from India first.

[ejpoeta]

13. LOL! i see the doctor, because i am pregnant. for everything else it's PAs

and only PAs.

[Wednesdays]

19. "Where is this mythical land where patients get to see doctors?"

There once was a place where the doctor came to see you.

I remember such a place.

[TNDemo]

10. It would promote entrepreneurship

since people don't want to start their own business because of healthcare insurance costs. It would be a good business move.

[PHIMG]

16. It's time to get rid of the MIDDLEMEN...we don't need private health insurers!

Bloody Hands. Private Insurers make self-interested and arbitrary claim and coverage denials relegating many to premature death.

Restrict Choice. Private Insurers restrict medical consumers’ choice in medical providers, inhibiting the proper function of the free market in medical services and enabling bad providers to thrive.

Adds Complexity. Over 1,200 Private Insurance bureaucracies complicate and impede the practice of medicine with differing and often conflicting billing and administrative policies.

Drains Resources. Nearly 30% of the healthcare spending funneled through health insurance middlemen is wasted on profit taking, underwriting, executive compensation and other unnecessary expense and waste.

Squanders Expertise. Our current health care model diverts providers' attention from "how to heal" to "how to get compensated" by the shameless insurers.

Manipulates the Media. Private Insurers exert a level of editorial control over the media via advertising purchases. Corrupts Our Politics. Private Insurers manipulate elected officials with campaign donations, plum corporate jobs, and an army of lobbyists.

Brainwashes the Populace. Private Insurers use paid media to lie directly to the populace, leveraging fear tactics and other highly sophisticated propaganda campaigns in order to evade accountability for the consequences of their actions and protect the status quo.

Restricts Debate. Private Insurers’ media and political operatives dishonestly malign genuine reform as “politically infeasible” in order to limit the debate to industry-blessed half measures.

Private Health Insurance Must Go! Reform proposals that do not remove private insurers from our healthcare system are morally unacceptable, fiscally irresponsible, and unsustainable even in the near term. These “mandate and subsidize” proposals are not well meaning attempts at realism by so-called centrists. They are a sinister attempt to marginalize the opportunity our country has at this defining moment to sideline the private insurers and move to a healthcare system that works – publicly funded and privately provided Medicare for all, as implemented in HR 676 – The United States National Health Care Act.

[area51]

20. All excellent points.

They exist solely to make a profit and ration healthcare.

Today's forecast: 273 deaths due to lack of healthcare in the U.S.

Questions on single-payer healthcare? Get facts here.