quote:

ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/health-insurers-warn-premiums-030100423.html

Why we need single-payer health care, not single-payer insurance:

1. Ability to control health care costs

Which does not come from having more people using health care, it comes from being innovative and getting rid of usory costs such as legal bleeding.

2. Cut down on age discrimination in workplace (refusal to hire older people to keep health insurance premiums lower)

No problem. Since older folks need more health care, we can just charge the young kids who have no money even more. Problem solved.

3. No more companies laying off workers or refusing to hire full-time because of health insurance

Health care costs have a nominal (but real) effect on those decisions. Simply, older folks tend to want to (rightly) get paid for their experience. Young people, by comparison, have less of that (experience) and therefore, 'cost" less. Until there are no other options, or those options appear the most economically palatable, health care costs will come in maybe 10th on the list.

4. No insurance companies refusing to pay for lifesaving treatments to increase their profits

Nice concept but ask yourself this....if you could buy a car and know that the final cost could never top 40 grand, that'd be a sweet deal because you know that for a monthly fee of say $650.00 a month, at some point, it'll never cost you a dime more. Now, consider the new rules for insurance companies....it never ends. There is no upper limit. Do you think that that same car would sell for a comfortable $650.00 a month? Uh.....no. Which means that insurance costs are going to rise exponentially over the next 5 - 10 years.

5. No people flooding emergency rooms in states that refuse to expand medicaid

People who can't afford medical care will still be around and they will be the poor, indigent and of course, the young who are going to live forever. They'll either pay the 2 grand or as in the case of the poor or indigent...not a dime. There will be fewer people flooding ER's, but the number will probably not fall by more than 15%.

6. No worry about paying for long term care (nursing home, home health aide, hospice, etc)

Not covered under ObamaCare.

7. No worry about greedy health insurance companies jacking up premiums

See above. It's just simple math.

8. No more wishing every day I had been born in another country (for me at least)

I'm glad as hell I was born here.....ObamaCare didn't change that at all.

quote:

ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl
8. No more wishing every day I had been born in another country (for me at least).

quote:

ORIGINAL: farglebargle

Universal Medicare. Problem solved.

quote:

ORIGINAL: LizDeluxe

quote:

ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl
8. No more wishing every day I had been born in another country (for me at least).

If I felt this way I would be packing. It's the one item on your list you have control over.

quote:

ORIGINAL: MrRodgers
Sorry cybersluts but once again, in the US the subject is not about health care but about money. All one needs to do is look at all of the sites that describe the systems in Japan, Germany, France and Canada.
Are they perfect ? No, no system is perfect...whatever that is but, all of those countries, they offer everything US patients have and more, all at a cost of about 1/2 what Americans pay and for over 90% of society...employed or not.
Until we get that pesky thing of capital knowing no limit (g...d) out of our health care system, we in the US will continue to pay twice as much and die 3-4 years younger.
One would think that the concept of adding the young who up until now, have been paying nothing and only use emergency services that others pay for and including (mandating) that they pay...the group gets larger and healthier that would reduce monthly premiums for the rest.
NOT in America. No siree...we are talking price-fixing and a huge windfall in profits under Obama care.
One wonders why Americans somehow still expect anything else.

quote:

Key findings

• Older adults (aged 75 and over), non-Hispanic black persons, poor persons, and persons with Medicaid coverage were more likely to have had at least one emergency department (ED) visit in a 12-month period than those in other age, race, income, and insurance groups.
  
• Among the under-65 population, the uninsured were no more likely than the insured to have had at least one ED visit in a 12-month period.
  
• Persons with Medicaid coverage were more likely to have had multiple visits to the ED in a 12-month period than those with private insurance and the uninsured.
  
• ED visits by the uninsured were no more likely to be triaged as nonurgent than visits by those with private insurance or Medicaid coverage.
  
• Persons with and without a usual source of medical care were equally likely to have had one or more ED visits in a 12-month period.*

quote:

Respondents were asked "Is there a place that (you/child's name) goes when (you/he/she) is sick or you need advice about (your/his/her) health?" Respondents were defined as having no usual source of health care if they answered "no" to this question or answered "yes" and responded "emergency room" to the question "What kind of place (is it/do you go to most often) -a clinic, doctor's office, emergency room, or some other place?"

• A Conservative interpretation of the US Constitution
  
• Personal Responsibility
  
• Help for the truly needy
  
• Limited Government
  
• Consumption Tax (non-profit charities and food exempt)
  

quote:

CDC ER Visit report (May 2010)

quote:

ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

quote:

CDC ER Visit report (May 2010)

Your report uses 2007 numbers.... bet its almost doubled by now.

• A Conservative interpretation of the US Constitution
  
• Personal Responsibility
  
• Help for the truly needy
  
• Limited Government
  
• Consumption Tax (non-profit charities and food exempt)
  

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail

Emergency Department Visitors and Visits: Who Used the Emergency Room in 2007?

Tamyra Carroll Garcia, Amy B. Bernstein, and Mary Ann Bush
Page one.  Perhaps a reading of the sources before you post them as citations for some view (in or out of context) might minimize these class of embarrassments. 

• A Conservative interpretation of the US Constitution
  
• Personal Responsibility
  
• Help for the truly needy
  
• Limited Government
  
• Consumption Tax (non-profit charities and food exempt)
  

quote:

You seem to think I'm embarrassed about something? This is a CDC report from May of 2010. I'm thinking it was relevant, no?