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Health Care Survey


Uncle Joe

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I did. :thumbsup:

I'm very annoyed with my employers. Everyday there is a new email in my inbox encouraging me to "voice my opinion" (which is very different from UHG's) . My issues with healthcare, and my employer's ideas about healthcare are very different, and I hate that they ask me almost daily for my "anonymous" viewpoint. :P

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As a UK citizen, I enjoy access to free health care at the point of need, thanks to our National Health Service. No-one needs to endure illness or go to an early grave on account of being unable to afford their Health Care Premiums. You feel ill? You're treated; promptly and professionally. Bob's yer uncle. Occasionally, you might be on a waiting list for a non-urgent operation, bu, by and large, waiting-lists for essential treatment / operations are a thing of the past.

Moreover, although, as an adult I have to pay a nominal amount for NHS dental treatment, my children have all their dental (and optical) treatment free.

It's great, is our National Health Service. :)

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We have a good health care in Spain, though the waiting lists are very common. I can't complain cause I'm a heathy person and I rarely need them; it' s totally free -except for teeth and eyes- but my employers take a part of my salary for the health care.

Yet I've had a private insurance all my life till Februray, when I wasn't able to pay for it anymore.

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Our health care system in Canada (and there are some minor variations between provinces) is similar to the NHS in Britain. No one goes without medical treatment because of an inability to pay for it. Most health services are covered. Exceptions include dental care (except for the elderly), chiropractic (in most provinces)and physiotherapy (in a few provinces).

Our system, however, is not perfect. There are long waiting lists to see specialists. There are long waiting lists for elective surgeries like joint replacements. There are not nearly enough nursing homes for elderly patients, many of whom languish for months in hopital beds while they wait for spaces to open up in nursing homes. Couples who have been married for decades are often split up, because there are not two spaces available at the same nursing home.

While I respect Obama for his attempt to reform the patently unfair health care system in the United States, I think his current plan is ill-considered and has numerous flaws. And I resent the implication that anyone who disagrees with Obama over his health care reforms, is motivated by racism.

And with all due respect to BF, I have several friends in Britain who are not quite as enthusiastic about the NHS as he is.

I would like to see Canada adopt a system more like the one they have in Sweden where the government pays for most health care services even if they are provided by a private hospital or other private medical facility. Sometimes, private facilities can more cost effectively provide medical treatment than public facilities. Unfortunately, anytime a politician in Canada even mentions the word private in relation to health care, he is pilloried in the media by "health care advocates".

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in my immediate circle of family and friends, those who have private health care through employers don't want a change, and feel that any reform will only serve to feed those who already leech off the system for other things (welfare, food stamps, etc.) and for illegal aliens to take advantage without having to pay in taxes, because they're illegal. They're also folks who have never been forced to forego health care due to costs, when it came to a choice between living under a roof or on a sidewalk.

whereas, those who do not have coverage, or have coverage through the state, are heartily FOR a reform, because they appreciate the struggle of the under- or un-insured who need care but cannot get it, for reasons (plus plus plus) stated above.

Someone very close to me has insurance through his employer. It costs him minimally per paycheck for this coverage. His sons and his sister are without health care (all are adults) because they cannot afford it and their employers do not offer it, or they work part-time. His sister went through a heinous time a year ago having to await tests for possible liver cancer, due to the fact she couldn't pay and had to save her money until she could afford the tests before she could obtain them.

still, my friend is wholly against reform. Not because he doesn't want his sister and his sons covered, but he says it's because of the illegal alien and dreg factor - that our taxes will go up exponentially for those who bleed the system and who don't pay in. He's willing to forego the health of his sons and his sister if it means taking on the added financial burden of anchor babies and bottom feeders.

It's a clearly defined line - those who have and those who have not. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

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MUSICAL INTERLUDE:

"Nervous tension, man's invention,

Is the biggest killer that's around today

Let the tension out or it will build and build inside

And strike you down some day

Nervous tension, man's invention

Is the biggest waste of human energy

Let the tension out, or it will surely kill

And that will be a tragedy

Valium helps you for a while

But somehow valium seems to bring me down

There's no pill I can recommend where side effects

Aren't guaranteed to send you round the bend

You gotta let out the tension

With a little bit of exercise

Loosen up your muscles

And feel the knots in your body untie

We oh we oh

Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah

Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah

It sure beats quaaludes

It sure beats cocaine

Even Freud recommends it

Cos it relieves the strain

Altogether now

Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah

Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah

Some people say it sends you deaf

Some people say it sends you blind

Some people say it makes you old

some people say it blows your mind

But I say

If it's good for your health

It's good for your mind

If it keeps you together

It's really all right

We oh we oh

Oh c'mon, kick the cat

Oh oh oh oh it's the state of the national health

Oh oh oh oh Blame it on the national health

Nervous tension, nervous tension, nervous tension

Nervous tension. nervous tension, nervous tension

Nervous tension, man's invention

Is the biggest killer that's around

Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah

Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah an

Valium helps you for a while

But somehow valium seems to bring me down

There's no pill I can recommend where side effects

Aren't guaranteed to drive you round the bend

I say I say

Oh oh oh oh it's good for your health

Keeps you together, it's the state of the national health

Oh oh oh oh Blame it on the national health

Oh oh oh oh it's the state of the national health

Oh oh oh oh ah ah ah ah"

:afro: :afro: :afro: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon:

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in my immediate circle of family and friends, those who have private health care through employers don't want a change

I can understand being satisfied with the current state of employer paid helth insurance. But what will they do when the costs rise so much that employers are forced to charge employees lots more for the insurance or if the employers are forced to drop the coverage altogether? Sadly that is the likely course facing many in the next 3-5 years (if not sooner).

I don't like people who are lazy and "leech" off of the system but I feel for the impoversihed and elderly who cannot afford health care. How do we take care of our own in America? Or should it be "every man for himself"?

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I am lucky. I currently have health, dental and eye insurance through work. Even though I may lose my job in a few months' time, I can be insured through my husband's employer. With the state the economy's in, there are a lot of people who lost their insurance when they got laid off: people who have worked hard, been good citizens, etc., and may not have an employed spouse to rely on. What should they do if they get sick?

I don't like the idea of people milking the system either, but people milk the insurance companies just as much as people milk welfare, etc. Nothing's perfect and nothing's permanent, but if you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got.

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I have what some would refer to as "Cadillac health care." I get whatever choice of doctor, dentist, procedure, meds, etc. I'd require. This wasn't always the case, though, even when I used to work for a medical clinic and hospital. When I was in the electronic medical records section, I'd file away a loooooot of denial of medical service ranging from something as simple as going to the wrong doctor to get a flu shot all the way up to cancer treatment. Oh, and wait lists and long lines are just as common here in SoCal as they are in any 3rd world hospital/clinic (truthfully, they're mostly packed with illegal aliens who seek medical treatment who then leave without paying... thus saddling everyone else with higher fee rates) :beatnik:

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