sicko by MM - Page 2

tricia keegan · 02-02-2008, 06:28 PM

I love our universal health system...during chemo/rads.surgery I only had to concentrate on ME!!
Everything was covered, and I still had a hard time ..I shudder to think what some people go through that don't have this, I literally only had to to worry about the stress and side effects of tx rather than the cost.
I've also been paid approx one half or more of my salary to stay home since dx in '05! Even the arimidex is free!
In saying this someone is paying for me now, but I paid for them while working for years..

sarah · 02-03-2008, 04:20 AM

I think it's tragic that the USA doesn't have universal health care and it is also dangerous in case of infectious diseases running rampant. The health insurance business is so lucrative and rich it can spend billions fighting universal health. Universal health does NOT mean you can't choose your doctor and in the USA an insurance company can decide what is necessary and what they will pay for and which doctors you can go to. Of course the insurance companies can find all the horror stories and stress them but what about all the good stories and what about all the horror stories about health insurance in the USA. and why can't Medicare bargain for the price of drugs when foreign countries can? who prevents that? and why does the American taxpayer pay the health insurance of Congress??? Congress makes more money than the median taxpayer so should pay its own way that way they would be a little more interested in helping with this very critical issue. it would be fair, safer for the population in general and for those of you who want extra perks, you can just pay for them. sounds reasonable to me. Nothing stops me from leaving France and going to the USA, if I wanted to - I don't, and have treatment and pay for it there. It's not like you're banned. It's the old Fox news scare tactic. I can't believe anyone would be against universal health except an insurance company. I have friends in the USA, who have worked all their lives and now find they can't afford health insurance in the US and have to hang on until 66 for medicare! I hope some day that California will vote it in (too soon now) and they will prove how well it works. In California, they forced insurance companies to pay for Mammos and reconstruction surgery (some states still don't) and the insurance companies threatened to leave the state, the state said fine, leave, we'll create our own and guess what, the insurances companies blinked and they pay for it. Doesn't it make sense that diagnosing someone earlier will cost everyone (particularly the taxpayer) less than if they have to go into the emergency ward and intensive care????? I speak as a cancer patient, a doctor's daughter and someone who has been treated in the USA with supposedly great insurance and in France. So I feel I have a well rounded view and I vote for Universal Health care. It just makes sense.

chrislmelb · 02-08-2008, 03:34 AM

I willl be very interested to see the MM Sicko as i can never quite work out your system. It seems that if you aren't in a job with good health plan you are stuffed! Over here only some companies offer health plans for their workers. We have the option to pay for private health cover but i don't have it due to expense. If you are on a wage over $50,000 as a single person you get a penalty of some sort or if you are a couple on over $100,000. So basically those people take out health cover. I on the other hand have had my all my treatment on the 'system'. I had my surgery by a reputable surgeon in a public hospital with included having further surgery to have my implant changed over. And then i had my ovaries out too. I had all my chemo at the other public hospital and received all my medication for free. There are waits in the system but not if you need immediate treatment.
So basically if you were unemployed and living in a caravan or worse you could get treatment for your illness. It is my belief that in the US you can't??? Very interesting.