Another point of view

[mcgeiger]

This is something I feel strongly on, so I'm kind of putting it on there, every where. It may explain some of my strong feelings on the Gardisil thread a few weeks ago, and why it IS a big deal even if people are being proactive. Even in (supposedly) monogamous marriages/relationships from the time of 18. And why it IS a big deal for those of us employed with small business.

Also, if any one wants to argue with me about numbers and such, bring your sources to the table. There will be no acceptance of half truths, FOX news, or Rush Limbaugh as facts. Specifically jmarie I do not want to hear about your 3 different friends with their half cousins that got the procedure done for a bushel of apples while hauling their concealed weapons around their kitchens in their lost pots.

http://upsidedownvet.blogspot.com.au...alk-about.html

[leebee]

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I'm sorry you've had to go through this. I figured you had a history based on your comments on the other thread, and I wish you didn't.

I also appreciate your willingness to put your story in some really useful context. I intend to send it to several people that may, just MAY, finally "get it."

Just, really, thanks.

[MaryMac]

Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. I'm sure you thought a long time before writing this in your blog, but I think that many can benefit from reading it.

Happy to hear you're doing well now!

[ecau]

I am glad you are somewhere that allows you to concentrate on your health and not how you are going to pay for it. I have lived in Canada for almost 10 years now. We didn't move here for health insurance. We are academics and always had good coverage, and most likely still would. There are issues with the Canadian system. Sometimes there are long waits for things. I have always been fairly liberal, but I am certain my attitude toward universal health coverage has evolved because of living here. I now have a very difficult time understanding how people can view health care as something you only deserve if x, y, or z are true. My daughter is only 6, but I can't imagine what it is like for parents of young adults who don't have good health coverage.

The big issue is that health care costs are high and rising. This is true no matter the system of finance. Here, the province decides what is covered. Every now and then there is a case of someone who doesn't qualify for something or other and sometimes the publicity changes that - I guess this is what some people would refer to as death panels. BUT, the same thing happens in the US with insurance companies. Even if you have coverage, the insurance companies can decide what they will cover. Personally, I would prefer the rationing to happen at the provincial level and not with the insurance company. AND, that isn't even touching on the fact that so many people don't even have insurance.

[MaryMorph]

Great post. Thanks for so clearly describing that universal health care is not all about rationing, but is instead about treating the patient.

Good luck with your continued treatment.

mary jo

[Leslie Ferguson]

Thank you for your eloquent post. Blessings and best wishes for your recovery.
Les

[Jewel]

Great post.. and I'll be thinking about it for quite some time. Good luck Kelly, we'll be thinking about you!

[amarante]

BUT, the same thing happens in the US with insurance companies. Even if you have coverage, the insurance companies can decide what they will cover. Personally, I would prefer the rationing to happen at the provincial level and not with the insurance company. AND, that isn't even touching on the fact that so many people don't even have insurance.

This is the part in which I can't wrap my mind around the disconnect that people have with respect to health insurance.

Satisfaction rates are far higher with Medicare which is a single payer system than with private for profit health insurance.

I don't understand how anyone would rather trust a corporation that is beholden to shareholders and pays huge wages and bonuses to their high level executives. There was a reason "scandal" in California because of the bonuses workers received when they were able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions when claims were submitted. The pre-existing conditions were generally NOT for the condition needing treatment.

[ClaraB]

I'm sorry to hear of your cancer scare - I hope your results are clear. I couldn't agree more with your blog post, and I just don't get why Americans are so against universal healthcare. Our healthcare system is an absolute mess right now.

Specifically jmarie I do not want to hear about your 3 different friends with their half cousins that got the procedure done for a bushel of apples while hauling their concealed weapons around their kitchens in their lost pots.

I get that you don't like Joyce, but was this kind of hurtful comment called for?

[Gumbeaux]

I get that you [mcgeiger] don't like Joyce, but was this kind of hurtful comment called for?

Where were you when Joyce lied and called me out as a non believer?

[KAnn]

Well done! Just a short time ago I was talking with my best friend who was in Australia for several weeks and she described the recent experience of her hosts and it was a very similar story to yours-the difference in our systems is appauling. She was returning to San Francisco where as a single woman she pays for her own coverage which is really catastrophic only and is absurdly expensive.

[wallycat]

I think if every government official were not gifted with amazing healthcare and various compensations but were forced to buy insurance the way the "common" folk have to, you would see how quickly things would change.
If you are in a bubble, you do not want to leave it...who would?

We just got a letter from GE that retirees at the end of 2015 will no longer be offered various benefits that were "a given" (granted, you paid for them monthly, but they were supposedly slightly better than buying off the shelf). Lovely, so people like me, who are only 55 will lose what I thought would be a given. Yes, why must we count on a business that is NOT in the business of healthcare.
I would love to understand Switzerland's system, though I hear it is a quagmire of companies you have to wade through, but amazingly stellar results.

[ecau]

I also want to say that I checked out your blog and think it is really cool you moved to Australia for a job. It sounds like a great adventure and that you are making the most of it. Hopefully this health scare is nothing more than a scare. I had an abnormal pap about 10 years ago, and had to have a LEEP procedure. It was all very routine, but scared the crap out of me. While it is great you are somewhere with good coverage, I imagine it might be nice to be close to family too. I will be thinking of you.

[Jessnc]

Kelly, thank you for sharing your post with us. I proudly mailed my ballot in today.

I have spoken to a few folks here, from the UK and other European countries, about their health care and I was pretty envious. The expense of health insurance and health care was a big burden on me in my 20's, and played a huge part in my inability to live independent of my parents. When I was working six days a week, about 45-50 hours a week in 2005, my health insurance ended up costing about 25% of my total income for that year. I pretty much gave up on health insurance after that, until I started a job about 4 years later that offered something a little more reasonable. My insurance through school is pretty good now, but that will only last until I graduate, and I will be paying the cost back as part of my student loan.

Our academic adviser here emphasized the importance of registering with a doctor to us upon our arrival. She told us a story of an exchange student (not sure if he was from the U.S.) who registered with a doctor right away, as she had advised, and a couple of months later he was actually diagnosed with Leukemia. He was treated here in Scotland, and he made a full recovery. His medical care was absolutely free.

Thanks again for sharing your story and I hope your treatment is successful.

[Robyncz]

Yeah. The common statement about how America has the "best health care in the world" is not true any way you look at it. I keep hearing it though. . .

[mcgeiger]

Clara it was not needed, I acknowledge that. But on this particular topic I don't have the heart to deal with anyone who is going to spew non evidence based rhetoric. Based on my stops here recently it seems she has been putting more out there than usual and I wanted that shut down before it started. The only part of that I made up was the bushel of apples, the rest is all variations of her previous posts. I am sorry if I offended you, but I just really wanted it stopped on its tracks.

[jjsooner73]

Yeah. The common statement about how America has the "best health care in the world" is not true any way you look at it. I keep hearing it though. . .

I think we probably do have the best, or close to it, in terms of quality care, IF one has the means to access it. Access is the key point. When you look at research that is done, the breakthroughs in medicine, at cutting edge technology being used to cure disease, the US does offer some of the best.

If only everyone who needed it could access it (thinking of my mom and lack of access to MD Anderson because of her insurance).

[ClaraB]

I think we probably do have the best, or close to it, in terms of quality care, IF one has the means to access it. Access is the key point. When you look at research that is done, the breakthroughs in medicine, at cutting edge technology being used to cure disease, the US does offer some of the best.

You know, I used to think that too, but after working in the US healthcare system for several years, I question even that assumption. I've seen too many unnecessary tests and treatments to make me think the US has the best healthcare, just the most.

[Robyncz]

I think some of us have access to quality care. I have good doctors. There are good hospitals in my city. Clearly, I have it better than most anyone in the third world, and I recognize that.

But I take issue with the idea that we're the best. I've lived and received health care in Germany, for example. The quality of care I received there was every bit as good as here, and everyone has access to it. Obviously Kelly believes she has received good care in Australia. Those are only two examples, but if the care received in other countries is just as good--and everyone has access to it--we can no longer claim to be "best."

[Kay Henderson]

Thanks for sharing your blog with us. I have a couple of thoughts in response.

1. I am a decades long member of the HMO, Kaiser Permanente. No bills, easy access to making appointments and ordering prescriptions through the website, access to tests if physicians believe them to be necessary (they don't have to consider the cost to the patient since it is covered by the plan), and electronic records which allow for complete coordination of care between one's primary physician and specialists, among other things. My DH and I have long believed that this is what medical care should be. Now that we qualify for Medicare, not surprisingly, we purchase our over and above from Kaiser and our care has continued seamlessly. It is a little more complicated for us and for Kaiser, but not too bad.

1. I would prefer a national uniform single payer plan, but since it was not politically possible to pass such legislation, I hope to see the Affordable Care Act completely implemented, and take it from there. Why? Here are two reasons among others.

a) As a teacher, my health care was paid for by my district, in other words by the taxpayers of the district and state until I was 65. Yet when one of my students broke both arms on the playground, her working class parents had to pay the complete cost of her care. In other words, they paid for the health care of a person (me) who made a good deal more they they made together, and I paid not a lick for any of their care. It's not just a contrast between public and private employment. If these same folks bought a car, they paid for the health care of the workers who made the car and those workers contributed nothing to those customers' health care expenses.

2) The United States has the most inefficient situation with regard to health care on the planet. As people who are able to pay or insured or both, if you or I had a severe sore throat which we feared was strep, we would work with the folks in a doctor's office or clinic to find out what was going on and treat it if necessary. It would cost us or our insurance money, but something relatively reasonable. Poor, uninsured people go to the emergency room for the same complaint because federal law requires that they be treated whether they can pay or not. They result is that as a result of the extremely high cost of the specialized equipment and staff in an emergency room, treating them in that inappropriate context costs many times as much. Since they cannot pay, the hospital charges those who can pay and the insurance companies much higher rates in order for the hospital just to break even.

[vbak]

Thank you for sharing your experience and your health conditions. I'm sorry that you are going through this. This past June, when we were in Germany visiting DD and family, my gurgling and gastro distress worsened. DD made an appointment for me with a gastro doctor, and I got in the next day. Consultation,[thank goodness DD was there to translate], gall bladder sonogram in the office-no need to make an appointment for 3-5 days out, blood test, and prescriptions cost me a whopping $108.00 USD. I have global insurance, Anthem, but for some reason the German company didn't recognize it, but I still have time to submit the charges. I have a friend who has SO MANY medical problems[lymphoma, heart disease] that she is afraid to retire from her job. Yes, we have great medical care IF you can afford to access it.

Take care. Keep us in the loop and let us know how you are doing. Prayers and good thoughts.

Vicky

[kima]

Vicky-that makes me so sad...to think of someone very sick having to keep working to get medical.

What an inhumane system.

[vbak]

Vicky-that makes me so sad...to think of someone very sick having to keep working to get medical.

What an inhumane system.

You are absolutely right, Kima. She, we, are hoping for another 4 years, so she can retire with peace of mind.

[jjsooner73]

You know, I used to think that too, but after working in the US healthcare system for several years, I question even that assumption. I've seen too many unnecessary tests and treatments to make me think the US has the best healthcare, just the most.

I think some of us have access to quality care. I have good doctors. There are good hospitals in my city. Clearly, I have it better than most anyone in the third world, and I recognize that.

But I take issue with the idea that we're the best. But I've lived and received health care in Germany, for example, The quality of care I received there was every bit as good as here, and everyone has access to it. Obviously Kelly believes she has received good care in Australia. Those are only two examples, but if the care received in other countries is just as good--and everyone has access to it--we can no longer claim to be "best."

Good points and well taken. Thank you.
Sorry for the slight hijack, Kelly!

[heavy hedonist]

Great post. Thanks for so clearly describing that universal health care is not all about rationing, but is instead about treating the patient.

Good luck with your continued treatment.

mary jo

Speaks for me!

[tbb113]

here is another example of how private health insurance doesn't cover everything and how easily you can end up bankrupt even with insurance if you don't have a lot of savings

Kelly - continued good wishes for a quick recovery and a favorable final diagnosis

[Gecko]

I think if every government official were not gifted with amazing healthcare and various compensations but were forced to buy insurance the way the "common" folk have to, you would see how quickly things would change.
If you are in a bubble, you do not want to leave it...who would?

Exactly! Whenever I have mentioned the Australian system for healthcare the first thing people say is yes, but you pay higher taxes. I guess this is true but I grew up with this so it was just how it worked. I will say though that when my first two were born we were living in Australia and I never had to think twice about taking them to the doctor if I was worried about anything. I would much prefer to pay more in taxes and have everyone covered. I know there will be people who take advantage of this - people also take advantage of other "social services" too. I personally don't think that you should be covered under your job either, and if there was true universal care this would not be necessary. This would prevent any gaps in insurance should you change jobs. OK, I am going to duck now

Kelly I will be thinking of you. I am so glad that you are somewhere that you can just concentrate on your health rather than the bills coming in.

[jmarie]

Ok.

[kima]

Ok.

Huh?