First and foremost, I wanted to say how proud I am to be part of a blogging community that is taking action to provide accurate, truthful, factual information on health care reform as proposed under the Obama administration. Much has been written, printed, pontificated about already. Much of it wrong. This blog will attempt to offer opinions and views, facts that will dispel the horrendous propaganda being dispelled by people who have a mission to destroy health coverage for all. Others will report more facts and this blog has listed resource for you also. Today, I want to talk about polls, myths and my own experience working in the insurance industry...managed care (and it is managed).
First, let's talk about public opinion. How can you have an opinion if you don't know the facts?
Polls: the reports are polls are showing people are against healthcare reform. Well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that when people are reporting that the new reform will kill elders and ration healthcare, people would fight back. BUT THIS IS NOT TRUE.
How polls are reported is up to selection of material by politician and media alike. They usually choose those aspects of polls that support their views. On the Health care Blog yesterday, the Chairman of Harris Interactive posted one of the most thoughtful, factual truths about the health care reform polls. I urge you to go and read it NOW: http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2009/08/health-care-reform-what-do-people-really-want.html
Humphrey Taylor, Chairman of The Harris Poll, Harris Interactive. reports on what do People Really Want? He lists the top 13 items people really want or feel about health care reform. He says its not about cherry picking polls as politicians do and choosing those aspects of polls that confirm and individuals opinion.
More on polls:http://polls.newsmax.com/results/obama_health.html is from a sight Newsmax that offers an immediate online poll on health care reform. Anyone can take it. I went to the site and the results listed are above. You have to sign up with your email so this is really a site, in my opinion, that really is soliciting information based on your email that they can perhaps sell or reveal. That is my opinion because when I went to the site for results: see url above, the poll was over 70% against health care reform and the same percent were people who voted for McCain. Factual and reliable poll? No. Be careful what polls you use or believe.
HMOs, Managed Care from the inside: I am a nurse. I worked in managed care for 7 years. I even worked in appeals and medical management where claims and issues with members were attempted to be resolved. People please understand that this affects YOU, your family, your health. Here are some examples of issues I found that made me sick:
A woman went to the hospital for surgical removal of a suspicious breast lump. When the surgeon went to remove it, it was obviously malignant and spread to lymph nodes. He removed the breast lump, the breast and some of the lymph nodes. The HMO denied coverage because the surgeon did not call the managed care organization for pre-authorization for a mastectomy instead of lump removal.
Mandates for hospital stays that were unreasonable and have changed but these included 1 day post op for mastectomy; 1 day hospitalization for postpartum care following vaginal delivery.
What happened? Cases such as the above caused more repeat hospitalizations for complications thus various states, and politicians, started a movement that finally resulted in certain conditions having to follow mandates for good health care. This was the first public mandate of health care. Whether you choose to believe this or not, this is true. So public, or government mandated care, actually saved lives, and money. And had it not been for the government and human outcry, this deplorable restriction on health care would be alive and well today.
Did you know: that most health insurance, including yours, has a cap on care? Did you know that your insurer has the right to deny coverage for care based on fine print including such terms as medical necessity?
Did you know that UNLESS you have group health coverage with an employer, the health insurance company can elect not to cover certain pre-exisitng conditions? These include asthma, diabetes, and more. So if you lost your job....which is entirely possible in this economy, and could not afford COBRA or ran out of COBRA and had to buy an individual health coverage plan, you would pay top dollar and still NOT be covered for pre-existing conditions.
And let's talk about individual purchase of health coverage. My son works. The company where he works is small and cannot afford to provide health coverage. Understandable. So my son purchased a HMO plan of one of the nation's largest HMOs. It started out at $150 per month. It went up every single year and hit $400 per month in 36 months. My son never was hospitalized, is in good health, went to a doctor once a year for a physical that was the extent of his claims. Health coverage for individuals and families who do not have access to employer covered health insurance is UNAFFORDABLE.
MYTH: the most widely spread myth out there is that the proposed government insurance will ration health coverage and kill off elders. Spare me. The stupidity of this is unbelievable. Public insurance will provide "end of life coverage". That is Hospice care. Hospice is offered for people of ALL ages who have a terminal illness. What it says is even though you have a terminal illness and may die within 6 months, you CAN STILL GET HEALTH COVERAGE to keep you pain free, and avoid complications that would hasten death. THIS HAS BEEN AROUND FOR YEARS. It is needed. Ask anyone who has experienced a catastrophic illness affecting a family member. Hospice has gotten the family and the patient through this difficult time. NO ONE KILLS ANYONE.
Where to go for more information:http://www.healthreform.gov/
I urge you to contact your congressional representatives TODAY to support health care coverage for all human beings. This blog has been touching on issues for the last week. YOU need to do your own sole searching based on solid facts and what you want and deserve for yourselves, your children, your families.
I urge you to visit Time Goes By, the site that started the movement among "elder"bloggers that spread to all ages blogging on health reform today. Here is the link to see the list of bloggers on health care reform: http://www.timegoesby.net/weblog/
Also, a great blog with questions and answers to help people understand the health care reform movement:
http://darleneshodgepodge.blogspot.com/2009/08/questiona-and-answers-on-health-care.html
To your health, and for your health, please, please be vocal, make your voice heard. "One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world." — Barack Obama
Show YOUR support: http://www.healthreform.gov/support.html
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3 days ago
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I have been to most of the blogs, well done. And, I learned alot. I also went to the link to healthcare reform site and signed my support. Thank you so much for the information!
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. I am proud also to join everyone via Times Goes By.I liked this positive approach.Thanks for commenting on my new blog.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I'm on twitter. http://twitter.com/MissDazey42
Well said NancyB! The unfortunate fact is that many people don't pay attention until they need the coverage. Hopefully all these blogs will help get those people to pay attention and lift their voices now, when it can make a difference.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wealth of information. Thank you for writing and linking to interesting sources and polls. But, I found your stories from inside the system enlightening, though they did leave me speechless. How can a person's chance of living a long life and be reduced to a power play between medical institutions and insurance companies!? This is just not right.
ReplyDeleteThe other day, I received an interesting and very instructive e-mail from my brother Jeff who lives in France. He asked me to share it with the readers of my blog. I think I will share it with you also.
ReplyDelete"HELLO, AMERICA!
“As an American who has been living in Europe for most of the last 20 years, one who has visited doctors numerous times in four different countries, whose two children were brought into this world in European hospitals (France and England), who has himself spent a week in a public British hospital, and who underwent an operation in a private British clinic, I think I can say a thing or two about health care in Europe.
“Our out of pocket expenses for the births? Zero, even though in France my wife spent 5 days in the hospital after the birth, which is standard, by the way.
“During the three years we lived in England, we never once paid for medicine for our children. Children get drugs for free in the UK. Visits to the GP are free for everybody.
“My expenses for the week in the NHS hospital? Zero.
“The cost of the operation in the private clinic? Zero, it was covered by my work insurance, as was the post-op physical therapy I needed.
“In Western Europe you would never be forced to sell your home in order to pay for your medical bills, as happens all too often in America when catastrophic illness strikes and the insurance company decides that your condition was ‘pre-existing’.
“The quality of the care? Mostly good. French hospitals are excellent, even the food is decent. The food at the NHS hospital was beyond awful, but then again most English food is pretty bad (though they do have great Indian food). At night, they were understaffed, but I am guessing that, apart from that place where Dr. House works, most American hospitals are understaffed at night, too.
“In short, in the US, you pay more, get less, and die younger than we do in Europe. What part of that don’t you understand?
“My fellow Americans, you have nothing to fear except those who would use fear to keep you enslaved to the myth of the might of the American health care system.”
Jeff Degan
What can I tell you? The guy is a Communist. Not only does he live in France, he actually likes it there. An eternal shame to our family’s good name. Let us boil down his seven paragraphs to their juicy essentials, shall we?
HEALTH CARE IN THIS COUNTRY SUCKS.
Here is (Excuse me, I meant to say, “Here was“) a golden opportunity for real reform and the idiotic Americans are screaming about socialism. Is it any wonder that we have become the laughingstock of the Western world?
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
PS – I love English food!
I'm a fellow participant in Ronni's group blogging effort.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this excellent, detailed commentary about health care reform. I do wish people would discuss the facts rather than get distracted by political posturing.