'Obamacare' stalemate shuts down government

[avidcameron]

I saw a programme on the TV that showed a huge car park in America that huge numbers of people had been camping out waiting for free treatment at a health centre, which apparently is a rare event. They'd come from miles away. Most were uninsured but some had insurance but their companies had refused treatment. All the people seemed to be in desperate need. One poor man had half his guts hanging out through a kind of hernia thing; he'd been in this state for a long time but hadn't been able to get help. Other cases were equally awful.

 

What happens if someone without insurance needs long term care or is considered uninsurable because of medical needs? How do the serously poor cope? I know that some people get health care as part of an employment package paid for by their employers, what happens when they leave work at retirement? What system is in place for care of the elderly?

 

I ask for information, not to criticise, because we need to know how other systems work, what bits we could perhaps adapt and where the areas of crisis are, and how (if?) they are dealt with. Heaven knows our NHS system is failing and needs a radical overhaul, although I would be reluctant to adopt a privatised system because of the sort of problems above.

 

It would be useful to know how a fully private system does it.

 

For many in the USA health care approaches third world standards.

[Harleyman]

For many in the USA health care approaches third world standards.

 

For 80 percent the coverage is very good for both working and retired. Hospitals, urgent care centers, clinics, doctors, nurses, emergency response medical services and prescription drugs are in line with the best that any European country has to offer.

 

There is estimated to be around 11 million illegal aliens in this country and it's probable that very few are covered under a health plan. Then you have the poor many of whom are the results of dysfuctional ways of life, single parents living in the inner city poor areas, poorly educated school drop outs, crack addicts, unemployable, existing on welfare and food stamps as well as the street people also drug addicted and alcoholic as well as suffering from mental problems. You cannot force a mentally disturbed person into an institution if that person is no threat to those around him or her. To place such people in institutions was ruled unconstitutional years ago by the well meaning do gooders. They are free to wander and can either choose or choose not to seek treatment at any hospital or clinic

 

The above group would account for part of that 20 percent but even so any one of them could walk into the emergency care center of any hospital and receive the necessary treatment and no questions asked on resident or immigration status and if unable to pay walk out without paying a penny. In California anyway

 

---------- Post added 07-10-2013 at 20:06 ----------

 

I saw a programme on the TV that showed a huge car park in America that huge numbers of people had been camping out waiting for free treatment at a health centre, which apparently is a rare event. They'd come from miles away. Most were uninsured but some had insurance but their companies had refused treatment. All the people seemed to be in desperate need. One poor man had half his guts hanging out through a kind of hernia thing; he'd been in this state for a long time but hadn't been able to get help. Other cases were equally awful.

 

What happens if someone without insurance needs long term care or is considered uninsurable because of medical needs? How do the serously poor cope? I know that some people get health care as part of an employment package paid for by their employers, what happens when they leave work at retirement? What system is in place for care of the elderly?

 

I ask for information, not to criticise, because we need to know how other systems work, what bits we could perhaps adapt and where the areas of crisis are, and how (if?) they are dealt with. Heaven knows our NHS system is failing and needs a radical overhaul, although I would be reluctant to adopt a privatised system because of the sort of problems above.

 

It would be useful to know how a fully private system does it.

 

All full time or part time employees pay into Social Security and Medicare.

These deductions as well as taxes are taken from the pay checks.

 

To qualify for Social Security and Medicare benefits upon retirement an employee must accumulate whats called 40 quarters before retirement. These 40 quarters generally take around 10 years to accumulate.

 

Shortly before retirement the employee goes to the local social security office and if he/she has the 40 quarters paid up gets what's called Medicare Part A. Part A covers hospital stays and treatment while in hospital. It has nothing to do with that persons exisitng health plan provided by the employer.

 

Upon retirement that person is then given Medicare Part B which covers out patient treatment and doctor visits.

 

Before he/she receive their monthly Social Security check, around 104 dollars is deducted by Medicare.

 

The retiree can choose to remain in Medcare which pays 80 percent of all treatment and pay out of their own pocket for coverage for the remaining 20 percent with a private insurance company or:

 

The other option is to sign up with a Health Maintenance Organisation (or HMO) which my wife and I did and have our 104 dollars a month deduction paid directly to the HMO.

HMOs offer different plans with different options and co-pays.

 

Ours works well for us.

 

We pay nothing for hospital stays or treatment. There is a co-pay of 5 dollars for a doctor visit, a 9 dollar co-pay for any prescriptions needed and all lab tests are no charge

 

After all co-payments are made the HMO covers the rest. We also enjoy free gym membership with several local gyms that contract with the HMO. We work out at 24 Hour Fitness who normally charge around 300 dollars a year for membership so that's not a bad deal in anyone's book

[Anna B]

Thanks for that Harleyman.

[Harleyman]

Thanks for that Harleyman.

 

You're welcome Anna B.

Hope it made some sense. It must be a bit confusing to someone whose grown up with a system as uncomplicated as the NHS

[Anna B]

You're welcome Anna B.

Hope it made some sense. It must be a bit confusing to someone whose grown up with a system as uncomplicated as the NHS

 

I'm a baby boomer so was brought up with 'the NHS is the envy of the world' ringing in my ears. I'm not sure that holds true today. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the system. When it works it works well, but that doesn't mean it can't learn things from other countries.

It's struggling to cope and needs some fresh thinking. There's still a lot of waste and one of the biggest problems, I think, is it tries to cover up its mistakes rather than learn from them and improve. I don't want to see the NHS getting sued every 5 minutes, so everyone needs to be realistic.

 

That said, elderly care is not good whichever way you look at it. and needs a radical rethink. There are also big problems as new techniques, equipment, drugs and treatments etc seem to be prohibitively expensive. I wonder whose fault that is. Is someone getting very rich at other's expense?

 

I salute Obama for trying to solve a long term issue. I'm not saying he's got it right, I don't know enough about it, but it seems to be a move in the right direction. I'm rather appalled that a faction of rich Republicans have managed to bring the government to a standstill. From my perspective over the pond it seems they have a very selfish attitude.

[Harleyman]

I'm a baby boomer so was brought up with 'the NHS is the envy of the world' ringing in my ears. I'm not sure that holds true today. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the system. When it works it works well, but that doesn't mean it can't learn things from other countries.

It's struggling to cope and needs some fresh thinking. There's still a lot of waste and one of the biggest problems, I think, is it tries to cover up its mistakes rather than learn from them and improve. I don't want to see the NHS getting sued every 5 minutes, so everyone needs to be realistic.

 

That said, elderly care is not good whichever way you look at it. and needs a radical rethink. There are also big problems as new techniques, equipment, drugs and treatments etc seem to be prohibitively expensive. I wonder whose fault that is. Is someone getting very rich at other's expense?

 

I salute Obama for trying to solve a long term issue. I'm not saying he's got it right, I don't know enough about it, but it seems to be a move in the right direction. I'm rather appalled that a faction of rich Republicans have managed to bring the government to a standstill. From my perspective over the pond it seems they have a very selfish attitude.

 

I've heard that the French health system is the best in the world or near the best anyway. Maybe we could all learn something from them.

 

The American system which I already described works well enough but even then a catastrophic illness could wipe out the life savings of an elderly person.

There have been cases where even homes have been lost to pay for long term intensive care in a rehab institution and none of that is covered by the current health system or Obama's health plan.

 

We can only hope that it never happens to us because in a case like that it's better to just refuse treatment and die and in that way the rest of the family dont end up in the poor house or out in the street and it's hardly worth wiping out everything you've built up and accumulated just to get another five years of life at most anyway.

 

There is a selfish attitude that is sickenly prevalent among members of the Republican party. Worse yet these people are still getting paid while almost a million employed by the government are going without a paycheck. If the shutdown continues for another week then Social Security checks may not be able to mailed out. I can only thank god we dont rely on Soc Security for our income but millions of elderly do and that's another tragedy.

The economy could well be seriously damaged enough to cause another recession.

 

I think everybody should E-mail their Congress and Senate representatives and send the same three words in very large letters "DO YOUR JOB"