|
|
|
#1
12-20-2007
|
|||
|
|||
|
Cancer and Insurance
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20071221...owingdiagnosis
The American Cancer Society just released a study coming to the conclusion that people without insurance have a higher chance of dying of cancer. I would rate this in the "f****** duh!" catagory. I hearby open the health care debate. I'll start the argument: Yes, universal healthcare is a great idea. No, universal health care will not convert us to socialism. 
|
|
#2
12-20-2007
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
No, universal health care. I wouldnt say it would convert us to socialism though, that is stretching it. It is a good debate, but i still cant be convinced to universal health care. It wont really change anything if you look at the numbers.
__________________
 No ONE goes against the HOUSE!
|
|
#4
12-21-2007
|
|||
|
|||
|
It's simple. As the market-oriented Fraser Institute in Vancouver, B.C., can tell you, Canada's vaunted "free" government health-care system cannot or deliberately will not provide its 33 million citizens with the nonemergency health care they want and need when they need or want it. Courtesy of the institute, here are some unflattering facts about Canada's sickly system:
Number of Canadians on waiting lists for referrals to specialists or for medical services -- 875,000. Average wait from time of referral to treatment by a specialist -- 17.8 weeks. Shortest waiting time -- oncology, 4.9 weeks. Longest waiting times -- orthopedic surgery, 40.3 weeks. Average wait to get an MRI -- 10.3 weeks nationally but 28 weeks in Newfoundland. Average wait time for a surgery considered "elective," like a hip replacement -- four or more months. ....This sounds really efficient. It will really help our country's cancer survival rate by delaying people's treatment up to 5 weeks. Maybe the long waiting times were why Melinda Stronach, a Canadian parliamentary official(who actually favors public healthcare), came to California to get treatment for her breast cancer. As a cancer survivor, I can only imagine where I'd be right now if we were under this system. Probably not posting on matmen.
|
|
#5
12-21-2007
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
can you post the link where your information came from? Thanks! I work in health care and everyday I see first hand how the insurance companies treat sick people. The profits that these companies make is at the expense of sick people and there is something wrong with that. I can tell you many sad stories of people with insurance in the United States that died or denied care they needed care that insurance companies would not allow.They were fired from their jobs when they became ill because their company did not want to pay their insurance because it became costly. I am glad everything worked out for you and I dont know how old you are but if you were to lose your job or your insurance for whatever reason and needed to get new insurance ...it would be quite difficult with the hx of cancer, and that is wrong!
__________________
 "Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance" ~Albert Einstein~
|
|
#6
12-21-2007
|
||||
|
||||
|
HMO Hell!!!
The healthcare crisis faces not only the 45 million people in the US who lack health coverage, but millions of others who are covered by plans which cost more each year and deliver less. In the last year alone, healthcare premiums rose 4.8 percent--for government workers they rose 10 percent. The average cost of a prescription drug has nearly doubled in the last six years. A minimum wage worker must pay a quarter of his or her income to cover the $200 monthly cost of blood pressure medication. Doctors report that many low income workers end up taking their medicine only every two or three days instead of daily to lower the cost.
Health insurers arbitrarily place spending 'caps' on treatments for life threatening illnesses such as cancer and heart transplants, leaving patients to choose between tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt, or death. Time magazine summarised the problem last week in its article, appropriately entitled. 'HMO Hell': 'HMOs are only the most criticised part of a healthcare system caught in a weird paradox. America has perhaps the best doctors, the best hospitals and the best medical technology, and its health spending is the most lavish in the world.' Yet studies show that half or more of the eligible heart attack patients don't receive beta-blockers that could reduce the risk of another heart attack A 'substantial' number of cancer patients 'do not receive care known to be effective for their conditions,' says another study. And each year 106,000 hospital patients die from adverse drug reactions--wrong dose, wrong drug, wrong patient or wrong mix with other drugs.' When deciding whether a patient needs hospitalisation, the slogan among managed care administrators is, 'When in doubt, carve it out,' said a former nurse at HMO giant Oxford Health Plans. Oxford gave its claims reviewers a cost saving goal of reducing hospital days by 1,000 in a given quarter--with the incentive of bonuses as high as 25 percent of workers' annual salaries if they reached the goal. This is from 1999 and still nothing as changed for the better it has only gotten worse. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr236/smith.htm As long as insurance lobbiest continue to buy congress it is likely too never change.
__________________
"Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance" ~Albert Einstein~
|
|
#7
12-21-2007
|
||||
|
||||
|
A true HMO horror story
I was a home health nurse for this company a few years back. A home health nurse goes to the homes of the sick that aren’t able to drive or are homebound. We had this patient who was a 43 years old female, mother of three who had just had back surgery for a herniated disk but the incision dehisced (opened up) and she needed daily dressing changes to the wound. Her HMO insurance had a contract with my agency so I was assigned as her nurse and began to see her daily for wound care dressing changes. Everyday that I saw her I would take her temp making sure no infection was starting to occur and I would take her blood pressure, she had a history of high blood pressure and was on blood pressure medications. Well her blood pressure was starting to get abnormally high so I called her PCP (primary care physician) and he changed her medications. I saw her in the morning for wound care but came back in the evening to check her BP .I also instructed the husband to go out and by an automatic blood pressure monitor and check her blood pressure several times through the day and keep a log. The next day, I noticed that her BP was still high and called her PCP again stated that we have been tracking her Bp and it is still alarming and that I was sending her to the hospital to be evaluated so her Bp could be monitored better. He said no increase her meds, I said no I am sending her to the hospital her Bp is to high, this has been going on for three days she needs to be evaluated. Well she went to the hospital ER the doctor said give meds to lower her Bp and send her home. I called her husband and he said they sent her back home , so the next day her Bp was high again and I sent her back , I called my manager told her what was going on with this “A Hole doctor” and that we needed to do something. I had to go out of town that weekend (wrestling tournament)so I made sure that my manger would let the nurse who they sent out there what was going on with the patient and the doctor. Well when I returned Monday morning and called my patient the husband said she died on Sunday from a massive stroke. The nurse that went out on Saturday took her Bp it was high called the doctor , the doctor said do not send her to the ER increase her meds and the nurse did as the doctor said, when she went out on Sunday morning the patient was unresponsive and the patient died. That nurse and my manager were fired because they feared a law suit. I had documented everything in the patients chart so I was not fired, but I left the company because they failed to advocate for this patient when I told them we had a problem with her doctor. It bothers me to this day, because I know if I would have been there that Saturday, I would have driven her to the ER my self. That is HMO! More concerned with their bonus and profits than taking care of the patient. It was December and I guess this patient had already cost this doctors bottom line with her surgery .
__________________
"Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance" ~Albert Einstein~
|
|
#8
12-22-2007
|
||||
|
||||
|
HMO horror story #2 - A true Story
HMO horror story #2
One night my daughter Caitlyn woke me up in the middle of the night and said her sister Siobhan was curled up in a ball moaning (Siobhan was 8 years old). Siobhan didn’t have a fever but she was in severe pain so I immediately drove her to the hospital. The ER doctor examined her, did some blood work that came back normal and preceded to tell me that he didn’t think anything was wrong with her, he said that he felt she was faking, maybe under some type of stress, he called my PCP who said to follow up with in the morning if she is still in discomfort. I said I know my daughter she doesn’t Fake and she isn’t in discomfort she is in severe pain besides it is July she is supposed to be going to camp in a few days. I asked if he could please do a CT of her abdomen to see why she is in such distress he called the PCP who said he would not authorize it at this time. I told the ER doctor that I was not going to leave this hospital until a CT was done on my daughter and I do not care if you call the police or the CFO of the hospital my daughter is sick and I’m not leaving. Well after a lot of “DRAMA” and a few calls to hospital administration, they agreed to do the CT if I agreed to sign a form that I would be responsible for the cost of the CT because my PCP would not approve it. I agreed and they performed the CT. When the doctor came back with the results, he said that they needed to get my daughter to Children’s Memorial hospital in Chicago ASAP to do exploratory abdominal surgery on her; he said they were not equipped to handle this type of surgery here. He said he did not know what she had, but the CT showed that something was wrapped around her abdominal aorta and abdominal organs and was basically choking them. She had the surgery and spent two weeks at Children’s recovering from a very close disaster. It turned out she had some type of rare benign tumor that had been growing around her abdominal aorta and organs for some time and it began squeezing and choking her aorta. That is the only time Siobhan has ever been sick. HMO’s should be outlawed!!!!… Now the new thing is the Medicare HMO’s for seniors. Seniors can sign away their Medicare benefits to an HMO to manage their care. They promise the elderly everything but deliver nothing. Seniors are better off with keeping their Medicare.
__________________
"Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance" ~Albert Einstein~
|
|
#9
12-22-2007
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
__________________
Celebrate the small victories, since those will lead directly or indirectly to the huge victories.
|
|
#10
12-22-2007
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
__________________
"Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance" ~Albert Einstein~
|
| Sponsored Links |
 |
| Thread Tools | |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Linear Mode
