Americans [Political]

[Databits]

Has anyone been watching the news here lately?

Some of the things I've seen on the news as of late makes me actually ashamed to be an American. It's kind of sad that we even have this huge debate over something like this health plan... but now we have people comparing it to... Nazi's?

Really?

Nazi's??

Really really??

I mean, come on, how stupid can people really be?

This whole debate has been blown way out of proportion as of late. I mean, why is there even a debate? People are defending insurance companies who have raped and pillaged people's wallets for years. Many of these companies who, unless people forgot, tend to try to find excuses to deny coverage at every possible turn that they can.

"Oh you lapsed for 3 days"
"Well this was a pre-existing condition"
"Sorry we don't cover that"
...

Really? This whole damn debate is all over money. You have large insurance companies which feel threatened by some sort of government plan, so what happens? They raise hype, suspicion, and fear over the whole thing. What I think people fail to realize is that if they do indeed want to continue to keep their private coverage... THEY CAN.

Then you have all the job stuff people don't talk about. Illegal immigrants and their rights (also briefly brought up in this whole health care debate).

Here's a hint, they're "illegal immigrants". They should have no rights here. Patch them up, send them home, plain and simple. If they want to be in this country, they can go through the same process that other, legal immigrants, have. Same goes for having them work jobs here. How many millions of people are without a job now? Now, how many illegal immigrants have jobs here? Finally, how many jobs would be available if we started hammering down on illegal immigrants and deporting their ass left and right?

[Gwyn]

How long on Average are E.R wait time where you live? I've always wondered if the wait times here are so long because nobody has to pay for anything. Also the wait lists for things like transplants or major surgeries are very very long, but I attribute that with low doner rates and the fact that alot of our Doctors and Nurses leave the country for more money (In Newfoundland anyway, not sure about the rest of Canada).

[Databits]

I myself haven't been in ER many times, but back in MI any time people like my grandmother went up there, it took forever.

[Xepher]

I'm not a fan of government health care because the US government screws too many things up. I'm not a fan of private health care because large corporations screw too many things up. I want them to put all the drugs on the shelf at wal-greens, and then I google what I need, and buy it cheap, and doctors (when I need one) should be like tailors. Just go down to the store, and talk to someone who knows what they're doing.

I spent 3 hours the other day trying to just get a friggin' bottle of antibiotics for a sinus infection. I'd had the whole slew of symptoms, knew exactly what it is, and thought "I need a week or so of amoxicillian" but I had to go to an "urgent care clinic" because I work night shift, so normal doctors stop at 5pm, so I would've had to wait for my weekend, another 4 days. After filling out way too much info, I finally get a doctor to see me, and she looks at all the stuff I could already tell her (this ear hurts, this one doesn't... no cough, lymph nodes were swollen but aren't now, etc.) and she basically checks all the exact same things I'd just told her, then finally prescribes 10 days of amoxicillian. I then had to go wait at the pharmacy for over an hour for them just to count out 20 pills. All said and done, insurance paid half of it, so I ended up "only" paying $55 for what should've cost the same as a bottle of aspirin.

So yeah, sure... not all things are just an ear infection. Sometimes I need skilled professionals to reattach my lung or something. And yeah, we should maybe keep the opiates locked up so people don't all turn into dope fiends. On the whole though, let me take care of myself. If I'm stupid enough to buy and use the wrong drugs, that's my problem. I'm not though, I know what I'm doing for the most part, and when I don't, I know to ask for help or seek out a professional. If we could operate health care with that level of common sense, we'd save trillions. Of course, we can't even convince people to stop smoking and skip the value-size fries.

[griever]

The whole Nazi thing is pretty stupid.  The people who get a chance to say that just make themselves and their "cause" look even dumber.  Even my staunchly conservative friends agree that those people are plain crazy.

My general feeling on this is that when people get sick, they shouldn't have to worry about whether they can afford to get well.  Right now, insurance companies need a wake up call because all they care about is money.  Denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, or refusing to cover people who suddenly develop a serious illness, is absolutely repulsive.

[Databits]

Exactly!

I've heard of far too many times when some insurance company tried to deny coverage of some bill over some bullshit excuse, even though the procedure was totally valid and the person has paid their premiums.

You hit the nail dead on the head though. All they care about is their fat-ass wallets. They don't give a shit about the people who need the coverage, only about cutting any expenses they can and making the most money. THAT is one of the whole points of this campaign, despite they haven't spelled it out that way. Yes, the government screws things up... a lot! But honestly, can they really do a whole lot worse than it is now?

They've said it multiple times now, they're not trying to put the insurance companies out of business, they're trying to create a competition market for them so they can't just raise the prices on everything as they see fit (like they do right now).

[Gwyn]

I'm not a fan of government health care because the US government screws too many things up. I'm not a fan of private health care because large corporations screw too many things up. I want them to put all the drugs on the shelf at wal-greens, and then I google what I need, and buy it cheap, and doctors (when I need one) should be like tailors. Just go down to the store, and talk to someone who knows what they're doing.

I spent 3 hours the other day trying to just get a friggin' bottle of antibiotics for a sinus infection. I'd had the whole slew of symptoms, knew exactly what it is, and thought "I need a week or so of amoxicillian" but I had to go to an "urgent care clinic" because I work night shift, so normal doctors stop at 5pm, so I would've had to wait for my weekend, another 4 days. After filling out way too much info, I finally get a doctor to see me, and she looks at all the stuff I could already tell her (this ear hurts, this one doesn't... no cough, lymph nodes were swollen but aren't now, etc.) and she basically checks all the exact same things I'd just told her, then finally prescribes 10 days of amoxicillian. I then had to go wait at the pharmacy for over an hour for them just to count out 20 pills. All said and done, insurance paid half of it, so I ended up "only" paying $55 for what should've cost the same as a bottle of aspirin.

So yeah, sure... not all things are just an ear infection. Sometimes I need skilled professionals to reattach my lung or something. And yeah, we should maybe keep the opiates locked up so people don't all turn into dope fiends. On the whole though, let me take care of myself. If I'm stupid enough to buy and use the wrong drugs, that's my problem. I'm not though, I know what I'm doing for the most part, and when I don't, I know to ask for help or seek out a professional. If we could operate health care with that level of common sense, we'd save trillions. Of course, we can't even convince people to stop smoking and skip the value-size fries.

If it makes you feel any better I have spent no less than 7 hours waitng in an ER.