Occupation:: Freeman

The thing that is broken is the will to be free individuals and oppose the yoke of slavery. An expediency is not righteousness. The system functions as intended and even so really works very well. The lack of freedom in the choices of all involved, limited by laws and legally enshrined crookedness, are exactly the problem. It should be a cash business, that is the answer. No state has any business telling me that I can’t buy health insurance from a company in another state or country. How absurd. Legalize low cost Freedom!

Occupation:: Pre-Medical Student

I’ve been very interested to read all the comments on this website, and I can see where doctors are coming from, and where unsatisfied patients are coming from. I think it’s silly and unrealistic to expect everyone to have health insurance – for many of us, it’s unaffordable or not worth the cost. To insure my family of 6, it was $1000 a month! At a rate like that, it’s better to save the money and just pay any medical bills out of pocket – which we did, when my dad had a bicycle accident at 40 mph and ended up with a $10,000 ER bill (notice: still cheaper than a year of medical insurance for the family). I don’t think that patients should be required to carry medical insurance. However, you should expect to pay your medical bills. I realize that sometimes they seem unreasonable, and you should hold your physician accountable – check what they’re charging you for and why they are charging that. However, as a future doctor, I think I can say that while there are some people in the field for the money, most of us want to practice because we feel the work is important, that the people are important. However, it’s also very high-stress, and involves long hours and years of debt accumulation. To you, it may seem like they charge a lot of money, but your bill isn’t just paying the fifteen minutes you spent with the doctor – it’s paying the cost of the facilities you saw them in, the cost of their liability insurance, the cost of their secretary’s salary, and then after that, the cost of the 11+ years they spent in school and training, incurring debts, and the high demands of the workload they now shoulder, which includes constant worry over paperwork and covering themselves in case you get angry and decide to sue them.

It’s sad but unsurprising that the doctor-patient misunderstandings basically come down to money issues. If there were a less expensive way for doctors to practice, maybe the exchange could be less stressful for everyone.

Occupation:: Medical Office

There is no website that really mentions the real cause of the healthcare nightmare. In January 2010, 1 farmworker clinic received 10 Million dollars to build a Taj Mahal for illegals! Unbelievable. At first it was to be built in 2009, but since so much controversy was happening, they held off until now. At the site of this new building Farmworker personnel told the contractors not to worry if a issue was not “spelled out” in bid specs, because the Federal Gov’t will pay for it. The funding it shall receive in 2010 is 11 million. Remember this is one clinic. Also, reimbursement for Farmworker clinics vs. Private practice is Farmworkers receives at least 3x the amount from taxpayers.. Now the new reform, per Obama, plans to increase the poor underserved clinics by 7x the current funding. How is an illegal person more important than our American elderly? I am utterly confused. Also, Interpreters are paid 100.00+ dollars per hour. Usually they are there 15 min. and receive the full 100.00. For no show patients they receive 80.00, and the Physician will be fined 5,000.00 dollars if they try to collect any money for this!! All physicians should be reimbursed the same. All federal funding should be divided fairly, not because you are a Federally Qualified Clinic. Americans, research facts, pull the scales off your eyes. Socialism and Communism are already here, almost 100% government.

I wonder if a grocery selling selling oranges in its home state can be charged with selling oranges under the commerce clause because it impacts the selling of oranges in all the other states. And this is precisely how stupid the constitutional commerce clause is.

Since buying health care insurance across state lines is prohibited there can be no interstate commerce involved. Not buying insurance is not commerce of any kind. But if one were to buy insurance in one’s state that is intrastate commerce. Congress cannot mandate that intrastate commerce is interstate commerce as if buying a policy affects the commerce of all the other states and this is precisely what they do under the commerce clause. This is what we call an absurdity.

The commerce clause was to regulate commerce among the states meaning that there would be no irregularities and that commerce would be legal and legitimate. So the legal and legitimate was to be first determined by the states engaging in interstate commerce. The states have a free hand in regulating their own commerce. Commerce is both natural and necessary. The states do their own regulating both between and among themselves. Congress was not to make a endless series of laws telling states how to conduct their own trade or even what was to be traded.

The 10th Amendment prohibits Congress from interfering with interstate commerce.

Over the decades the courts have given Congress unlimited say,sway, and control over interstate commerce to which it is not entitled. Congress was just to oversee that nothing was improper or irregular in interstate commerce and it doesn’t even have to be necessary.This centralized power was given to Congress because no single state could do this and in giving it to Congress serious conflicts would not arise between the states due to petty envy and jealousies.

Congress regulates AMONG the states and not BETWEEN them.In other words it was to see that interstate trade was fair and just. The commerce clause is toothless and there is very little cause for Congress to be interfering or managing interstate trade between and among the states.

Invoking the commerce clause as a means for the states to participate in health care is fraudulent.

Thoughts on Illegal Immigration

A large part of the cost of the health care problem is illegal immigration. There are 12-20 million illegal immigrants in this country.
1 There are already proper immigration laws on the books.All they need to do is enforce them.Immigration reform is a joke because it is unnecessary.The border patrol for years has been prevented from enforcing the laws.
2 If the federal government will not defend our borders and do its constitutional duty expressed in law and the Constitution then the federal government itself is breaking the laws framed from the Constitutional powers under Sec1 Art8. These are criminal acts.We no longer have a rule of law but a rule of men.
3 A sovereign state has the right and obligation to its citizens to defend its borders from invasion of any kind and doesn’t need permission to do what is right, and necessary, and this is obviously self evident..NECESSITY IS NOT SUBJECT TO ANY LAW! Arizona is doing what is NECESSARY!
4 The President has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and under Art2 Sec3 he is charged with making sure the laws of the land are enforced. By not enforcing the immigration laws he perjures himself,breaks the law,and is subject to criminal prosecution.and criminal charges.
5 Under the 9th and 10 Amendments Arizona and every other state bordering on Mexico has the right to defend its borders.If the state of Maine broke out in smallpox neither Canada nor Massachusetts would allow immigration or emigration and rightly so. Mexican immigration has become a harmful and costly disease to this country.Every state has the right to defend its borders when its safety and security are threatened.

Health Care is the country’s largest economic sector, accounting for over $2 trillion in annual expenditures—four times larger than national defense! Why aren’t Republicans crafting bills that will address problems in the current health care system? I believe the American people would support bills that:

Address private insurance coverage
Address insurance portability
Address pre-existing conditions
Provide for the digitizing of medical records
The sharing of medical records between physicians (with patient consent)
Crack down on Medicare fraud
Crack down on welfare fraud

Let’s start making some common sense decisions about health care without rewriting the entire universe of health care. This list can be a starting point, but there is plenty of opportunity for bills addressing other problems in the system. We need a targeted approach to health care problem solutions.

My husband had diarrhea all night. We called the Dr.s office that his Dr. had just changed to and was informed that my husbands Dr. was on vacation and would not be back for over a week. We were told to call the other group of physicians that he was in and they would take care of it. When I called that group, they replied that they were not taking any of his patients and the group that the Dr. had moved to was supposed to take care of it.

The problem here is failure to take responsibility for a patient’s health care. A pure gap in services not to mention access to care issue.

First, let me start out by saying all Americans are entitled to health insurance in America. The option of obtaining health insurance is an unalienable right. There are no guide-lines. Nobody is excluded when it comes to providing your family with the health care they need. Racism is not a factor when obtaining health insurance because it does not does matter whether you’re black, white, or Mexican. It does not matter whether you’re old or young. It does not matter whether you’re a man or a woman. This shows the option of enrolling in a health insurance program is equal to all.

There are numerous health insurance companies that offer coverage for a lot of different medical problems. There is a wide variety of types and coverage’s. You have the choice of enrolling in a family plan or just for yourself individually. The plan types range from a PPO, in which a referral is not needed, to an HMO where a referral is needed, and anything in between, such as a POS. The opportunities for health care range from government assistance to employer provided. Individuals can also purchase health plans by their own means as well. Insurance companies are unable to deny benefits regardless of your income level.

The emergency rooms in America are unable to turn away anybody from the medical care they need. Within the emergency room, practitioners and medical staff have to uphold an ethical code or a code of ethical value called the Hippocratic Oath. They have to do this because it is considered immoral for any person to be denied emergency care based on any medical condition, insurance coverage, or lack there of. Patients have the right to receive the best possible care with the intentions that all treatment derives from the objective knowledge of the medical staff and not subjective opinions. We also have free clinics in America which is a facility where lower income families or persons can go to receive health care at no cost. Obviously, you are limited to the amount of medical care you can receive at these clinics, and to say that these are state of art facilities would be a joke.

With that being said, in the year 2000, about thirty nine million Americans had no health insurance, which is about 14.3 percent of us. That is completely absurd and is not only irritating to think about, but also very sad. Many of the people going with no health insurance have jobs. Most even have full time jobs. After they pay their bills and buy groceries for their family, they have no money left over for health insurance. Depending on their job status, families go weeks, or even months with no coverage. Personally, I think this is one of the biggest problems in America today, something needs to be done, and something needs to be done fast.

Basically unless you sit at home doing nothing to better your life, government assistance will not help you. If you happen to find a job making any amount of money the government basically stops giving you any help at all. This stops a lot of Americans from even considering working. It is crazy that a job stops you from being able to receive government assistance for medical insurance. From my understanding when government programs were established, for instance welfare, Franklin D. Roosevelt did not have the intentions of his program to be used as a means to live on. Instead “The New Deal” was created in order to assist individuals with obtaining life’s essentials, food, and health care, while the individual is out helping themselves. What I mean by this is it is a stepping stone to get your life moving in the right direction not a way of life. Health care provided by government agencies needs to remove universal guide lines for all persons inquiring for help, however guidelines are placed and universalism is not in effect.

Many others cannot get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. A pre-existing condition is any type of medical condition that you had prior to trying to receive health benefits. In addition, insurers will not cover people who are at high risk. For example, some companies will not cover people who have a known family history of cancer. Few companies are willing to insure people at high risk of developing the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Even people who can afford the ever-increasing prices can’t always get it. In most states, health insurance companies can turn down applicants who suffer from even the most common medical problems, like allergies and acne.The best way to describe that is crazy. How in the world can you not give someone health insurance because they are likely to become sick? Isn’t that why people need insurance? In the future, insurers might even try using genetic testing to exclude people with higher than average risks.

One of the reasons health insurance is so expensive and the reason they refuse to cover so many people is because they are offering health insurance to make themselves a profit. When insurance companies are not driven by the bottom line, such as a non-profit organization then the American people may truly for once be in “good hands.” Insurers typically keep around twenty to thirty percent of the premiums they collect to cover administration and marketing costs, plus profit. In 2007, one of the biggest private health insurance companies collectively earned more than eleven billion dollars in profits. Can you imagine how many more Americans would have health insurance if the eleven billion dollars did not go in the pockets of the share holders of the insurance company? Keep in mind that eleven billion just went to the share holders of one company. Eleven billion dollars could have paid for countless doctors, nurses, medical equipment, or even built dozens of hospitals. Honestly, I think it is amazing the amount of money we raise for children in other countries, while there is a lot of work to be done at home.

The cost for health insurance is also completely outrageous. For example, in 1980, Americans spent two hundred forty eight billion dollars on health care. By 1999, that number had more than quadrupled to 1.2 trillion. The cost for health insurance needs to be dramatically reduced. The minimum cost for a one-day stay in the hospital can cost more than two thousand dollars. As a result of the high cost of health insurance and medical care, many American families without health insurance are one bad accident or serious illness away from financial ruin. This fact leaves many Americans making hard decisions between seeing a doctor when they’re sick or holding on to their hard earned money. As a result, many Americans choose not to go to a doctor unless they feel their illness is life threatening.

Many Americans view access to health insurance as essential for the healthy and secure development of children in their formative years. In 2007, there were 9.4 million children without health insurance. One out of three children goes without health insurance for four or more months in a three year period. People without insurance sometimes put their own health on the back burner for financial reasons, but when it comes to their children they do not take any chances, whether it leads to financial ruin or not. The same mother that used duck tape to stop her own arm from bleeding will insist on every medical test available for her sniffling child. In my opinion, a child with no health insurance should be considered educational neglect. Suppose a child has Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (A.D.H.D), without the proper medicine that child needs, he or she is not able to learn the same as the other children in the class. Suppose a child is in need of eye glasses. Again without insurance a mother or father may have to choose running water over the eye glasses for their child. Politicians say “no child should be left behind.” Personally I have had it with these slogans. We as a country want things, but we do not want to support what it takes to make things happen. This is a very disheartening situation.

People have medical bills that are higher than the cost of their house. Among currently or recently uninsured working families with severe medical problems, two thirds of them report borrowing money from their family or friends. A quarter gets a loan or mortgage in order to pay health care expenses. Some people are forced to declare bankruptcy and put their future credit rating in jeopardy, which stops them from being able to buy a car or house in their name for a long time. Medical bills are a factor in more than half of all personal bankruptcy filings in America. It is one thing to have a two hundred fifty thousand dollar voluntary mortgage for a house you wanted, but imagine the same payment plan for a bad back that did not come with three bedrooms and an extra half bath. A person with multiple sclerosis would average about thirty thousand dollars in medical bills per month. That is the equivalent of buying a new car every month. That is completely insane. I do not think even the wealthiest of people buy a new car every month, and if they did they would not stay wealthy very long. No one wants to be sick and no one asks to be sick. Sickness does not discriminate, yet health insurance discriminates against people with pre-existing conditions.

In 2007, employed health care premiums increased by 6.1 percent, which is two times the rate inflation. The annual premiums for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly twelve thousand one hundred dollars. Wow, that is more than twenty five percent of the middle class American’s income. The average premiums for single coverage averaged four thousand four hundred dollars. Even experts agree that our health care system is full of inefficiencies, excessive administrative expenses, inflated prices, poor management, waste and fraud. These problems significantly increase the cost of medical care and health insurance for employers and workers. All these things affect the financial security and well being of a lot of families in America.

Even Americans who are able to afford health insurance sometimes do not get the help they need in many cases. Waiting two or three hours in the waiting room at a doctor’s office has become the norm. Overall service used to include house calls. House calls are the term used when doctors actually came to the patient’s home and provided medical services. The doctor knew your name, your parent’s names, your brothers and sister’s names, and all your medical histories because he was likely the doctor that delivered you. In today’s medical world you’re lucky to ever see the same doctor twice and you’re equally lucky if they speak the same language. I can not count the number of times doctors have done everything but push me out of their office. Americans have so many unanswered questions about their health simply because some doctors don’t have the time or the patience to give them the answers. Americans are basically paying two hundred dollars for five or ten minutes of their doctor’s time. Being a doctor or a nurse is a very compassionate job, so if you’re going to be one, then you need to be compassionate. When people go to a doctor or to the hospital they want to feel like the doctor or nurse actually cares about their health and well being. More often than not, patients leave the office feeling that the doctor and staff were more interested in collecting the co-pay than the actual reason for their visit. There is also the aggravation of referrals delaying your prognosis by weeks or sometimes a month or two. Americans are paying a lot of money for health insurance and the bottom line is we deserve good or even great care.

Sadly, the amount of mistreated elderly people in America is very high. According to congressional finding, about five million elderly persons are abused or neglected with most instances going unreported. Most of the abuse goes unreported due to the victim’s fear or a relative’s failure to recognize abuse symptoms. In nursing homes, many abuse violations are reported only after a formal complaint is filed or during an annual inspection. More than a third of nursing homes in the United States were cited for elderly abuse violations during a two year period ending in 2004. Often, the abuse violations caused actual harm to the residents or placed them in immediate threat of death or serious injury. These are sad statistics, unworthy of a society that claims to honor its elders. I have had personal experience with this. My grandfather was in a rehabilitation center. I would go visit him five days a week and about four of those five days he would be laying in his own feces and urine. He was supposed to get physical therapy four days a week. The therapist was only able to work with him one or two of those four days. They said they were unable to due to the lack of staff they had. He eventually ended with pneumonia because he did nothing but lay in the bed. If they spent more time with him in physical therapy, this more than likely would not have happened.

The emergency room is for a life threatening problem such as a loss of a limb, heart attack, stroke, trauma with uncontrolled bleeding, compound fracture, and chest pain. Urgent care is for injuries that can not wait for a regular appointment with your doctor. Going to the emergency room when you do not have an emergency is definitely frowned on in America. I can completely understand this if you have health insurance and you’re just causing the wait to be even longer for the people with life threatening illnesses. However, a doctor or an urgent care center is going to want the money at the time of the visit and if you have no insurance and no money to pay to go to an urgent care center or doctors office, what choice are you left with? Not to mention, the growing number of uninsured affects the health care all American receive. As more and more of these uninsured return to the emergency rooms for medical care, emergency care for the insured and uninsured alike suffer. I’m sorry but if my child is in need of medical attention of any kind and I am unable to pay a doctor, I am going to the emergency room where they can not deny me medical attention. One way to stop the overflow of people without emergencies going to the emergency room is to stop the actual emergency in America of people with no health insurance and not enough money to pay for medical attention. Stop complaining about the problem and fix the problem. It is not going to go away; it will more than likely continue to get worse until the problem of uninsured American people is fixed.

We take someone to an urgent care or emergency clinic about once a week. I have been so sadly disappointed in the health care available for the adult uninsured. Despite all of our community resources, we cannot get treatment for some really dire problems. If we cannot help these people get well, we cannot get them into education and employment programs. Their good health is a top priority for me.

I’m getting pretty good at knowing all of the resources but they’re clearly not enough. Some of the most wonderful programs in the state either do not service people living in my area or they have lengthy wait lists and cannot see these patients. Worse, I am now finding that if the families we serve cannot afford the co-pays or have allowed medical bills to pile up, no one will see them.

I will share two short stories.

I have a little family surviving on Section 8 housing, $300 of food stamps, and $179 per month. The husband has lived with a nasty hernia for five years — it keeps him from working. He has a seizure disorder and cannot afford his medication. The mother has many health problems related to an old car accident. They can no longer obtain medical care through various programs because they couldn’t pay the co-pays and community programs were out of prescription money.

I took another sister to a large Emergency Room. Her physician had diagnosed massive uterine tumors and recommended immediate surgery. The tumors were pressing against other organs, she was in pain and could hardly breathe. Her bladder was prolapsed and something was protruding from her body. The ER physician acknowledged that she was in a crisis but could not admit her, he referred her to a day clinic. The day clinic, which had assured us they would take a “Medicaid pending” patient, wouldn’t see her without insurance or a $250 cash payment, and the surgeon said he wouldn’t schedule surgery without insurance. We were about to try another program but it would take 10 days to get an intake appointment and even more to get to a doctor. Of course, without Medicaid or insurance, the large hospitals that we contacted would not admit her.

She borrowed $3500 from family and friends and went to Juarez, Mexico for surgery. The doctors there removed one tumor the size of a small watermelon, along with several other tumors. She had an infection so bad that they said should would have died within a month. She is now improving and we hope for her full recovery.

What I want to know is, why did this lovely woman have to go to Mexico for treatment? It was risky and, in this great country, it should be unnecessary.

I want our legislators to know that, if you are depending on volunteer agencies to care for the medically underserved, it is not enough. They are overburdened and underfunded. We need something more immediate, more robust, and more publicly available.