ARE DOCTORS VISITS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH?

ARE DOCTORS VISITS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH?

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

Location, location, location…..when you visit a doctor here in the United States, there are many different things that create your bottom line bill for your routine six month or yearly check-up. However a large ingredient that greatly influences your bill is where you live, and were your doctor is located. It’s kind of like the guy who is driving a Cadillac, usually he’s got some money, and if he’s old(er), with white hair you can rest assured he’s got some bread stashed away somewhere.

I had open heart surgery (CABG) in October last year, and the overall charge was $117,094 and I got to tell you, the procedure saved my life. I also got to tell you that $117,094  just for the procedure is just a bit pricey. The rehab process takes months, and the cost is not included in the $117,094. To have one of these procedures…..which I call (top end procedures) you’d better be prepared to dish out some hard cold cash…..cause insurance doesn’t cover all of the related costs.

Having been involved with a medical procedure that I wasn’t prepared for (you don’t save up for them like you would a vacation or a car), I learned a lot. What I discovered was the really disturbing facts and many of those people who are wagging their tongues the loudest usually know the least. What I know about health insurance you could put in an 8 ounce drinking glass, and to be competent, you need four or five 5 gallon buckets.

Insurance is a scam, pure and simple…..and I don’t care what anybody says, health insurance is set up…..today, to fail, fail the policy holder. Simply put, well over 90% of the people who have health insurance are covered woefully inadequately. Usually the deductibles eat a policy holder to death and to boot, some procedures simply aren’t covered…..and the worst part is the fact that many insurance plans do not pay for preventative care, and maintenance.

Insurance plans vary in many different ways most of which I don’t understand…..even though I try and stay on top of it. Hundreds of thousands find themselves in the same boat that I’m in, and I have health insurance.  My head swims every time I listen to, or read what the experts are saying about the dilemma, and I got to tell you, it makes me think that these so-called experts are in the same fog that I’m in, and they really don’t know what they’re talking about.

I’m wondering if the Affordable Care Act (Obama-Care) has done anything that really helps the average American citizen, and I’m not talking about the welfare recipients, they are a whole different type of people, pretty much because they can’t afford diddly squat, you would almost have to give the health coverage away, and they’d still have a tough time handling their affairs.

I’m also unsure why the costs of U.S. health care weren’t addressed by the Obama administration, $75 for a band-aid, $439 for a visit to a doctor in Heartland, Wisconsin…..can you get serious…..a visit with my former wife’s not worth that much.

Nobody can argue with the facts, I had to have 5 bypass surgery, I had 70, 80, and in one particular area, 90% blockage. Without a doubt I’d be dead by now, or soon would be added to the worm food crop, so I’m grateful to my doctor, and the nurses that worked as a team at St. Vincent Hospital. On can’t put a dollar figure on the work that they did, and the results…..I’m still here, but now am saddled with a bunch of hospital bills. And will struggle to pay these, but in the end, will honor my obligations, no matter how long it may take.

However here is where I and millions of other senior citizens part company with those folks between the ages of 19 and 45. This age bracket has that invincibility syndrome that people my age vaguely remember, nothing can touch them, it’s why our military is inundated by people 20 to about 30 years of age. Thank God for that, cause old farts like me would never join the military, our joints won’t take it.

HOW WILL THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT AFFECT THE UNITED STATES AND THE RANK & FILE

 

There are two areas of health insurance that need to be addressed, solved, and filed in the completed section of the country’s to-do list. Until these issues are addressed…..honestly, and without political bias of any kind, as a people, we will struggle.

The first is education, unless each and every male and female in the continental United States and the offshore tributaries, the United States will be less than it can be. Lax and shoddy programs that address education for the whole of our society have and will continue to blunt creativity, progressive thinking, and the adventure of discovery.

The other issue that today’s piece addresses, an issue with high priority scribbled all over it is how assessable health care is, both preventative, as well as treatment, to everybody. There are some silly, silly issues connected with who gets treatment here in the states.

Many people talk about how President Obama’s Affordable Health Care for American Act is going to wreck the insurance industry, yet the scribes of the insurance industry wrote the rules and regulations of the act, and law. Health care for Americans, all Americans has been an issue

Believe it or not, health-care for everybody has been a topic of interest and conversation for well over a hundred years. Advocates on several occasions believed they were on the verge of success; yet each time they tasted defeat. The evolution of the efforts and the reasons for their failure make for an intriguing lesson in American history, ideology, and character.

Since President Franklin D. Roosevelt, about every 15 years or so, somebody proposes some sort of health reform, or so it’s called, to alter or reform, you need to have a program, and frankly the United States has always lacked in this department. Medicare and Medicaid are not all encompassing in the private sector of healthcare in the United States today.

I don’t really care what people might think, either Medicare or Medicaid are what is popularly referred to as viable health care plans. I talk from experience, I’m retired (as is my wife) and we still pay several hundred dollars a month to supplement Medicare. The description of Medicaid explains in the first paragraph what it’s all about, a social health care program for families and individuals with low income and resources.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, (ACA,) expands both eligibility for the federal funding of Medicare and Medicaid. The LAW and it is a law, this Affordable Care Act, all U.S. citizens and legal residents with certain income criteria, including adults without dependents qualify for coverage in any state that participates in the Medicaid program. Here’s the kicker with regards to Medicaid, in a Supreme Court ruling, it is stated that “states do not have to agree to this expansion of funds in order to continue to receive previously established levels of Medicaid funding.”

What has happened since the Supreme Court ruled that states don’t have to take the additional funding, it’s okay, they can continue at their pre ACA  funding programs levels, AND eligibility standards. So a law is a law until the Supreme Court takes the teeth out of it.

Okay my friends, here’s exactly what is going on, remember that you read it here first…..oh and by the way, you can take this to the bank. The only way that the United States is every going to come out of the early 20^th century, and into the light of the 21^st century is for the federal government to take private insurers out of the equation, until that happens, bottom line mentality will prevail, and that attitude is counter-productive to overall country-wide health care.

LET’S GET DOWN TO SOME SERIOUS STATISTICS IN THE HEALTH-CARE INDUSTRY

 

Advocates of health-system reform believe that the time is right for action, the United States spends twice as much per capita on healthcare as the average of the 10 other richest countries in the world. You didn’t think that you’re personal physician bought his Cadillac with food-stamps did you. In the United States one person in six under the age of 65 is uninsured (those invincible). There also is a feeling that labor leaders and business alike are convinced that employer-financed healthcare has undermined U.S. competitiveness on the world stage with regards to labor costs and product prices.

The elites remain deeply divided on what needs to be done…..which has always been a bug-a-boo in the discussion about change in U.S. health care. There are basically two camps of thinking on the problem of how the U.S. is serviced by medical providers. Enroll everyone in a national administered system financed largely by taxes, shoring up the current employment-based system for workers and their families, or extending some sort of tax incentives to encourage individuals to buy insurance themselves.

The other camp includes those people, (85%) who are insured in several different ways, completely self insured, partially insured by their employer, and believe it or not, there are those who figure that they’ll simply slid through life not needing coverage.

It is not, nor has it ever been the responsibility of industry to offer health insurance, and then pay a hefty chunk of the premiums as a fringe benefit. Business is there for one purpose, to make money either for the owners, or the share holders. Any concessions that workers might get is usually through the kindness of the business owner’s heart.

The rank and file is at their place of work to perform their prescribed jobs in an efficient manner, giving their best effort at all times. Sick days, personal days, birthdays, bereavement, national holidays, and vacation days are all given by ownership, not because they love their employees, but because they want to hang on to the good ones.

The only one who is going to solve the mess that United States health care has gotten to is…..the government, those people that we elect to represent us…..they are nothing more than our mouth-pieces. The key word for us is diligence, we need to stay visual, and not lose our way of thinking, and to remember that American citizens aren’t OWED anything, whatever is gotten will usually be fought for…..and take years. Oh and by the way, “yes, Doctors visits are BAD for your health, at least in the wallet.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!