Good letter

[Smooth Operator]

Originally Posted by Riot

Did you miss my story? My private, ultra-good bells-and-whistles Humana plan (for which I paid over $400 a month for, privately, as I am self-employed) approved and qualified me to have a knee replacement (both the doctors office and the hospital got approval, in writing, that the insurance company would pay, which is usual for any hospital admittance) - then a few months later, they decided they were not paying.

They gave me two choices: I could sign off and agree they wouldn't pay for what they already agreed to, and what was covered under my plan; or, if I didn't agree, the blackmail to that was they would cancel my entire policy from the beginning, and refund all my premiums minus what they paid out already on other conditions.

This is entirely legal for you to sign a contract and your insurance company to be able to renege at any time, with you having no recourse. Read your insurance contract. The Kentucky Insurance Commission said, "Nothing we can do".

I am currently sueing them. I will be lucky to get half of it paid, and it will take years. Insurance companies take the least expensive road.

The above is what private insurance companies do to keep profitable. When you have a large claim, they will try anything to put the policy in recission.

And the Healthcare reform act will END the above practice.

Shocking ... just SHOCKING



Thought we had "the best health care system in the world" cuz it's private?????

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Smooth Operator

Shocking ... just SHOCKING



Thought we had "the best health care system in the world" cuz it's private?????

I thought Canada did?

http://www.vancouversun.com/story_pr...878506&sponsor

[Smooth Operator]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

I thought Canada did?

http://www.vancouversun.com/story_pr...878506&sponsor

Not according to this one, dellinger:

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Cont...can-Healt.aspx



Canada came in fifth ... and the U.S. in sixth ... out of six countries............................

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Smooth Operator

Shocking ... just SHOCKING

Thought we had "the best health care system in the world" cuz it's private?????

Um ... we do not have the "best healthcare in the world" by anyone's public ranking. We do have the "most expensive" healthcare in the world.

World Health Org ranked us 37th (France and Italy first)

Commonwealth Fund May 2009 ranked the United States last or next-to-last compared with five other nations — Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom — on most measures of performance, including quality of care and access to it.

Insurance coverage: All other major industrialized nations provide universal health coverage, and most of them have comprehensive benefit packages with no cost-sharing by the patients. The United States, to its shame, has some 45 million people without health insurance and many more millions who have poor coverage.

Access. Citizens abroad often face long waits before they can get to see a specialist or undergo elective surgery. Americans typically get prompter attention, although Germany does better. The real barriers here are the costs facing low-income people without insurance or with skimpy coverage.

But even Americans with above-average incomes find it more difficult than their counterparts abroad to get care on nights or weekends without going to an emergency room, and many report having to wait six days or more for an appointment with their own doctors.

Fairness. The United States ranks dead last on almost all measures of equity because we have the greatest disparity in the quality of care given to richer and poorer citizens. Americans with below-average incomes are much less likely than their counterparts in other industrialized nations to see a doctor when sick, to fill prescriptions or to get needed tests and follow-up care.

Healthy lives. We have known for years that America has a high infant mortality rate, so it is no surprise that we rank last among 23 nations by that yardstick. But we rank near the bottom in healthy life expectancy at age 60, and 15th among 19 countries in deaths from a wide range of illnesses that would not have been fatal if treated with timely and effective care. The good news is that we have done a better job than other industrialized nations in reducing smoking. The bad news is that our obesity epidemic is the worst in the world.

Quality. In a comparison with five other countries, the Commonwealth Fund ranked the United States first in providing the “right care” for a given condition as defined by standard clinical guidelines and gave it especially high marks for preventive care, like Pap smears and mammograms to detect early-stage cancers, and blood tests and cholesterol checks for hypertensive patients. But we scored poorly in coordinating the care of chronically ill patients, in protecting the safety of patients, and in meeting their needs and preferences, which drove our overall quality rating down to last place. American doctors and hospitals kill patients through surgical and medical mistakes more often than their counterparts in other industrialized nations.

[Smooth Operator]

Originally Posted by Riot

Um ... we do not have the "best healthcare in the world" by anyone's public ranking. We do have the "most expensive" healthcare in the world.

Lol ... was being sarcastic, Riot.


Familiar with both the WHO and CF reports



Both pretty embarrassing for the current U.S. system...

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Smooth Operator

Lol ... was being sarcastic, Riot.


Familiar with both the WHO and CF reports



Both pretty embarrassing for the current U.S. system...

yea and WHO has no agenda. When you can be best in diagnosis and worst in the overall ranking the report is obviously flawed. You'll know when we are the worst. It will be when the rich from here are flying to foreign lands for care and Kings and Health Ministry heads aren't coming here.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

yea and WHO has no agenda. When you can be best in diagnosis and worst in the overall ranking the report is obviously flawed. You'll know when we are the worst. It will be when the rich from here are flying to foreign lands for care and Kings and Health Ministry heads aren't coming here.

That doesn't really prove anything. Nobody has ever doubted that the absolute cream of the crop medical care is in the United States. The problem is that not everyone has access to that.

But I'm hard-pressed to think that the WHO reports are really interested in measuring the healthcare system based on what a multi-millionaire/King/Health Minister can buy. The "system" is more than whether rich people can get the best health care.

If that's what we're debating here, then congratulations you win! The rich get great health care in the United States!!!!!!

And this, Dell, is the age-old gap between the two very different ways that we (meaning left and right -- and you and me, I guess -- at this point in time) view the world, and they're completely irreconcilable. You on the right care that you are taken care of and once that's done, everyone else can go f*ck themselves because you've already got yours and that's all that matters. We on the left think that there is something to the idea that everyone gets taken care of, and that it's not all about us as individuals being well-off because the better off we are as a group, the better off we are as individuals.

[timmgirvan]

Originally Posted by brianwspencer

That doesn't really prove anything. Nobody has ever doubted that the absolute cream of the crop medical care is in the United States. The problem is that not everyone has access to that.

But I'm hard-pressed to think that the WHO reports are really interested in measuring the healthcare system based on what a multi-millionaire/King/Health Minister can buy. The "system" is more than whether rich people can get the best health care.

If that's what we're debating here, then congratulations you win! The rich get great health care in the United States!!!!!!

And this, Dell, is the age-old gap between the two very different ways that we (meaning left and right -- and you and me, I guess -- at this point in time) view the world, and they're completely irreconcilable. You on the right care that you are taken care of and once that's done, everyone else can go f*ck themselves because you've already got yours and that's all that matters. We on the left think that there is something to the idea that everyone gets taken care of, and that it's not all about us as individuals being well-off because the better off we are as a group, the better off we are as individuals.

So wrong, as usual,Brian! It's you on the left that want everbody in the same mudhole, whereas we on the right feel it's OK to rise above the rest with our skill and ambition!

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by timmgirvan

So wrong, as usual,Brian! It's you on the left that want everbody in the same mudhole, whereas we on the right feel it's OK to rise above the rest with our skill and ambition!

It's us on the left who want to see everyone have a chance to get out of the mudhole. And you who still believe in the fantasy that it's just hard work and ambition that separates the haves from the have-nots, and with a little bit more boot strap pulling, all our inner city kids could be rich CEOs with access to the best medicine the world has to offer.

It's a positively irreconcilable conflict in worldviews. I'm just glad to not be on the side perpetuating that sick and selfish pipe dream.

[Smooth Operator]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

yea and WHO has no agenda. When you can be best in diagnosis and worst in the overall ranking the report is obviously flawed. You'll know when we are the worst. It will be when the rich from here are flying to foreign lands for care and Kings and Health Ministry heads aren't coming here.

LOL ... high-pitch Hannity uses that moronic argument all the time too.



Not like our private insurance system has set the bar real high ... I mean, dead last overall in that Commonwealth Fund report ... and a laughable 37th-place finish in the WHO report.


What an EMBARRASSMENT for the world's most powerful economy...

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Smooth Operator

Lol ... was being sarcastic, Riot.


Familiar with both the WHO and CF reports



Both pretty embarrassing for the current U.S. system...

Whoosed over my head, sorry