Kennedy and Health Care

[Guest stevej]

The following story can be found at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070110/ap_on_...ennedy_health_3

WASHINGTON - The federal government should join the state of Massachusetts in enacting universal health coverage, said Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), the new chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over numerous health issues.

Kennedy's home state is the first to require everyone to have health insurance, just as drivers must have automobile coverage.

Kennedy has his own version of what universal health coverage would look like. He wants to extend Medicare to all. In his first hearing Wednesday as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Massachusetts Democrat called on 10 witnesses from all over the country to talk about how to make health care more affordable.

[RustyAngeL]

I'm not saying that this is the answer I just wish I could get some kind of coverage. I have not had a mammogram in over 15 years. Why should a illegal get it and not me. They had better do something or a lot of Americans are going to die because of lack of coverage. If we stopped all benefits for these illegals I think the influx would slow down. We are rewarding them for breaking the law.

[forrestkc]

I don't like the idea of nationalized healthcare, but there are a lot of misconceptions floating around about it.

Our neighbors in Canada by any statistical measure get better healthcare than we do. Yes, they have longer waits for elective procedures.

However, they have:

A longer life expectancy than we do.

A higher early diagnosis rate and survival rate from cancer than we do.

Much better preventative medicine than we get.

A much lower infant mortality rate than we have.

By every measure, Canadians are statistically healthier than we are in America.

The statistics, right out of the CIA World Fact Book.

United States:

Infant Mortality Rate - 6.43 Deaths per 1000 Live Births

Life Expectancy - 77.85 years

HIV Prevalence Rate - 0.6%

Canada:

Infant Mortality Rate - 4.69 Deaths per 1000 Live Births

Life Expectancy - 80.22 years

HIV Prevalence Rate - 0.3%

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ca.html

By every measure, Canadians enjoy better healthcare than we do.

[Guest stevej]

I'm not saying that this is the answer I just wish I could get some kind of coverage. I have not had a mammogram in over 15 years. Why should a illegal get it and not me. They had better do something or a lot of Americans are going to die because of lack of coverage. If we stopped all benefits for these illegals I think the influx would slow down. We are rewarding them for breaking the law.

I am in total agreement with not paying for non citizens. But take it one step further one of the big arguements in favor of this insurance is that malpractice suits could be limited against both doctors and hospitals. We all hear that malpractice insurance is what is driving up the cost but the issue should be quality medical care over lawsuits...and certainly freedom of choice in who we use as our medical providers.

As far as those who have no medical insurance (I by choice am one of those), it is a dilemna because we are faced with paying horrid medical and pharmacutical costs when we are ill. In looking over my wife's medical and pharmacuetical bills from last year (which were covered) her pharmaceutical bill was just under $30,000 and doctors and misc amounted to just under $10,000. This is but a drop in the bucket compared to others i have heard about.

The proble is do we sacrifice quality care for coverage? The democrats have yet to come up with an acceptable plan. I won't support any plan until i am convinced it works and will not have to as another poster stated wait in line..or wait to get surgery in a line. If i need healthcare, i need it now..not when it is convenient for the government to schedule it. If i am short, my doctors have always been agreeable to being paid as i could.

[RustyAngeL]

I'm not saying that this is the answer I just wish I could get some kind of coverage. I have not had a mammogram in over 15 years. Why should a illegal get it and not me. They had better do something or a lot of Americans are going to die because of lack of coverage. If we stopped all benefits for these illegals I think the influx would slow down. We are rewarding them for breaking the law.

I am in total agreement with not paying for non citizens. But take it one step further one of the big arguments in favor of this insurance is that malpractice suits could be limited against both doctors and hospitals. We all hear that malpractice insurance is what is driving up the cost but the issue should be quality medical care over lawsuits...and certainly freedom of choice in who we use as our medical providers.

As far as those who have no medical insurance (I by choice am one of those), it is a dilemna because we are faced with paying horrid medical and pharmacutical costs when we are ill. In looking over my wife's medical and pharmacuetical bills from last year (which were covered) her pharmaceutical bill was just under $30,000 and doctors and misc amounted to just under $10,000. This is but a drop in the bucket compared to others i have heard about.

The proble is do we sacrifice quality care for coverage? The democrats have yet to come up with an acceptable plan. I won't support any plan until i am convinced it works and will not have to as another poster stated wait in line..or wait to get surgery in a line. If i need healthcare, i need it now..not when it is convenient for the government to schedule it. If i am short, my doctors have always been agreeable to being paid as i could.

I'm in total agreement. However what happens to women may come down with something and cannot get it taken care of until it's to late? I'm not like a woman I know who says that she is not going to get cancer because she doesn't want it. My husband had cancer, so it's like he asked for it. This is a situation that needs to be addressed. I need medical insurance and to have to pay for people breaking the law being here while I'm turned down is just plain immoral. How can we call this a country of laws when we reward the law brakers? Good point Steve

[forrestkc]

Our neighbors in Canada by any statistical measure get better healthcare than we do. Yes, they have longer waits for elective procedures.

The experts on the issue will definitely disagree with you. In fact, a certain prime minister of Canada brought his wife to America to obtain health care because of their sloppy, government medical system. The fact is, socialized medical care does not work. It has been proven over and over. When I was employed in the ER in Alex Bay on the St. Lawrence River, on the Canadian border, Canadians would flock over the border to obtain their health care. The Canadian nurses would come over the border to work in the American Hospital because they loathed their own medical system. Wherever you have a socialized medical system you have a chaotic medical care system.

Then why do they have higher life expectancies, lower infant mortality rates, lower HIV rates, and lower cancer death rates than their American counterparts?

I am not saying the Canadian System is perfect. I am not saying we should adopt it. I am saying that statistically, by any measure Canadians are healthier. I have never met a single Canadian that would trade their system for ours either. In fact, they talk about our system up there as something that should be avoided just like we talk about their system.

Those are CIA World Fact Book Statistics. How can you argue with that?

Their are experts on either side of this issue, it just depends on what lobbying firm they work for.

[Marnie]

I have some experience with the wacky world of Canadian healthcare. I was once in the big town of Wawa,Ontario, fishing with my dad and hurt myself, as I am prone to do. The hospital, in Sault Ste. Marie, hours away as I recall, was old, there were holes in the sheets, it smelled bad and so on. In fact, it reminded me of the worst VA hospital here. The equipment was old and some of it was not working. I remember dad telling the doctor to patch me up, that he would drive across the border to Soo Ste. Marie, MI to what he called "a real hospital."

So, I don't know. Four of the five doctors who worked on me after my injuries were ex-patriot Canadians who were fed up with OHIP, or whatever it was called.

The American system is really bad, but I'll take it compared to what our friends up north have.

[forrestkc]

I am not saying the Canadian System is perfect. I am not saying we should adopt it. I am saying that statistically, by any measure Canadians are healthier. I have never met a single Canadian that would trade their system for ours either. In fact, they talk about our system up there as something that should be avoided just like we talk about their system.

I am talking from personal experience from both sides of the issue. There are just as many, if not more, unhealthy Canadians because of their inadequare health care system, as there are unhealthy Americans not caused be a faulty health care system. It depends upon who takes the poll, and who was polled, and the demographics.

Those are CIA World Fact Book Statistics. How can you argue with that?

And the CIA World Fact Book statistics has nothing to do with a health care system. Many demographics enter into why one group of people fit the criteria you mentioned over another group of people in the same manner that Afro Americans are subject to Sickle Cell Disease; whereas white Americans are not. You are comparing apple to oranges here.

Sickle Cell???? Come on.

By every standard, there is no other country in the entire world that's society is more like ours than Canada. Canada may as well be another state. Moreover, this is not just the case with Canada. We rank 16th in the world on these statistics, every nation in front of us has Nationalized Healthcare.

I am not saying that it is a system we should adopt, I am just saying that it is not nearly as black and white as you are portraying it. I might add that Canada has a colder climate, a very diverse population just like ours, even higher imigration rates than we do, and a larger percentage of smokers, yet still statistically they get better healthcare.

[kat8585]

I'm shuddering as I remember Hillerycare that they tried so hard to shove down our throats. But even her own party wouldn't do it. That's how we were saved from it.