Last Updated on September 11, 2021
My friends have a wide range of political views. I have some friends who are far on the left who think that “Obamacare” is the greatest thing since the Polio vaccine. I have some friends on the far right who think that Obama is somehow trying to reinvent health care to kill us all.
No, really. I think some of them actually believe that.
One of the arguments that annoy me the most against a government-run health plan is when someone points to something like the H1N1 vaccine shortage as an example of how terrible anything run by the government is.
The trouble with this little argument, while certainly convincing on the surface, is that it seems to ignore the obvious problematic alternative: the bureaucratic foolishness that already exists in the health care industry.
I can’t for example, call my health care provider, a major insurance company everyone has heard of, and get a simple answer about whether a routine physical is covered. I’ve just recently tried.
I tried this the other day, when my doctor suggested that after the first of the year, I should come in for a full-fledged checkup. So this is pretty much how the conversation went.
Remember, I’m not disputing a bill with them. I’m not trying to negotiate for a rate adjustment. I’m just asking if routine checkups are part of their plan.
The operator keeps phrasing it along the lines of this:
“When your health care provider files the claim, if that is covered, it will be reimbursed.”
Yeah, lady. I get that. But is it covered?
“Well that would depend on your plan. But if it is a covered procedure, it will be covered.”
Ma’am, you work for the plan. I just want to know if a physical is covered.
“You would only be responsible for the co-pay and any part of the exam that isn’t covered.”
That’s not verbatim, but it’s as close as I can remember, and every bit as vague as the answers she actually gave.
So if a government-run health care system will be so bad because of red tape, does that mean the people who hold that position honestly believe that what we have now is acceptable?
Hi Patrick 🙂
I don’t know if the Health Care Reform bill is the best thing since polio vaccine, but I do know it is a step in the right direction. The bill that made it through the house last night leaves a little to be desired, but maybe when it passes fully, and in a year from now or two years from now, when folks see that NO death panels have been assembled, folks will calm down and see just how it was lied about. It’s seems that folks always “see the light” in retrospect.
The other day in class we watched a PBS Frontline show called “Sick Around The World” It looked at five government health systems, Great Britain, Japan, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland. Here is the link to the show…
http://video.pbs.org/video/1050712790/