The conviction that we cannot do national health care well is a failure of nerve and imagination on the part of the well-paid hacks who are working against it.

Peoole who don’t believe that health care is a human right find specious arguments against having the government manage our health care. I wonder where are the corporations they think so highly of? The ones that apparently do it right.

Do those corporations insure people with pre-existing conditions? Do they welcome underwriting care for people who need innovative treatment? Do they let your doctor prescribe what she believes you need or do they reject some drugs just out of hand? In heavens name, which are these wonderful corporations? I have been paying attention to the insurance industry for 40 years (and my father and grandfather were in the business) and I can’t guess what corporations they are.

I have been lucky as I got older in being married to a partner at a prospering law firm. I have gold-plated insurance … and in fact, I have also been fortunate that my husband has been willing to remain married to me, even though we’ve been separated for ten years, so I could maintain that gold-plated coverage. I do not delude myself that my fortunate situation is within a hundred miles of the American norm.

It’s fascinating to hear these people who go on about how our health care is the best in the world (without acknowledging that this wonderful program covers the select few) and who downgrade national health care systems in e.g. the U.K. and Canada. If we Americans are so darn smart, why can’t we improve on what they do in other countries?

Your story is a compelling. You should find a way to share it widely.

From a geezer who hasn’t had health insurance for nearly four years and whose medical plan is: 1) Don’t get sick or injured 2) Die suddenly.

Our experiences with the Chicago HMO were mostly positive, especially when Brandon was hospitalized for a major asthma attack for three days, but sometimes the bureaucracy was definitely in the way. Now we’re on the UUA plan, and we have had to argue over every single claim to get it paid correctly, and our out of pocket expenses are significant. I actually miss the HMO at this point.

We did not have coverage for a time when Brandon was a baby, and I remember his pediatrician’s office administrator “suggesting” that we go elsewhere for his care when we tried to negotiate payment arrangements. Talk about humiliating.

It’s so frustrating to be discouraged about going to the doctor when one really needs to, in anticipation of the later bureaucratic nightmare of getting things paid for or approved or whatever they’ve decided to require at that particular moment. What gets me about the current health care “debate” is that many of the lawmakers making most of the noise have been on government run healthcare plans for so long that they have no idea what the private sector actually looks like in practice.

When it comes to capital investment, the government can’t do it very well.

Another classic is the Illinois Health Planning Board, the board Hospitals must go to for approval on Capital Investments. It was the root of corruption for our last Gov and the source of his undoing when one brave Hospital Administrator stood up to the blackmail and wore a wire for the FBI which was the start of Gov Blagojevich’s down fall.

Much of life is about power and you concentrate vast power over health care in one institution, we’re going to have very bad outcomes.

I’ve done consulting with the National Health Service in the UK on waits and delays, and always amazed at how they have these weird inefficiencies, and the Doc in charge told me each sub ministry had it’s own budget, completely independent of patient needs (like convenient location)… the Ministries all had their power structures and stakeholders and patients low on the list.

Stick with TriCare…