I am 23, an American Citizen with government run health care.

I have only read the first post because I don't want to take the time to read thru 53 pages - so sorry if I am repeating something that someone else has posted.

I have worked in Employee Health Benefits for 20 years in various positions and I have calculated premiums for health insurance, administered benefits and I currently am a manager at a third party claim administrator and a Certified COBRA Administrator. I have been reading a lot about Healthcare reform.

First of all, all US health insurance plans during 2011 will have to allow children up to their 26th birthday to remain on their parents health plans, regardless if the child is a full time student, is married, heck they dont even have to live with their parents! The reason for this is because children between 19 - 25 are one of the most uninsured segments of the US population. The OP is a good example of someone who is young and does not have insurance, and was forced to go to Medicaid. I hope the OP's parents have a healthcare plan they can add her to when their plan is required to do so this year.

By 2014, as the law is currently written, will require everyone to have health insurance. The State of Massachusetts is already doing this, and does have a state plan that a person can enroll in if they dont have other coverage thru an employer or private plan. (a good plan too,with reasonable copays and deductibles).
It sounds to me like the government plans will be similar to how Medicare supplement plans work now, with a few plans to choose from with varying costs.

To the people that cry for "free" healthcare, I hope that never happens. There is enough abuse of healthcare plans, with people running to the emergency room, instead of seeing their doctor at the doctors office. If a person knows they will have to pay for part of the services, they are more likely to be responsible in their healthcare choices, as it should be. A lot of people on Medicaid dont care how much services cost because they dont have to pay for it.

To the people crying about their tax dollars going to help people on Medicaid, I think there should always be net for someone to fall into. This isn't 18th century London for God's sake. We take care of our own because it is the right thing to do. We do not want people dying on the streets, do we?

Lastly, to the people crying about how high premiums are, I will have you know that 95% of your premiums go to pay claims! That means 95 cents of every dollar you pay in premium is to pay for claims. Insurers make their money on investments, not your health insurance premium. I know it is expensive - I'm in the same boat. I pay $400 a month out of my paychecks to pay for insurance for my husband and I - and we have a high deductible. It sucks.

But I know that the cost of paying for medical technology,hospital stays and all of the drugs available now from cancer treatments to toenail fungus cost money. And almost everyone is filling a prescription for something.

What can we do? If you have plan choices thru your employer - buy the cheapest one if you are healthy and rarely go to the doctor. Utilize your family doctor as opposed to going to a specialist or the emergency room as the first solution. The simplest solution is probably the correct one. Take advantage of routine annual exams. Many plans pay these at 100% to encourage you to monitor your health instead of waiting until you have a problem. Take care of your self. Eat healthy and exercise. Try over the counter medications first before going to the doctor about your toenail fungus.

Thanks for hearing me out - I know this is a long post!

reply to post by liveyourlife


There is no proper cost competition in the health field. First service is controlled by several monopolies, all service has to pass through several filters, the AMA approved guidelines, the FDA monopoly control on approved treatments (for the benefit of the drug companies IMHO), and what the insurance companies are willing to pay for.

If instead the consumer were adequately informed and paid either out of pocket or out of his own managed health fund (e.g. medical savings accounts); and most importantly he access to all forms of treatment (e.g. including acupuncture, chiropracty, royal rife rays, blood electrification, ultraviolet blood irradiation, hyperbaric oxygen treatment, alternative cancer treatments etc. etc.), there would b a RADICAL reduction in the total cost of healthcare. Think in terms of the huge reduction in the price of commodity electronics over the years.

Finally lets see what Obama style health care has done for me personally in MA. Thanks to Obamacare my company cut my service back to the point where I have like a $6K annual deductible. Prior to this I had a higher end blue cross blue shield plan. If I were to buy the equivalent services of that old plan in MA, I would have to pay $2K a month. Thank you Obama for saving the day......NOT. Now I can only hope I and my family never get sick, because it's a lot cheaper to die. I think the illegal aliens get better care by crashing the emergency rooms. I know they get served prior to US citizens.

let's see, they increased the amount medicaid would pay for primary caregivers, and the enrollment in colleges to the field increased over 90%.....
this gives ya a clue as to just how much federal money is a driving force in the industry....
not consumer, not what is needed...just where the federal funds are flying this year!!!

check out just how much money is flowing into the healthcare systems, the grants for this or that or the other thing...not to mention the care for children, the poor, the elderly.....you won't even come close to finding the exact amount, but well, you will find plenty of money flowing!!!

so, well, it seems to me, the taxpayers are already paying much of the healthcare costs, even if they never go see a doctor!!!
and we shouldn't be getting financially raped when we get sick or hurt!!!
check out the salaries of the ceo and upper management of the health insurance companies and the big healthcare complexes. and well...then come back and explain to me why a simple hernia operation should cost the equilvalent of two years of my labor!!!

Socialism gets a very Hostile reception in America and considering its the most ultra capitalist nation in the world it doesn't surprise me, Socialism is looked on very very differently in almost every other part of the world. I'm from England and let me start by saying Obama's democrats are know where near what I would call socialism, in fact I would go as far to say as they are more Centre Right than anything else.
Socialism doesn't seem to be well understood by the american populous and anyone slightly to the left of right is branded as a socialist or communist.
Considering your government is practically dictated to by powerful corporations through "lobbying" its know wonder why Americans views on Socialism are misinformed.
If your government is so hostile to Socialism, has anyone considered this may be the way to go?

With regards to Free Healthcare being a socialist policy, so what? It's a good policy.
As it stood before this you had worse healthcare than Cuba, Now you may say, "well Cubans aren't free", Tell that to the families of Americans who died because they couldn't afford healthcare.

The people who are against free healthcare always seem to be against it being given to people in genuine need (often through no fault of there own, but thats beside the point) seem to forget how much tax dollars are being wasted on Americas Industrial Military Complex or the FED. Me I'd rather see it given to your average american who needs an operation to save/improve his life so they may continue being a provider to there family.

If anything your government should be looking at extending free healthcare to the Working and Middle Classes, not just those in poverty. Ask yourselves why your paying taxes if the government doesn't provide any type of service for them?

If your government has the provisions to provide public healthcare it should, at the end of the day its one step in getting the "lower classes" to move up the ladder, if you use any rationale, you would know this is a good thing, how many middle class Americans commit crime or even consider taking drugs.

To think that there's an apparently rich western country that doesn't look after it's citizens is sickening to me. The US heathcare system is a capitalist farce. Doctors and insurance companies just want to make $.

In the UK we're lucky that we have a free health service. It's not the best, and believe me there's been a huge conspiracy in the government to get rid of it i think, but it is needed and it does good.

Plus good companies, like mine, still give private healthcare packages giving you the choice of taking the NHS for smaller issues and going private if it's more serious.

I could never sit and think a, ill person on low income is somehow 'taking my money'. That attitude stinks. We ALL benefit.