A health care story

[kathylc]

My brother is on TRI Care (military retirement insurance) He can get free VA care but they do not cover dependents, so his wife and kids are on Tricare with him........Hate to say it, but its a government run program too but he only pays $38 a month and it covers everything, and if they do not have a doc at the base he gets sent or his dependants get sent off base to specialists etc and only has to pay a $12 co pay. No payment for meds either as any Rx is filled on base Free, even those from an off base doc, and anymore he says 9 out of 10 docs are now civilian doctors anyhow, but he has never had problems with military docs either. Thery can still go to the ER if need be and Tricare picks up the tab except for a $12 co pay. Same with dental everyone in his family is covered and its less than $40 a month and only has a $12 co pay on certain things........most prceedures are not charged a co pay.

[kathylc]

(pacman @ Sep. 16 2009,16:44)

(El_hefe @ Sep. 16 2009,12:52) Badly handled... he better improve his learning curve about Afghanistan etc., or he could end up like Jimmy Carter.

Sad but true...        

I can't tell the difference between either one of them.......I am thinking perhaps they are twins or possibly relatedf somewhere along the line. Carter was nothing but an idiot who made a better peanut farmer than a politician. Afterall the entire world knows he could not make a decision without consulting his daughter Amy for the right way to do things!

[JaiDee]

My step-dad retired as a full-bird colonel from the US Army and had incredible benefits for he and my Mom.... but it didn't include us runts.... even after he passed in 1997 she has gotten taken care of VERY well by the Govt and will be until the day she dies.


The feds SHOULD step up to the plate when it comes to covering the people who who have protected our freedoms.

[Holmes]

I didn't log on to LB Forums for a discussion of the US medical insurance debacle...but I'm glad I did. It's good to see others are scratching their heads over this circus in America. Makes me feel less crazy. I've been lucky over the last 20 years with no insurance. The one time I needed emergency room care, when I needed surgery on my broken clavicle, luckily I was in Thailand. Great experience, if a couple of trips to surgery can be called "great".

[sev7en]

Not much lb related stuff being discussed here anymore

[Torurot]

Jaidee said "and I agree with Chef [first time ever], health care doesn't need to be fixed"

and then list a long number of reasons why it should be!! The US system of "health denial" protects a large number of corporate rort. Why it succeeds and can't be changed for the better is the huge amount of money donated to various politicians. In other countries this would be titled "corrupt practice", but in the US it is called "lobbying".

[Socrates999]

(JaiDee @ Sep. 14 2009,20:23) ... Turns out all the tendons between my clavical and arm bone are gone, so they have to ''shave'' away some bone on each side so there will be room in there again, and then jury-rig some type of new tendons in between. ...

You sure about that? Tendons gone? Literally? You mean, your muscles are no longer actually attached to your bones? I'm thinking that might result in more problems than some pain when attempting to lift your now functionless arm. Maybe just damaged/ruptured tendons, perhaps?

[bigmick22]

In ireland (and I guess other places) it's common to refer to something as 'gone' when you mean banjaxed, in a state of disrepair, no longer functioning correctly etc

[JaiDee]

The way the Doc described it to me after looking at the MRI and the X-Ray was that the Tendons were ''gone'' .... he may have meant ''damaged, shot, worthless'', you know ..... he tells me he needs to shave between the clavical and the arm bone because they are rubbing on one another, which creates incredible pain [trust me], and then take good tendons from another part of my arm and move them to the shoulder.

  Here is the official term of my procedure, it's a long one!

Right shoulder, arthroscopic sub-acromial decompression digital claviculectomy - with possible rotator cuff repair

[El_hefe]

Good luck with that.

I guess I assumed from previous posts that you were a resident of LOS.

[alan1chef]

Torurot, some fixing needs to occur, certainly, but please....don't expect to make saints out of the members of Congress in one sitting...the American people would be satisfied with a little tinkering that gave everyone some health coverage with alternatives. It makes absolutely no sense to try to invent something new at this time. Major changes could be worked in over time...allow for adjustments...it needs to be transitional in nature.

[Torurot]

Alan: How many more decades to do what the rest of the "first" world already does. US Americans are "marching" against their own best interest, and the "debate" is being led by mental retards like Palin with "her" 'kill granny" bullshit. Americans CAN'T be that stupid!!!!!

[Lefty]

(strocube @ Sep. 15 2009,03:50) There really isn't much of a debate in this country really, if by "debate" you mean "a formal discussion on a particular topic . . . in which opposing arguments are put forward." What you have instead, is a lot of fear mongering coming from the right-wing media, especially, Fox News.
They have been, and continue to be, extremely effective at manipulating the white working class in this country to actually agitate against their own interests. They scare them by trotting out the usual things that these people have been taught to fear, "socialism", "The Government" and "niggers." Works every time!
You have powerful interests, in the form of drug companies and insurance companies with billions of $ at stake who will do anything in their power to kill any kind of meaningful reform. The last thing they want is anything like "single payer" or even a "public option." These people effectively own and operate key politicians who are their payed lackeys.
I really hope that we get some kind of meaningful reform that begins to look, at least something like, what other developed western countries enjoy, but it does not look good.

I was going to post my points of view on the topic, but again my friend Strocube says almost exactly what I was going to say.

[Lefty]

(Torurot @ Sep. 20 2009,16:51) Alan: How many more decades to do what the rest of the "first" world already does.  US Americans are "marching" against their own best interest, and the "debate" is being led by mental retards like Palin with "her" 'kill granny" bullshit. Americans CAN'T be that stupid!!!!!

When you see the number of people who listen to and believe no good lying scum like Rush, Hannity, Beck and O'Reilly, then yes, many of them can be and are.

Like an old shingle mill worker told me many years ago when it comes to the voting public in the USA, "The poor dumb bastards will vote against their own best interests every time."  

Most Americans are too stupid to vote. The proof of that is just ask some typical people what issues they go by when deciding whom to vote for. When they start to speak and the bullshit dribbles down their chin, you just know they have been brainwashed by Faux News.

[Tomcat]

Strange isnt it, the USA is the richest country in the world and yet the life expectancy of the average guy in Costa Rica is higher who spend a sixth less on health care..

Maybe you should stick everyone on a Medditerranean diet ...

You would half the amount of Doctors in the system in one stroke and probably half the Health budget. It wont happen of course but you know what i mean...