i love this discussion... You are right, insurability does NOT equal health care.
(For background: i am Canadian, but have lived, legally, in the US for 12+ years, and now i have COPD, a chronic disease, and i can not get insured, and currently do not qualify for medicaid/medicare, and have been paying for doctors, meds and treatment out of pocket now.)
i agree, basic care, regular doctor appointments, maintenance medications, vaccinations, etc. need to be available to everyone for a fair price (in Canada it appears to be free, but it's all paid for through government subsidized medications, and lower paid doctors). This does not need to be covered by insurance.
Now, hospital stays, surgeries, and the like should be covered under some type of insurance/deductible/co-pay system, so the needed care for survival can be attained by anyone.
i know that above you mentioned $100/month meds... where would the $10000/treatment (ie chemo) come into play, how can people afford this? Would this be a disease that insurance would cover? How about AIDS, MS, ALS, COPD? All these diseases are considered chronic, and eventually terminal. Is there a rule to allow certain diseases to be covered and not others? Can that be done fairly, without discrimination?
As for medication prices, newer meds are almost never leaving the r&d stages now because with the way the drugs are being designed. Once a drug is approved for a course of treatment, it is then often researched and tested to related health issue... and the cycle continues.
As you said, insurability does NOT equal health care, and that really should be voiced and made a point to the policy makers.
i know that above you mentioned $100/month meds... where would the $10000/treatment (ie chemo) come into play, how can people afford this? Would this be a disease that insurance would cover? How about AIDS, MS, ALS, COPD? All these diseases are considered chronic, and eventually terminal. Is there a rule to allow certain diseases to be covered and not others? Can that be done fairly, without discrimination?
Those are good questions - and to me, those would fall under insurance coverage, with a deductible the purchaser feels comfortable with.
It does raise an additional question though - other forms of insurance can drop you if you have consistent claims on a policy. In the case of health insurance, how would that get handled? For auto insurance, for example, if I have a wreck and then my car's broken into -- I might get dropped and have a hard time being insured. But in that case, there are other options to driving (they may not be particularly palatable or happy options, but there are generally some) - not so much for things like chemo and betaseron.
(For background: i am Canadian, but have lived, legally, in the US for 12+ years, and now i have COPD, a chronic disease, and i can not get insured, and currently do not qualify for medicaid/medicare, and have been paying for doctors, meds and treatment out of pocket now.)
i agree, basic care, regular doctor appointments, maintenance medications, vaccinations, etc. need to be available to everyone for a fair price (in Canada it appears to be free, but it's all paid for through government subsidized medications, and lower paid doctors). This does not need to be covered by insurance.
Now, hospital stays, surgeries, and the like should be covered under some type of insurance/deductible/co-pay system, so the needed care for survival can be attained by anyone.
i know that above you mentioned $100/month meds... where would the $10000/treatment (ie chemo) come into play, how can people afford this? Would this be a disease that insurance would cover? How about AIDS, MS, ALS, COPD? All these diseases are considered chronic, and eventually terminal. Is there a rule to allow certain diseases to be covered and not others? Can that be done fairly, without discrimination?
As for medication prices, newer meds are almost never leaving the r&d stages now because with the way the drugs are being designed. Once a drug is approved for a course of treatment, it is then often researched and tested to related health issue... and the cycle continues.
As you said, insurability does NOT equal health care, and that really should be voiced and made a point to the policy makers.
~boyscout
Reply
Those are good questions - and to me, those would fall under insurance coverage, with a deductible the purchaser feels comfortable with.
It does raise an additional question though - other forms of insurance can drop you if you have consistent claims on a policy. In the case of health insurance, how would that get handled? For auto insurance, for example, if I have a wreck and then my car's broken into -- I might get dropped and have a hard time being insured. But in that case, there are other options to driving (they may not be particularly palatable or happy options, but there are generally some) - not so much for things like chemo and betaseron.
Reply
Leave a comment