Obamacare hits home ~

I've been Canadian for 38 yrs (born and raised) and the only individuals I know that have gone to the US for healthcare are individuals who had WLS in the US.  This was due to a lack of qualified WLS surgeons in Ontario at the time - and the cost was picked up 100% by our government.

If someone has the money and feels they want to go to the US for healthcare (i.e. prime minister - if this is even true) then they are free to waste their money to do so.

I have had both a stroke (2003) and ovarian cancer (2004) and received excemplary care in Canada.  If I need to go to the doctor - it's free, if I go to the ER it's free, if I need surgery or any other medical treatment it's free!!

 http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Canadian-premier-comes-to-US-for-surgery-83347582.html  

Check it out!  And, I apologize, it was a premier, not the prime minister...

I am very happy you have had good treatment when you needed it.  I am only talking as a US citizen, and none of this was intended for those outside the USA.  The majority of Americans did not want this bill that passed.  The point is, our leaders ignored the wishes of the majority.  This is not meant to offend others who live elsewhere.  And, our news outlets did not carry the stories of people speaking out in large #'s about this bill.  

Thanks Obama And how was his "amazing plan" supposed to help any of us???

You might want to ask those who have 22 year old kids getting out of college in an economy with no jobs if it's helping.  (They will be able to continue on their parents' insurance.)

Or, you could ask my mother, who ha**** the "donut hole" on her MediCare Part D policy and now has to pay about $800/month out of pocket for her meds if it's going to help her.  (This year, she'll get a $250 "rebate" to help with that and then later on, the donut hole woillcease to exist.)

There are many other examples, but what you are saying is, "How is this going to help ME?  RIGHT NOW...ME."  The answer may be that people who are afraid of the changes have little and are afraid that they might lose it...like those moron TeaBaggers saying, "Keep your government hands off my Meidcare."  Duh.

Are we all going to end up paying a little more for insurance?  Probably.  But I prefer to pay a little more in insurance than to have our entire financial system collapse under the weight of the uninsured who keep showing up in ERs and getting free treatment.  THAT will bankrupt all of us.  It won't show in our INSURANCE bills...it will show up in property tax and rent and sales tax and fees and every other way they can think of to keep financing this mess.

Freakin' THANK YOU.

So so right on.  Thanks Ms. C

You tell them, Sue!

I'm trying, Caro.

Maybe YOU should tell them as you see patients every day!!

How about the lady I saw last week who was letting her Type 2 diabetes and hypertension go untreated? Her blood glucose was 228 and her BP was 172/98 or something very close to that and there was absolutely nowhere I could send her for help.

She can't work, she's disabled but hasn't waited out the year it takes to get SSD. She and her husband are separated and the son-of-a-***** took her off his health insurance. He is paying the mortgage and utility bills on the house but not giving her any cash at all. She isn't eligible for any low-income alternative health insurance options or care at the county health dept or even at the local, privately funded sliding-scale clinic because---now get this--the "income" from her husband paying the bills on the house is too high for her to qualify for any assistance.

Or, you could ask my mother, who ha**** the "donut hole" on her MediCare Part D policy and now has to pay about $800/month out of pocket for her meds if it's going to help her.  (This year, she'll get a $250 "rebate" to help with that and then later on, the donut hole woillcease to exist.)

I've hit the same donut hole, ONE of my meds is $400. And don't even get me started on the cost of the rest of my meds. Total cost of my donut hole a month: $895 and I have to order it as a 90 day supply which doubles that cost to almost $1700.00 I've yet to see the $250 promised. That doesn't include the DME cost of $500. (same donut hole).

When we moved here most of the doctors here didn't want to take on a patient who had Medicare....unless they worked for the hospital system. My options were and still are VERY limited. Finding a DS surgeon who took Medicare was very hard. Most don't take it. And if we ever move to a "government option", it will be like Medicare, and I suspect you will see doctors bailing the system and going self pay.

A friend of mine HAS two daughters who are just getting ready to get out of the house age...she can't even afford insurance for them, much less insurance for the kids, even on the new plan put out by the government for the pre-exisiting conditions. Too expensive for her. And they have a job, but it's with a small employer. TN use to have a system where even small employers could cover their employees but even that got too expensive for the TN gov to fund and had to be discontinued. So far she and her family has been lucky in their health.

Liz