Many people are losing their jobs and are becoming homeless due to the current economy. Employers say the number one reason for lay-offs are due to the rising costs of providing healthcare for their employees. Most homeless people I have talked to are homeless due to being ill and crippled by bills. They have no social network to bail them out. I am lucky enough to have parents to bail me out financially, or else I would be homeless right now due to medical bills. I have supposedly good insurance through my job. I am always on medical leave, so I am not an asset to my employer what-so-ever- I just cost them money. People get laid off. I cannot be laid off due to my condition. But what do you do if you have late-stage Lyme disease like me and use a cane to walk most days (if you are able to walk at all), and insurance from work does little to cover the cost of care, so you are about to lose everything due to medical bills anyway?
I don't feel like businesses should have to attempt to pay for health care - they fail at doing so anyway and many others see the other repercussions of rising costs when they are laid off. A vast majority of the rest of the world gets their health care from the government. Our postal service is considered to be a necessary government run service to society, but health care is not, so everyone else picks up the bill. The problem is, no one can pick up the bill, and you see what happens. Americans don't live as long as other Westerners, but most sociologists attribute that to no preventative care, because no one can afford to go to the doctor. I think universal healthcare would make preventative and non-preventative care affordable for everyone so companies and individuals would not be financially crippled to the point of not being able to work or not being able to offer work. Healthcare and jobs are not friends.
In countries with universal healthcare, there are LESS obstacles to treatment. There is no CDC getting paid off by private insurance companies to make guidelines that help companies and not patients. There is less corruption. Doctors can combat guidelines they disagree with more readily than in a system where private insurance companies and can sue and call the shots because there are fewer checks and balances in the private realm of business where competition rules. I am tired of everyone screaming RED at socialized healthcare when that is what we as Lyme sufferers need most.
I just spend $1000 at the pharmacy and now cannot pay rent. I had to fight to get those medications at that cost. It is a crime. I think it is time to move to Canada. Even conservative republicans there readily say that healthcare is a human right that government provides. My friends there pay less taxes than I do, get free a free college education, and they have LLMDs...for free. End rant.
Posted by Ocean (Member # 3496) on :
Lyra, I understand what you are saying. However, with a socialized system, we will have no LLMD's. There are people from the UK coming over here for LLMD's because they have a universal system.
There will be no great hospitals for surgery, everyone will become the same, like communism. In Canada it can take MANY months for an MRI or CT. My brother got his MRI within a week.
You can wait in the ER for much longer than you do now. I have no idea how this will affect doctors and nurses, but I am an RN and when I get well and go back to work, I have no idea what will be done with pay. It's scary to me.
Pharmacy prices are out of control and I think most of that is greed on the industry's part. When you go to a hospital, you are paying for those other people who come in and then don't pay anything. That's part of why it is so high.
I think this universal health care is going to come back and bite the supporter's in the butt, unfortunately. Also, most people I have read from Canada say they cannot find an LLMD there, they just don't exist because they don't follow the 'guidelines'. This form of healthcare is going to limit our LLMD's ability to treat us as well.
Part of the reason I am going to try abx. I may not have the option when the healthcare changes start occurring.
Take care, Ocean
Posted by Need Lots of Help (Member # 18603) on :
Lyra,
To think that the government can provide better service than that of free trade is lunacy.
And, if the government is in control, all of us Lymies are going to be in trouble.
If you think that "the right to healthcare" is going to help us, it is not.
Again, I know people from the UK and Canada, and they all come here for treatment. I pray that this government run healthcare does not make it.
I agree that the cost is high for us to get medicine and doctors, but the answer is not to blanket give everyone coverage.
Unfortunately, when I was 18 and pregnant I had to have Medicaid and Food Stamps. I was treated like a dog, and that is what will happen to us. The doctor wouldn't even wait for me to have a natural birth...he just rushed me into a C-Section because it is SAFER for the doctor. Less complications. But it isn't the best thing for mother and child.
Shalome
Posted by SandiB (Member # 1557) on :
You think you can't find a Lyme literate doc now to give you long term treatment with antibiotics? If the US adopts Universal Health Care they are going to try to cut cost....and cutting long term antibiotic treatment for people with Lyme disease when the IDSA says there is no such thing as Chronic Lyme so we don't need long term antibiotics ....will make it easy for the government to cut our long term antibiotic care right out of the picture.
It will happen...IF SandiB
Posted by Melodymaker (Member # 16434) on :
Socialized medicine is a nightmare!!
If you think the government has your best interests at heart, just look at the social security system.
Friends from Canada come to the US for treatment.
Taking free trade out of the healthcare industry would kill us all.
Posted by liesandmorelies (Member # 15323) on :
Lyra,
I am so sorry that you had to pay an astronomical fee of $1000 for you perscriptions at the pharmacy. That is lunacy to me!!!
It's outrageous that nothing is affordable any more. It's all because of corporate greed.
Unless you are making killer money who could afford $1000 for their meds????
This insanity must stop. It's amazing to me to read about people like you who believe they have good insurance only to find out that they don't as soon as they need to use it. We are being robbed by the insurance agencys and Big Pharma.
At least over half the ppl in this past election got that right. Hopefully something will change with the new health care plan which is proposing "affordable" health care. I hope this gets to you in time.
PS I have relatives who live in both Canada and Europe and they claim there are trade-offs to both, but would not want to "not" be able to get treatment because they were not making enough money and or worked for a mom/pop shop that could not even offer them health care. Everyone is covered and they like it that way.
My brother was charged upwards of one thousand dollars per month for his health care and he is healthy and never been ill. Now if that is not lunacy than what is?