discussion Brits now pay almost as much as Americans on healthcare

[Buddy]

2 hours ago, frenchyisback said:

The way people are lashing out at the truth.

People lie. Numbers don’t.

Thank you for spitting the inconvenient truth.

 

FInancial Times >>>> 

Numbers are used to mislead all the time.  

[ConceptD]

2 hours ago, frenchyisback said:

I’d rather pay more and have my platinum healthcare plan & the speedy & excellent services that comes with it. 

 

Thank you!

 

I don’t really see people fighting out there to get Medicaid. Even people on Medicaid hates it.

Some people can’t afford your private platinum healthcare plan though baby. 

[Buddy]

1 hour ago, BionicWooHoo said:

No they don’t. I’ve worked with hundreds of individuals and families with Medicaid for literally half a decade now. Where are you getting this idea that people “hate it”? Its great insurance. It’s more comprehensive than literally practically every employer based health insurance. 

I'm currently on Medicaid and it's been surprisingly great. $0 for medication, doctor & emergency room visits. I'd probably be on the brink of death without it. That user is demonstrating just how twisted, self-obsessed and inconsiderate neoliberalism can be.

[Communion]

Just now, Buddy said:

I'm currently on Medicaid and it's been surprisingly great. $0 for medication, doctor & emergency room visits. I'd probably be on the brink of death without it. 

This. Medicaid is great in that it's "Free healthcare at point of service" care in practice. The complaints people who have been on Medicaid have though are that it's easy to phase out of it if your financial situation changes even if you're not actually making enough to afford private insurance, or that large percentages of eye doctors, dentists and mental health professionals don't participate in Medicaid. Both of these issues are solved with Medicare For All. 

[BionicWooHoo]

11 minutes ago, Buddy said:

I'm currently on Medicaid and it's been surprisingly great. $0 for medication, doctor & emergency room visits. I'd probably be on the brink of death without it. That user is demonstrating just how twisted, self-obsessed and inconsiderate neoliberalism can be.

Yea common misconception that just because it’s free it’s bad. I used to help families apply for medical insurance programs like Medicaid plus I had Medicaid as a child/teen. I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum and private health insurance is ******* awful. 
 

Medicaid covers everything from gastric bypass to gender reassignment surgery to dentist costs to free labwork…meanwhile I’ve spent literally full days arguing with private insurance companies just to cover my PrEP. It reminds me of that quote: “Sometimes things that are expensive are worse”

 

[BionicWooHoo]

25 minutes ago, Communion said:

This. Medicaid is great in that it's "Free healthcare at point of service" care in practice. The complaints people who have been on Medicaid have though are that it's easy to phase out of it if your financial situation changes even if you're not actually making enough to afford private insurance, or that large percentages of eye doctors, dentists and mental health professionals don't participate in Medicaid. Both of these issues are solved with Medicare For All. 

I can’t speak for other states but in my state Medicaid literally lasts a year ALWAYS. So if you’re unemployed when you first apply but then you find a great job halfway through the year, you can still use the Medicaid till the end of the year if you want.

[Peroxide]

3 hours ago, WERKER said:

That's absurdly inaccurate. Private healthcare has risen in the past 2 years because of COVID and COVID cutbacks, such as surgical candidates having surgeries cancelled because of staffing and capacity pressures. If we didn't have a pandemic in our midst and covid cases have risen again with multiple covid+ patients occupying surgical wards then you'd have less people going private.

 

Chemotherapy can cost anywhere up to £30,000 for one round depending on the drugs in the regime with patients having anywhere between 5-15 rounds depending on the cancer, no one is paying for that privately here. The NHS is a great service and propaganda material like this is scaremongering based on inaccurate facts and a few sources.

 

I'm a ward manager for the NHS before anyone asks where my information is coming from.

And that's that - close the thread.

[Buddy]

18 minutes ago, BionicWooHoo said:

Yea common misconception that just because it’s free it’s bad. I used to help families apply for medical insurance programs like Medicaid plus I had Medicaid as a child/teen. I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum and private health insurance is ******* awful. 
 

Medicaid covers everything from gastric bypass to gender reassignment surgery to dentist costs to free labwork…meanwhile I’ve spent literally full days arguing with private insurance companies just to cover my PrEP. It reminds me of that quote: “Sometimes things that are expensive are worse”

 

I also don't understand those who claim government insurance comes with ridiculous wait times. Just a few days ago when I was frustrated with my medication being backordered (not the fault of Medicaid) I was able to book an appointment with my doctor 2 hours later. My labs are fully covered, I just have to walk into the clinic and they have my name on file. When I was on my dad's expensive insurance as a dependent, I'd get random denials that took weeks to dispute. Not with Medicaid.

[frenchyisback]

6 hours ago, Paranoid Android said:

That's great for you. But most people spend hundreds of dollars on insurance every month and still can't afford to go to the hospital. That's actually a big problem with stats like this. It doesn't take into account all the people in US who don't even go to the hospitals because of the potential bills. 

 

Anyway, one system being broken doesn't mean the other system works. 

That is why I am for Medicare4AllWhoWantsIt

I don’t think I should be bullied into a lesser plan.

 

How is it fair to cut my healthcare benefits to fit Medicare lower standard ?

Edited April 29, 2022 by frenchyisback

[frenchyisback]

4 hours ago, Communion said:

You mean the statistics that show ah almost 1:1 correlation to the COVID pandemic, which the first reply in this thread points out?

 

What happened in early 2020 that caused the below increase to occur:

 

 

Please share your hypothesis. 

What part of “NOW” don’t you understand in the OP?

[frenchyisback]

4 hours ago, BionicWooHoo said:

No they don’t. I’ve worked with hundreds of individuals and families with Medicaid for literally half a decade now. Where are you getting this idea that people “hate it”? Its great insurance. It’s more comprehensive than literally practically every employer based health insurance. 

I respectfully disagree.

 

My understanding  is that people on Medicaid are only happy with it because the alternative is no healthcare.

I do not know a single person with employer healthcare wishing they had Medicaid instead.

 

Also, i do not think that waiting months to see a dentist qualify as quality healthcare.

A kid here in the DC area died from a cavity infection because he was on a waiting list to see a dentist 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/5-years-after-boy-dies-from-toothache-maryland-medicaid-dental-care-is-on-mend/2012/02/15/gIQANEJoGR_story.html

Edited April 29, 2022 by frenchyisback

[Communion]

34 minutes ago, frenchyisback said:

I respectfully disagree.

 

My understanding  is that people on Medicaid are only happy with it because the alternative is no healthcare.

I do not know a single person with employer healthcare wishing they had Medicaid instead.

 

Also, i do not think that waiting months to see a dentist qualify as quality healthcare.

A kid here in the DC area died from a cavity infection because he was on a waiting list to see a dentist 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/5-years-after-boy-dies-from-toothache-maryland-medicaid-dental-care-is-on-mend/2012/02/15/gIQANEJoGR_story.html

The story you're linking to describes an incident from 2007. 

 

And you're correct - Medicaid should be improved by replacing it, Medicare, and private insurance with Medicare For All. 

[Bosque]

5 hours ago, Communion said:

You mean the statistics that show ah almost 1:1 correlation to the COVID pandemic, which the first reply in this thread points out?

 

What happened in early 2020 that caused the below increase to occur:

 

 

 

Please share your hypothesis. 

Several of the statistics show a historical development, you can just look at the graphs up until 2019 if that makes you feel better. One of them even specifically compares 2008 to 2019. 

 

Besides the one graph you did find which spikes in 2020 doesn't show any sign of improving and just seems to get worse well into 2022, even throughout periods were Covid cases were low in the UK. Very encouraging sign I guess. 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Dephira

[BionicWooHoo]

1 hour ago, frenchyisback said:

I respectfully disagree.

 

My understanding  is that people on Medicaid are only happy with it because the alternative is no healthcare.

I do not know a single person with employer healthcare wishing they had Medicaid instead.

 

Also, i do not think that waiting months to see a dentist qualify as quality healthcare.

A kid here in the DC area died from a cavity infection because he was on a waiting list to see a dentist 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/5-years-after-boy-dies-from-toothache-maryland-medicaid-dental-care-is-on-mend/2012/02/15/gIQANEJoGR_story.html

...did you even read the article you posted? Yikes. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, when people post news articles with sensationalist titles without even reading the entire thing. Talk about disinformation. 

1. There is no where in that article that says that the kid was on a "waiting list" to see a dentist. Anyone feel free to do if Ctrl + F + "waiting" on that article if you don't believe me. 
2. The article says the family did not have insurance. Specifically that the mother had their Medicaid lapse (why did it lapse? who knows? Did the mother forget to renew? Did they fail to send in proof of income for their Medicaid?) and this was in 2007. 15 years ago. Do you know how much the Medicaid program has changed within the last ten years alone? Jesus. It is not Medicaid's fault that this kid died. Its the fact that they were uninsured, period. 
3. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid exists for a reason. Formal grievance processes with your state's department of health exist for a reason. Any doctor that accepts Medicaid knows that if you try to tell a patient trying to make an appointment that they'll see them in a month WILL get their asses ripped to shreds by the government. Furthermore, the article talks about how it was very difficult to find a Medicaid doctor in 2007. Do you know how easy it is to find a Medicaid doctor in 2022? I could call Medicaid directly for a list of doctors that accept Medicaid in my area, I could go a Medicaid Managed Care plan's website and pull up a list of hundreds of Medicaid doctors, I could call the Medicaid plan directly and request that they mail me an entire phonebook of Medicaid doctors (and you know what? they're legally required to do send it out) 

I've worked for three corporations in my adult life, I've had Aetna, I've had BCBS, I've had Cigna for employer based health insurance. Always comes with thousands of  dollars in deductibles. The amount of time I've spent trying to get doctors appointments is literally the same as when I had Medicaid as a teen. This idea that "you've never met a single person" who would trade their employer based insurance for Medicaid...have these people you've allegedly talked to even ever had Medicaid as a basis for comparison? Do they have any understanding of how the Medicaid program works or what it covers?

Edited April 29, 2022 by BionicWooHoo

[frenchyisback]

1 hour ago, BionicWooHoo said:

...did you even read the article you posted? Yikes. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, when people post news articles with sensationalist titles without even reading the entire thing. Talk about disinformation. 

1. There is no where in that article that says that the kid was on a "waiting list" to see a dentist. Anyone feel free to do if Ctrl + F + "waiting" on that article if you don't believe me. 
2. The article says the family did not have insurance. Specifically that the mother had their Medicaid lapse (why did it lapse? who knows? Did the mother forget to renew? Did they fail to send in proof of income for their Medicaid?) and this was in 2007. 15 years ago. Do you know how much the Medicaid program has changed within the last ten years alone? Jesus. It is not Medicaid's fault that this kid died. Its the fact that they were uninsured, period. 
3. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid exists for a reason. Formal grievance processes with your state's department of health exist for a reason. Any doctor that accepts Medicaid knows that if you try to tell a patient trying to make an appointment that they'll see them in a month WILL get their asses ripped to shreds by the government. Furthermore, the article talks about how it was very difficult to find a Medicaid doctor in 2007. Do you know how easy it is to find a Medicaid doctor in 2022? I could call Medicaid directly for a list of doctors that accept Medicaid in my area, I could go a Medicaid Managed Care plan's website and pull up a list of hundreds of Medicaid doctors, I could call the Medicaid plan directly and request that they mail me an entire phonebook of Medicaid doctors (and you know what? they're legally required to do send it out) 

I've worked for three corporations in my adult life, I've had Aetna, I've had BCBS, I've had Cigna for employer based health insurance. Always comes with thousands of  dollars in deductibles. The amount of time I've spent trying to get doctors appointments is literally the same as when I had Medicaid as a teen. This idea that "you've never met a single person" who would trade their employer based insurance for Medicaid...have these people you've allegedly talked to even ever had Medicaid as a basis for comparison? Do they have any understanding of how the Medicaid program works or what it covers?

Just thank you for being thoughtful and actually making a case rather than just ad-hominem attack.

You seem to live in a great state but don't forget that most states are governed by GOP extremist who gut medicaid at any chance they have to pass a tax cut. Remember that most did not even want to expand it as allowed under Obamacare at free cost for the states.

 

Why would anybody want their healthcare to depends on potentially crazy politicians like DeSantis. I'd never understand.

 

I did more research and it seems like on the national level you are right. Since Obamacare, Medicaid is getting closer to the level of satisfaction & access as private insurance.

Tho' there are private insurance & private insurance.

 

 

 

It still does not compare to people with platinum plans so I am all for expanding other people's healthcare but I'd oppose anything that cut my healthcare benefits and any forced government plan would be a cut of healthcare benefits for me.

 

Medicare4ThoseWhoWants it really sounds like the fairest option to me.

 

 

PS:

Not talking about you. But  I just wish more people who are for Medicare4All would respect the many of us who wants to keep our private insurance and stop patronizing us like they know better than us what's good for us. They don't need to trash private insurance just to promote medicare. It makes their whole speech out of touch and a non-starter for the millions who like their private healthcare.

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by frenchyisback

[Robert]

9 hours ago, WERKER said:

That's absurdly inaccurate. Private healthcare has risen in the past 2 years because of COVID and COVID cutbacks, such as surgical candidates having surgeries cancelled because of staffing and capacity pressures. If we didn't have a pandemic in our midst and covid cases have risen again with multiple covid+ patients occupying surgical wards then you'd have less people going private.

 

Chemotherapy can cost anywhere up to £30,000 for one round depending on the drugs in the regime with patients having anywhere between 5-15 rounds depending on the cancer, no one is paying for that privately here. The NHS is a great service and propaganda material like this is scaremongering based on inaccurate facts and a few sources.

 

I'm a ward manager for the NHS before anyone asks where my information is coming from.

This

 

Anyway **** the tories for cutting funding for NHS and trying to privatise healthcare 

[Kiel D-01]

Another fear mongering.  Although it's common knowledge here in the UK that the evil Tories are cutting funding for NHS cos they want to privatise it so badly.

[fountain]

On 4/29/2022 at 2:51 PM, May said:

I went to the doctors about my farting problems and genital warts and they told me that my farting was bc of my diet and I didn’t pay a single penny so this is fake news

But what about the warts?

[DoctorIce]

My double wisdom tooth removal surgery: £0

ER visit and treatment for broken foot: £0

PreP: £0

 

All since Covid started. 

 

The Tories wish though.

[Tiziano's Boy]

Not true, as I’ve had surgery twice on the NHS and got taken to a Private hospital for both those surgeries, didn’t pay a single penny here in Northern Ireland, the private clinic where I had my surgery, would have cost me £4,414 for my surgery alone (not including pre-op and post-op appointments.)

 

Pre-op: £0

Both surgeries with private room: £0

Post-op appointments: £0

[byzantium]

On 4/29/2022 at 8:42 AM, frenchyisback said:

I’d rather pay more and have my platinum healthcare plan & the speedy & excellent services that comes with it. 

 

Thank you!

 

I don’t really see people fighting out there to get Medicaid. Even people on Medicaid hates it.

Hmm, then I guess you would be ok with ending the subsidy you receive for your "platinum" healthcare.  I am sure the money could be better used. 

[frenchyisback]

3 hours ago, byzantium said:

Hmm, then I guess you would be ok with ending the subsidy you receive for your "platinum" healthcare.  I am sure the money could be better used. 

I thought Government subsidies are for healthcare on the exchange.

 

I have employer-based healthcare so I don't get subsidies.

 

I wouldn't care either way. I had a platinum plan before Obamacare and I'll have one after Obamacare. I work hard so I don't have to worry about what the government decides to do.

[Harriser]

Glad people have clocked the propaganda in the OP. Percentage of GDP means nothing. The US's GDP is  more than 8x that of the UK despite having only 5x the population. That fact alone tells you your average Brit is absolutely NOT paying as much as your average American, even using the stats in the OP 

[P.O.P]

On 4/29/2022 at 4:51 PM, May said:

I went to the doctors about my farting problems and genital warts and they told me that my farting was bc of my diet and I didn’t pay a single penny so this is fake news

Did you at least offer them a complimentary fart?

[frenchyisback]

2 hours ago, Harrier said:

Glad people have clocked the propaganda in the OP. Percentage of GDP means nothing. The US's GDP is  more than 8x that of the UK despite having only 5x the population. That fact alone tells you your average Brit is absolutely NOT paying as much as your average American, even using the stats in the OP 

 

I wonder why the US is so much more productive than the UK.

 

Maybe because we encourage people to work ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by frenchyisback