Posted by Captin Cannuck on October 11, 2009 at 06:24:53:In Reply to: Re: MMA second opinions posted by westernjoe on October 10, 2009 at 06:45:12:
Roger,
I did not need to rely on a US doctor. I could have gone to a Canadian OMF surgeon, and that would have been adequate. When I went to the Canadian Doc, he just read Dr. L's letter and said "I agree with him 100%". He said that after he viewed my x-rays, formulated his own opinion, etc.
Second thing, you talk about CNN. I am watching this from Canada, and we get CNN. I think that their coverage is quite balanced. I particularly think Anderson Cooper is doing a fine job of explaining the issues to Americans. The heath industry has very deep pockets. There are four times the number of health care lobbiests in Washington as there are public health care lobbiests. The insurance company lobbiests have a lot of money to spend on putting their spin on these issues. They also buy influence. An example, they gave President Bush $891,208. Similar funding is available for other politicians.
About uninsured Americans - I understand that 50 million Americans do not have insurance. That is a substantial amount of people. 18,000 American lives are lost because of not having health insurance. Americans suffer poor health due to not being able to easily see their doctor. It is a fact that Canadians live three years longer than Americans do. The WHO found that the poorest Brits are healthier than the wealthiest Americans.
The insured Americans are mistreated as evidenced countless times on this board. They cannot see the doctors that they want to see. They are refused unjustly. Staff members of these companies are employed to forensically examine the applications to find any omissions. If you forgot to mention that you had a yeast infection, they might drag that up when you have breast cancer and use it as a pretext to deny you coverage. Others are required to make compromises on the basis of saving the insurance company money (e.g. you cannot have treatment X, we will only be willing to cover treatment y). As you can see on the board, it is hard to fight these companies. The companies have vast financial resources - they have a bullpen of doctors and lawyers who are working for their interests, and they have millions of dollars to fight you with. If you try to take them on, they can simply outspend you and bleed you to death or wear you down.
As you know the history of these private companies is very shady. In the late 1980s their abuses were serious enough to be brought before the US Congress and we still see the same issues going on today in the postings of people on the sleepnet.com website. Under testimony medical reviewers revealed that they were under heavy pressure to reject people. Dr. Linda Pinot testified that reviewers working for Humana Inc. received pay increases, bonuses and promotions on the basis of how many people they rejected and how much money they saved the company from paying out. Dr. Glen Hollinger MD testified to congress that his name was affixed on rejections even though he had not even seen the files of the people in question.
In contrast to the above system, the President is proposing a system that would be based on rights. It would be ethical, and it would be fair to all people. The government would run it to ensure that people are fairly treated.
- Re: MMA second opinions Captin Cannuck 12:05 10/11/09 (0)