Before I tell you about the amazingly positive experiences I have had first hand with the health care provided in four other countries [Mexico, Canada, Cyprus and France] I will tell you that America has a health care plan already in place. Surprised? I was too when I read Peter G. Peterson's book [1st edition 2002] "RUNNING ON EMPTY". Then I was furious...
From Chapter 9 - page 208: 'Quote' "Move Toward Managed Competition. The Federal government knows how to operate an efficient health care system and it knows how to do so without forcing everyone into HMOs.
[Since 1959] The Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) provides federal employees and retirees, including members of Congress, with a benefit package that preserves consumer choice, holds down costs and promotes quality care. Beneficiaries get to choose from among a wide range of competing plans offered by private insurers. These range from traditional high-cost "fee-for-service" plans in which patients get to see any doctor or specialist they like to low cost HMOs. All these plans compete for customers on both price and quality, which is their biggest advantage over Medicare's monopoly position."
So - with the FEHBP already in place for 54 years prior Obama's creation of the cumbersome Affordable Health Care - one wants to ask the question WHY wasn't the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan simply expanded to include the rest of the country? Why reinvent a more complicated 'wheel'? [Besides a lucrative legal and software contract - others made out financially too! But "We-the-people" didn't] Moving on...why can't Trump change this?If you have a Social Security number and a legal Green Card then everyone should get a Federal Health Benefit Card. For basic coverage there could be a minimum of $25 added to your Social Security deduction that every employer matches even if you only work part time. But everyone can be covered. And - it's no more unconstitutional than why states require everyone who drives a car to have liability insurance - or why highways have speed limits we all must follow...
In 1990 America ranked 6th in the world for healthcare, but 30 years later America is 27th [the same drop as with our education ranking too]. America has the most expensive healthcare systems of all the western industrialized nations on the planet, fueled by three main problems - trash, litigation and profit.
Trash...Hospital and clinic cleanliness has suffered becoming chronic because medical staff rely heavily on [throwaway] single use prepackaged items. Many instruments and items like gowns, blood pressure cuffs, thermometers etc...can be designed to be reused.
Litigation...America is the only developed country that allows burdensome litigation to add a high cost to all treatments that does not benefit any patient and actually drains resources away from serious medical conditions. If litigation wasn't factored into the 'cost' of everything in our medical system we could cut our costs 70%.
Profit...And - only in America do people need to file for bankruptcy or risk the loss of their homes because of high [trash-legal-profit] factored medical costs. Other countries don't run their systems entirely 'for-profit'. All procedures are provided at cost and are the same from region to region.
--While visiting relatives in Alberta, Canada, my husband [who has had two heart stents] felt a tightness in his chest and believed he was experiencing another blockage. We were in Calgary which is five hours or 320 miles to the nearest US hospital in Great Falls. We decided to head for the Foothills Hospital in Calgary only five miles away - expecting that Medicare would certainly cover any issue. We were met by the resident cardiologist on staff and Hubby was treated immediately. Over the course of five hours of monitoring and observation he had two chest X-rays, two MRIs, a blood draw each hour and the cardiologist checking everything. While I tried to work with Medicare - they argued we should have driven to the nearest US based hospital and couldn't guarantee any payment directly to the [foreign] Canadian hospital or our reimbursement...
By mid afternoon, the cardiologist declared Hubby cleared for release. What he felt could have been caused by a simple case of acute dehydration or nausea from some other source. Regardless the cost to spring my husband totaled $1,618.56 CDN - which when factored into the exchange rate came to just over $900+USD on our VISA! I could hardly believe it. Curious, after we returned home and were turned down twice by Medicare I found out what a trip to the Great Falls hospital for the same five hours and treatments would have cost Medicare. The cost would have been just over $8,000+ in US dollars.
--A cousin vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico developed an ear infection. She went to a local clinic where she paid $25.00 CDN to see a general practitioner. When the doctor saw her, he thought she should see a specialist. She paid the ear, nose and throat specialist $45.00 [which included a follow up visit] who prescribed an antibiotic that cost her $18 and after ten days she went back to see the specialist.
--While living on the island of Cyprus for a couple of years my mother came to visit and developed pneumonia. I took my mother to the local hospital where they referred us to a local doctor's clinic. The doctor took my mother's chest X-ray personally then prescribed two medications and sent her home for bed rest. The clinic visit and X-ray was $65.00. Both prescriptions totaled $21.00 and the doctor made two house calls during the ten-day course of my mother's medication. After bed rest and medication a second X-ray showed her lungs clear. The second clinic visit with X-ray was another $65.00.
--My daughter was an Rotary Exchange Student in France for a year and while there caught a nasty European virus of some kind. I was beside myself with worry, but the French Rotary covered all health issues and one of her host mothers assured me, my daughter would be well looked after - and she was. We never saw any bill after my daughter recovered fully.
No politician needs to try to convince me America has the 'best' healthcare system because I know otherwise...
What can "we-the-people" do? Well - 2020 is an election year and all voters need to start being heard. Write, call, email - then - write, call and email again - and again - and again. There IS a working health plan in place that can be expanded to include the entire country. Do your own research and if you're comfortable let your feelings be known. It's time - it's been time for decades - long overdue. America needs to catch up to the rest of Planet Earth, because we are far behind that curve...
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