I heard that the private healthcare industry is ready to sit down and participate in reforming the system. Obama wants to emphasize prevention, which makes me groan. Pretty soon, all healthcare will resemble Kaiser. Given the choice, would you prefer a regular health insurance plan that doesn't meddle in your personal habits, or do you prefer the HMO, "always-pecking-away-at your-pleasure" approach?
I'm not familiar with Kaiser, so I'm not really sure what that's like... BUT we use to have an HMO and the way they kept having us come back for test after test when everything was perfectly fine was so annoying, we dropped it for another healthcare program that didn't do that. I would prefer not having the stresses of doctor appointments every few weeks while they get richer and I get filled with anxiety just so they can "check the systems" of me that haven't had any problem.
The problem I see with preventative medicine and HMO's is that they really don't fix anything. With an HMO, they aren't going to treat a problem if they can avoid it. They maintain your health were it is, but do nothing that might improve your quality of life. Preventative medicine tend to focus on personal habits without looking at the individual's definition of what it means to live. It focuses on living longer...big difference.
HMOs are fine with me; "pecking away at our pleasure" (good phraseology!) isn't fine at all. Prevention is the way to ultimately bring down the proverbial medical bill, but I think other factors need to come into play. BUT insuring everybody is the goal we all have to look to; that is the challenge. Making it affordable for everyone may take some getting used to. HISTORICAL NOTE: Trying to institute Medicare, there were the same cries of "socialised medicine" and "bankrupting the country" were heard from the same quarters. Now Medicare is taken as a right, just as universal health care will be forty years from now.
From the wee bit of experience I've had with them and have heard about, that's a very good phrase indeed!
Have you ever noticed that most of those crying "socialized medicine" are using the very system they would deny us? The government provides healthcare for all of those representatives and senators sitting in Washington complaining how the government can't possibly be a viable option for the rest of us.
