What is basic health care? You be the developer of a plan

Wyldgusechaz

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Is it a $47000 knee replacement on a 75 year old? Is it a $75000 heart bypass on an 80 year old? Is it a $100,000 lung resection on a lifetime smoker?

Or is it the ability for a family to take a child in who broke his finger or has strep throat to an ER and get treatment for free? Is it breast cancer surgery on a 35 year old mother of 3?

Is it paying for AIDS treatment on someone stupid enough to have contracted AIDS in the last 10 years? Is it paying for brain surgery for a foolish helmetless motorcycle rider who dumped his Harley?

Given that we cannot pay for everything, design a plan that covers what benefits society as a whole the best. Waiting periods for surgery or treatment? What procedures should be excluded? Included?

The fact is Medicare is virtually bankrupt and is a certain collapse in 10-15 years without major tax increases on EVERYONE or severe treatment restrictions.
 

B_spiker067

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Is it a $47000 knee replacement on a 75 year old? Is it a $75000 heart bypass on an 80 year old? Is it a $100,000 lung resection on a lifetime smoker?

Or is it the ability for a family to take a child in who broke his finger or has strep throat to an ER and get treatment for free? Is it breast cancer surgery on a 35 year old mother of 3?

Is it paying for AIDS treatment on someone stupid enough to have contracted AIDS in the last 10 years? Is it paying for brain surgery for a foolish helmetless motorcycle rider who dumped his Harley?

Given that we cannot pay for everything, design a plan that covers what benefits society as a whole the best. Waiting periods for surgery or treatment? What procedures should be excluded? Included?

The fact is Medicare is virtually bankrupt and is a certain collapse in 10-15 years without major tax increases on EVERYONE or severe treatment restrictions.

All of the above except that the knee replacement surgery is $4,700 not $47,000. That is, prices should be reduced so people can afford health care on their own or via reasonably priced insurance.

Why ask? What is your point?
 

Principessa

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I want the exact same medical benefits that Congress has.

Health Care for U.S. Congress
Politicians Receive the Country’s Best Care - at Taxpayers' Expense

While over 46 million Americans remain uninsured and millions more underinsured, members of Congress receive health-related services that many in the U.S. will never see. Few would deny that a health care crisis looms large in the U.S. In a country with millions of uninsured and underinsured citizens, health care has become more a privilege than a right. Indeed, the United States remains the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t guarantee health care to all its citizens. But this isn’t the case for members of the U.S. Congress. Representatives and Senators alike receive some of the best health care benefits in the country, much of it paid for with taxpayer dollars. Yet these same members seem unable - or unwilling - to extend similar protections to the rest of America.

Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
As soon as members of Congress are sworn in, they may participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). The program offers an assortment of health plans from which to choose, including fee-for-service, point-of-service, and health maintenance organizations (HMOs). In addition, Congress members can also insure their spouses and their dependents.Not only does Congress get to choose from a wide range of plans, but there’s no waiting period. Unlike many Americans who must struggle against precondition clauses or are even denied coverage because of those preconditions, Senators and Representatives are covered no matter what - effective immediately. And here’s the best part. The government pays up to 75 percent of the premium. That government, of course, is funded by taxpayers, the same taxpayers who often cannot afford health care themselves.
 
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Principessa

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All of the above except that the knee replacement surgery is $4,700 not $47,000. That is, prices should be reduced so people can afford health care on their own or via reasonably priced insurance.

Why ask? What is your point?
He just likes to stir the pot. :rolleyes:
 

HazelGod

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100% subsidization of preventive, prenatal, and emergent medical care.

This should include annual physical exams, including specialized screenings for women (gynecological and mammary) and men (prostate) who meet medically accepted age or risk criteria. It should also include annual dermatological screenings, ocular/optical examinations and semi-annual dental cleanings. Emergency treatment for any trauma or physical injury should be covered.

All childhood vaccinations should be covered, as well as some elective vaccinations for everyone upon request, such as annual influenza inoculations.

Any other treatment should fall under private responsibility.
 

Wyldgusechaz

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100% subsidization of preventive, prenatal, and emergent medical care.

This should include annual physical exams, including specialized screenings for women (gynecological and mammary) and men (prostate) who meet medically accepted age or risk criteria. It should also include annual dermatological screenings, ocular/optical examinations and semi-annual dental cleanings. Emergency treatment for any trauma or physical injury should be covered.

All childhood vaccinations should be covered, as well as some elective vaccinations for everyone upon request, such as annual influenza inoculations.

Any other treatment should fall under private responsibility.

This makes a lot of sense. Well thought out.
 

midlifebear

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Is it a $47000 knee replacement on a 75 year old? Is it a $75000 heart bypass on an 80 year old? Is it a $100,000 lung resection on a lifetime smoker?

Or is it the ability for a family to take a child in who broke his finger or has strep throat to an ER and get treatment for free? Is it breast cancer surgery on a 35 year old mother of 3?

Is it paying for AIDS treatment on someone stupid enough to have contracted AIDS in the last 10 years? Is it paying for brain surgery for a foolish helmetless motorcycle rider who dumped his Harley?

Given that we cannot pay for everything, design a plan that covers what benefits society as a whole the best. Waiting periods for surgery or treatment? What procedures should be excluded? Included?

The fact is Medicare is virtually bankrupt and is a certain collapse in 10-15 years without major tax increases on EVERYONE or severe treatment restrictions.

I'm amused at where this twit got the numbers of $47,000 for knee replacement surgery and especially $75,000 for heart by-pass surgery. The average cost for heart by-pass surgery in the USA is about $200,300 -- that's what they charge your insurance. Knee replacement surgery runs about $90,000.

Regardless even at the original low-ball fantasy prices he pulled out of his ass, my-ignorant-ass, $75,000 is still too much for a surgical procedure that is now almost as routine an operation as an appendectomy in the USA. If you could replace a knee for $4,700 I wouldn't complain. I can afford that. But many cannot, nor should they.

Industrialsize's modest proposal for basic health care is something that, in many cases, used to be paid for by the government. All of my childhood vaccinations were free back in 1951. So were the first polio vaccines and the resulting Saulk sugar cube with a drop of pink-colored vaccine on it which you took orally.

Better prenatal care was available in the 1970's to any woman who wanted it by going to a Planned Parenthood clinic, a place where one did not go to get brainwashed into having an abortion. It's still not a place where one goes to become brainwashed into having an abortion. However, they offer access to them (the horror! cry the bleeding heart christians who are unwilling to offer support to organizations that might care for unwanted pregnant children and arrange adoptions). But the Reagan years did everything possible to reduce Planned Parenthood's public funding, and now they exist on the charity of private donations from people such as myself.

As for sexually transmitted diseases, it's more likely the OP twit will get syphilis or ghonorrea these days than HIV infection. Regardless, all citizens should be able to go seek help at a government (State or Federal) STD clinic where they are then directed the a part of a universal health care system that cures them or monitors their status and provides free care FOR LIFE.

The the OP twit, and many LPSG-ers don't remember what kind of patchwork of health care safety net that existed in the USA before Reagan. It was much better than it is know. If a person could not afford insurance or pay for their health care, there were many organizations supported by Federal grant money where help was available, including State mental institutions and city and county mental health clinics where those suffering a mental problem could receive weekly therapy, drugs, and kept stable enough to actually work and have a sense of self worth. When the Reagan Administration began wholesale budget cutting to this patch work of basic health support organizations (which included support to half-way houses to help alcoholics and drug addicts become sober, find jobs, and be self sufficient), the frail system crumbled within a year.

Those who think it was still a good idea to cut all of the frivolous funding (after all, atomic weapons are much more important) the majority of mentally ill, mentally challenged because of birth defects, and alcoholics ended up on the streets. The homeless problem boomed during the Reagan Era. Homelessness of the disenfranchised and dispossessed was and still is one of Reagan's lasting achievements -- and by extension, the GOP's idea of how the world works.

Don't believe me? I challenge any of you to take a Greyhound Bus trip from New York City to Los Angeles (about $250) and get ready for an eye-opener. A great majority of mentally ill who lived in group housing subsidized by State and Federal Grants pretty much live on Greyhoud buses -- still, long after Reagan took his big dirt nap. The homelessness jumped 10 fold in places like Santa Monica where one can live in a cardboard box most of the year. And cities began rounding up homeless mentally ill, alcoholics and drug addicts after their umpteenth arrest and putting them on a Greyhound bus to warmer climates in the winter (a fact I can easily document, despite the denial of the mayors of Chicago, St. Paul/Minneapolis, New York, Detroit) with one-way tickets to Tuscon, Phoenix, Miami, San Diego, Las Vegas, etc. And in return, those warmer climate cities returned the favor by rounding up the usual suspects and sending them back to northern cities in the summers. It was a Hell of a lot cheaper than housing them in jails and prisons.

Yeah, Reagan. What a wonderful man he was. He never met a homeless person that wasn't invisible.

Regardless of what type of universal health care is cobbled together, I think all workers should be taxed a modest percentage to contribute and keep a Federal Universal Health Fund alive and viable. You're (we're) already paying a telephone tax that was implemented during the Viet Nam years to support that war which was conveniently never repealed. Do I hear anyone complaining about that? No. Because you're too young to remember such a thing was foisted upon the citizenry of the USA. But it was much easier to collect when Ma Bell was the only game in town.

And I'd do my best to change the mindset of Medical Schools to do a better job of interviewing, screening, and preparing potential physicians to enter the various fields of medicine without dollar signs in their eyes. And while they are at it, it would be a good idea to accept more qualified pre med and pre nursing students rather than setting small quotas of students. I know this sounds terribly un 'Mericuhn, but there are actually state-of-the-art medical schools and facilities outside of the USA where the focus is not on one's potential earning power but on one's sincere interest in practicing medicine and helping others. Beets and Cheese Whiz! Can you imagine anything so un 'Mericuhn?
 
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Bbucko

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As I considered the third paragraph of the OP to be open baiting, I declined the invite to play along.

But thank you, MLB, for bringing up mental illness. Far from being a "frill", properly addressing mental illness is a net-gain all around in reducing some of the worst burdens society endures. You laid it out with a much cooler head than I could have done.

Again: the ignorance and hubris of the OP is so astounding that it can only be explained as flame-baiting, and I've learned to pick and choose how my energy and concentration is best spent; taking the bait is not one of them.

I'll withdraw completely from this thread now.