In keeping with the Health Care theme: Elderly face £20,000 bill for social care. That’s about
on 07/15/2009 at 06:40 AM
No I don’t blame the Insurance Companies all on their own - there is massive problems/help in that issue (high rates/low acceptance) by the Lawyers who took to the frivolous lawsuits like a duck to water and compounded by the Klownposse in DC who mucked it all up with regulations that require jumping through idiotic hoops (and not allowing much cross border purchasing) - compounded by the AMA being the bastard child of the FDA and Big Pharma in their intent to prescription medicate the rest of America into Free free free healthcare.
My a** - I got a taste of it in Germany. Had to see a German OB - he was good, a sane, rational man - however the tests (almost every single visit) were redundant and I’m sure costly. He did (almost) nothing at the hospital as the midwife and a nurse were the actual ‘catchers’ (since that is all they did - she was born like 5 minutes after we arrived) - the hospital was the bomb - but the rules and the Newborn nurses were a crock. Imagine attempting to dress down (auf Deutsch) some 10 year old chippy in a uniform - when this was baby numero 5 for me - damn if I will listen to a damn thing you have to say. I checked out AMA at 3 days (won’t mention the cultural diff in institutional German food as compared to American food). But it was the waits for stuff that was the bugger - two to three WEEKs for an appendectomy (which a friend had, big religious type - left naked on a gurney in the OR hallway - believe me - that hospital got an earful). And then I visited one of Troops whose child was in the local pediatric hospital - it was the stuff to make Dickens vomit. I could not believe what I was seeing - horrible, horrible conditions - I wouldn’t take or let my kid go into there at all. And I saw one of the German wives take her kid 24/7 for any little thing - it goes with the ‘free’ mentality. I think at the time, their tax rate was like 70% - and people just don’t get it.
As you pointed out - it isn’t free. When we were in Germany one friend of a friend - his family was all behind the fence in a couple (although most were East Germany) of communist countries. He struggled to even get over to visit (big gifts to take were jeans and ball point pens, I kid you not) and only after they retired were family members allowed to cross over (one at a time) - mostly I think hoping that they’d stay - so that the communists wouldn’t have to pay for them anymore. Once you become non-productive - they don’t want you anymore - which Americans need to really, really consider - as to who is going to make those decisions and how right now to break down our system they are all for entitlement leeches, layabouts and the chronically never employed - but once they have their whole set up - you’d better work or forget getting anything from Uncle Sugar.
And oh btw - we have single payer (government insurance) and we (me & kids) have paid all along - just like everyone else and now that we are retired - our costs have gone up alot. Makes me want to move near a military installation (we’ve talked about it recently) to be able to get cheap (albeit lousy) care. Here it seems all they want to do is keep you making appointments so that they can keep charging you for them.
Which ends up where I believe so much of politics is today - just another scam - meant to take as much money away from Americans as possible.
Welcome Back - it isn’t the America you left.
Peiper,
Concerning insurance for you and your wife when you get back. Under the current system you and your wife will be eligible for medicare coverage. Medicare covers most of the expenses and if you are indigent you will most likely get medicaid from the state you live in. If you have your own money (savings, pension etc) you will have to take a supplemental policy out with a private insurance company. My father had a supplemental policy from age 65 when he retired. Two years ago, at age 78, he had an accident and crushed his leg he was in hospital for 10 days and had physical therapy and weekly doctors visits for 5 months, for that entire time he had daily visits from a nurse to help with his care. My sister stayed with him and I helped as much as possible, by taking him for doctors visits, picking up meds, helping with meals etc. During all of this he had been having difficulty breathing and we had to add a pulmonary specialist to his doctors. After xrays and breathing tests he was diagnosed with lung cancer. We then went to a cancer center where he started chemo treatments. Weekly from May until November.In November he started having infections and was in hospital twice more before the end of the year. He was at home for Christmas and was to resume chemo after the first of the year. He had another infection and had to have in home nursing care twice a day for ten days. By Jan 30th he was back in hospital a where he remained for 2 weeks. We were getting him ready to go back home with hospice care when his pulmonary specialist told us and him that he was too near the end to make it back home even in an ambulance. He remained in hospital for his final days and the doctor made certain that he had all of the pain medication he needed. Dr. Smith told us that there was no more that could be done for daddy except make sure he didn’t die in pain. Daddy died early the next morning.
The point? From May 17th 2006 (date of accident) to February 13th 2008 my father had the best medical care we could ask for he had nursing care when needed, doctors appointments without having to wait, chemo treatments regularly, and hospital stays with excellent care. I never added all of the prices up in their entirety, but, I know it was in the 100’s of thousands of dollars. My Fathers out of pocket for co-pays etc was less than $1,000.00. His insurance premiums for Blue Cross Blue Shield supplemental coverage was $378.00 per month.
I know this has been kind of rambling, but, it’s still a bit hard to write about. I guess the thing I’m trying to say is, I think my Father got value for his money and I don’t think he would have gotten nearly the quality or quantity of care under the system being proposed and it would have cost more to him, us , and the taxpayers.
Gee Punkins, $378 a month?
Before leaving So.Ca. I too had Blue Cross. In spite of the claim made by them when I signed up, my premium kept going up. I didn’t have a supplemental policy but the comprehensive coverage which by the time we left So.CA. in ‘04, was approaching close to $500 a month. My age (now 72) was the reason of course.
With supplemental coverage, at the time we looked at it the paperwork said something about
not kicking in for X number of days. And at that time what they allowed was not very much if you consider what hosp. charges are.If things go smoothly, and when do they do that, we hope to get a fair sum for this old house which will be demolished of course, and that plus what’s left of savings might carry us thru. But who knows? Darn certain I miss my own country, even though there is much to like here in spite of the left leaning, politically correct worms that makes things unpleasant. And the scary fact, and it is a fact, that ppl here are totally without any reasonable defense.
Wardmom, the hosp. you mention. That was a German hosp? Or American? Gee, I can’t imagine either being so awful but I do trust your word on the subject.
The hospital that the soldier’s son was in was the local (Bindlach) German hospital - the other hospital where all the other German medical stories took place was the new Kinikum in Bayreuth.
I do believe that the Drs in the local hospital were good - it just looked like the place hasn’t had any changes (or paint) since WWII. It was extremely depressing and as I spent so much of my early life in the hospital as a child - I know how awful places like hospitals can be to children.Oh yeah - $378 per month isn’t much more than we are paying for our ‘free’ government healthcare. . .
I have BCBS Dental until hubby gets a real job (hopefully in this Obamanation of an economy) next year as our government dental wanted a 5X increase in payments (hey I expected it to go up and maybe even double - but 5X - that’s outragious) - I’m not impressed with the Dental - but it was the best I could get as I have no job (no life) and it was intended to be temporary.
This is what you end up with under socialised medicine. Anyone with aspirations will be punished. Lets say you work all your life and struggle to buy a house. At the end of it you are too sick etc. to carry on living there so you get dumped in an old people’s home where you get to be abused by some low life scoundrel from Ghana or Bangladesh. The government meanwhile steals your home to pay for your abuse. Welcome to the future.
So now in order to stop this you can buy “insurance” for a mere £20k. What about the people who have never paid a bean into the system? There are generations of families in Britain now who have only ever known unemployment. I forget the exact figure but something like 3 million were on some kind of welfare when Liebour were elected in 1997 and they are still on welfare. These people wont have to find the £20k all the mugs who work for a living will. However how long will they be able to afford to do so? This is the end game for socialists. Government controlling every aspect of your life but it has never worked in the past and it wont work now.
This is from Douglas Carswell’s blog. http://www.talkcarswell.com/default.aspx He is one of the real Tories.
Today the government unveils plans that could include a “compulsory care scheme”. The idea is that when you retire, you’ll have to hand over to the state a vast sum of cash. This payment of up to £20,000 is supposedly to pay for your care in old age.
But what about all that other cash - called tax - which you’ve been forced to hand over to government every day of your working life?
There can be no clearer illustration of the vast con trick government has carried out on a whole generation. For every £100 earned, an average earner gives about £60 - £70 of it to the state in one form of tax or another. Should you choose to use the £30 - £40 left over to buy a home or save a little, you’re taxed again.
Peiper,
I noticed you had BC/BS of Southern California....we live in Alabama. And yep Daddy’s monthly premium was $378.00, I wrote the checks. Could be the difference in locales!! When y’all come back home to the US c’mon down south. North Alabama is one of the best kept secrets around. But, good folks are always welcome.
Pamela
07/15/2009 at 09:34 AM
07/15/2009 at 02:42 PM
