As a retired physician’s assistant with over 24 years of practice, I would like to present a point of view about healthcare and its future in the coming elections.
Most of the industrialized world offers medical care for its people, and they looked to us on how not to do it. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s your insurance paid for everything - no co-pays, they were also not for profit then. Other countries use private plans but they are not for profit; it’s not socialized medicine; they are charged with taking care of people, not shareholders or board members.
If a new government is elected and the proposed changes and current laws are repealed (Obamacare), we will have vouchers to find insurance and no protection from being turned down for pre-existing conditions, therefore no medical insurance, and our children won’t be covered to age 27.
Medicare was started because insurance companies didn’t want to cover seniors, and that hasn’t changed. The same people (tea party) want to do the same for the VA; what happened to the promises made to seniors and veterans? I am both. We have the highest medical costs in the world, 17 percent of GDP; the rest range from 8 percent to 10 percent, and the highest medical administrative costs. This needs to change.
I have had private insurance and now Medicare; don’t mess with my Medicare. The medical insurance companies spent $100 million to lobby Congress and the Senate and make donations to those who oppose the changes we now have. There isn’t room for all the information out there; Google universal healthcare around the world, or check these sites:
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2012/03/healthinsurancearoundwo... or http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries and many others.
Robert White Jr.
Lewes
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