Text 9273, 57 rader
Skriven 2009-02-19 06:18:04 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 9224 av Dan Ceppa (1:138/666.0)
Ärende: Health Care
===================
Replying to a message of Dan Ceppa to Bob Klahn:

 BK>> So, even with our private sector health care system, Americans
 BK>> are going out of the country for care.

 DC> The US is at least exporting its sick...  

 BK>> So, where's the problem. BTW, the govt already pays for about as
 BK>> much of our medical care as the insurance industry does.

 DC> One problem with health care in this country is that too little 
 DC> emphasis is placed on preventive care.  

Amen to that.  I heard that point made probably 30 years ago, and that
was one thing the HMOs were supposed to address when they were first
organized around that time.

When first invented, HMOs were something new.  Most of them provided
access to fitness centers and diet counseling as part of the membership,
and members were encouraged to use them.  Of course, most of their
members were younger folks who hadn't yet established their life styles;
the older workers by and large didn't like them, didn't join them and didn't
participate.  And of course the politicians screamed that the HMOs were
cherry picking the population and only providing coverage for young people
who rarely got sick - which was *not* a fact in most cases but which did
get a lot of press coverage.  That pretty much destroyed the HMO model of
health care insurance.

Health care insurance, with the possible exception of catastrophic care
policies,
is an actuarial disaster waiting to happen and many if not most private
insurance
companies are getting out of the business.

I used to work for Central States Health and Life Insurance of Omaha (which
despite
the name has not written either health or life insurance policies for at least
five years),
the company was nearly destroyed by a 2003 court decision that ordered them to
pay
claims that had been specifically excluded in the terms of one of its cancer
insurance
products.  Since for the past several years the company has AFAIK only been
writing
insurance on consumer loans (on cars, appliances, furniture, etc.) for the past
five years
or so it'll probably be sunk by the economic downturn - premium income will
drop and
claims will skyrocket.  I hope they have enough set aside to continue paying my
pension.

Type 2 diabetes is pretty much a lifestyle disease, especially the adult
onset occurrences.  A lot of cases of it disappear when the individual loses
enough weight to get down to the recommended size for his/her height.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)