Do you fear becoming an HMO statistic.

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Crazy Old Lady : One Thread

I am at a loss for words really. I pay a lot for my insurance. It's not a government program. If it's this bad already, what's to prevent it from becoming worse? I should have known better than to trust my care to an HMO and to the belief that the system would work for a routine procedure.

People need health care, yet what will be sacrificed in order for them to get any sort of adequate care?Does anyone have any new ideas about what to do about our health care system.

-- jo (jo@crazyoldlady.com), June 25, 2000

Answers

jo, you really struck a chord with me about this. I've never dealth with an HMO, but I've heard lots of horror stories. Frankly, I don't trust them. Having said that, I'm not happy with my doctor either, so what's a person to do. Luckily I'm in fairly good health--I think.

I too pay a lot for my insurance. I'm not old enough for Medicare, and even with that you have to have supplemental insurance. I really feel the American people get the shaft on health care. I have a friend in England, and she thinks their National Health care is great. She said the stories of how bad it is are grossly overblown.

Here we are the richest country in the world, except for some of the oil rich Mideast countries, and yet most people can't even afford insurance, and the rest of us have to pay exhorbitant rates. Of course, all our Senators and Rep's., get free heath care. We should all raise hell about this constantly.

End of rant. *grin*

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), June 30, 2000.


I am all for some sort of health care system which addresses the needs of everyone. What that will be and how it will work needs a lot of research. Does anyone know if our senators and reps are happy with their program? I never really saw any stats on that. I am too young for medicare also, so as a self employed person I do have to get my insurance where I can. In addition to it being very costly, I have a husband who has a couple of pre- existing conditions and that limits my choices even more. Finding a doctor I like within these systems is really difficult,too. If they would just make the list of providers a little more informative, that alone would help. The irony of it is that the ones who are "good" are always booked up and taking no more patients.

I have heard also that the National Health care systems in other countries are not as bad as those some here make them out to be.

It is something we need to rant about constantly, I agree.

Thanks for commenting!

-- jo (jowho@yahoo.com), July 01, 2000.


jo, I made an error. Our congress people all get free health insurance, not "free health care" as I stated above. But, I'd be happy with free health insurance.

Even though I'm not with an HMO, my health insurance company has a list of doctors that we must use, or else pay more for those not on the list. This seems very unfair to me.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), July 02, 2000.


Mine is actually a PPO with an HMO component. I got into the HMO component accidentally as a result of a broken ankle, and due to my laziness, I just stayed there. Now I need to switch out and onto the PPO.

-- jo (jowho@yahoo.com), July 03, 2000.

I'm self-employed, too, but am still covered under my husband's HMO which is a really good one as far as paying a hundred percent for hospitalizations. I did have a problem recently because they denied a test the doctor wanted me to have, and it took a lot of haggling, but finally it was approved.

I'm sitting here trying to remember what else I wanted to say. What was the question? :)

-- Geri (lee@hhs.net), July 03, 2000.



I bookmarked this site back in July so I could comment, does that give you an idea of how far behind I am in EVERYTHING?

HMO's are on my soapbox list. The last years I worked were in the office of an Internist and dealing with HMO's made our lives a living hell. It quardrupled my time on the telephone, trying to get authorizations for patients to have procedures that were necessary to determine their medical status. If the doctor I worked for wanted his patient to see a specialist in another field (one that he had referred to before, knew and trusted), I had to make sure that the patient's HMO had that physician on their list of approved providers. If they didn't, we and the patient had to take pot-luck with whatever specialists were on the list---IF we could find one that would accept new patients!

Patients usually had to accept whichever HMO their employers had signed up with, the local physicians had no option other than to become providers for those HMO's if they wanted to keep their patients. The general public, older folks in particular, have a hard time understanding all the jargon and double-speak given them by the HMO's and then don't understand why their local doc can't just do like he has always done. When I retired, now 3 1/2 years ago, they hired 2 people to take my place (one to stay on the phone all the time!)

Thankfully, many of the HMO's have now gone out of business after finding out there wasn't as much profit in it as they thought they could mandate. I have seen many news shows on TV documenting some of the horror stories like I witnessed when I worked. Many of the doctors now refuse to join the HMO's and I applaud those who can afford to do so.

Health care in the U.S. does need overhauling so we can all afford medical care and medications. HMO's are NOT the answer.

-- Peggy (phillbigg@the-cia.net), September 11, 2000.


Nice to see you here. I have been neglecting my web site horribly lately. Good to read your comments. We sure do need reform, and what that will be, I really don't know. The system is seriously broken.

Let me tell you another horror story.

My daughter-in-law'stwo year old niece was just diagnosed with leukemia. This, only finally after she took her into the emergency room after going to doctors for two weeks and having them shunt her off to other doctors. They did not even do the simplest and most effective thing for diagnosis...a blood test. Can you imagine that? Luckily, the mother was just worried enough to finally go to the ER and refuse to leave until someone did something. Finally a nurse took pity on her and had a doctor take a second look and order a blood test. Of course she was in terrible condition and was admitted immediately. Whether the result of HMO policy or the result of incompetant doctors, I don;t really know, but I believe it was a combination of both those factors.

It's a crime when doctors are complicit in almost killing people.

-- jo (jo@interaccess.com), September 12, 2000.


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