I started talking about insurance/docs last night but my migraine got too hardcore for me to look at a screen let alone listen to the clackity-clack-clack-clack of my keyboard.
Obamacare: Ginormous give away to the health insurance companies. Obama gave up on Medicare for all (opting instead to call it the scary sounding "single-payer option") before he even went to the bargaining table with the Republicans. One of the biggest failures of his plan is that it did not address controlling the cost of prescriptions like the VA does. Most other countries stipulate how much their citizens will pay for RX drugs. Things we will pay hundreds of dollars for, Mexico or the UK will sell for $25 or less. Same drug, same manufacturer wildly different prices. It irks me at how much funding these companies receive from our government (i.e. us the tax payers) to develop these meds, and then we are priced gouged by them.
There are some good provisions, like not allowing insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. There are other benefits I don't want to get into because honestly who knows what will really go into effect in 2014 with the republicans trying to repeal the plan on a daily basis, while states choose to opt out and sue the federal government.
Our healthcare system is at the bottom of most of the industrial nations in the world. I have some serious healthcare issues. I ended up hospitalized while employed and insured. The hospital and the insurance company kept pointing their fingers at each other while I far exceeded my out of pocket maximum. The hmo says, "talk to hospital they shouldn't be charging you" the hospital says, "We aren't being paid, YOU are responsible for the bills." During the course of all this I lost my job due to my illness. Long story short, I had to file bankruptcy to get out from under a mountain of medical bills I should not have been responsible for.
The scariest part of moving is knowing I'm going to have to find a new Doctor. Its truly frightening. Most Doctors are drug dealers, others refuse to treat those without insurance, and many sadly are just incompetent. I've finally found a Doc who is smart, cares, and goes above and beyond... he's a rare breed.
Sorry for the rant, I hope you all are having a great morning.