[Magdalen] health care...

[Lynn Ronkainen]

just another turbulent topic in the news... Health Care..

What do you folks think about all the recent (several years now) information 
that decades of cancer treatments have been ineffective in far broader ways 
than the general public was aware, 'discoveries' about the need for less 
mammograms/pap smears, , etc, etc, etc... For me this has translated into 
what my insurance company will allow based on US Government *guidelines*... 
and I am beginning to become a bit cynical about how much more the 
government is going to 'discover'  that will affect insurance coverage.

I'm already waiting for my annual exam to see how it is 'billed'. A friend 
told me that her one annual exam this year (a few months ago) was billed as 
two (one covered by insurance, one not covered but shifted to her 
pay-to-reach-deductable category). Her regular exam, considered 
'preventative' (a big huge tenant of the National Health Program Umbrella), 
turned into a second visit as well when the doctor ordered several 
diagnostic blood tests along with the 'preventative blood work'.  She was 
billed  for a partial payment on her preventative visit and billed the whole 
shebang on the diagnostic 'visit'.... Doctor's office stood by the way the 
insurance company looked at it and she had a $150. doctor  bill for the 
ordering of one blood test.

Makes me wonder if one could just find out from the doctor ahead of time 
that this blood work would be 'needed', take care of it on ones own at a 
local lab and then provide the doctor with the results... AND if that would 
save the additional visit bill for diagnostic, what are we saying about 
continuality of care in this whole mess?  As we muck about dissing 
'socialized medicine' we're creating something less stable and more 
unwieldy, and still the principles are making $$$ up the wazoo, or maybe 
it's just the insurance companies making any *real* money these days.

Am I becoming paranoid here?  Will the government start deciding who/what 
can get the kind of treatment a doctor would have heretofore have 
recommended?  Were all these 'steps', some of which have had phase-in plans 
from the start, intended to cause profit only?    And don't get me started 
about the Medicaid info I read the other day (which I'm counting the 2 years 
+ less than a month till I qualify)  which sounded like if I collect SS at 
66 I might have to pay $350. a month for Medicaid?? (and it didn't sound 
like a supplement would defray *this* part of the cost).

Lynn

website: www.ichthysdesigns.com

When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not a 
single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me." 
attributed to Erma Bombeck
 "Either Freedom for all or stop talking about Freedom at all" from a talk 
by Richard Rohr