I've Seen it All, and I Don't Want Government Run Health Care

Okay, so health care is next up on the Democrats' agenda. In fact, Democrats want to take us to a single payer system. Many people try to scare people by calling this socialized medicine. I'm not saying that it's not socialized medicine. In fact, the very definition of socialized tells me that a single payer system is socialized medicine: from Merriam-Webster:

2a: to constitute on a socialistic basis <socialize industry> b: to adapt to social needs or uses
3: to organize group participation in <socialize a recitation>

The word socialistic is defined as: and adjective describing: one who advocates or practices socialism.

Socialism is defined as:

1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods (the US auto industry except for Ford)
2a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state (the US auto industry)
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

We could really get bogged down in terminology. I don't want to argue about whether or not what the Democrats' are demanding is socialized medicine. I just want to let you know why I'm not interested, and I don't think you should be, either.

In America, we already have several forms of government run health care. I have personally used all but two. One of those, the VA, I have experience through my husband, brother, both grandfathers, and several great-uncles. The other, Medicare, is so closely related to SCHIP, that it is almost indistinguishable from it. However, SCHIP pays for medication and Medicare does not. The forms of health care I'm talking about today are: military health care, military insurance used through civilian providers, Veterans' health care, Indian Health Services, Medicare, and SCHIP.

First, military health care: There are some people who will always tell you the bad stories. I have plenty. I have already told one, here. I could go on and on for days about bad military health care. However, I will acknowledge that there are sometimes golden eggs among the dragon eggs. Getting to them, without being killed by the dragon, can be a problem.

Military insurance, on the other hand, is very much like any huge HMO. It is a blessing to have it, but is a pain in the rear to use. It can be very difficult to get a referral. Getting approval for tests can be a nightmare. However, those two things pale in comparison to the problems I have had with getting bills paid due to billing errors. The system is so excruciating to navigate that many doctors have major problems submitting their bills to Tricare. As a result, the patient ends up spending hours on the phone attempting to get bills paid. In fact, sometimes the patient ends up having to pay these bills to keep them from ruining their credit, while they are waiting for the problem to get fixed. If you do not pay careful attention to this, you can have major problems. I'll give you one example.

When I was pregnant with Gabriel, I got a pre-approval for his care after his birth. The approval was for "baby P". The hospital submitted one of the bills as "Gabriel P". Tricare refused to pay it. After a couple years of wrangling with this, we wanted to buy a house. The bill had gotten put on our credit report, and we were refused a mortgage until we paid it. Since the hospital refused to resubmit the bill, again, we had to pay them. Then, we were required to submit the bill, with full documentation of all services, to Tricare. After three years, this was almost impossible to do. I finally gave up on getting repaid.

Veterans' Health Care: Quite frankly, if you need any documentation on why veterans' heath care sucks, you weren't paying attention to the news while Bush was in office. The news has backed off this a lot since President Obama was elected. But the fact remains that the care is not the greatest by any stretch of the imagination.

Indian Health Services: First, I want to know: Do you know why Indians receive free health care? I always thought it was a form of welfare and socialized medicine. In actuality, it is in repayment for Indians' help during World War 2. All Indian Nations are just that, nations in and of themselves. When you are a member of an Indian Nation, you hold a dual citizenship. That is why Indian businesses are not required to pay taxes. They are autonomous of the federal government if they are on reservation land. Now, back to health care.

When we lived in Oklahoma, we did not have health insurance. After the first 6 months, we could have afforded health insurance(it just would have been tight). However, we were all covered by IHS or the VA, so we did not choose to get health insurance. Going to the Indian hospital was like going to the emergency room on a really bad day. If you wanted to see a doctor, you had to get there early. You had to get there when they opened, and you would still be there for at least 3 hours. These were routine visits. Quite frankly, if all health care was like going to the Indian Hospital, I bet we would cut way down on routine doctors' visits. I once spent 3 hours at the Indian Hospital waiting to get a flu shot. This place is not my idea of somewhere to spend a day. On the other hand, I did learn that Gabriel knew his left from his right at the Indian hospital. So, it holds a special place in my heart. I'm just saying that I am glad I had a home birth when we lived in Oklahoma.

SCHIP: Okay, people, I understand the need for SCHIP. I do. However, it should be totally reserved for the desperately poor. And, it should only be used for emergencies. Please understand, I think the things SCHIP covers is ridiculous. But, here are my main gripes with it. SCHIP causes unnecessary tests. When we were covered by SCHIP, the boys were required to have lead testing just because we were in an income bracket that was covered by SCHIP. Even though we did not qualify for the test by the screening (IE the questionnaire that asked where the children lived, played, etc.), they were required to be tested. They were also required to have anemia tests, even though they didn't need them. So, because we fell into an income bracket in which many children live in houses that contain lead paint, or have horrible diets, the boys were subjected to unnecessary blood tests, and the tax payers had to pay for them. The fact is that if you want the government to pay for things, you give up control over those things, in this instance, your health care.

I don't think you need me to talk to you about Medicare. If you think Medicare is the bomb, you need to go talk to some senior citizens.