The issue of health care is generally not as much of a priority to the youth as it is to older people?

The older you are, the more difficult it is to get insurance and you need it even more. When I was young and had no assets to protect and no children to take to the doctor, I didn't really think too much about health care. Does anyone else see this trend?The issue of health care is generally not as much of a priority to the youth as it is to older people?I have two daughters who presently don't have insurance. Their employers don't offer health insurance or at a rate that is out of this world. What do you do when you need a doctor. And do you really think that younger people don't need healthcare?



I am all for Hillary's plan (that comes the closest) to Universal Healthcare.The issue of health care is generally not as much of a priority to the youth as it is to older people?
Most seniors have health care. Its the young people with no jobs who don't.The issue of health care is generally not as much of a priority to the youth as it is to older people?Sure, unless you have an accident or a sudden debilitating disease, you don't think about it. No one needs anti-biotics for infections when they are young.
While I can see some logic in this, I also think insurance, medical care and prescriptions have become so outrageously expensive that it's probably more of an issue for younger folks than it was several decades ago.The issue of health care is generally not as much of a priority to the youth as it is to older people?Unfortunately health care has been blow way out of proportion this election. There are far more important issues to deal with. With that being said, all of the issues are interconnect in some way and you cannot address one without affecting the others.



Broad and sweeping health care reform ( ie universal health care) is not the correct answer to the health care issue.



But to answer you question, yes, the older you get or having children ect. the more health care becomes important.The issue of health care is generally not as much of a priority to the youth as it is to older people?
the issue of health care is important to everybody--including the youths of this country.



because those same "youths" who you think don't care about health care have OLDER PARENTS.



and if their parents get sick, with no health care, and they lose their savings and/or homes trying to pay for an illness, then it will definintely affect their children, who btw, are their youths.



do you see this trend?
You obviously have no clue about Medicare.The issue of health care is generally not as much of a priority to the youth as it is to older people?
you bet ye.
Of course and we see it on here all the time. AFTER an illness or such, it's "how do I get health insurance to pay for this?"

It's wrong, however, that for much of what we see (fairly minor things) that people are worried they won't be able to pay for a sprain, a possible tonsillectomy, etc. That's STUPID that they could actually go bankrupt over something so trivial as an appendectomy--but it IS possible because if you're uninsured you are billed three times what the insured are and hospitals are aggressive about collections now.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnfl…



Of course with the greying of America, more folks will soon be on Medicare and that will be the end of the system which already does not work--treats docs like crap so they're leaving AND we have a doctor shortage that will get worse as more folks need more docs and more are not "on their plan" to boot.

In the US, Medicare is going bankrupt. In 1998, Medicare premiums were $43.80 and in 2008 will be $96.40--up 120%. "Medigap" insurance is common because of the 20% co-pay required for service. Medicare HMOs are common because they reduce that burden without an extra charge in many cases. HOWEVER, many procedures which used to have no or a low co-pay NOW cost the full 20% for the HMO Medicare patient. ALSO the prescription coverage they tended to offer has been REDUCED in many cases to conform to the insane "donut hole" coverage of the feds. Doctors are leaving Medicare because of the low and slow pay AND because the crazy government wants to "balance" their Ponzi scheme on the backs of doctors.

"That dark cloud lurking over the shoulder of every Massachusetts physician is Medicare. If Congress does not act, doctors' payments from Medicare will be cut by about 5 percent annually, beginning next year through 2012, creating a financial hailstorm that would wreak havoc with already strained practices.



Cumulatively, the proposed cuts represent a 31 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursement. If the cuts are adjusted for practice-cost inflation, the American Medical Association says Medicare payment rates to physicians in 2013 would be less than half of what they were in 1991."

http://www.massmed.org/AM/Template.cfm?S…



The problem is actually government meddling and health insurer greed and outright fraud which the pols refuse to admit or address. The pockets of free market work great:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbe…

A doctor owned and run hospital that sees everyone gets care, no matter what happens to the bottom line.



http://www.simplecare.com/ a doctor-driven group where reasonable rates are charged.



Note you can go to a walk-in clinic at Wal-Mart or CVS or the like in many cities and get many of the most typical reasons for seeing a doc addressed for under $100.



The price of LASIK has DROPPED dramatically over a decade. Plastic surgery is CHEAP. Compare a major procedure like a tummy tuck with the bill an uninsured patient will get for a medically necessary appendectomy WITHOUT complications.



We need something sensible to reform the system and the ONLY plan I've seen to date that fits the bill is this one:

QUALITY, ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE health care for all.

That means preventative care (physical with follow up). Real medication (no Medicare "donut holes" the really ill are ripped off again.) No bogus ridiculously low "caps" on needed medical procedures. No abuse of the ER. No paying for the silly with the sniffles to go to the doc for free. No more bankruptcies over medical bills. I want THIS plan that ends abuse of the taxpayer, takes the burden off employers, provides price transparency, and ends the rip-off of the US taxpayer at the hands of greedy insurance CEOs (which has been repeatedly documented).

http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.htm…

Read the PDF, not the blurb, for the bulk of the plan. Book is searchable on Amazon.com

Cassandra Nathan's Save America, Save the World



UHC does not work--anywhere:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_ca…

Not only was CA unable to pull it off,

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/200…

Last modified: January 29. 2008 5:03AM

but they followed up less than a month later with this:

"L.A. County may close most of its clinics



Facing a deficit, health officials want to pay private centers to take up the

slack. Critics say the plan's logic is faulty"

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition…

ll.story?ctrack=1%26amp;cset=true



Hillarycare went into effect in Taxachusetts courtsey of Mitt who also refuses to do any reform of insurance, so the inevitable happened to the 6.5 million who live there:

"Massachusetts announced that spending on its health care plan would increase by $400 million in 2008, a cost expected to be borne largely by taxpayers."

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/200…

Last modified: January 29. 2008 5:03AM



Still even though the facts are known the public insists on being the puppets of politicians and keep going back and forth on the dead issue of UHC instead of focusing on the actual problems:

"Aldrich’s situation is "asinine" but increasingly common, said Dr. Deborah Thorne of Ohio University. Thorne, co-author of a widely quoted 2005 study that found medical bills contributed to nearly half of the 1.5 million personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year, said that ratio has likely worsened since the data was gathered.

...

Like Aldrich, Thorne said, three-quarters of the individuals in the study who declared bankruptcy because of health problems were insured. "

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201807/



Linda Peeno, MD testified that SHE had often denied treatment JUST to save the insurance company money http://www.thenationalcoalition.org/DrPe…



Furthermore:

"the vast majority of health insurance policies are through for-profit stock companies. They are in the process of “shedding lives” as some term it when “undesirable” customers are lost through various means, including raising premiums and co-pays and decreasing benefits (Britt, “Health insurers getting bigger cut of medical dollars,” 15 October 2004, investors.com). That same Investors Business Daily article from 2004 noted the example of Anthem, another insurance company. They said the top five executives (not just the CEO) received an average of an 817 percent increase in compensation between 2000 and 2003. The CEO, for example, had his compensation go from $2.5 million to $25 million during that time period. About $21 million of that was in stock payouts, the article noted.



A 2006 article, “U.S. Health Insurance: More Market Domination, More CEO Compensation”

(hcrenewal.blogspot.com) notes that in 56 percent of 294 metropolitan areas one insurer “controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting." In addition to having the most enrollees, they also are the biggest purchasers of health care and set the price and coverage terms. “’The results is double-digit premium increases from 2001 and 2004—peaking with a 13.9 percent jump in 2003—soaring well above inflation and wages increases.’" Where is all that money going? The article quotes a Wall Street Journal article looking at the compensation of the CEO of UnitedHealth Group. His salary and bonus is $8 million annually. He has benefits such as the use of a private jet. He has stock-option fortunes worth $1.6 billion."

--Save America, Save the World by Cassandra Nathan pp. 127-128



"Insurance Companies Robbing Patients

Robbing patients to pay CEOs leads to unprecedented medical insurance corporation greed.

Thursday, January 3, 2008 8:52 AM

By: Michael Arnold Glueck %26amp; Robert J. Cihak, The Medicine Men"

http://www.newsmax.com/medicine_men/medi…