Other surgeons disagree with this suggested new policy saying that surgeons should make the judgement for themselves and deal with the problem if there is one, on their own.

I’m not comfortable with with them suggesting that it only be elective surgeries. I know those can be as deadly as other surgeries, but I’d be more interested in all kinds of surgeries and not just elective.

We’ve all heard about doctors working for days without more than a short nap or two and this fact does not inspire confidence in my opinion. It’s almost like a drunk driver thinking they can handle driving a car without a problem. Sometimes there is a problem.

Can you get by earning $500 a week and have insurance premiums that cost you $287 a week? This woman does and she has a couple of kids she barely sees and very little time for rest or sleep between shifts because of it.

This could give us all a glimpse of where the entire country will go when the federal law goes into effect.

Not to mention what kind of health shape will this woman be at in a year or two at this pace? Take a look for yourself and tell me what you think.

I got a couple of facts out of what I heard but not much, so I decided to look around the net and find the plan itself. I was going to read it line by line and then translate it to English.

I thought I did find it, but most of it was lawyer speak. You know, blah, blah, blah, and a little bit of truth or fact. OK I thought, maybe that’s all there is to it. Yet now I’m still reading articles in the news about it and or parts of it are still being debated.

So did anything get passed? If so what and where can we read about it?

There are about 47 million uninsured in the United States.  The reports concludes that 11.4 million  Americans that have at least  one of seven major  illnesses  are not insured.  They broke it down to  16.1%  of 7.8 million with  heart  disease, 15.5 %  of 38.2 million with high blood pressure, and 16.6% of 8.5 million  diabetics. They also looked at other conditions  such as COPD, cancer, asthma, and high cholesterol.

6.2% of insured people did not have regular doctor visits compared to 26% of uninsured who also did not. 22% of the uninsured had not gone to see a doctor in the past year compared to 6.2% of insured. 1.1% of insured people used the ER as their source of care, compared to 7.1% of uninsured.

Doctors can become frustrated because they know that almost all these conditions can be managed with minimal complications if they were given the chance to treat them early and regularly.

It would seem to me that the answer lies in insuring the uninsured, or making health care and medicine competitive and possible at lower costs.

The White House and the candidates for president must recognize that early preventative care and screenings could save millions in the long run. They could easily set up low cost clinics for the uninsured to go to for regular physicals and for when people suspect they have a problem. This would certainly be more cost efficient than waiting until a disease has advanced to a point where hospitalization is required to save a life via an emergency room visit.

A recent study says that in Illinois for example 18 people die every week from being uninsured. For the entire US, the stats rise to 18,000 a year. People who are uninsured have more than a 25% higher risk of death than do those who are insured.

Maybe our leaders in Washington should take a look at what other countries are doing and go from there.  There is no reason so many lives should be lost because of a bad health care crisis.

For many seniors this is the only available options for their medical care. As we all are aware, senior citizens are living on very little. Most only receive Social Security, which dies not provide well. It is rather upsetting that Congress continues each year to pursue legislation that would reduce the benefits these seniors receive. Last year, they attempted to sneak these cuts into the Children’s Health Insurance Bill (SCHIP). Thankfully, for our senior citizens this was vetoed by the President.

There are many health plans that offer Medicare Advantage coverage. The open enrollment period is in November, and the new coverage takes place at the beginning of the New Year. Many times, though seniors have an option to change their plan throughout the year without a penalty. New enrollments are accepted through the year as well. If you are new to Medicare, or just the Medicare Advantage program, you can join without any penalties at any time during the year.