Health Care again!

[cowman]

Well Linda I will agree...the whole situation isn't really much different at all than the public system? So why are people going nuts over it? It is just a small tweaking of the system, not wholesale slaughter?
What was the original intention of medi-care? Was it to take away peoples responsibility for their own lives and turn them into wards of the state...or was it to make sure they weren't wiped out financially when they got sick?
Where is the accountability today? Why not be a drunk, smoke like a chiminey, get fat as a hog...the government will pay!
My own idea on the situation is this: Compulsory medical insurance, regulated by the state. Just like your car insurance?
Now if you want to pound down a bottle of whisky every day, smoke a couple of packs of cigarettes, eat ten big Macs...then perhaps your premium might be higher? And if you want to trot off to the doctor everytime you have a hangnail...then maybe you wouldn't have any deductible...and of course pay more? If you wanted to keep your cost reasonable( as in your car insurance) then you might have $500 or $1,000 deductible or whatever worked for you?
No need to have a big government beuracracy administrating the whole thing...Mutual of Omaha will do it cheaper and better than a bunch of fat civil servants?
Now of course that won't be happening, here in the great white north, as we have slipped way to far into this concept that the government knows best and will be there to baby us for life?
But eventually if we don't do something to get this health care spending back in control the public system will collapse in on itself, where we will get no healthcare...just the bill!
And I will agree we don't know all the details? Before Ralph can even lay them out the scream goes up from all the lefties "Spend more money!"...not improve anything...just "Spend more money"!
I am sorry but "Spend more money" just doesn't cut it anymore. This province spends too much money on this problem already and spending more will just encourage the parasites working the system to ask for more!
Frankly I am glad my premier is trying to find a solution by spending less! Lord knows he hasn't kept a tight fist on the purse strings for quite awhile!
If you consider that a government is nothing more than a management team we hire to protect our assetts...then I would ask...how are they doing? Do we want them to blow two thirds of our revenue on something that obviously isn't working(education and healthcare)? Don't you think we should ask them to be fiscally responsible and allocate our revenue to our needs? How good would it be if we spent all our money on education and healthcare...but the roads were so poor that we couldn't get to the hospital or school...or get to our jobs so we could pay the parasites! There has to be some common sense brought into this province.

[cowman]

Dinning is quoted as saying that everyone should have a health spending account. If that account would include the choice to spend portions of it on alternative health care and supplements I am all for it.
If I choose massage therapy and chiropractic over pain killers and muscle relaxants then I should be able to be reimbursed.
If I choose homopathic/herbal remedies to keep my chronic asthmatic condition under control vs visits to emergency, expensive prescription drugs then I am saving the health care system mega dollars. At this point it is costing me a lot of money out of my pocket. If a health spending account would pay a portion then I am all for it but I haven't seen that in Klein's proposal as of yet.

[cowman]

Oh and by the way Linda: If I could I would drink like a fish, smoke my brains out, and eat like a hog!
Unfortunately fate said no you can't! Darned rotten Scottish genetics!
My natural inclinations would be a creature of hedonism! Sometimes life just isn't fair.

[cowman]

GOOD LORD cowman, what is the world coming to. You baring your soul and telling us that you would be a fat, cigar smoking, souse if you could !!!!!

GEEZ, and here I envisioned you as a non smoking version of the Marlboro Man !!!!!LOL.

Now, I have never had a desire to smoke my brains out on anything, and as for drinking myself stinko, I have never felt the need, but as for needing to shed a few pounds, well, I don't eat properly, don't eat enough veggies, fruit etc. So that portion of my lifestyle needs work !!!

[cakadu]

Cowman, we could all probably do a much better job of looking after ourselves. It would seem to me that as we age we tend to think more abour how to keep healthier so that we can live longer.

You do bring up a good point though about genetics. Some people have congenital defects, are they to be lumped in with those who don't look after themselves properly? Others are genetically predisposed to things like heart problems, diabetes etc. How do you treat them?

We also all do things in our youth that may or may not catch up with us as we age. I seem to be paying the price now for being quite athletic in my youth, although I am told I am likely having fewer problems than I would had I not been so physically active.

I agree - people have to take responsibility for their own lives and mitigate any potential problems as much as they can. Having said that though there is only so much you can do about some diseases.

Personally I believe that chocolate should be it's own food group and that is probably my biggest vice. Will I stop eating it entirely - likely not - but I can be sensible about how much of it I do eat and balance it with the things I am supposed to eat.

The difficulty that I can see is finding the balance between what we ourselves are responsible for and have control over versus those things that we really don't have much control over at all.

[cakadu]

I have a lady working for me part time, who is getting an AISH pension. She is allowed to make $400 per month over and above her pension.

She was born with a spinal defect, has respiratory problems and is obese. She was recently diagnosed as having diabetes and has lost nearly 50 pounds since that time.Much of her obesity is caused from severe thyroid problems.

She is fiercely independent, and tries to get by with very little. She drives a 20 year old vehicle, and rents a small mobile home. She has an education degree but has never been able to obtain a teaching position.

She pays for 40% of her medications for a respirator, which amount to $75.00 per month, so by the time she pays rent, utilities and her food she really hasn't much left to spend on emergencies such as replacing a tire, etc.

She is one of many people who use the health care system out of necessity, and she is really trying to rise above her handicaps. When she approached AISH for assistance with paying her medications they told her to move into a city and live in shared accommodation to save money. She could have back surgery to attempt to correct some of the problems, but she really has nobody to look after her afterward. I guess if she had the money she could have the surgery in a private hospital and stay in some sort of recovery centre.....but she doesn't have the funds to do so.

[cowman]

You know life is like poker...you play the hand you get dealt? And yes, life isn't fair!
I don't think I was suggesting the poor should go without healthcare? Even in the USA, where they have a free market system, those that can't pay are covered by medicaid?
Actually because I have to live the life of a puritan I am in fairly decent shape! When you have to be careful with what you eat you tend to stay fairly trim! I don't even know what butter or margarine taste like anymore! Fat of any kind is a big no no for me...I pay dearly for it if I indulge!
Did anyone here catch Marketplace on Sunday? Wendy Mesley did a very good piece on her own battle with cancer and it was an eye opener to say the least! The fact is we are being poisoned by our food suppliers and the government and the Cancer Society does little to prevent it! How much money could be saved if we could prevent the cancer epidemic?

[cowman]

Life isn't easy for many people with handicaps, and I for one do not want to see the health care system make it even more difficult than it is now.

I would hope that isn't the case.

[cakadu]

With the American Health Care system, if you have nothing, you are okay and if you have wealth, you are also okay. It is those people who have a little that are penalized the most.

We have friends who have a son who is wheelchair bound among other things. They wanted to pay for an electric wheelchair out of their own pocket because it was taking so long to get one through the AISH system. They were told if they paid for it, then it would come off of whatever monies he got per month, so they would in effect be paying double.

Here they were trying to give their son some independence and dignity and at the same time take him off of a waiting list. Go figure.

[cakadu]

I would have no respect for a health care system where people had to prove they were 'poor' when they sought treatment !
The lady that I get to work here cannot receive any sort of gift or she is supposed to declare it.
She volunteers her time working for Victim Services, and when she asked about being able to make extra income each month from some sourse to offset the cost of her gasoline etc. for her work with victim services AISH told her she had to declare the imcome and it would be deducted from her AISH pension
One prescription she has to take daily costs $75.00, of which she used to pay $25.00. When the AISH pension was increased this year so was the amount she had to pay increased by 100%.
Then the government nearly broke their collective arms issuing press releases about the increase to AISH recipients.

Ensuring that any recipient of a pension or social program such as AISH can maintain their independence and ultimatly their dignity should be a priority.
Getting an AISH pension is not a slam dunk either, so its not as though people who don't feel like working can just apply. Recipients must go through a series of medical hoops to qualify.
I look at the lady that works here and think 'there but for the grace of God go I'.
Anyone of us could have been born with or develop an affliction that renders us unable to fend for ourselves, and my worst fear is that those folks will slip through the cracks if there are major changes to the health care system.

A small percentage of the money the government is going to spend on advertising and public consultation of their 'third way' would go a long way toward helping those who really need it access proper health care and likely even provide more very neccesary continuing care facilities.

[cakadu]

What bothers me the most is that we haven't heard anything about what it is really all about. The media has done most of the speculation and that is not information that one can base any kind of decision on.

If it well and truly is as "simple" as it is being made out to be, then trot it out and let us have a good look at it.

[cowman]

There was a very good column in the Innisfail Province written by Ron Moore that gave his opinion on the Klein government? I believe he has a pretty good take on the whole thing?
Now he wasn't talking specificately about the health care plans but about the increased spending of this government! Without a doubt the Alberta Conservatives are once again completely out of control?
He didn't have much nice to say about Jim Dinning or Stockwell Day! He did praise Klein for his early days as well as Steve West.
The upshot was he and 34 other MLAs had gone to Rod Love prior to the leadership vote in which Klein became premier and demanded that if Klein would implement their conditions, they would support him? The conditions were:
Cut the cabinet to 15 ministers.
Cut the civil service by 25%
Government never involved in private business again.
curb free spending ministers and if they overun their budget, replace them!

Now to give Ralph Klein credit...he did this in his first term, virtually saving the province from bankruptcy!
Well what happened to all those lofty ideals? Once again they are off like a bunch of drunken sailors! Moore blames it on the old red Torys who actually control the party.
If Klein tries to get some sanity back into government spending then I believe it is our duty to support him? I want my government to be fiscally responsible.