Have you still not done anything about formalizing an Advance Directive for your medical care? Thousands of people rushed to do it when the Terry Schiavo case mesmerized the nation. But now some years have passed, and we need another reminder to get it done.
This article is prompted by a very nice column by a former LPN, who goes by the name Kyana Belle in her column, urging people to create an Advance Directive for their care. She had brief stories to tell of the nightmarish, ugly situations that could have been averted with some well-thought-out planning ahead.
I might add that hospital staff is obligated to make available to you whatever forms are needed to create this Advance Directive. It need not cost you a thing unless you need to consult an attorney if you have multiple marriages, multiple families from those marriages, or no current spouse.
Kyana explains what a Do Not Resuscitate order really means, and explains the difference between that and a Living Will, plus she provides links for all you need. She has just three basic points to make:
1) A "Do Not Resuscitate," "DNR,"or "No Code" is ONLY an order that prevents attempts to restart your breathing and/or heart beat should either cease.
2) If you have not legally appointed someone to make decisions for you when you are unable to do so yourself, someone will be appointed for you according to your state laws.
3) It can NOT wait - get it done now!
Thank you Kyana! You rock! Readers may find the entire article here at: http://kyanabelle.newsvine.com/_news/2008/11/06/2080706-how-to-protect-your-rights-with-advance-directives?email=html&threadId=412008&commentId=4007241#c4007241 .
Monday, November 10, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
In Honor of the Upcoming Veterans Day – How To Make Claims on Your Military Life Insurance
In honor of Veterans Day this year, I want to help the families of military veterans get their proper benefit checks for life insurance policies held by service persons. IF you have kept up your military group life insurance policy during service (if still in uniform) or after discharge, you (or rather your beneficiaries) should be able to get the VA to accept your claim. Just read this article and go to the link given below to find the claim form.
Several years ago a scandal broke out about the Veterans Administration denying all phone inquiries inre making claims on veterans group life insurance policies. It seemed that the staff was using the funds to pay for department parties and other nonsense.
I was also surprised to hear of one widow of a WWII veteran making a successful claim on her late husband's policy not long before this scandal broke out (about ten years ago). Fortunately for her, she had an adult child who sent in a request for a claim form instead of just accepting the erroneous information that had been received by phone. The veteran had kept policy status updates on file, and so they had a policy number and an address to send the request to.
So to make a long story short, they received the claim form – a mere half-page long – and filled in the necessary information. The only difficult section asked for the veteran's discharge date, an item they luckily had on the discharge papers.
Do you want to guess how much money the widow wound up with? The policy had been paid up some time before and was accruing interest. The final valuation was for over $6200. That was a very welcome hunk of change to help make up for the loss of her husband's pension check from work.
Below is the link to the VA insurance page. There are several forms available but to make a claim, click on the one that says: SGLV 8283, Claim for Death Benefits. There is also a related form to make claims for the death of a spouse (or other covered family member) of a military service person.
http://www.insurance.va.gov/sgliSite/forms/forms.htm
It does not matter how long ago your military service person or veteran died; the policy still accrues value until the claim is made. Just dig up your insurance policy and discharge papers, and you will have enough information to fill out the claim form.
Good luck to all of you, and thank you to all our United States veterans out there (and their families). Have a good day.
[The erroneous information given by phone was possibly a mixup; the VA continually has to deny inquiries about a mythical veterans insurance dividend payout. You can read a full article explaining that confusing urban myth at http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa050698.htm .]
Several years ago a scandal broke out about the Veterans Administration denying all phone inquiries inre making claims on veterans group life insurance policies. It seemed that the staff was using the funds to pay for department parties and other nonsense.
I was also surprised to hear of one widow of a WWII veteran making a successful claim on her late husband's policy not long before this scandal broke out (about ten years ago). Fortunately for her, she had an adult child who sent in a request for a claim form instead of just accepting the erroneous information that had been received by phone. The veteran had kept policy status updates on file, and so they had a policy number and an address to send the request to.
So to make a long story short, they received the claim form – a mere half-page long – and filled in the necessary information. The only difficult section asked for the veteran's discharge date, an item they luckily had on the discharge papers.
Do you want to guess how much money the widow wound up with? The policy had been paid up some time before and was accruing interest. The final valuation was for over $6200. That was a very welcome hunk of change to help make up for the loss of her husband's pension check from work.
Below is the link to the VA insurance page. There are several forms available but to make a claim, click on the one that says: SGLV 8283, Claim for Death Benefits. There is also a related form to make claims for the death of a spouse (or other covered family member) of a military service person.
http://www.insurance.va.gov/sgliSite/forms/forms.htm
It does not matter how long ago your military service person or veteran died; the policy still accrues value until the claim is made. Just dig up your insurance policy and discharge papers, and you will have enough information to fill out the claim form.
Good luck to all of you, and thank you to all our United States veterans out there (and their families). Have a good day.
[The erroneous information given by phone was possibly a mixup; the VA continually has to deny inquiries about a mythical veterans insurance dividend payout. You can read a full article explaining that confusing urban myth at http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa050698.htm .]
Friday, September 26, 2008
Wall Street Journal Has Story on Fighting Insurance Denials
Pushing Back When Insurers Deny Coverage for Treatment --
By Anna Wilde Mathews, The Wall Street Journal
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=b6e08398424d449bb8ac46fc3c8a2565&siteid=nwtpf&sguid=LlOmLCZmMkSOlLZa0_8Pmw
Battling a health insurer when it refuses to cover certain treatments can be aggravating and time-consuming. But if you choose to join the growing number of people who are appealing coverage denials, there are several strategies that can bolster your case.
By Anna Wilde Mathews, The Wall Street Journal
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=b6e08398424d449bb8ac46fc3c8a2565&siteid=nwtpf&sguid=LlOmLCZmMkSOlLZa0_8Pmw
Battling a health insurer when it refuses to cover certain treatments can be aggravating and time-consuming. But if you choose to join the growing number of people who are appealing coverage denials, there are several strategies that can bolster your case.
Friday, September 19, 2008
State, insurers, doctors in battle over billing
-- from the Ventura County Star, Sept. 12, 2008
A person injured in a car crash is treated in the emergency room. The insurance company pays the out-of-network doctors involved in the care less than they think they're owed.
So a doctor or the hospital sends a bill for the remainder directly to the patient।
It's called "balance billing" and has spawned a turf battle among state officials who are trying to outlaw the practice, insurers who support the ban and doctors who fight it and see themselves as victims।
"Legislate, regulate and litigate। We'll do whatever it takes," said California Medical Association President Richard Frankenstein, before a meeting with Ventura County doctors this week. He laid responsibility for balance billing on insurers trying to protect their profits by underpaying doctors.
"It's a very clever ploy of multimillion-dollar companies to avoid their responsibilities," he said.
But some patient advocates say there's enough blame to share। They say the fight over compensation for emergency care ends up wounding patients who worry that if they don't pay the doctor's bill, their account will end up with a collection agency.
"We're caught between these two institutional providers," said Beth Capell, an advocate with Health Access California. "It's a temptation to say a plague on both your houses."
Many of the problems occur in emergency rooms where neither patients nor doctors control who they see। People may be treated by providers who don't contract with their insurance company. The doctors are paid a lesser, out-of-network rate.
According to the California Association of Health Plans, 1।76 million Californians who went to emergency rooms over a two-year period were billed by doctors or hospitals for money not paid by insurers.
The total bill was about $528 million.
The California Department of Managed Health Care plans to roll out a regulation next month that labels balance billing for emergency care as an unfair practice, opening the door to enforcement action against doctors or hospitals।
A bill by Sen। Don Perata, D-Oakland, would ban ER doctors from balance billing and would set up a process to mediate insurance disputes as well as an interim rate of payment. The bill was approved by the Legislature two weeks ago and awaits Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature. It would supersede the managed care regulation.
The doctors' association will sue the day after the state implements its new rules, said Frankenstein, in Camarillo for a meeting of the Ventura County Medical Association. The state group also opposes Perata's bill, though a group of emergency physicians supports the measure.
Frankenstein said insurance companies need to expand their networks to include more emergency room and on-call doctors। They also need to pay more, he said.
"It's up to the health plan to either serve up the doctor or pay the bill," Frankenstein said, suggesting insurers maximize profit by saying, "This is what we feel like paying today."
Nicole Kasabian Evans of the California Association of Health Plans fired back।
"Health plans are not the ones that are sending the bill to the consumer," she said। "We don't think it's appropriate strategy to hold patients hostage."
Evans said the insurance group supports a ban on balance billing and an independent process to deal with disputes with doctors। But the group opposes Perata's bill because the rate of payment may be too high. Doctors who currently contract with insurance companies might drop out to get the out-of-network rate, she said.
Eliminating balance billing is great if it comes with reform that transforms the healthcare system and provides insurance coverage to everyone, said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Association of Southern California। But hospitals aren't happy about measures that eliminate the bills but not the underlying causes, he said.
"Balance billing is a tool hospitals use to force health plans into negotiating fair rates," he said. "Consumers need to know. If their health plan is screwing up, they need to know that."
Patients shouldn't be seen as a tool, said Cindy Ehnes, director of the state Department of Managed Health Care।
"It's inappropriate to put a vulnerable, potential sick patient in the middle of a billing dispute just to provide leverage," said Ehnes, calling on doctors to take their disputes to her department.
Local doctors say balance billing isn't about getting rich but about staying in business। Some predict that eliminating the mechanism will amplify other healthcare problems such as getting doctors to serve on call.
"I think that will be the death knell to taking call in the emergency room," said Dr। Mark Ghilarducci of Oxnard.
Jerry Flanagan of the Consumer Watchdog group in Santa Monica feels sympathy for doctors who can't break what he called the stranglehold of insurance। But he also blames the medical association for holding up years of efforts to end balance billing.
"As sympathetic as we are for the physician, we think there is no excuse for billing the patient because of disputes between the doctor and the insurance company," he said। Referring to strategies that would solve the problem, he said: "That's what we've been waiting five years for."
Ventura County Star, Sept. 12, 2008, http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/sep/12/state-insurers-doctors-in-battle-over-balance/
A person injured in a car crash is treated in the emergency room. The insurance company pays the out-of-network doctors involved in the care less than they think they're owed.
So a doctor or the hospital sends a bill for the remainder directly to the patient।
It's called "balance billing" and has spawned a turf battle among state officials who are trying to outlaw the practice, insurers who support the ban and doctors who fight it and see themselves as victims।
"Legislate, regulate and litigate। We'll do whatever it takes," said California Medical Association President Richard Frankenstein, before a meeting with Ventura County doctors this week. He laid responsibility for balance billing on insurers trying to protect their profits by underpaying doctors.
"It's a very clever ploy of multimillion-dollar companies to avoid their responsibilities," he said.
But some patient advocates say there's enough blame to share। They say the fight over compensation for emergency care ends up wounding patients who worry that if they don't pay the doctor's bill, their account will end up with a collection agency.
"We're caught between these two institutional providers," said Beth Capell, an advocate with Health Access California. "It's a temptation to say a plague on both your houses."
Many of the problems occur in emergency rooms where neither patients nor doctors control who they see। People may be treated by providers who don't contract with their insurance company. The doctors are paid a lesser, out-of-network rate.
According to the California Association of Health Plans, 1।76 million Californians who went to emergency rooms over a two-year period were billed by doctors or hospitals for money not paid by insurers.
The total bill was about $528 million.
The California Department of Managed Health Care plans to roll out a regulation next month that labels balance billing for emergency care as an unfair practice, opening the door to enforcement action against doctors or hospitals।
A bill by Sen। Don Perata, D-Oakland, would ban ER doctors from balance billing and would set up a process to mediate insurance disputes as well as an interim rate of payment. The bill was approved by the Legislature two weeks ago and awaits Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature. It would supersede the managed care regulation.
The doctors' association will sue the day after the state implements its new rules, said Frankenstein, in Camarillo for a meeting of the Ventura County Medical Association. The state group also opposes Perata's bill, though a group of emergency physicians supports the measure.
Frankenstein said insurance companies need to expand their networks to include more emergency room and on-call doctors। They also need to pay more, he said.
"It's up to the health plan to either serve up the doctor or pay the bill," Frankenstein said, suggesting insurers maximize profit by saying, "This is what we feel like paying today."
Nicole Kasabian Evans of the California Association of Health Plans fired back।
"Health plans are not the ones that are sending the bill to the consumer," she said। "We don't think it's appropriate strategy to hold patients hostage."
Evans said the insurance group supports a ban on balance billing and an independent process to deal with disputes with doctors। But the group opposes Perata's bill because the rate of payment may be too high. Doctors who currently contract with insurance companies might drop out to get the out-of-network rate, she said.
Eliminating balance billing is great if it comes with reform that transforms the healthcare system and provides insurance coverage to everyone, said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Association of Southern California। But hospitals aren't happy about measures that eliminate the bills but not the underlying causes, he said.
"Balance billing is a tool hospitals use to force health plans into negotiating fair rates," he said. "Consumers need to know. If their health plan is screwing up, they need to know that."
Patients shouldn't be seen as a tool, said Cindy Ehnes, director of the state Department of Managed Health Care।
"It's inappropriate to put a vulnerable, potential sick patient in the middle of a billing dispute just to provide leverage," said Ehnes, calling on doctors to take their disputes to her department.
Local doctors say balance billing isn't about getting rich but about staying in business। Some predict that eliminating the mechanism will amplify other healthcare problems such as getting doctors to serve on call.
"I think that will be the death knell to taking call in the emergency room," said Dr। Mark Ghilarducci of Oxnard.
Jerry Flanagan of the Consumer Watchdog group in Santa Monica feels sympathy for doctors who can't break what he called the stranglehold of insurance। But he also blames the medical association for holding up years of efforts to end balance billing.
"As sympathetic as we are for the physician, we think there is no excuse for billing the patient because of disputes between the doctor and the insurance company," he said। Referring to strategies that would solve the problem, he said: "That's what we've been waiting five years for."
Ventura County Star, Sept. 12, 2008, http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/sep/12/state-insurers-doctors-in-battle-over-balance/
Just try to find a primary care doc when on Medicare
[Read an interesting, developing discussion of the article here at http://minnieapolis.newsvine.com/_news/2008/09/13/1863658-where-have-all-the-doctors-gone-just-try-to-find-a-primary-care-doc-when-on-medicare?last=1221363391#last_1 ]
He needed a neurologist. But nobody would see him unless we had a primary care doctor, and we couldn’t find one, Donna says. We pounded the phones day after day, going through the whole list [of primary care doctors] in Salem. But everyone who accepted new patients would not accept people on Medicare. The Brys’ experience is not an isolated case. At least 56 million Americans, almost one in five of the population, are now medically disenfranchised —having inadequate access to primary care physicians because of shortages in their area—according to Access Denied, a county-by-county study by the National Assn. of Community Health Centers and the Robert Graham Center.---
[read whole article at http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/caregiving/articles/where_have_all_the_doctors_gone_.html?NLC-WBLTR-CTRL&DET=F2-91208 ]
He needed a neurologist. But nobody would see him unless we had a primary care doctor, and we couldn’t find one, Donna says. We pounded the phones day after day, going through the whole list [of primary care doctors] in Salem. But everyone who accepted new patients would not accept people on Medicare. The Brys’ experience is not an isolated case. At least 56 million Americans, almost one in five of the population, are now medically disenfranchised —having inadequate access to primary care physicians because of shortages in their area—according to Access Denied, a county-by-county study by the National Assn. of Community Health Centers and the Robert Graham Center.---
[read whole article at http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/caregiving/articles/where_have_all_the_doctors_gone_.html?NLC-WBLTR-CTRL&DET=F2-91208 ]
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
NEW Autism Center Opens in Minnetonka, MN But Insurance Limits Treatment
Great news on the autism front as a new treatment center opened in Minnetonka, MN with Governor Pawlenty doing the honors. The new ABA approach to treating autism has showm remarkable promise in a short time.
It is a very intensive therapy, however, with upwards of 40 hours a day of therapy. The insurance company – in this case the high-risk pool for Minnesotans – has capped coverage at 40 hours a week. The children receive more than that, so providers are forced to limit treatment.
ABA is an acronym for Applied Behavioral Analysis, a new technique that has been remarkably successful in turning non-verbal youngsters into normal expressive children who can express their wants and needs.
From a story in WCCO.com on Aug. 20 --
On Tuesday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty appeared at the Grand Opening of the Minnesota Autism Center's new facility in Minnetonka. The center focuses on applied behavioral analysis, or ABA therapy, in which children with autism work intensively with therapists on speech, language and daily living skills. "This center is a modern, capable, wonderful place that's going to provide these services and provide hope and improvement in the lives of these families and the children it serves," said Pawlenty. However, the governor's appearance comes as some parents are questioning the likelihood their insurance will continue to cover as much ABA as their children need. For Amy Dawson, the value of the ABA therapy her son Mac receives is without question. "He was non-verbal a year ago and now he scores in the gifted range for spoken vocabulary," said Dawson. [http://wcco.com/local/ABA.therapy.insurance.2.799665.html]
The Cambridge Center has an excellent source of information about the ABA approach to autism and explains what Applied Behavioral Analysis is. See this link for more information about it. [http://www.behavior.org/autism/]
It is a very intensive therapy, however, with upwards of 40 hours a day of therapy. The insurance company – in this case the high-risk pool for Minnesotans – has capped coverage at 40 hours a week. The children receive more than that, so providers are forced to limit treatment.
ABA is an acronym for Applied Behavioral Analysis, a new technique that has been remarkably successful in turning non-verbal youngsters into normal expressive children who can express their wants and needs.
From a story in WCCO.com on Aug. 20 --
On Tuesday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty appeared at the Grand Opening of the Minnesota Autism Center's new facility in Minnetonka. The center focuses on applied behavioral analysis, or ABA therapy, in which children with autism work intensively with therapists on speech, language and daily living skills. "This center is a modern, capable, wonderful place that's going to provide these services and provide hope and improvement in the lives of these families and the children it serves," said Pawlenty. However, the governor's appearance comes as some parents are questioning the likelihood their insurance will continue to cover as much ABA as their children need. For Amy Dawson, the value of the ABA therapy her son Mac receives is without question. "He was non-verbal a year ago and now he scores in the gifted range for spoken vocabulary," said Dawson. [http://wcco.com/local/ABA.therapy.insurance.2.799665.html]
The Cambridge Center has an excellent source of information about the ABA approach to autism and explains what Applied Behavioral Analysis is. See this link for more information about it. [http://www.behavior.org/autism/]
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Maybe a French-style National Healthcare System Might Be More Compatible With Ours?
A proposal for a Canada-style healthcare system has been floundering around our Congress for several months, (Rep. John Conyers National Health Insurance Act --HR 676) but shouldn’t we ask if a French-style system might be a less disruptive solution?
Let me compare the Canadian and French systems briefly --
Canada has a SINGLE-PAYER system, in which the government pays the bills according to a fee structure it negotiated with health care providers. Patients can still choose their own doctor. The doctor in turn may be either paid by the government or in private practice. (Patients who are in a hurry might choose a private-pay doctor; the government physicians are often overworked and months-long delays to get an appointment are common.) The United States’ Medicaid and Medicare are most similar to single-payer systems.
By contrast, in the British style of socialized medicine, the doctors are actually government employees. Hospitals are run by the government. Hospitals are run comparable to the Veterans Administration. Given the repeated VA scandals in healthcare and hospital conditions, one would much prefer any private hospital over the VA. This is a sad thing to say, although to be fair, the VA facilities are just showing their age and need a great deal of renovation.
The French system is called a non-profit MULTI-PAYER. Clinics and hospitals are all private, and may be either non-profit or for profit. Medical providers are paid according to a negotiated fee structure. The funds come from payroll contributions from both employers and employees.
This is somewhat similar to what we have now in the private sector. A major difference is that the French government has far better leverage in negotiating what the fees are than any single employer has, and unlike the U.S. federal government, it uses that leverage.
French payroll taxes replenish a sickness fund which covers 75% of the medical bills. The balance comes from patients, government and supplementary insurance.
Coverage is universal under all three templates -- British, Canadian, and French. By contrast, the current American system has nearly 50 million of us completely uninsured -- 9 million of the uninsured are children.
The patient has the ultimate power to choose his or her doctor under all three plans displayed here. Popular American plans commonly limits our choice of providers to those who are part of a given network.
The average cost of medical care per Briton is $2,389, and the average Briton ranks 24th on WHO‘s health ranking. For a Canadian it is $2,989, and he ranks 35th. For a Frenchman it comes to $2,902, who marches all the way up to 4th on WHO‘s list. And for an American, it comes to a whopping $5,711, and in return for that, he places 72nd on WHO’s ranking.
Recent years have seen several so-called reforms, with limited results. In 2004, consumers were given the option to create Health Savings Accounts. These allow pre-tax dollars to be set aside for any medical or health expense not reimbursed by insurance. The downsides: they require more paper handling by both consumers and insurance companies, and some discourage preventive care.
States such as Massachusetts have moved to require insurance coverage, with a government subsidy to those who cannot afford it. While it does not result in universal coverage, it has cut the numbers of uninsured by nearly two-thirds.
When you add up all the co-pays, premiums, deductibles, etc., even those with insurance often pay the full cost of the medical care. There is little downward pressure on medical expenses.
Allowing the poor to buy into Medicaid, Medicare, or SCHIP has become controversial even tho it seems very direct and logical. This proposal came from a plan studied by the National Coalition on Healthcare. Consumers pay in according to a sliding scale, with subsidies for the poor.
Everyone gets covered. The monetary savings can be significant. NCHC says in the first decade health care savings would total $320.5 billion; businesses that now provide health insurance would save $848 billion, and families who currently buy insurance would save $309 billion.
Since the end of the 1960s, the number of doctors in France increased from 60,000 to more than 185,000 at the beginning of the 21st century. There are three doctors for every 1,000 habitants, which is a superior ratio when compared to other Western nations (Great Britain 3:1800, USA 3:2700, Germany 3:3400 and Italy 3:5900).
A sector of the French healthcare system consists of not-for-profit private hospitals. Private hospitals were originally denominational and provide 14% of the inpatient services among French Medical Care Institutions. They are financed through endowments like public hospitals, but they still have the right to privacy like private clinics.
A positive feature of the French healthcare system is the cooperation between the public and private sector. The long waiting lists for surgery that everyone associates with socialized medicine are avoided here. Indeed, private medical care in France provides more than 50% of surgeries.
Yes Magazine has an online chart - http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1515
More specifics of the French plan is at FrenchEntree.com -- http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-health/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=197
Let me compare the Canadian and French systems briefly --
Canada has a SINGLE-PAYER system, in which the government pays the bills according to a fee structure it negotiated with health care providers. Patients can still choose their own doctor. The doctor in turn may be either paid by the government or in private practice. (Patients who are in a hurry might choose a private-pay doctor; the government physicians are often overworked and months-long delays to get an appointment are common.) The United States’ Medicaid and Medicare are most similar to single-payer systems.
By contrast, in the British style of socialized medicine, the doctors are actually government employees. Hospitals are run by the government. Hospitals are run comparable to the Veterans Administration. Given the repeated VA scandals in healthcare and hospital conditions, one would much prefer any private hospital over the VA. This is a sad thing to say, although to be fair, the VA facilities are just showing their age and need a great deal of renovation.
The French system is called a non-profit MULTI-PAYER. Clinics and hospitals are all private, and may be either non-profit or for profit. Medical providers are paid according to a negotiated fee structure. The funds come from payroll contributions from both employers and employees.
This is somewhat similar to what we have now in the private sector. A major difference is that the French government has far better leverage in negotiating what the fees are than any single employer has, and unlike the U.S. federal government, it uses that leverage.
French payroll taxes replenish a sickness fund which covers 75% of the medical bills. The balance comes from patients, government and supplementary insurance.
Coverage is universal under all three templates -- British, Canadian, and French. By contrast, the current American system has nearly 50 million of us completely uninsured -- 9 million of the uninsured are children.
The patient has the ultimate power to choose his or her doctor under all three plans displayed here. Popular American plans commonly limits our choice of providers to those who are part of a given network.
The average cost of medical care per Briton is $2,389, and the average Briton ranks 24th on WHO‘s health ranking. For a Canadian it is $2,989, and he ranks 35th. For a Frenchman it comes to $2,902, who marches all the way up to 4th on WHO‘s list. And for an American, it comes to a whopping $5,711, and in return for that, he places 72nd on WHO’s ranking.
Recent years have seen several so-called reforms, with limited results. In 2004, consumers were given the option to create Health Savings Accounts. These allow pre-tax dollars to be set aside for any medical or health expense not reimbursed by insurance. The downsides: they require more paper handling by both consumers and insurance companies, and some discourage preventive care.
States such as Massachusetts have moved to require insurance coverage, with a government subsidy to those who cannot afford it. While it does not result in universal coverage, it has cut the numbers of uninsured by nearly two-thirds.
When you add up all the co-pays, premiums, deductibles, etc., even those with insurance often pay the full cost of the medical care. There is little downward pressure on medical expenses.
Allowing the poor to buy into Medicaid, Medicare, or SCHIP has become controversial even tho it seems very direct and logical. This proposal came from a plan studied by the National Coalition on Healthcare. Consumers pay in according to a sliding scale, with subsidies for the poor.
Everyone gets covered. The monetary savings can be significant. NCHC says in the first decade health care savings would total $320.5 billion; businesses that now provide health insurance would save $848 billion, and families who currently buy insurance would save $309 billion.
Since the end of the 1960s, the number of doctors in France increased from 60,000 to more than 185,000 at the beginning of the 21st century. There are three doctors for every 1,000 habitants, which is a superior ratio when compared to other Western nations (Great Britain 3:1800, USA 3:2700, Germany 3:3400 and Italy 3:5900).
A sector of the French healthcare system consists of not-for-profit private hospitals. Private hospitals were originally denominational and provide 14% of the inpatient services among French Medical Care Institutions. They are financed through endowments like public hospitals, but they still have the right to privacy like private clinics.
A positive feature of the French healthcare system is the cooperation between the public and private sector. The long waiting lists for surgery that everyone associates with socialized medicine are avoided here. Indeed, private medical care in France provides more than 50% of surgeries.
Yes Magazine has an online chart - http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1515
More specifics of the French plan is at FrenchEntree.com -- http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-health/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=197
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