Hellobee Boards

I think it's ridiculously accurate. Healthcare in our country is costly. I don't know what the right solution is but I know we need change. Too many people use ERs and hospitals as doctors offices. Too many people ignore routine care and issues aren't caught.

Honestly I think ads like this are counterproductive. I think it's definitely an accurate representation, and it's an issue that needs to be fixed. However, by calling it "The Republican Health Care Bill" they just encourage more people to dig in their heels and not listen to the other side, and ignore straight up facts for the sake of protecting their own "team", thus, making it impossible to come up with a good solution.

republican that does care about healthcare, sick people and a workable solution. But like I said I don't know what the solution is. I know as a society we need some behavior changes and attitude changes regarding healthcare. The thread from today about what a pediatrician charges for well visits displays some of the attitudes and changes I believe are necessary. The hmo world so many of were raised in created a lot of poor consumer behaviors. Now we are heading toward a HDHP world and people are becoming better consumers but we still need to fix the system overall.

@Adira: oh I care about small government too but I think we can find a balance between smaller government and better healthcare. I do believe some of better healthcare comes from better use of healthcare services by all of us.

@MamaG: I totally agree that we need to change consumer behaviors. However, they also need to be given correct and easily understood information on which to base their behavior, which is a real issue. I have a friend dealing with fertility treatment coverage right now and it seems every time she calls her insurance company, she gets a different answer. How can she make informed choices if the customer service reps at her provider can't even give her correct information? I work in financial planning so my area of work gives me at least a slight bit more familiarity with insurance than the general public, and I consider myself to be a relatively smart person, and yet, I delegate ALL of our health insurance stuff to my husband because he is more patient and takes the time to fight our providers and insurance company when something is billed incorrectly (which it seems like it ALWAYS is). If two smart, successful, college educated people like my husband and I have such a hard time with this, how is someone who doesn't have a GED supposed to navigate this confusing world in order to be a good consumer?

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I think the people in that ad can be any of us, even those of us with insurance. Given the fact that the costs are the costs (meaning, you can't really shop around to get the best price for care when you're ill), I truly believe that in this country, everyone except the 1% is just one tragic illness away from financial ruin.

It is really difficult for me to rally behind lawmakers that don't have these kinds of worries...how can they possibly understand when they have the gold standard of benefits?

@ShootingStar: we have become accustomed to the relatively small copay without regard for the full cost of a service. We also haven't needed to shop around for better pricing on services.

@MamaG: What types of services are you referring to? Just curious, because I know I mostly just go to my primary care for physicals or follow-ups. And if I need to see a specialist, they usually refer me to someone (or an office) in particular. I don't recall ever having a situation where "shopping around" would apply. But maybe you're referring to services I don't use.