HCCD Report Idaho 83467

III. Questions

1. Briefly, from your own experience, what do you perceive is the biggest problem in the health system?

Exactly what I just read in this Participant Guide.

Health System is too complex.  Duplication and administration make applying for health care difficult.

Some people are not insured.

I have Medicaid and Medicare.  I have to go to an emergency room to get help that follows through to help me.

Some people have not health insurance now.  Health insurance is a right, like education is a right.

When children leave the health care that their parents carry for them, they cannot get healthcare. 

Health care is tied to employer now.  It should not be.

Moral problem with health care.  Capitalism and free market as we have now is not working.  We need a system that helps everybody.

We don’t have choice of doctors or hospitals now, with many insurance providers.  Choice would not be lost with a system that covers everybody.

Malpractice suits drive up our cost of health insurance.  A panel should decide the merits of a malpractice case and the appropriate action.  Malpractice should not be in the courts.

Medical student cannot afford to NOT specialize.  This limits the number of general practitioners.  That is why many people don’t’ have health care now, 

The ever increasing costs. Not only are we supporting doctors, hospitals, etc., but we are also now supporting a huge medical insurance industry. The insurance industry adds nothing to the quality of health care.

I choose the one hospital in town.

2. How do you choose a doctor or hospital? What are your sources of information? How should public policy promote quality health care providers?

Our choice of doctor or hospital is limited now.  In this isolated town of Salmon, Idaho, many doctors cannot afford to be here.  We don’t have enough general practitioners.

Public policy should help doctors starting out.  If a doctor serves as general practitioner in a place that needs a doctor, some of that doctor’s medical school debt should be erased; for more years, more debt erased.

Public policy should help a patient choose. 

We choose hospitals by their location, unless we were to hear too much bad information about one, but that has never happened. Doctors we also select partially by location, but also recommendations of people we know and our personal experience. We have stopped going to certain doctors because we didn’t feel we were getting quality care. There should be some sort of national data base where patients could go to leave and read feedback about doctors and hospitals.

Recommendation from friends.

3. Have you or your family members ever experienced difficulty paying medical bills? What do you think policy makers can do to address this problem?

We live with some unpaid medical bills all the time and pay them as we are able. In the past, physicians and hospitals seemed happy just to get some payment each month, but now medical providers are resorting to bill collecting agencies or contractors, and we think this has added to everyone’s costs.

Yes, I have jacked-up fees that I contested with our local hospital.  I wrote to our newspaper too.

4. In addition to employer-based coverage, would you like the option to purchase a private plan through an insurance-exchange or a public plan like Medicare?

Yes. 

We are no longer sure that employer-based health insurance is the right way to go. People are changing jobs more frequently than in the past. Also, many are making career choices based on health care coverage which can keep them in jobs where they are less productive or just less suited. This reduces our country’s overall job performance and efficiency. We feel than one national plan based upon what some of the European countries are doing would be better. We should look at the existing national plans and pick the best parts of each.

5. Do you know how much you or your employer pays for health insurance? What should an employer’s role be in a reformed health care system?

We pay about a fourth and the employer pays three-fourths.

Somewhere near $100/month.

I pay $610 for Blue Cross; Employer pays $3942.70.

6.      Below are examples of the types of preventive services Americans should receive. Have you gotten the prevention you should have? If not, how can public policy help?

Make preventive care free. 

I had to pay for my mammography, even though I have health insurance.

I pay $610.80 and employer pays $610.80

7.      How can public policy promote healthier lifestyles?

Education system of lunch and physical education should provide for healthy lifestyle.

Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture should work together to create policy that fosters healthy lifestyle.

Government should stop subsidizing corn.

Rehab for alcohol and drugs should me treatment, not prision.

Cost of end-of-life care is much too high.

I got no flu shot.  Is this important?