The Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! campaign has been ready to help people communicate to their U.S. Representatives (and optionally others) since late 2007.
Broader implementation. I invite my fellow Americans to join me for the full-blown strategy, which is to first educate citizens to prepare for the change, answer all of their questions and comments, and then ask those citizens to get reminders to do the communications. If any questions, please contact me.
- Bob
4 comments:
Does HR676 have to include all in the US? It seems that we would have many people coming here as visitors or illegals to get healthcare. I think maybe HR676 should be only for citizens.
Multiple answers here:
TRAVELERS ----------
-- Unfortunately, I haven't kept a log of the number of conversations and the details of the experiences of U.S. travelers (business and pleasure) who've had some degree of health care needs in other countries, but here is what I recall off the top of my head, as they say:
A -- A relative of my wife was in England for two weeks feeling quite ill, and he didn’t know what to make of it. The hotel owner suggested that he go to the hospital. They ran tests on him from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and used medical professionals’ time getting consultation, at least before and after the testing. He then asked where he should pay. The doctor replied: “Sir, you don’t understand. You don’t pay. I pay.” In other words, everyone in the society pays a little, and everyone in the country benefits a lot.
B - I met a young college student in Chicago in 2007 who said that she had a dental emergency in Israel. They worked on her all day, and then told her she was all set.
C - I was on business in southern Germany and had a medical emergency regarding my eye; there was no mention of billing. I got care, then I left.
D - My family of four was visiting in northern Germany. Our 3 year old son was bitten at the jaw by a dog much bigger than he was. He got care, then we left.
EPIDEMICS ----------
The only way to best get through an epidemic or pandemic is to treat everyone, and not exclude people.
ILLEGAL ALIENTS ----------
Just this morning I heard a caller ask about this on c-span, and I realized (finally) that the problem of illegal aliens is mainly that: how to handle the problem of illegal aliens, who probably use all kinds of our services, whether it is fire protection or education or whatever.
GENERAL CONCERN ABOUT PEOPLE COMING HERE, SUCH AS FOR OPERATIONS ----------
I am uncertain of how to answer this one. I made a note of it, but I probably won't research it immediately. I have extreme doubts that it's a problem in any country. Even if the U.S. became some kind of a target for this, it would be manageable. After all, if someone walked in with a passport for their ID and said that they wanted to be treated for some kind of cancer problem, they would be told to kindly get their (sweet self) out of our country.
(By the way --- Excellent question. As more and more people learn about what may be coming to the U.S. (non-profit financing of health care, hopefully the simplest and most efficient single-payer), I think it's critical that people be prepared for it.)
If I think of anything else in terms of a response, I'll post it.
Thanks for asking, Bob Haiducek
Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
MORE ABOUT TRAVELERS
I just saw this posted at change.org a few minutes ago ...
"A dr in Copenhagen, who I tried to pay for checking a badly sprained ankle, said, "You Americans just dont get it, do you?" Lets show that we do...we can have a less class based , more affluent, more caring society, too."
If all this information helps, please consider getting reminders to follow the
schedule.
to Anonymous -- January 8, 2009 9:01 PM
I look back at the comments I made about travelers to other countries and other situations, I see that I could add more, as follows:
More on Illegals, Residents, and Travelers
1. If someone takes your concern to the ultimate they would worry that someone is going to come to the U.S. with a horrible bout of pancreatic cancer (as illegal person or as a traveler), as just one of many examples. I am comfortable that the U.S. would certainly not have the person stay here and get treated for weeks or months for some expensive attention regarding health care.
2. The definition of who is a resident will certainly need to be defined. That need is now included in the updated version of HR676 as submitted to the 111th session of the U.S. Congress.
3. If someone was clearly here as a visitor and had an emergency, then some kind of provisions for support are warranted. Refer to the few examples I documented on January 8 for that topic. If other countries can care about emergencies, then we can, whether it's done for no cost or a partial cost.
-- Bob
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