So, my daughter, who is 24 and she is a full time student has her health insurance through her school. it happens to be Aetna.
She had a small accident that ended up being an ACL (knee) and she went to the hospital in NY city where she goes to School… big surprise, after a couple of hours waiting ( well that is ok, it was the ER and hers was not a life threatening problem), doctor comes in, she get the usual questions and for my surprise, no X-rays or MRI, when I ask, he says, we can not order this because the insurance company wont pay for it, it has to go to a specialist, then he may order it, but it is not easy, typically the insurance companies want at least a 3 month period for this type of injures, then if you don’t get better, order and MRI, it is too expensive to do it for everybody.

So my recommendation to her is, go to Massachusetts, Boston is the city where she grew up, and where all her doctors are, plus they have universal health care. She went there, she got an appointment with her doctor, then specialist and MRI same day !!!

So when people ask me if I am in favor or not of a government run system, my answer is always the same : i don’t care who runs it, as long as it is universal and it is not done for profit. Being int he hands of private bureaucracies or government ones, I prefer the latter. Private corporations are driven by greed, who do you think took the decision that my daughter had to wait several weeks to have a MRI taken ? a Doctor or a management person ? yes, you probably are right guessing as I , that it is a “policy” issued by management, not by doctors. Government bureaucracy is not moved by greed, you may even get a person that understands that you are not feeling ok and that you want immediate attention to your problem with the best medicine and technology available. Government policies tend to be based on human concerns and not on cash concerns…

Single insurance for all ? tell me who has chosen their own insurer working fro any company ? what happens is my daughter has to stick with whatever insurance company her college decided, not the one she wanted, so come on… let’s be clear, more than 50% of US citizens, employed and paying a health care plan through the company they work for have NO choice on their insurer, it is chosen based on financial considerations, not on freedom of employees…

So, who do prefer ?