LJWorld.com

For example, healthcare in America. Or more specifically, how we pay for healthcare.

I always had medical insurance since it was rather mandatory in the 60's too. However, the first was Blue Cross Blue Shield and it covered only pregnancy care and hospital care. If I went to the doctor or took my children, the cost of the doctor, the immunizations, and any prescriptions were mine to pay. However, usually if you needed an antibiotic, a shot was administered. $5 for the doctor, $10 if you needed a shot. I remember when it went to $10 for the office visit. The insurance cost me was $40 a month and that was a good price.

When insurance started paying office visits, it cost at least $40 and I had to pay the $5 or $10 anyway. I began to take blood pressure drugs in the late 70's and my insurance covered part cost.

And then came preferred providers. The doctor charged $80 or $100, but the insurance only paid $40 still and I still paid $5 or $10. Anyone unfortunate enough to not have insurance had to pay the full price. That was when the price began to be different for different people. AND if I did not use the right doctor, it was costly for me too. They got me in line in a hurry and I even changed from the doctor I had loved and used for years. I went out of town if I went to the hospital since the closest was not in the system.

The healthcare ball game had changed as insurance took over the health care system. Eventually doctors had to hire a person to just handle the paperwork all this insurance stuff required. This was added to my healthcare cost in addition to the premium costs.

Children began to receive liquid penincillin around the 70's. We had to go to the pharmacy to get it. It was very inexpensive. We still used Vick's salve and steam for coughing. Sometimes they gave something for cough. For flu you either got better or went to the hospital because you became too sick to stay home.

When I was pregnant the first time, my husband lost his job so we sold furniture to pay for our insurance so we would not have the hospital bill when our son was born. If we had paid it all except the last month, too bad. That is the same today. We needed healthcare more than we needed a couch. Fortunately, he found a job soon and so we had healthcare again through the employer even though we had to pay for it ourselves. And then bought a new couch.

My great grandmother had high blood pressure and she was not allowed to eat salt. Her food had to be specially cooked and many foods had to be avoided. I also had a problem with salt while pregnant and even had to cook my own biscuits since I was on a total no salt diet.

These things are almost unheard of today. We expect a pill to take care of that salt problem. I know I do since there are pills that do it for us.

My aunt had an arrythmia heart problem and I inherited it. She was never treated for it while I take a very expensive medicine for it. I'm still living, but with a dollar cost. She had a stroke and had to be cared for.

To get these medicines I have to go to the doctor periodically. More often than I would like. I also have to have many tests the doctor orders not only to see how I am doing, but what the medicines may be doing to me.

The main reason I went to a doctor when I was a child was because I had an accident that needed stitches or such. I also had all my shots before I started school, but we did not go for checkups,,,just if we got sick. There were clinics for people who did not have the money to pay for shots and accidents.

Yes, times have changed. Based on all this, what do you think is the best way for America to handle healthcare costs today? There are now many people who do not have health insurance and they go to the costly emergency rooms for what should be done in clinics or a doctor's office. Most places do not have clinics like that anymore so for many there is no choice. Taking free care no longer has the stigma it had back then.

Would it be better to just allow people to live as long as they are healthy and then just die? What should we do about things like appendix attacks that need surgery? Should people be allowed to get free care? If no insurance, do we just let them die? The children too?

Should we stop paying for people when they have terminal cancer? Maybe just pay for morphine? Or do we start to allow mercy killing so they don't suffer?

If we go back in history not so long ago, before my time, but 50 or so years, a doctor would deliver a baby for a chicken or whatever the person could give. Otherwise the woman died in childbirth and left children without a mother. Was this better than paying for her if she was not able to pay?

I have always worked at jobs that provided healthcare and I was able to have this even as it became more expensive and healthcare became more a part of my life. My employer paid most of the costs since about the 80's. This was a very short lived period of time, but for may living today it is the only time they remember.

Today as I am older, health and the cost is a large part of my life and a large chunk of change out of my budget. My costs are now about $6600 a year. I no longer track what it costs the taxpayer for their part, but it is more than I pay, I know. I also receive social security which is also paid by the taxpayer.

Without our pills today, I might have already have died or at the very least been in a nursing home, but if so, not for the number of years people are now spending in nursing homes...much of that at the taxpayer expense too.

Do we have the best healthcare and insurance system in the world? Is it worth the cost? Are you angry you have to pay for mine and yours too? How in the world do we get something for nothing for everybody?

One political party says yes,. Give it to all if they cannot afford to pay. If you can afford, you have to pay. The other says, die or go to the emergency room and we still will pay for it, but we won't talk about that part of it. Is there a better way? Now that this is happening to more middle class people and not just the poor, have we changed our minds about how we feel?

Other countries have chosen their own way to cover their people. Their people seem to like it mostly even with it's flaws since everyone is covered to a degree. If you have money, of course, health care costs are not the problem. It is only a problem for the middle class and the poor. Our country chose to cover the poor a long time ago leaving the middle class on it's own. We did fine for many years. No more.

Yes, things have changed. And I guess we can't go back. But how do we go forward? It seems most have an opinion, but think about this putting yourself in the worst case scenario. Are you ready to die or allow your child to die for your beliefs? Do you prefer I die?

I would appreciate it if you do not say what any politician says. How do you feel without politics involved?