[speaker001:] so national health care I don't know about you but for me I am voting for the next democrat for the president that says he is going to do something about a national health care program
[speaker002:] yeah I uh I basically agree uh I have mixed feelings I guess there are some uh somehow there needs to be some controls on the rising costs of of health care
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I myself uh I haven't worked for three years because of some medical problems and uh if I had not had insurance with the company I worked with at the time I believe I would have died and that worries me thinking cause I know a lot of people that don't have any coverage at all
[speaker002:] yeah yeah if you if you don't have a very good paying job or you are not with a company that provides it it is uh pretty much unaffordable uh to pay for it on your own
[speaker001:] yeah well I I think that paying for it on your own it is like in my case I am up to about two hundred thousand dollars worth of health care I don't think that would have been possible for the majority of the people in this world
[speaker002:] yeah that is right
[speaker001:] so but then again there is uh the high cost of medical care is out unreal
[speaker002:] yeah I have a friend who uh uh is from uh lived at lived in London or lived in London and he lives here now where they do have medical uh health care uh there and I guess I guess there is some disadvantages too I guess uh uh because of that they there has been a great uh migration of of doctors from there over to more lucrative practices and sometimes I guess it does effect the quality of health care somewhat so
[speaker001:] uh-huh well I think somewhere along the line whatever plan they come up with it is going to have to keep the doctors in a high paying field
[speaker002:] I yeah
[speaker001:] uh I myself have a son who hopes to be a doctor in a couple three more years and uh he is doing it for the money
[speaker002:] yeah yeah they don't have I think they don't get into it for any other reason
[speaker001:] so yeah
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] but he agrees with me though that there should be something worked out for the people that can't afford it
[speaker002:] yes uh I uh agree too and also the uh the elderly a lot of times when they uh reach retirement uh they can't afford any any supplemental insurance beyond what is provided through Medicare and Medicaid and sometimes that is not enough to to cover the costs
[speaker001:] right yeah I found out yeah I uh my mother is on Medicare Medicaid whatever and uh I know it doesn't pay all of her medical hospital bills and so forth
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and I think it is kind of a shame that at this point in her life she still has to pay quite a bit whenever she is in the hospital several thousand for a weeks stay if she ends up having to pay
[speaker002:] yeah yeah particularly for people who are on uh on on just living mostly on social security or something like that they don't have enough extra money to pay for that
[speaker001:] uh-huh I know one uh not this Christmas but the Christmas before she was out here and we were out at Smithville which is a little town out east of here and we had to take her to the hospital on a Sunday afternoon for a back problem uh fairly minor she just strained it sprained it but when the bills starting coming in she had already gone home so I got a chance to look at them and I was shocked I mean I have been through a lot
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I mean with medical bills but when I saw what they did to her that day and it cost about three thousand dollars just to uh get a prescription for some pain pills basically
[speaker002:] yeah yeah uh in I guess in addition to uh uh national health care policy there uh there has to be some sort of monitoring I guess too of the overall medical field and hospital costs and and
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] well that doesn't happen I it is weird I was in the hospital for like eight days back in October uh so many mistakes were made during my time there that I uh literally left the hospital in a taxi cab just to get away from the place I was scared as to what they were going to do to me next
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] and when I got the bill it was outrageous uh pills that I had never heard of that I had taken which I know that I didn't I mean I wasn't ill I was just in for some routine stuff and it goes on and on
[speaker002:] yeah yeah I am afraid right now there is a lot of I guess you would have to call it just basic fraud in the in in the business cause they know they can turn a lot of these things in and they are not questioned at all
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] uh I don't know which one of the uh democratic candidates either either Kerrey or Clinton I guess one of those two I can't remember which is pretty much in favor of some sort of
[speaker001:] I think Kerrey is and I think also Jerry Brown from California are interested uh actually the way Bush has been going the last few weeks I think he may be interested uh he he seem to be
[speaker002:] yeah well he's he's probably campaigning I don't know how serious he is but
[speaker001:] yeah uh yeah up until just recently I I would have thought Bush would uh you know I still he has done a pretty good job