[speaker001:] uh national health insurance I think is a problem in as much as the quality of health care that people will receive
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] yeah because uh the articles that I've read regarding national health service in Canada and England has indicated that uh what stay stay in line for uh four hours to get an aspirin from a doctor
[speaker002:] right yeah I'm I'm sort of mixed on this I think that the the answer may lie in uh not in so much a uh national kind of medical thing that like like England has but more of a um national insurance uh sort of clearinghouse or whatever I think that uh too many the problem with with right now is that we've got too many different health insurances that people have to go through and and I think that I think you you mentioned Canada I think that they have a system where uh they the government deals with the with I mean you you go to whoever you want but file through one one's particular uh setup and that way
[speaker001:] um I see
[speaker002:] they they are able to reduce prices because they've you know it's it's all one one centralized thing
[speaker001:] yeah like I think that uh again having gone through a period when I was out of work and had to buy health insurance on my own if you don't have a company supporting you in the uh picking up the major portion of your health insurance the cost is
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] almost prohibitive
[speaker002:] right uh I I was listening uh on the radio the other day and they were talking something something something like this I think they were talking about the fact that um the money that could be saved um in administrative costs and so forth nationwide by consolidating into sort of a national insurance provider um could uh could they could make they could it I I provide health insurance to to people who couldn't afford it just by the money they would save
[speaker001:] yeah uh we're currently where I'm working now under Blue Cross I don't know what the total cost of the program is but for dependent coverage I'm paying a hundred and seventy dollars a a month or something like that so I assume that probably the total coverage cost is probably three fifty to four hundred they're probably picking up about half of it and that's a pretty good policy
[speaker002:] right  right
[speaker001:] but if you had something like one of these uh health maintenance programs or one of whatever the type name is HMO uh where the
[speaker002:] yeah HMO
[speaker001:] uh where you go to the doctor and it only costs you ten dollars and the insurance picks up the rest if you tried to buy something like that I'm probable it would probably be five or six hundred dollars a month
[speaker002:] yeah is they're they're fairly expensive I I um
[speaker001:] for just the cost of something
[speaker002:] I had was on an HMO up until last year and uh through through work and it was
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I forget how much I paid a month but it was much you know is at least twice if not more expensive than the regular health care
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and uh the reason I I quite was because of uh not because I didn't like it I I really kind of did uh the reason I quite was just because the the doctor a a certain doctor that we enjoyed enjoyed going to was no longer associated with that HMO so we my wife decided she wanted to to stay with that doctor so we went to the to the
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] the medical insurance that we have at here at work and uh I uh
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I like the I like the convenience of the HMO in in a certain respect because it uh even though you're once you find the doctor that you like it's not a problem you know a lot of people complain saying well I don't want to uh be have to be told who I need to go to but you know if you don't have a doctor anyway normally it doesn't really make much difference
[speaker001:] yeah that's right
[speaker002:] because you can you know if if you find someone you really like and then we did find several good doctors and um like you say it's uh five dollars an office visit and um my wife was in the hospital had our had our daughter and I think her total bill was around three hundred dollars
[speaker001:] oh goodness
[speaker002:] for everything uh that included uh you know the doctors the time the hospital everything
[speaker001:] delivery room and everything
[speaker002:] delivery room and everything include including a private room because there was a little extra that she had to pay but that was that was still included in that price that cost so it's really nice because they
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] you know their their attitude is different than than a regular uh insurance uh health insurance uh the in in a HMO you know they're trying to prevent a problem by by keeping the cost down at the front end
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] you know and have you come in you know they they charge five dollars a
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] you know pop you're more willing to go in and try to take care of a problem before it grows big
[speaker001:] yeah as to a company's benefit to have a program like that because it keeps their employees healthy and on the job
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] because they don't have to worry about going in and and paying uh seventy five dollars to have the doctor look at you for ten minutes
[speaker002:] right yeah I I uh I I really liked it we both my wife and I both did you you don't have to worry about filling out forms uh you know for reimbursement and all or you know getting paid eight percent of of whatever you just pay the the five dollars right then and then you're done with it
[speaker001:] yeah but here again the the doctor's practices in hospitals have gone become fairly sizeable businesses under themselves now uh you take a hospital uh the physical plant itself you have to pay your share of the operating of that
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] eight story building uh when the rooms are empty so they spread the costs out over uh all the patient costs and uh that's how you come up with aspirin that costs four dollars apiece and things like that
[speaker002:] right right
[speaker001:] the horror stories that you hear about people going into the hospital for a week and uh it being a four thousand dollar bill
[speaker002:] well they and then again they're also they're taking up the cost of people who can't pay you know they they get a lot of uh
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] a lot of uh people who are just just have to be there and can't afford it and so they they know they're not going to get paid you know get money from them so they
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] will have to absorb it somewhere else
[speaker001:] yeah my daughter and son-in-law had a baby here about uh what he he'll be three in August and uh their insurance plan that they're under
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] encourages you to shorten your stay in the hospital
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and like she went in she had the baby and she was out in two days time
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and it was treated almost like it was an outpatient visit to the hospital the deductibles didn't apply
[speaker002:] right rig ht
[speaker001:] and so that's one way one way the insurance companies are trying to hold costs down is by uh okay if you'll shorten your stay then we will uh waive the deductible
[speaker002:] right our our insurance is uh is doing something similar where they're also going to more