[speaker001:] okay well what do you think about the government providing health insurance for everybody I think they should I know I had a job until let's see a year ago this past December I was working for PIE and they closed and naturally while I was working for them I had health insurance but um for me to try to get it now uh it would cost me like over three hundred dollars a month with the same company that was providing health insurance at at pie
[speaker002:] good grief that's just almost unaffordable isn't it
[speaker001:] right it really is and I think you know I think the God the government should come up with some kind of a health plan or stop these doctors and hospitals from having their prices so high
[speaker002:] well I wonder if they couldn't just provide uh interim health insurance for people who are between jobs like that that might be a step in the right direction I don't know
[speaker001:] well the thing is you know jobs are so hard to find you know and then what you can get out here in anyhow in the valley where I live at now they don't wanna pay anything for health insurance at all
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] no benefits you know um yes I mean you get a job now and
[speaker002:] you mean the uh the employers uh-huh
[speaker001:] the wages are really low and uh
[speaker002:] because everybody's competing for jobs
[speaker001:] yeah and they don't want uh to pay any benefits so you just you know pray to God that you don't get sick
[speaker002:] well I used to think that universal health insurance was probably the right thing to do I I have to think about it some more now because my doctor is uh actually he's Canadian
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh he told me that there're a lot of uh lot of counts against the Canadian system which is basically the one people are talking about for here I don't understand the arguments exactly he says it restricts your choice
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] of doctors and and so forth I'm not quite sure I understand why government health insurance would restrict your choice any more than private insurance does
[speaker001:] no I don't understand that either
[speaker002:] I mean we're on a private insurance plan right now uh actually uh I have my own business and and we uh our health insurance is through my wife's employer
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh and every year we get another list of what doctor's we can go to and where we can buy or medicine and and uh it changes every year it's always so confusing so uh
[speaker001:] yeah well I know the plan that I had with PIE I could go to any doctor and I could go to any drug store and get my prescriptions filled you know then I just sent cards in and then
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] they would have like a ten dollar deductible per year for my medicine and then they would just send me a check for what was ever over that you know
[speaker002:] well yeah of course the restricted choice in this case is because only certain doctors agree to accept the uh the limits of uh compensation but of course that is restricted choice so
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] I don't think that the restricted choice really uh has to do with the difference between uh public and private health insurance I think it has to do with the the the uh attempt to limit cost doesn't it and uh everybody agrees that we need to limit cost some way so
[speaker001:] uh yeah that's true that's true there
[speaker002:] well um I guess the most sensible thing I've heard about this is they they say people are trying you you you have to recognize that if you're going to
[speaker001:] well
[speaker002:] have the very best health care possible and uh available on demand whenever and wherever you want it then it's gonna be expensive
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] and if you wanna pay less then you're gonna have to settle for a health system that is not quite that uh lavish
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh
[speaker001:] but there's just so many people that can't afford to pay anything you know that people that's on unemployment
[speaker002:] yeah well what happened to Reagan's safety net anyway did he take that back to California with him
[speaker001:] I don't know
[speaker002:] using it for a trampoline now
[speaker001:] yeah probably so I don't know but it is it does seem to be a big problem you know I don't know what they're gonna come up with but um I sure wish they would come up with with something and uh like I say and and I'm at the age too where the I'll be fifty seven in June and the people don't wanna hire people this age any more and I worked for my previous company for twenty six years you know so it's kind of hard you know so
[speaker002:] yeah they'll be needing you in a couple of years because they're running out of kids down there at the other end and uh
[speaker001:] yeah they'll be calling at my door huh but any how
[speaker002:] well if they're smart
[speaker001:] yeah now I I do think the government though is gonna have to do something uh with this problem because it you you know even to go to a little doctor out here just to ask him anything costs you forty bucks
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] you know just for the visit and then he then that's not counting what medicine you're gonna buy and everything else you know and he might tell you well you know now you're gonna have to come back in a week and then that's another forty bucks plus whatever else he decides to do to you
[speaker002:] right