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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (130064)	2/4/2010 12:00:22 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541777

Dumbing down! I live in a very progressive and very rich state, I sure don't want the health care offered to Arkansas. How do you get around that? . Except it isn't dumbing down. There is some very good health care in states that aren't "very progressive", but that isn't even really the point. If Arkansas became one of the more popular states for chartering health care insurance for the rest of the country, that would only mean that people would be able to buy insurance that met its requirements, they wouldn't force more gold plated coverage, on people who want insurance but don't want to pay for all those requirements. But the insurance companies would still be willing, even eager, to sell you more extensive coverage if you want to pay for it, so you can get your coverage as gold plated as you want it to be.

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (130064)	2/4/2010 2:51:07 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541777

Steve, I'm not offended, but I think you may be confusing cost of living with standard of living.....and cost of healthcare with standard of healthcare. I most likely pay less for my healthcare because hospital rates and doc visits, etc. are lower than yours. A function of these lower costs is that my health insurance premiums are probably lower by a corresponding percentage. But my assumption has always been that, up to a point, the quality of my healthcare is the same here as anywhere else in the country. And when a person needs a higher quality of care, or needs a doc/treatment that simply is not available in my area, that person is free to go elsewhere and their insurance covers it. In this small town area, almost without exception, everyone I've know who got cancer went somewhere else for the treatment and surgery....usually M.D. Anderson in Houston. Sometimes the chemotherapy was administered by local oncologists under the direction of a doctor in Houston, but the radiation and surgery part of the program was done in Houston. I knew a person who had cancer of the eye and went to Sloan-Kettering. I've known a couple of people who had heart surgery at Johns Hopkins...not sure why. All of these examples, inc. the cancer victims I've known, were pre-Medicare age so were on private insurance plans. Small town residents frequently have to go out of town for treatments of lots of things. That just goes with living in a small town. My impression has always been that once someone knew they had to leave home, they headed for the prominent, high-dollar docs and hospitals. My assumption has always been that their insurance paid for it with no problems since I've never heard complaints. My point is simply that I'm curious how this meshes with state regulated insurance policies and the fact that premiums vary from state to state. Maybe Tim or Lane have some answers too.