I was in hospital for 5 days and was turned loose with at home aftercare in the form of weekly visits by physiotherapists (to confirm I was doing my exercises and progressing), as well as twice a week visits by a nurse to take blood samples (I was on a blood thinner). I ws provided with a walker, but had to buy my own cane.

The whole thing went very well and I have made excellent progress under our universal system (I live in Ontario). I do have complaints though. I was without a doctor for over a year, and had to use a walk-in clinic. My GP left priate care to become a “hospitalist” where he could still make a large income and only work 40 hours a week, with no overhead or staff to worry about. We do not have enough nurse-practioners who can relieve the GP of much of the dealing with colds, low grade infections, physicals, annual check-ups and preliminary examinations.

I chronicle my whyole knee replacement in my blog, for those interested. It outlines the treatment I received, and my recovery.
http://www.totalkr.blogspot.com

I have been diabetic for 40 years or so and have received excellent treatment Since 2000 I have had treatment (surgery and radiation) for breast cancer (with continued follow-up amd medication), a bilateral total knee replacement (I continue to tapdance, hike, and garden), and carpel tunnel surgery on both hands (I was at a point where I couldn’t even hold a pen to write…all is well now).

I see a diabetes specialist every 6 months and can call her and fax my meter readings at any time I feel the need. I just started with their cholesterol clinic. They have me tested at 3 month intervals and my new medication is working very well.

If it weren’t for Kaiser’s wonderful doctors I wouldn’t be living the very full life I do now. Instead of traveling, volunteering for the Red Cross and the Sierra Club’s Inner City outings program, and helping my husband build a log home, I would probably be an invalid…or dead!

Oh but only if you have an open mind. Even those who went with us and were not Michael Moore fans, were by the end of the night!

Reggie Cervantes
WTC Survivor Rescue Worker
ClipedWingAngel yahoo com

Most any system would be better than that.

1) I went to the ER
2) On a Thursday-Saturday night
3) With a problem that was not even close to being life-threatening

Otherwise, everything has been awesome!

Thank you for making the comparison to open source!!

The US right-wing’s loud screaming that altruism is immoral (WTF???) FAILS to explain why wikipedia or the internet itself exists. People contribute for free because humans WANT to contribute to the common good for everybody… Hel-LLO!!!

There’s legislation pending to make it easier for small businesses to form groups– pushed particularly by the National Association of Realtors, because the bulk of its members are single-person businesses. Even “Dubya” supports the bill. But it’s stalled in Congress. Apparently Dems are more likely to oppose it than Repubs. Go figure. So singles and couples in business (like us) are left to the whims of the insurance companies.

My only criticism would be that the greedy corruption of the health care corporations is not more directly pointed out. When he asks “Who pays for all this?” it would have been a perfect segue to show that our premiums and co-pays largely feed into the obscene profit margins of the corps., instead of into health care. I also wish he had pointed out how Medicare, although not perfect, IS a much better system than the corporate run systems.

Next week instead of seeing patients as a physical therapist I will be working in the office, on the phone with insurance companies, requesting benefits and authorizations from them for my home health agency’s patients. It is almost a full time job as they often make the health care provider run a gauntlet of steps and complicated formulas and lots of time on hold in order to secure covered visits for patients, even with doctor’s orders and clear medical need.

On top of that, our agency is a non-profit agency and if it weren’t for Medicare, we would go out of business with the mostly below real cost of care reimbursements the insurance companies pay us. We only take insurance patients (vs. Medicare patients) because of their need and to maintain good relations with the doctors of those patients. But they are losses as far as our business aspect goes.

Linda