The government doesn't have any control over the doctors, hospitals, or any other healcare providers once you leave base/post. That is the point of my post - it was fine when I was on a military installation, but once I left the medical coverage basically sucked ass.
Okay, I misunderstood. Are you saying that the off-base healthcare coverage you had worked more-or-less like private health insurance? That you went to "any" doctor and the government reimbursed either them or you? Or did the government pay for Blue Cross or Aetna or some other private insurance plan?
What was wrong with the coverage? Not enough doctors in the network? Poor reimbursement levels?
It was cumbersome and almost non-existant. I had to go to the ER once because it felt like I destroyed my knee when I was at school - couldn't put any weight on it at all and you wouldn't believe how badly it hurt. The ER took my insurance (CHAMPUS), gave me x-rays and said they couldn't see anything wrong with it and that was the limit of what they could do. Nevermind the fact that there was obviously something wrong based on the swelling, bruising, etc. They couldn't even give me a prescription for pain killers or crutches. I think the bill was around $400 for what was basically just a set of useless x-rays.
It was easier to drive the 2+ hours down to Luke AFB for healthcare than it was to use the insurance outside a military installation.
As I understand it, that is exactly what the national healthcare plan is looking at.
Without understanding your complaint better, I can't comment well. However, I think you said you have private insurance now from your employer. You won't be affected.
That said, when you were off base, would you rather have had the healthcare plan the government provided you, or nothing at all?
I'm not sure you can say people won't be affected. At the very least the service has to be paid somehow (until it becomes self-sustaining like they claim). Does that mean higher taxes or other pots of money get raided? Will that system end up cannibalizing private insurance that can't compete based on cost alone? In a time when companies are raiding pension funds, freezing 401k contributions, etc are they going to start dropping private insurance for the national system to save more money? I think it has the potential to affect a lot of people that at first glance you wouldn't think it would.
However, based on my previous experience with government sponsored insurance, I don't have very high hopes for whatever it evolves into.
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