Universal Health Care: Good Idea or Bad? - Page 6

jennycassada · 02-23-2008, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mama2mygirls

Wow--that is the same reason I'm for universal health care...because the military is essentially socialized health care, and I've had a wonderful experience. Never paid a dime for either c-section, any visits or prescriptions, etc. and have had wonderful doctors and nurses, etc. If we need a sick visit, I call in the morning and can almost always get in same day. (There was one time where I called after noon and couldn't get in until the next morning.) I've only been at three bases, two with hospitals, one only with a clinic. At the one with only clinics and no hospital, we had to use an emergency room at the local hospital and it was horrible...long waits, etc. I had to get referrals to an ob/gyn through that base and it was a short turn around. The two bases with hospitals had emergency rooms that were much faster than the one non-AF one I experienced. I also choose who I see, as well as who my kids see within our clinics.

Like I said, I've only been to three bases so my experience is admittedly limited, but I've had a great experience with my AF health care. I'm sorry yours has been so bad and can certainly say that if mine was like yours, I would be against universal health care as well.

I've never paid for any of our services either and for that I'm grateful...please don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not complaining about that.

Since I've been married and used Tricare we've been on 3 different bases. Initially, I was Usually able to get same day visits. I say usually b/c there were times during cold and flu season I wasn't able to. Unfortunately, as more of our doctors and nurses are deployed the numbers in the clinics have gone down so much it's like pulling teeth to get to see a doctor. Lines open at 6:30 am. I will sit with the phone and start dialing at 6:28 (I'm not kidding here), not get through until 6:32, finally speak to someone at 6:35 and all the appt are gone for the day. They only make appt for that day so you have to go to the ER. The typical wait time at our ER is around 2-3 hours...we usually get out of there 8 hours after we arrive. The two times I've had to go to the hospital by my mom's house we were in and out within 2 hours...and they live right outside Houston.

It took me almost 6 months to get a prescription figured out b/c the PA they assigned me to could never see me. As for being able to pick our own doctors...never heard of anyone being able to do that. You must have an awesome Tricare office there. I've had friends who've had problems with their kids doctors and were only able to change them after going through the patient advocate.

I'll be honest, you are the first person I've heard praise Tricare. Not one person I've come across has had an overall good experience with them. When I first started using Tricare I was still teaching and I only used standard. When I would put it down as a secondary insurance every doctor I went to would just roll their eyes..."ah, good old Tricare". Apparently they're difficult to work with. My point is, I just don't see the government being able to pull this off on such a large scale. They can't even get it right on our base. I'm glad you have no problems with them, though. At least I can say I've heard of one person pleased with them.

Mama2mygirls · 02-23-2008, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jennycassada

I've never paid for any of our services either and for that I'm grateful...please don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not complaining about that.

Since I've been married and used Tricare we've been on 3 different bases. Initially, I was Usually able to get same day visits. I say usually b/c there were times during cold and flu season I wasn't able to. Unfortunately, as more of our doctors and nurses are deployed the numbers in the clinics have gone down so much it's like pulling teeth to get to see a doctor. Lines open at 6:30 am. I will sit with the phone and start dialing at 6:28 (I'm not kidding here), not get through until 6:32, finally speak to someone at 6:35 and all the appt are gone for the day. They only make appt for that day so you have to go to the ER. The typical wait time at our ER is around 2-3 hours...we usually get out of there 8 hours after we arrive. The two times I've had to go to the hospital by my mom's house we were in and out within 2 hours...and they live right outside Houston.

It took me almost 6 months to get a prescription figured out b/c the PA they assigned me to could never see me. As for being able to pick our own doctors...never heard of anyone being able to do that. You must have an awesome Tricare office there. I've had friends who've had problems with their kids doctors and were only able to change them after going through the patient advocate.

I'll be honest, you are the first person I've heard praise Tricare. Not one person I've come across has had an overall good experience with them. When I first started using Tricare I was still teaching and I only used standard. When I would put it down as a secondary insurance every doctor I went to would just roll their eyes..."ah, good old Tricare". Apparently they're difficult to work with. My point is, I just don't see the government being able to pull this off on such a large scale. They can't even get it right on our base. I'm glad you have no problems with them, though. At least I can say I've heard of one person pleased with them.

Hope I didn't imply you were ungrateful!! Didn't mean to at all!! It sounds like you haven't had a good experience with them whatsoever and if I'd had your experience I would definitely not be happy with tricare. I don't want diminish your experience whatsoever, but mine has been different...that's all.

I also know you weren't complaining about the paying aspect, but I was just pointing out that I loved paying nothing for such expensive surgeries.

So you can't choose which dr. you see within whatever clinic you are assigned? I have never heard of that and have always picked what dr. I made our appt.'s with. Sometimes I take first available appointment (especially for mine) but for the kids I look to see one of my two favorite peds on base and so that's who I see. We sometimes see their PCM, who I really like but there is another dr. I like a bit more so I go for him. They also told me I could change the PCM if I wanted.

As for the ERs, there was a second one (non Air Force) I went to on New Years Day this year in Sacramento (because we were staying the night up there)...that was a LONG wait--I guess that could have just been because it was New Years day and there were several people in with alcohol poisoning. The other one was in a slow town in Oklahoma and we always had a pretty long wait. I usually get in and out of our base one pretty quickly.

Another consideration that I was thinking about was that I have always lived in mild areas, climate wise. So we've never lived anywhere with big flu outbreaks, etc. so maybe that is a part of why we can almost always manage same day appointments?? I don't know. All of my Air Force wife friends are pleased with it also. Maybe some bases are better than others? I don't know, but I hope you have an easier time with it all in the future.