I was talking with a local chiropractor recently about the differences between our U.S. healthcare system and the universal healthcare operating in Canada, where the costs of treatment are considerably less. As you might have noticed in some of my previous commentaries, I am a strong advocate fo r a universal or single-payer healthcare system. I have noted repeatedly that the U.S. is the only one of the 38 developed nations in the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development that does not have a universal healthcare system.  In my chat with the chiropractor, it was noted that healthcare is much cheaper in Canada. Then he remarked that the one big drawback in the Canadian system is the months of wait time that’s often necessary when the treatment involves a specialist.  I have heard that wait-time complaint several times before. And it is the main argument against implementing a universal system here in the United States. But what is not explained is why that wait time occurs in Canada. A main reason is the shortage of specialists in Canada — because they tend to migrate south to the United States, where they can charge much more for their services.  Here in the United States, medical specialists from other countries can accumulate much more wealth. Here they can become a part of our capitalism-based network that allows physicians, drug makers and insurance companies to bilk our residents with higher-than-necessary fees and prices.  It’s a system that super-charges our inequality network as more middle-class families are forced downward toward the poverty line — as a result of healthcare expenses — while those who benefit most from the higher fees and prices become more rich. That includes our Congress members who receive huge campaign contributions through political action committees. Of course, many of those large contributions are arranged by the lobbyists representing those who benefit the most by maintaining our capitalism-driven healthcare. So we must ask ourselves what can be done to change the system.  The answer is forcing Congress to act on two issues:  First, we must tell each of our Congress representatives — or any candidates who seek their seats — that they must commit to enacting a universal healthcare plan if they want our votes.  Second, again, we must tell each Congress member and candidate that we will not vote for them unless they support legislation to end dark money contributions. That means they must vote for a bill that requires transparency — by publication in periodicals — of all political gifts and donations with a value of $100 or more.  Unless we act to force those changes, our healthcare will remain much more expensive than the universal systems operating in the other developed countries. No to partnership Why does the partnership of Medicare with Medi-Cal cause some offices to refuse to see a customer? For example, a local dermatologist who accepted my Medicare insurance a couple years ago this year refused to see me because I now have a Medicare-Medi-Cal partnership coverage. Instead, we were forced to drive a half-hour away to see a dermatologist. I asked our county social services office about that problem, but I suspect that office is evading what workers there know to be the answer. I was told I would need to ask each individual office why they refused to see someone with the partnership coverage.  I suspect a main reason is because the doctors’ offices are inundated with a considerable amount of additional time-consuming paperwork. There may be one or more other reasons. And then another partnership problem occurred. When another healthcare office agreed to accept the partnership coverage, why was I told that my out-of-pocket co-pay could be higher because of the partnership? That created my suspicion that Medi-Cal is expecting me to cough up an additional co-pay for its services.  I may be off-base with my assumptions, but either way there is something basically wrong with the partnership when such problems are cited by the offices I contacted recently. But I could not get any straight answers — from neither the county social services office nor from my call to the partnership office with the 1-800 number I was given via a recorded response.  And that raises a disgusting side issue — the enormous amount of hours we citizens must waste in our efforts to negotiate numerous recorded responses when we need to talk to a person about our questions. I had a 51-minute wait to talk to the woman who told me to ask the doctor why a return visit was rejected because of the partnership coverage.  I suspect too many companies have not yet realized how the difficulty of talking to a real person in their office can result in sending customers to a competitor who makes contacts easier.  Public service offices paid for by our taxes appear to be among the worst time-wasters as a result of their many recorded responses. And sometimes a series of recorded choices simply causes more confusion. Finally, I determined that Medi-Cal is providing me with services I no longer need since I am now recuperating at home after spending months in a skilled nursing facility. Those confinements were needed as a result of a traffic accident a year ago, and then my recent new hip implant.  So I canceled Med-Cal after I was advised there is no penalty if I have a need to re-apply sometime in the future. Again, it’s another case of time-consuming hoops that we must wade through before we can get some reasonable answers from a real person. Darrell Berkheimer is a retired journalist whose career spans 60 years. He was city editor and news editor at The Daily Herald, Provo, during the 1970s and ’80s. He also filled newspaper editor positions in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas and New Mexico, and is the author of several essays books. Contact him at [email protected] The post Let’s make healthcare work for everyone appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less