I had the "pleasure" of attending a new employee orientation down in the States and what the company was offering for insurance was so good peoples "too good to be true" alarms went off. In Canada this would of taken 10 minutes to present and maybe a couple of generic questions from the new employees would be asked but down there it dragged on for two hours. People were picking apart the one page summary and asking very specific questions about premiums, pre-existing conditions, etc. I soon realized most of the questions were related to some family member or friend that was screwed over by a insurance provider and all I could think was thank god I live and work in Canada. I then glanced at the presenter who had a heavy British accent and she had a exacerbated and at the same time relieved look on her face and I knew she was thinking almost the exact same thing except replace Canada with Great Britain.
Thankfully, the United States has taken this baby step down the right path today but don't think the private medical industry in the States is going to back down without another monumental fight. I fear they will take the same road as the credit card companies when faced with tightened regulations; punish the client by finding loopholes to charge more and hope the hate sticks to the politicians that passed it.
|