In most places in Europe epidurals are really frowned upon. In the Netherlands, for example, only 8% of women have babies using an epidural. There's a big trend of having home births using midwives, with no pain medication.
In the US the c-section rate is far higher than in Europe, partially to keep law suits down. Also, most women have their babies in a hospital with some sort of pain medication, most commonly an epidural.
With the American Society of Anesthesiologists griping about the 33% reimbursement rate by government health plan, Medicare, what do you think will happen if the public option is based upon the reimbursement rates that Medicare has in place? As it stands, one of the bills unlinks the two, but it's still an issue they're very concerned about.
Like OB/GYNS, Anesthesiologists have extremely high malpractice insurance premiums, and it's a dying field in medicine. Naturally, a patient getting heart surgery will get first dibs on an Anesthesiologist. Pain medication during childbirth is a luxury, not a necessity.
You can check out the Anesthesiologists site yourself if you'd like.
http://www.asahq.org/news/asanews081909a.htm
Rjones0319
Until you or anyone passing the bill go through childbirth themselves, they cannot say its a luxury.
coomilesobrien
Anesthesiologists don't like Government health because they can't rip it off like an insurance company. All of our kids births were funded with government health and all were with epidural. So... Ladies, do you like the truth? Republicans may impact your access.
desmeran (emeritus)
the median annual compensation of anesthesiologists in the u.s. is over $ 300,000.
if a public option (which, by the way, would be an "option" and would not prevent people from choosing private health insurance, including the same insurance they have now; if people don't want it they can vote with their feet) did mean somewhat less compensation to anesthesiologists by those particular patients who chose the public option, that hardly means they would all be unable to feed their families and so would flee the profession and be unavailable to provide epidurals. and no one is advocating as part of health care reform that epidurals not be allowed or compensated.
how do i like my epidural? it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. but that's because i can afford insurance. without insurance, it would typically cost over a thousand dollars. so guess what? plenty of people are already doing without in the u.s. because they're choosing between an epidural (or more necessary care) and putting food on the table. and that's what health care reform is designed to fix.
i'd be interested if you have a link regarding whether the lower rate of epidurals in europe have to do with women who ask for them being denied them (as opposed to, say, a cultural taboo against them or concerns about medical consequences for the baby). If it's the latter, i don't really see the relevance of your discussion of different epidural rates in the u.s. and europe.
Lisa S
I can only site my own experience...but my health insurance decided over ten years ago that they will not pay for Anesthesia for any procedure that takes less than 10 minutes.
That's PRIVATE,expensive coverage mind you.
So I had two procedures in a doctors office so painful that my screams nearly cleared his waiting room. One was a cervical biopsy where they took pieces of flesh from me, one after another.
Before you talk about what might happen, maybe you should take a good look at what IS happening.And also consider that the health insurance industry is planning to abolish 80/20 payments, in favor of a new mix...65/35....once again the consumer will get screwed...by private insurance.
Orignal From: Tips: Ladies, how do you like your epidurals? Health Care legislation might impact your access?
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