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O/T Unbeleivable...Hospital Billing ..RANT

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
Friend of mine stopped me at the gas station yesterday, he wanted to show me the billing from his hospital visit.

Now he is 50 and generally in good health, he had a blood clot under his knee from an old injury. he was in the hospital for 3 days. And the operation was routine.And he had No complications.

Price tag so far $73,560.00! Thank God he had insurance. They charged $12,780 to read the x-rays!

I dont care if its Obam Care or Insurance company rip -offs. There should be a cap on what hospitals charge...and im sure he isnt done seeing bills. He just had it done last month.
 
Unless your friend is a kid to a 26 year old college student the Health Care reform has nothing to do with that bill. The only things for the HCR that have kicked in are kids with pre-ex conditions can"t be kicked off and your college aged students can stay on your insurance plus a few other changes.
Your friend is a victim of the old system that nobody wanted to change because there wasn"t anything wrong with it.
 
I had a lens implant in one of my eyes last year, the surgery was done in 8 minutes, charge for using the operating room was over $4000, total bill was over $9000 for a 8 minute surgery.
CRAZY!
 
In 1997 I had my gall bladder out. 1 night in the hospital, 1 hour surgery with medication, total bill was $8,800. No complications. I had to pay 10% of the bill due to the insurance plan that I picked.

One main reason for the bills being so high is the lawyers suing the doctors and all the hospitals.

A way to make the USA a better place is the drown 80% of the lawyers.
 
I agree except that the lawyers cant sue unless someone lets them,they dont sue on their own. Someone has to get greedy.Some have a real reson to sue but most just want easy money
 
Hey, a lawyer sued on behalf of an ILLEGAL who had P@nis cancer. He was in JAIL for meth lab. Doctors said it was untreatable and had to cut it off. He later died and his daughter got 1,5 million. The state should sue her for prison fees. This country is being ruined by tort lawyers who sue for NOTHING and sue for way to much.
 
And then the next you know it, your insurance provider wants to drop you because of the high dollar claims they have to pay out. We are going through this right now, insurance provider wants to drop us, namely 1 on the policy but have attempted all of us.

Many of us have no idea how the medical and health care world functions, but we all know how super costly medical services are, with no idea as to why.

Insurance companies are no stranger to their lack of innocence, I've experienced situations with both health and automobile coverage, the latter being a high rate for no reason ( clean DMV abstract never any DUI or similar etc. ) and a health claim the insurance company would not pay, appendectomy, well the NYS dept of insurance certainly changed their status on that and they paid.

Well, .... slightly unrelated to the initial post, but without the health insurance we have at our farm for us and our employees, my father would not be here, it's that simple. He's had hospital stays due to asthma, (2x per year lately) which screws up his heart sometimes, the costs thereof are extremely high, insurance company ) Blue Cross/Blue Shield is trying to use a tactic I consider to be of the lowest class, they state he is not on the payroll because, but he is, just that he does not pay himself. This totally " behooves" me ! They just don't want to pay, our premiums are paid on time though!

Read between the lines, his claims cost too much and they want out. More cost effective to die ! WTF ??? is wrong with this system, he is a U.S. army veteran of the vietnam era, early to mid 60's, having served in the 7th special forces ABN civil affairs detachment, Canal Zone, fort clayton, fort amador and saw action in Da Nang etc., not to mention some other hot spots like honduras and others in the carribean command sp? etc. That aside, how many others are out there with this kind of worry ? All people deserve better than this, what in heck are we gonna do, mid 40's here and it is imperative to have coverage !

I mean there is no doubt that without this coverage, these ailments will eventually get him one day, he eats healthy, a non smoker since '77, and goes to physical therapy for his breathing, COPD/asthma and does stay active when he feels well.

I suppose it is all related, I kinda woke up on the wrong side today, seeing this post caused a flare up LOL !! Darn It.... LOL !!!
 
About 4 years ago i had my left shoulder rebuilt/repaired due to part of a press falling on me at work .

I had surgery three times in four months and a bunch of therapy . Mind you this is a workmans comp case so there is a case number for billing.

They still sent me bills ! When it was all said and done there was just over $600,000.00 in bills. This was all thru Henry Ford Hospital here in Michigan.
Trying to get bill paid correct takes a act of "GOD" because they seam to hire just dummies who can't think for them selves.
 
Any idea how much the equipment to fix your eye cost? I do agree that medical costs are ridiculous though. The same as any products the military purchases. Dave
 
I recently had a couple of days in hospital with suspected heart problems. Had a whole series of tests including an angiogram plus a ride to hospital in an ambulance. Cardioligist initially thought I had a real problem but it turned out that I am fine.

Total bill $0

We have a great health care system here!
 
True....But look at the divorce rate, 1/2 of all marriages end in divorce. The real sad part is I hear adds all the time on the radio, "get divorced" Its easy, get all the rights your entitled too, blah, blah. In the old days people didnt get divorced they stuck it out. One other reason is that there were not as many lawyers to take cases.
Lots of people want easy money and the lawyers are right there like vultures ready to sue.
 
3 weeks ago while unloading soybeans a fast storm came up and I was stuck by Lightning, ambulance took me too the hospital, 15 minute ride, bill is $1044
 
I had a front end loader fall on me at work in '07 ,shattered my right ankle and lower leg. Five surgerys and a bone infection later I am still fighting the %#@$ insurance company because they don't want to pay for the medication I am still on even though they were ordered to by the state workers comp commision.The bill for the antibiotics for the bone infection for 8 weeks was over $86,000.From what I was told the total payout for Dr's,hospital,surgeries,medication etc.approached 1 million.Glad I didn't have to pay it !!!LOL
 
True....But look at the divorce rate, 1/2 of all marriages end in divorce.


Gun guru, while what you say is somewhat correct, it really gives the wrong impression of marriage and divorce rates. Only if you factor in the fact that a percentage of people who divorce, end up with multiple marriages and divorces can one say that half of all marriages end in divorce. One half of all first marriages most definitely do not end in divorce. That said I agree with what you write about lawyers. I have long felt that the outrageous fees they sometimes collect are something of a payoff for keeping their collective mouths shut about what is happening to our government.
 
Radiologists typically make $30,000 to $40,000 per month. Sister is an Anethesiologist and said it is a very lucrative position. It is almost better than being a federal legislator.
 
Yep,

This whole silly world has gone complely off the edge. We see it everyday.

'Jose swam the river 5 days ago, made his way to a hospital and now is recieving medicade benefits..............

That's what your bill is actually paying for. Same old story; the damned freeloaders will suck us all dry.

Allan
 
My wife got an ambulance ride 10 years ago, billed us $1400. It took almost a year for the insurance company to pay it.
 
If he would have been well off enough financially to pay the total bill himself the bill would have been higher yet. The insurance company negotiates the bill down because they have the lawyers, expertise and clout to do it. Shouldn't it be the other way around? If we can pay cash the bill should be smaller, right?

When it comes to lawsuits, the bigger the settlement, the more the lawyer takes home. So he or she will go for all they can get, whether it's reasonable or not. There needs to be some sort of a cap on legal fees. It would save the malpractice insurance companies a bunch of money and hopefully it would trickle down to the patient. The health insurance companies blame the hospitals for over-charging and the hospitals blame the insurance companies for not paying enough.

There are too many people making big money from other people's misfortunes in the medical field. After my daughter passed away from a surgical mistake my son-in-law filed a suit for enough to equal my daughter's wage until the three little girls (2, 4, & 6 years old) were out of college, plus a little more for hidden expenses. My son-in-law was NOT trying to get rich, he just didn't want any extra financial hardship. He was after the doctor's license too, but that's very hard to do and it never happened. Anyway, without getting into details, the lawyer went hog wild and after the dust cleared the lawyer went home with several million just from his fees. I don't know what the lawyer's actual expenses were, but they might have been one or two percent of his fee.

Hospitals write off a lot of uncollected bills because they have to treat people whether they want to or not. Five years years ago, maybe more, the local newspaper had an article about how much our small local county hospital writes off per year. Can't remember the exact figure but it was between one and two million dollars. An appendectomy was about the most serious surgery this hospital did, so you can get an idea of how small it was at that time.

So we add up the malpractice premiums, that add to the overhead, and the write-offs, the money they never collect and we're looking at a huge negative figure. Guess who pays for it?
 
Local news yesterday: Nearby hospital was notified by Anthem Blue Cross that they would no longer cover patients there because costs were sometimes 50% higher than state average. Hospital response: well yes our CT scans are high but some of our charges are lower.
 
You know the only two industries that will do service work for you without telling you what it's gonna cost before hand? Medical and Attorneys...and those are the two that seem to have the country by the throat these days.
 
If you wonder why it cost $12K to read an x-ray, check out the "Cases of Note" at the bottom of this link. If the doctor misses something it can mean a multi-million dollar windfall for these guys; I'm sure they appreciate you funding their lifestyle.
Ambulance Chasers
 
My son is finishing his Senior undergraduate year at school. He has a 4.0 in Bio Med. He works 16 hours a week volunteering at local ambulance corp to gain medical experience (and has for the last 3.5 years.)for medical school admittance. He has been accepted into a MD/PHD program will will take 8 years to complete. So at age 30 he has residency and internship requirements to complete.

He has been doing cancer research for the past two summers and lost his first academic adviser to cancer. She was 41.

To work on the ambulance he had to attend training for basic life support (nights 3x week; fours a night) and pass a certification exam. His
BLS accreditation tuition was waived if he passed the exam. The ambulance company then had to supervise and sign off on his training in I believe 16 different areas of expertise. He then could respond as medic for non critical transport.

The ambulance company has to cover the vehicle, insurance, fuel and whatever else and pay for the non volunteer staff. If they are "lucky" they can make three calls a night; they have to stay at the emergency room until their patient is take by the ER staff; then finish the paper documentation.

He works the fourth of July fireworks displays. If you get treated for a cut that requires a dressing, the charge is $6-700! He works the major holidays so married folks can get the time off. That is also the busiest because of drinking/driving and coronaries.

He carries a medic bag with him in his car so he can respond immediately to auto injuries and campus incidents.

I would not knock the cost of medical service too hard until you see the sacrifice some give.
 
Where do you guys get your numbers?. A Radiologist AT MOST, earns under $200,000. per year. And that is in a high wage area. In Des Moines, Iowa, a Radiologist will earn just under $50,000 per year. Kinda makes it hard to pay off student loans and have a family too.
 
One of our grand-daughters, 13 years old recently had appendicitis. She was in the hospital overnight but less than 24 hours. A bill came from the hospital showing a charge of over $19,000 for "room and board", not specifying if that included the surgery. Long ago my cousin had that done at about that age. I wonder what it cost then- and back then you were hospitalized for days.
 
Good point. True about the multiple marriages, I have an aunt that has been married and divorced 4 times. she is about 67 or so now. A total 8itch, I havent seen her in many years.
 
(quoted from post at 13:15:01 11/14/10) I recently had a couple of days in hospital with suspected heart problems. Had a whole series of tests including an angiogram plus a ride to hospital in an ambulance. Cardioligist initially thought I had a real problem but it turned out that I am fine.

Total bill $0

We have a great health care system here!
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My wife had a cornea transplant in June this year. N.B. Canada.

Total cost $0

We have a great health care system as well.
 
Earnie, I hope I didn't offend you or your son with my mention of the lawsuit. There's a LOT more to it than I care to divulge, concerning the doctor. My nephew is a young ER doctor who worked his way through med school with no financial assistance from home. He doesn't talk about his work, but I have a hunch it's very mentally and physically taxing. Jim
 
my doctor charged me $275 doallars for a visit when i did nt have insurance and said that was the best price they could give me even though i paid them in greenbacks, when i got insurance he got paid $75, its nice that they try to help people get better , but geez they sure are unethical.
 
None taken.

I just desired to give some balance to the discussion here.

My son is gifted and has the drive and ability to work ceaselessly.

He will also be cursed later in life with the path he has chosen. He (hopefully) will be given the gift to heal and advance the knowledge of life.

He will also be unsuccessful in some cases and lives will perish. I don't know if I would be able to sit powerlessly and dispassionately by knowing there was nothing I could do in a terminal case; and then end up being sued for malpractice because I was not perfect all the time.

Would you be willing to work 60-65 hours a week just scraping by building no equity or having a life so you could have a chance at being successful at age 35-37?

Farmers, loggers, miners, and fishermen harvest from the earth and provide the basic ingredient(s) for life. They also have the most dangerous occupations and assume a great deal of risk.

Healers have nothing to offer but their education and training. Physicians are the ultimate "service" vocation and for the most part are teachers. They instruct you or others how to care for our body. How those instructions are administered and the basic care taken have a profound effect on health.
 
Well, you Aussie's and Canuck's might have nearly free/free health care, but we got REAL CAPITALISM, not some of those namby-pamby half-this and half-that systems that you got...
We got something else you don't have: we got MULTI-MILLIONAIRE health ins co CEO"s, like:
Aetna--Williams-24+ Mill;
Cigna--Hanaway--12+ Mill;
Wellpoint--Braly--not quite 10 Mill (we send her food baskets)...
Now, those are reportedly for 2008, so I'm sure they've all done better in 09 etc. It just warms my heart, as I sit huddled over my guttering candle, coughing, that somewhere the sun is shining on those obviously more deserving...
 
I went to the orthopedic doctor because I have trigger finger. He injected my hand with cordisone and told me I didn't have to return.

The insurance company paid him $948.00. The injection was $18.00.
I had to pay $30.00 co-pay plus a $100.00 deductable.

My trigger finger is worse now than before so I am going to have surgery. I have no idea what that will cost.
 
Our COBRA insurance ran out on June 1. On July 2 we got accepted for private health insurance (Anthem in Indiana) for $500 per month with a $11,000 deductable. We viewed it as buying into the system for the negotiated rates and coverage for disaster.

I had been in perfect health for 64 years and took no medications. On July 16, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. So far, we have been billed over $150,000. Insurance has paid about $45,000 and everyone considers the bills settled.

That is what is so screwed up. The charges vs. the amount that the providers will accept. It makes it impossible to really evaluate what the true cost of health care is.
 
No disrespect to your son meant here, just wanted to say that first off. That said, regardless of how much time he spends or how much time he spends studying in school, or how good he is at what he does, or how much time any other doctor spends doing the same things, or for that matter how much time someone in any other occupation spends doing things associated with their job, the charges being levied on people by hospitals and doctors in general is ridiculous. Granted they have expenses just like every one else, and I know they also have to pay for liability insurance, but even mechanics like myself have to deal with basically the same things. In many cases a minimum of 2 million in coverage is required for me to work in alot of places, and that ain't cheap. Even then a fair labor rate can make a man a pretty good living. I've been all over in the past few years from $84 to $45 an hour depending on what equipment I was working on, or who I was working for, and have done pretty good until the economy bottomed and it hit me hard and I had to lower my rates to keep working.....but you don't see any doctors lowering their rates to keep in business do you????????
For me when I buy parts I only markup maybe 15% at the most. Still I hear things steming from situations like this post mentions where a doctor spends one hour and gives someone an $18 dollar shot and the bill is in the tens of thousands of dollars. HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH TIME THAT DOCTOR SPENT IN SCHOOL OR HOW MANY HOURS HE SPENT TAKING CARE OF SOMEONE, OR ANYTHING ELSE FOR THAT MATTER??????? Heck at that rate I too could be driving around in a $100,000 car and living in a million dollar home.
Instead people like me work on the equipment that built the school that guy went to, that built that guys home, his office, his car,his health club, his golf club, the roads he drives and bridges he crosses to get to these places, etc, etc. We did it in the heat of the summer, in the cold of the winter, in 4 inches of dust or 4 inches of mud.........Thing is for us we simply see it as part of the job and rarely will you really hear us fuss about the conditions we work under to make sure guys like that doctor can have their expensive toys......all bought by charging us poor shmucks a whole days pay for a simple $2 shot and 5 minutes of their precious time........ In the end it just doesn't make any more sense to me than the extortionist rates charged by lawyers............But that's just my .02 for what it's worth......
 
Hospitals can't refuse anyone service. More and more prople showing up at the ER because they have a head cold, no inurance, no citizenship, whatever. You can barely turn the TV on and not see an add for a lawyer promising to sue and get you money for anything from a hang nail to having MS, or something else.

We've got a local newspaper by me that has taken up the plight of the illegal aliens, and I've taken to the plight for everyone else, born and raised here named Bob, Frank, Sue, or whatever and tell them from no on, go to the ER and tell them your name is Juan Valdez, that you are an illegal alien, and give our local newspapers address to mail the bills to.

You are correct, hospital bills are higher than crap, but someones have to pay for those that do not, and those that will get you $million because you went in with an ear ache but today have a sore throat. I know of hospitals that won't allow one second of overtime because they don't have the extra money to pay it...two of my sisters work at one. And I know of hospitals that have laid off nurses because they don't have the money to pay...one of my other sisters was one of them.

It don't matter anyway. Give it a year or so and there won't be insurance companies or hospitals, but there will still be politicians that believe that if we don't give the Island of Guam back, our soldiers and equipment will cause it to flip over and be seriously not joking when they say something so stupid...and they will be doing your medical...so better luck then.

Mark
Island of Guam will flip over guys running health care
 
They're adding onto every hospital that I drive past. I guess they may be going broke, but they are acting different than I do when I'm short of cash. . .

When they repeal the healthcare bill, we're gonna really pay. They know that no one will have the guts to try that again. We're in a jam, no matter what happens. We would have been better off paying for everyone's care the old way, without having a foot on our neck.

Higher prices and reduced coverage. Full speed ahead.

Paul
 
Small scale but, we took my daughter to a walk in clinic for minor issue run by the same outfit as my regular doctor. I pay $20 copay for office visits and have gone to this clinic several times. We got a bill for $65? I called them. They said they are an "urgent care" facility and I/she got "urgent care" not an office visit. I said I have been there many times and only paid $20. Doesn't matter. So I get another bill for $65 and what does itsay? "Office Visit"!!
My dad has said to me for 40 or so years..."no matter how bad the economy gets they are always building two things. Banks and Insurance buildings! And he hasn't been wrong yet.
 
My doctor tells me he can't afford and doesn't have healthcare insurance for himself.

I was scheduled to receive a bunch of heart tests, and he was telling me that I was establishing a "benchmark" to compare all future tests to. He lamented that he would like to have a similar test, but couldn't afford it. I thought that he would be eligible for a type of "professional courtesy". He laughed sarcasticly at my naive idea.

Money is the driving force in this world. The day of the kind old country doctor trading medical treatment for a live chicken is long gone and never to return. Keep yourself well insured, or a heavy bankroll for future health needs, or be ready to sign the farm over and still owe some more for the funeral.

I think I'm getting sick at my stomach. . .

Paul
 
(quoted from post at 12:20:18 11/14/10) Friend of mine stopped me at the gas station yesterday, he wanted to show me the billing from his hospital visit.

Now he is 50 and generally in good health, he had a blood clot under his knee from an old injury. he was in the hospital for 3 days. And the operation was routine.And he had No complications.

Price tag so far $73,560.00! Thank God he had insurance. They charged $12,780 to read the x-rays!

I dont care if its Obam Care or Insurance company rip -offs. There should be a cap on what hospitals charge...and im sure he isnt done seeing bills. He just had it done last month.
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You could double that $73,560.00 bill, and it would still be less than an average federal employee's yearly income.
 
Guess I'll stay over here :roll: I have insurance, but because it is American insurance, I have to pay cash and get reimbursed. Had a ruptured appendix a few years ago. Doctor visit with ultrasound and checkout determined I had bad appendicitis, took a taxi to the ER for 10 bucks because there was one in front of the office (ambulance was across town), ER, another ultrasound, surgery and cleanout (by that time it had burst), week in the hospital with outstanding care. Total bill including doctor visit and a followup doctor visit was 3200 euro (about $5k at the time). 2 fillings, a cleaning, and a root canal at the dentist was 300 euro. And had a hemeroid surgery with a total cost of 400 euro.

Dave
 

It's just unbelievable some of the prices I see you folks posting. OTH, I was on a bicycle on a bicycle path when a lady ran a stopsign and hit me. She made an a$$ out of herself so we called the police and they made me go to the hospital. was a good thing because when the shock wore off had a problem with my neck. All said and done, had a lawyer handle the case and got a new bicycle bills paid, paid my hourly rate for the sickleave I used, and about a thousand bucks to hire someone to help out with the heavy stuff around the place for the summer. Lawyer told me straight up front that if I was in America I'd prolly be a millionaire but it wouldn't happen here. Guess the mentality of folks drive prices also.

Dave
 
What Canadian drug companies, they"re all American and Americans aren"t allowed to buy cheap medicines in Canada because they"re all unsafe. Just ask all those Canadians, that are dropping like flies up there, about their bad medicines.
 
One thing I would add to this discussion is that the health care system in the US is not the same entity that we had years ago. The strides in health care over the last few decades alone are astronomical. And everyone expects a perfect outcome from every encouter with it. How much does an MRI machine cost? How about the machines that help a doctor diagnose your illnesses by analyzing your blood for dozens of abnormal conditions? Just compare the equipment in your hospital room from that of a room in the '50s. Heck the bed is even hi-tech.

And people think of access to this wonderful health care is an "inalienable right" (idea encouraged by the abundant socialists in power now). I just don't figure how it can be a "right" to be able to go to a doctor/hospital and obtain services without regard to the cost or your ability to PAY for those services. I need a car to get to work, so it should be my "right" to walk into a dealership and demand a car, regardless of my ability to pay. And not just ANY car, top-of-the-line, fully loaded luxury car (which is what the US health care system is).

Everyone expects access to the latest technology and well-educated professional staff to fix what ails them, but then they complain about the cost. Yet, they think nothing of spending $40,000+ on a pickup truck with GPS, memory seats, ABS, etc.

If you want to pay horse-and-buggy age doctor bills, you'll get a doc with a stethoscope and blood-pressure cuff in a black bag.

And for those who complain about a radiologist making half million dollar salaries, next time you get an x-ray, take it to the local mechanic at the John Deere dealer and have HIM read it. As others said, a doctor doesn't even BEGIN to start making money until they're mid-30s. Most kids in today's "reward-me-now" society don't have the patience, intelligence or gumption to wait that long.

Heck, even nurses have more education, responsibility and stress than the average line worker at Ford and make about the same. Anybody complaining about Ford's profits or the price of a Ford car/truck on here?

As for hospitals and insurance companies making money, what's wrong with that? Everyone jumps up and down when Ford, GE, etc. and other big corporations make a profit and proclaim the economy is great. Yet, for some reason, insurance companies and hospitals seem to be the bogeyman.

And hospitals CAN'T refuse patients, as another poster stated. The $1-2 million mentioned in unreimbursed medical care pales in comparison to what hospitals in our metro area have to swallow. It's in the tens of millions of dollars per year. One hospital system I know has close to $50 million outstanding that they have to write off. On top of theat, their risk management budget for paying on lawsuits is close to $30 million (most of which are frivolous, ambulance chasing, "make-me-rich" suits). That's almost $80 million together or over $6 million per MONTH. Plus, more and more people are on Medicare and Medicaid which are arbitrarily cutting their reimbursement rates. So, to break even, they have to get $200,000 extra PER DAY in revenue from the paying patients to make up for it.

Yup, all the people complaining don't look at the numbers and facts. It's just easier to say "health care costs too much" when they get a bill. But they do have a choice. Next time, just stay home and see how well you heal.
 
Can't go with comparing buying a car to getting health care, kinda die if you don't get health care. All the leading industrialized nations have social health care except the US.
All those foreign countries with bad socialized medicines have the same expensive machines as the US. And a lot of US citizens run all over the globe for advanced medical care at a cheaper price.
I think it is a responsibility of a government for the health and welfare of it's citizens. That's why we have stop signs. Since everybody doesn't or can't make the same monies for everybody to have the same access to healthcare it should be on a sliding scale.
And out of the Repug and tea-bagger play book,"As for hospitals and insurance companies making money, what's wrong with that?" I think the insurance companies should be taken out of the equation and those billions(BILLIONS) could be put back in the system and all hospitals become non-profit.
Neither party will send illegals back so I don't know what to do on that.
 
I guess I got off cheap. When I had my heart attack last year. My ambulance ride was only 775.00 for a twenty minute ride. My spot on the floor at the ICU ward. For three days. Was 8000.00 dollars. My ride back to the house sixty miles was 15.00 dollars. Brother brought me home.
 
"We would have been better off paying for everyone's care the old way, without having a foot on our neck."
I guess the old way is by being over charged and waiting for your turn at the bankruptcy lottery.
 
(quoted from post at 10:58:10 11/15/10) I think it is a responsibility of a government for the health and welfare of it's citizens. [b:ad91e2ff5a]Spoken like a true libeal socialist.[/b:ad91e2ff5a] Since everybody doesn't or can't make the same monies for everybody to have the same access to healthcare it should be on a sliding scale. [b:ad91e2ff5a](didn't Karl Marx say "each according to his means"? or something like that?)[/b:ad91e2ff5a]I think the insurance companies should be taken out of the equation and those billions(BILLIONS) could be put back in the system and all hospitals become non-profit. [b:ad91e2ff5a]Many hospitals ARE non-profit and struggling. There is something known as RESERVES in the insurance industry that must be kept a a mandated level.[/b:ad91e2ff5a]
Neither party will send illegals back so I don't know what to do on that. [b:ad91e2ff5a]Well, that's a HUGE part of the problem, along with the non-paying poor people who expect the same access to health care as those of us who work and contribute $$$ via taxes and insurance premiums[/b:ad91e2ff5a].
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tlak, your answers are simplistic and fall into the "goverenment take care of me" mentality. It is interesting that you expect access to a service for EVERYONE where the workers who provide the service are limited and have more education, responsibility and skills than most industries and you don't want to pay for it directly out of your pocket. One thing that has been overlooked in external_linkcare is that by bringing the tens of millions of people who are currently un-insured into a system will produce a strain on the care givers. This is the case in countries with socialized medicine where long wait times for operations/procedures are the norm. If you all of a sudden tell 10s of milllions of people "ok, go to the doctor, you're covered", there will be a flood of new patients at a time when it is difficult to even find a doctor who is accepting new patients. And who will want to become a doctor if the financial rewards are on par with the average auto worker, according to your (and external_link's) agenda? Remember, this is still a capitalist country where goods AND services (consequently wages) are priced based on supply and demand. Want a cheaper doctor or radiologist? Shop around.

As for your comment that access to health care and buying a car are different, well, both of them are provided by people (who expect to be paid) using equipment that must be bought. Why you would deny that simple fact is beyond me.
 
We have always been paying for healthcare for folks with no money/insurance.

Got an ailment? No insurance/money? Go to the emergency room and you'll get treated, and at emergency room rates - the highest. You can't get blood out of a turnip. You and I always have paid for it through higher healthcare costs.

With the possible repeal that's talked so highly of, the industry will be emboldened with the knowledge that it won't be brought up again, and that will be the "foot on our neck". "Being over charged and waiting for your turn at the bankruptcy lottery" is not over, and I believe will be much worse - after the repeal.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong. . .
 
I don't think there will be any repeal. I don't think they can get there from here.
There needed to be the single payer option but the congress people were getting paid off.
 
Your answers are ignorant and lack empathy. Where are these millions of people that don't already go to some kind of health care service, it would appear like you just don't want them at yours. I've sat at my doctors' for an extra hour because he was across the street in emergency, I have health insurance and pay but I'm already in line behind what may be a none payer. The other choice that you leave appears for them to just go away and die. And most anything you've said about other countries' health care is not true because right in this thread are Canadians that refute what you say.
Because of your type of attitude is why the new health care bill wasn't all it could be. Why are we paying the health insurance industry billions to say what service I can or can't have or be the death panel.
""And who will want to become a doctor if the financial rewards are on par with the average auto worker"" This statement doesn't hold true, most people go to college for what they wanna be not how much it pays. I know some Dr's that can't put air in their tires, you want them to fix your car?
When The HC negotiations were going on it was reported that 10s of millions of dollars a day were sent to congress from the Health care industry. How much health care would that have bought? It wasn't their money, it came from denying services to somebody and over charging you and I.
I hear pure tea party rhetoric.
 
(quoted from post at 14:42:01 11/14/10) Unless your friend is a kid to a 26 year old college student the Health Care reform has nothing to do with that bill. The only things for the HCR that have kicked in are kids with pre-ex conditions can"t be kicked off and your college aged students can stay on your insurance plus a few other changes.
Your friend is a victim of the old system that nobody wanted to change because there wasn"t anything wrong with it.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't exactly call that accurate. This article was on the front page of the local paper today:

http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2010/nov/15/new-age-health-care/
 
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