[TheForge] Re: Health insurance

Thu Dec 20 18:23:05 2001

What most people mean when they say "I believe every citizen of this country
should have access to health care" is that it should be at some one else's
expense. The main cost of health care is the fact that lawyers can get huge
amounts of money for themselves by suing the health care industry.
The next most costly thing is the insurance it self and a lot of that is because
again most people expect some one else (the boss) to pay for it. The third thing
is that now that a person has insurance that is paid for by some one else, they
are off to the Dr. or calling the ambulance every time they get a fart
crossways.
Then you get to the medical profession. Why is it that every time they use one
of their tools (Xray, MRI, CAT scan etc.) they charge for their time
(acceptable) and for the machine that they are using. They write the cost of the
machine off just like everyone else.
Everyone has access to health care. Most of it can be done at home with a little
thought. I am 64 years old and I only tried health care once. It was offered at
a job that I had and I had to pay half. It covered medical, dental and glasses.
I tried as hard as I could that year but try as I did, my part of the bill for
dental and glasses plus just my half of the insurance ended up costing more than
if I just paid cash. So the insurance made money off of me and everything the
boss paid was profit.
If you add up your medical bills over your life and then add up the cost of your
insurance (you have to count what your boss paid to) I'll bet it would have been
cheaper to have made the payments directly to the Dr.

Darrell

http://www.machinemaster.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Olsen" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Re: Health insurance

> For those of you reading these posts about health insurance and happen
> to live someplace other than the United States we should mention that
> health insurance can differ greatly from state to state.It is definitly
> not one system across the nation.
>
> Each state has an insurance commisioner and individual state laws
> apply.  In my state, Washington,  if an insurance company accepts any
> new subscribers they have to accept all and cannot turn down anyone for
> pre-exisiting conditions, other states can refuse you for pre-exisitng
> conditions, or refuse to cover some aspect of your health where you have
> had problems in the past, or have a wait period sometimes years before
> they will insure you in certain areas.  Some states where there is a
> very high percentage of elderly and retired people, such as Florida have
> extremely high rates.
>
> In short I still think our country has it's priorities all wrong when it
> comes to health care____________I believe every citizen of this country
> should have access to health care.  When we hear about the billions and
> billions of dollars that our government doles out for this and that ask
> yourself how many of these programs are more important than keeping our
> own citizens healthy and alive.
>
> still venting
> __________________________________
>
> Margaret Green wrote:
>
> >   I kind of disagree that the statistics are skewed. Absolutely
> > anyone who doesn't have a job where health insurance is a paid
> > benefit will find it almost impossible to find any health
> > insurance that's affordable and that's if they aren't turned down
> > for pre-existing conditions. My brother is complaining about what
> > he has to pay for his health benefit that his employer gives but
> > doesn't pay for. Anyone part time, seasonal jobs (example
> > construction), self employed, etc., etc., has a big problem. It's
> > either none or very expensive, if they can even get it.
> >   We're in a small group of 3 or 4 people and pay $640 each per
> > month. We can't afford to pay it but we can't afford to drop it.
> > It could wipe us out financially if we got sick. (I'm not sure of
> > figures but a guess on a one week hospital stay for something
> > simple like pneumonia is maybe around $15,000 or so, no surgery or
> > involved treatment.) The hospitals and doctors will hound you for
> > payment. I tried a couple of years ago to find something cheaper
> > without much success. Anything cheaper won't cover much medical
> > care. BTW the boss of our small group has been trying to find
> > something cheaper each year for a while. At least one company
> > won't take us because it's a small group and they won't take small
> > groups. Any company that will take us is just as expensive.
> >   What's really scary is, also, how much they'll cover. Someone I
> > know had a heart attack a few years ago. He was treated in a local
> > hospital and transferred to a hospital that specialized in cardiac
> > problems for testing to see what was going on and more treatment.
> > The transfer for more care was because "a bed opened up and *his
> > health insurance checked out,"* the nurse's words. In other words
> > if he had no insurance or it wasn't covered by the insurance he
> > had, the first hospital would have just patched him up and sent
> > him home - with probably, by the way, you owe us $x for your
> > treatment here.
> >   A lot changed when health insurance, and the whole medical field
> > went from non-profit to let's make as much money as we can.
> > Marge Green
> >
> > >         What's never mentioned in that stat is that two of the four
> > > are on gov't assistance programs (medicaid and medicare aren't
> > > counted as "insurance" for the stat), and that another 1.8 of the
> > > four *CHOOSE* not to pay for health insurance - they're the 18-30
> > > year old crowd with good jobs and no kids.
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