I just got a bill from my doctor. Since I am uninsured, 15 minutes with a nurse-practitioner (no tests of any kind involved) will only cost me $182! 20 years ago, the same visit would have been about $40. It's my (admittedly unsupported) opinion that the increase is due to the insurance companies.
Health care costs are obscene in this country, and it's un-American even to consider pro bono treatment of the ill. So, we have insurance. Who owns insurance companies and HMO‘s? The same people who own the clinics. So it's easy for them to justify whatever charges the clinics come up with; insurance will pay it. Corporations, who have large employee pools to insure, negotiate "sweetheart deals" for their insurance. So the rest of us have to pick up the slack to maintain the insurer's profit margin. I take it as a given that the only health the average HMO is really interested in maintaining, is that of the company's bottom line.
Then, of course, because the cost of going to the clinic/hospital rises, so do the insurance premiums and co-pays. So we poor boobs are paying the same people AGAIN. They continue to make a profit off of our desire to stay healthy. Some of us die because we CAN'T AFFORD to stay alive. I have personally considered discontinuing treatment due to its cost. The "Compassionate Conservative" response to that scenario: "Good! More for me!"
It's time for America to decide: What kind of a nation are we? Do we really consider human life to be sacred? If so, whose life are we talking about? Is every human life one to be cherished, or only those possessing the financial wherewithal to "pay their own way"? Are dollars the only possible contribution a person can make to society?
When I was growing up, the way adults defined themselves was by what they did for a living. Now, it's by how many dollars they possess. Is that the be-all and end-all of American life? If not, we need to implement change, both legally and in the way we view our world.
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Comments: 30
Seriously though, I couldn't live without it. My meds for depression would cost me over $500 a month if I didn't have it. That doesn't even count the ocassional shrink appointment or regular medical stuff/problems.
Somewhere I think that we got confused in this country. We don't allow access for a service that a person needs all throughout their lives, yet everyone is "given" Social Security. I was always taught that you got what you put in, so I will continue to save for my own retirement and pay that monthly insurance bill until a fairy wins the lotto for me.
A single, compulsory national scheme mostly avoids these pitfalls. Yes, there are long delays for some conditions in some countries, though not in others (certainly no more than can happen here in the States too), but overall, the national systems are less wasteful and offer more access and choice than the private companies in the US.
Israel has such a compulsory national scheme, much like all Western European countries, Canada and Japan (all industrialized countries except the US). I'm not sure why Luckky thinks this has anything to do with US foreign aid. The Israeli people (employees and employers) pay into the system, much like people pay their premiums and/or their medical bills here. Except no one is denied access and no one has to file for bankruptcy if a family member gets cancer or has a serious car accident.
Why? Because I have Multiple Sclerosis. I am too "rich" to qualify for government assistance (ha ha... I earn a good income from consulting but by no means getting rich), and I am too "sick" to be insured! I have been denied for an individual policy by every single insurance company I contacted. My medication alone is $1500/month so without some type of insurance, I will be forced find a new job with a corporation in order to get coverage. I will have to give up the career that I love.
Lisa, the law was passed, I suspect, so that they don't charge uninsured people more than those with insurance, which is, amazingly, what they do in most places. The negative effect on the self-insured was probably unintended.
And you can be sure that if there is ever a substantive effort to change the health care system here in the US, the insurance industry will fight it tooth and nail -- using money extorted from us to do so.
Yes, I said extorted. What's the difference between paying through the nose for "protection" from outrageous health care costs, and paying a low-level thug for "protection" from theft and/or arson?
No one is "given" Social Security in this country! It is an insurance that you must pay into for a given number of quarters and reach a certain age before you are eligible for a return unless you become disabled and then it becomes a disability providing insurance!
If you got a plan for $150 a month you're doing great! I know people who are paying $1,000 a month for two people for a high deductible plan. My Medicare supplement costs me $145 a month and includes no drugs! That's another $73.50 a month.
Jeannie B.,
Very good point! Protection is what the mob sells.
Lisa B,
It certainly works different in many states! In Idaho, the hospital sends a bill for $1,000. If an insurance company pays it the bill is really $300. If Medicare pays it the bill is $250. If another insurance pays it the bill might be $275. The self insured pays $1,000 any way you cut the cake! Can anyone say "criminal?"
Of course, they don't necessarily intend to get it from the uninsured because it is frequently more than they can every come up with. Therefore, they do have to write a lot of those off, at $1,000 that is!
Shouldn't the doctors dictate was is necessary and not the insurance companies?
I am worried, however that my contributions to SS will not be there by the time I retire.
I have been uninsured in the past and it really stinks. Most of my past credit card bills were to pay for doctor visits that I could not afford. I have several friends who are uninsured or have medicare/medicaid and their options really stink some times.
There has to be a better way.
Not to mention that health insurance rates never go down if you remain in continued good health, as auto insurance decrease if your driving record stays good. And what's with health care not including one's teeth? Aren't they part of the body, and don't their health or lack thereof affect the overall health of the body?
You are correct to be concerned about Social Security. Up until Bush the lesser, Social Security was considered sacrosanct and any politician who didn't fully support it was sure to be voted out! Bush the lesser decided he didn't believe in it so started telling stories about it that made it seem to be about to collapse and thereby managed to work up some support for privatizing it which is another way of saying eliminating it!
In reality, it does need a little adjustment to insure financial security for the years starting in approximately 2042. If they simply lift the maximum on earnings on which SS is paid from the current $96,500 per year, the problem will be solved but we've got to get "our" so called elected representatives to act on this ASAP!
Otherwise, if you are a beneficiary in those years (I'll personally be dead by then.) you will only be able to get about 75% of what is due to you and the United States Government will have failed in it's obligation to it's citizens by that amount!
Please use your vote and use it wisely and well, no more George the lessers!
One of my connections (who has since given up on Gather) is an MD trained in Canada and worked both countries. He was trying to work towards a modified version of universal Health care here in the US. { Don't know what happened but his screen name now is 'fed up disgusted gone' and he hasn't signed on in months.}
Sure, let's start with the insurance companies. Then, how about we start telling doctors how much they can make. Isn't it ridiculous that you were paying $128 for probably a no more than 10 minute appointment? Even with insurance, my parents have to a $20 copay for him to ask me how my medication is and fill out a prescription? We should also limit the liability that people can get for malpractice? Some doctor gives their best opinion and it's wrong, or something goes bad that isn't a perfect process, and gets sued for millions, while some ambulance chaser gets rich and everybody who goes to the doctor gets the shit end of the stick because the doctors have to pay over 100k for malpractice insurance.
The answer is overdue. The solution to our health care problem is overdue as well. We're beyond asking candidates "Do you support universal health care?" We should be asking "How will you support universal health care?"
I realize that insurance rates don't go down and they probably shouldn't. If the insurance company did it the way insurance is supposed to work, everyone pays in to pay the debts of the few which wind up needing it!
This model has been marginalized by the insurance companies cherry picking who they will insure and what they will charge the insured. That is exactly what has happened in the auto and fire insurance fields! If you go without insurance for a year because you gave up your car and didn't drive, then decided to by a car and start driving again, you'd have to go with a high risk company and pay high premiums for a year because you had no insurance at the time you applied!
If you file a claim for water damage you my find yourself canceled and only able to find coverage at a much higher rate than the amount of your claim. And when you get insurance for your car why are they allowed to run a credit report? Are they going to insure you first and bill at the end of the year? Nope!
Finally, if you have a dispute with your insurance company and they've decided not to cover what their contract says they will you must hire an attorney and sue them. They will have their lawyers file motions and papers to keep it out of court until you've spent more on your attorney than the entirety of the debt owed you! Non of these scenarios are imaginary to me as I've encountered them.
It is not uncommon for many if not most small claims to be paid for personally by the part involved because they don't want their insurance to be increased! You have to have it and therefore it's nice for it to be affordable!
An insurance is not supposed to be a sweetheart deal with one individual who has little need for it while raping the rest of the policyholders. If done properly, they are not in a position to give out refunds or discounts as they are not overcharging to start with. And the insurance company, if there be one, is entitled to make some kind of reasonable profit.
Having said that however, the insurance companies have proven themselves to be self serving and abominable stewards of American's health care dollars in recent years! About a third of our health care dollars go to insurance company overhead and profits. Compare that with Medicare, which funds all senior heath insurance, and which requires only about three percent for their overhead.
Where is Marcus Welby when you need him?
me "Do you know what is the world's largest legal gambling operation" Need I say it--insurance companies. He thought it funny, I didn't.
I am unemployed and without healthcare and I have come to the conclusion Americans just don't count anymore. No matter where you turn, thers's no help.