I am somewhat lucky I pay roughly $400 a month in cash to see my family doctor and get my meds refilled. Of course I am only able to get by this frugally by ignoring all that advice about getting tests, blood work and ect. My wife wasn't so lucky she had a serious condition and ran up about 30k in bills before her insurance ran out and then another 100k in un insured expenses.
No specialists in our area will see her because she has no insurance so she is frequent flyer you might say. If she quits taking her meds because she doesn't get a refill her lungs close up and she will Asphyxiate. Funny thing is the cost of her going to the specialist once a month and paying cash for the meds and visits over the course of a year would keep us in cable television, cell phones and beer for the rest our lives with money to spare.
Her Insurance before she lost it was right at $1500 a month just for her (COBRA) if she paid that she still had $600 a month in Co-Pays for prescription drugs and Specialists visits. Co-insurance and deductibles added then another 6k a year or ($500 a month). Golly, if only I had thought to cancel my cable TV and cell service everything would be great right now.
At this point I don't feel too bad about soaking the taxpayers frequently and in large sums. I must tell you it is a really delightful sort of pleasure I take when they send the hospital financial person around to her room shortly after she is admitted and they ask how we plan to pay for this I just look them in the eye chuckle and say we don't.
I don't think most people have a realistic idea of just how expensive health care is.
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Originally posted by: TutontowHaving been in the EMS business for 30 plus years I strongly feel everyone should have to pay something for health insurance. We called them frequent flyers in my business. These were the uninsured who would take a $500.00 ambulance ride to the ER because they were out of meds and had no way to get them refilled. So they would take an ambulance to the ER and get some new meds with Joe taxpayer picking up the tab. There was plenty of money for beer and cable just no money for insurance. Oh did I mention a cell phone too.
I gave plenty of people rides to the ER for everything from nose bleeds to head aches to a cut finger that could be fixed with a band aid. The abuse of the EMS system is enough to make you sick and guess what most of these frequent fliers are uninsured and we pick up the tab.
I remember responding to a pregnancy where there was nothing wrong it was just that her husband worked nights and he was too tired to drive her to the hospital. So yep we gave her a $500.00 cab ride and you can guess who paid for that and the delivery.
Imagine if we didn't make people buy car insurance and then we as taxpayers had to pay for any injuries or car repairs the uninsured had. That is how our healthcare work now in this country.
I still wonder why an education is a right in this country and healthcare isn't.
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Originally posted by: pjstroh
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Originally posted by: drmilled
I asked previously in another topic-- forkush says " the rates for the family of four,... is being subsidized by the government" - JUST WHERE are the FUNDS that will be used to "subsidized" the rates being funded coming from? Where are these funds that will be used? Well...? And where did/do they come from...?
There was a wide array of payment measures in the law...and the cbo concludes the law is paid for and then some. Thats 180 degrees opposite of the Medicare plan passed by the fiscal champions of the previous administration you voted for twice.
But lets see if you can play defense for once. Who pays for the emergency room cAre of 30 million uninsured people in the system you passionately wish to go back to? Where do we get those funds from? Do the math and get back to us.
