Hospital bill summary.... GEEZE LOUISE!

[cluckychick]

My DH has been laid off since December, we received our COBRA plan papers this month. His employer had been covering us till now and it was free threw them. They want $1200 a month for family insurance

There's noway we can afford that. There is state insurance (medicad) but that will only cover our son. My DH takes medication on a regular basis for high cholestral and thyroid. Thankfully wal-mart has $4.00 drugs.

 

[PamsPride]

LOL!! Are you sure they did not pull a baby out instead of a stone??? I just had an emergency c-section and was in the hospital for 5 days and that is nearly the exact same amount that was submitted to my insurance!!
Of course my OB was another $4K on top of that.

Of course I owe over $2K even after insurance!

 

[hennypenny9]

I'm reading this topic with interest... Living in a border city (45 minutes from Vancouver BC) our only hospital has many Canadians who got fed up with their waiting lists. I know someone in Surrey BC who has waited nine months for a simple procedure (relating to her pancreas, I don't know specifics). But the Canadians on this site have not had this problem, so maybe this is an extreme case.

On the other hand, I only have very limited health insurance. Basically, emergency treatment is covered but not doctors. I go to a nature path (hippie!) which is rarely covered on any insurance. Still, health care in this country needs a serious re-do. It's really scary the things that happen when people are afraid to go to the doctor. And any change is jumped on and torn apart before the idea is even mature! I'd like a rational discussion, not accusations. Much like we're doing on this chicken related website, LOL.

 

[beak]

Quote:
The stimulus bill is supposed to have medicare available for people that are laid off because cobra is so high. You should check in to it. There is so much disinfo on the stimulus bill it's hard to know what's really in it.

 

[Dar]

LOL yeah us chicken ppl tend to be able to discuss most things with out to many problems

 

[beak]

Quote:
There is coverage available for children at little or no cost to you. I have asthma and not being able to take a full breath is an experience you don't want to have. You should be able to get meds though that program. I'm sorry I can't remember what it is. That was one of the 1st things Obama got done. They extended that plan to encompass most children.

 

[jnjross]

Quote:
and this just the hospital
this may not include the doctor, and lab tech fees,

i got seperate bills from the doc, pathologist, and ct tech!!!
oh and anesthesologist

 

[Bettacreek]

Lol. They accidentally sent me the bill for when I gave birth to our son, and, if I hadn't already given birth, the shock would have sent me into labor, lol. They were charging $300 for the discharge, which consisted of cutting his ankle bracelet off and giving us some formula (he was a breast-fed baby, lol). I don't remember everything else, but they wanted a fortune. Thank goodness I didn't have to pay it! Lol.

 

[AngieChick]

Most people in the states have very long waiting times for specialists, as well. DH recently had to wait 6 months to see a rheumatologist for a basic exam. Dermatologist is about the same. Once you are a "regular" patient, it gets faster.

My mother and I have discussed this issue often. She has heard stories of people having to wait for surgeries, etc. and thinks that our health care would suffer immensely if we went to universal coverage. I think she forgets that we have the same thing here. Of course, as my father was in the military she never had to make that hard choice on whether or not to take a child in for care, knowing that there was no way to pay for it. As I have told her, I feel that it is our civic duty to make sure that all of our citizens have health coverage, not just ourselves. Nothing I say changes her mind about it, but sooner or later someone she knows will have to struggle with this and I suspect it will have a huge impact on her thinking, to see first hand what many families go through. She is a loving, compassionate person, but seems to have an enormous fear of universal health care

,which is funny considering that it's basically what we had as a military family.

There is an interesting frontline that you can watch online detailing the health care systems around the world.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

 

[conny63malies]

Quote:
mine spend three weeks in the NICU and when he was around nine month old another week due to a severe upper resp. infection. all that because my flipping neighbor had to let her stupid JackRussell stray.(i fell over it trying to save my Chi)