Insurance, Doctors..etc (per Troll.. ha ha!)

[debilorrah]

My stepson takes 5 different medications, one of which would be $678/mo if we weren't insured. His is an going life long problem that HAS to be treated. My fiance takes 8 different medications due to an incredibly resistant infection in his prostate. He cannot go without it either. Even with the $4 program and just paying co-pays we pay over $200 a month. I know I can't really complain, but man oh man. Add in the $30 co-pay for office visits and YIKES!

 

[mychickensrock]

Yeah, we'd never make it without insurance. I'da been dead long ago (I'm only 31) but without my brain surgeries and seizure meds, gonner! That whole $5000 credit thing McCain was proposing would have done my family NO good. Jeez, I'd be lucky to get insurance period. The only reason I get it is through DH. No company is gonna insure someone who has had as much crap happen as I have.

 

[wendy]

Quote:
If i remember correctly pharmaceuticals have had the highest jump of any industry in our country.

 

[HennysMom]

you know, there just isnt an easy answer to any of this. You have to have insurance in once sense in another - you cant afford insurance either. Its just incredibly sad all the way around. I look at my hubbys grandmom who gets a measly $700 a month, is on Medicare and is told that she makes too much money to qualify for food stamps or any type of assistance whatsoever!

$700.00 a month is NOTHING! She gets her meds from Walmart as well (thank god for that!) but even under Medicare's Part D program (go privatization part I with gov't still holding the cards part II

), she still has to pay for it for coverage and its just the most basic of RX plans because she can still get them cheaper at Walmart without ANY insurance at all.

Gov't pays for Medicare Part A if you're disabled (which covers hospitalization only)- you pay for Part B - and the only so called "private" part of Medicare is Part D for your RX coverage, either way you go you're paying for a ton in either deductibles (if I use my Medicare part A, I am disabled *which I dont due to high ded of 3500 a year*) I will have paid out more than they will ever pay in. So - any way you go you're still paying. Now - I have had private insurance BC/BS for years, I chose not to pay into Medicare B or D options years ago when I became disabled. Now if my hubby loses his coverage at work - and I go into Medicare B & D - I must pay a penalty for every year I chose not to enroll - making my cost for my Medicare Coverage an incredible 80% MORE than what a normal premium would be. Uhm, excuse me, but if I'm already disabled...why in the world am I being penalized for not signing up for a gov't plan when I am already ON IT? I also I got more coverage and had a better plan under my husbands work benefits so I didnt enroll then, but if he loses his job and I have a "lifestyle change" I'm still disabled...and am still in Medicare, am still eligible, but..make me pay 80% MORE because I already had another plan and chose it over Medicare... Explain that one...

Let's face it - our entire society is a disaster - and its utterly tragic.

 

[AngieChick]

I just watched an interesting documentary comparing the health programs of other nations. Most have insurance companies (except for the UK), however they are not allowed to make a profit and must cover everyone, among other regulations. The key seems to be taking the profit for insurance companies out of the equation. Insurers still compete for business, they want to stay in business and grow, after all. We in the US spend more on health care than any other developed nation, and have among the worst statistics as far as mortality. For that spending, we still have 1 in 5 without any insurance in this country. Of course some people in other nations will always have complaints about their healthcare, everyone does, complaining is in our nature and nothing is perfect. However, no one goes bankrupt anywhere else due to medical costs and their average lifespans outpace us, as well as having much lower infant mortality rates (very telling). As our population ages we are going to have to take drastic steps to address this issue. We are fortunate that there are so many countries with different systems that we will be able to learn from and glean from them what works.

I think sometimes people that are in a more comfortable lifestyle can be a bit unaware of how much a lack of good health insurance impacts those in the ranks of the uninsured. We have been lucky, we have had health insurance since leaving college. However, I believe no parent should have to ask themselves if they can afford to take a sick or injured child to see the doctor, a very common occurrence for many.

 

[wendy]

Quote:
I read a article where a lady had been in Britian and had to go to the ER and she was treated horribly. She laid on a gurney for 20 hours before ever seeing a doctor and was left in the hall way with all the other patients waiting to be seen.

She said she would have much rather been in the united states and gotten treatment here. But her job brought her overseas.

Edited to add: we have our problems here. But other places are worse off. Plus they are socialist countries or a step away from it! I would rather be here. Thank U

Wendy

 

[AngieChick]

Quote:
Regulation does not equal socialism. What's in a title if it works, anyway?

My Brother in law had a heart attack in CA several months ago. He died on the table, but due to wonderful care at the hospital in Oakland survived. As a result of the heart attack, he had a clot that they had him on a blood thinner to ease out. He began having leg pains, and was warned that if something like that happened he could be dying due to complications. My sister and father rushed him to the ER close to their home in Central CA. To make a long story short, the nurses lost his chart and he sat in a room in the ER for over an hour, the only reason they realized he was still there was that my sister went up to them repeatedly. They finally ended up leaving to another hospital in disgust once they realized that the nurses lost/misplaced his chart and were obviously incompetent. They were able to get ahold of his specialist (who was livid ) and were seen immediately at the next hospital. He survived, but no thanks to the first hospital.

We can match horror story for horror story, don't kid yourself that we get better care here. The statistics speak for themselves, if you are lucky enough to have insurance.

There are many excellent hospitals and nurses in many countries, including ours, but there are also major problems.

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
You can't really quote one or two stories, there are MANY MANY more horror stories right here on home turf. People left waiting in er's - or getting WORSE illness and infection IN the hospital etc.

I don't think other places are worse off. USA is very high on the list of infant mortality - I don't know the numbers but there are MUCH smaller 3rd world countries with lower death rates than here.

 

[mychickensrock]

Quote:
Very interesting reading. I've been trying to decide if it's worth my while to apply for disability. Your story makes me not even want to bother. The thing that kills me is my husband makes a good living. We live modestly (in a mobile home), don't go out to movies, maybe eat out once a month, only have 1 car payment, etc. yet our medical expenses are drowning us. This last time I went to the ER, I put off going because all I could think about was how much it was going to cost.

The comment about kids not be able to go to the doc...been there. I just had to cancel my daughter's appt with her pediatric gastroenterologist because of the cost. It's a $20 co-pay and then because his regular office is at Duke Hospital, I get a "doctor bill" for $169 and a "hospital bill" for $180. Why?! We didn't even use the hospital. I can't help where his office is located! I was able to fight the charges the first 2 times, but not anymore. Now we just have to hope our regular pediatrician can keep everything under control. That makes me feel like the worst parent ever

 

[silkiechicken]

One thing that makes pharmaceuticals $$$ is that in the US, companies are allowed to advertise to people. It is illegal in other countries to do so, and in some cases, advertising to the public is 1/3 of the total cost of the drug. As for birth rates, in the US, if a child is birthed, even if extremely premature, it is tallied as a live birth and then death if it dies, in some others, if the child is premature, and there are no access to drugs to even open airways of premature babies, they do not count as a live birth. Often here, babies are born who would have in other countries never survived and thus not counted as even a live birth to be tallied if they pass. Due to modern medicine, the range of birth weights have started to vary greatly away from average, which over generations increases the amount of med care required for more kids since we have largely stopped selection for the fittest in humans.