I pay, I pay, but I don't get to play!

[Number_Six]

Just a short thought on this health care debate:

Those of us who have health care coverage? We, and our employers shell out X dollars a month....

...for someone ELSE.

See, part of this issue, which some do not wish to discuss...is that we are already paying for public health care....but we're not getting it.

?

Yes, allow me to explain:

Some time back, I had to go to the ER, fearing a burst appendix. It wasn't, but stay with me on this. So, later, released, I head home and yep, here come da bills, here come da bills...

Interesting item on one invoice: $25.00 for an ibuprofen. I remember it, it was a plain-jane no-brand-name 200mg caplet. Well, I was hurting, duh.

$25.00 smackers?

I mean, can I not go down to Wal-Mart and grab a whole bottle for a lot less? Of course I can. So why did the hospital hit me like that?

Mom says, "that ain't shit. Remember when Dad was on his last few hours? You should see HIS bill." And I read it. Interesting math, no?

Then, later, I run into an old friend who works with radiography. What's the difference between the X-ray film he uses to shoot steel welds versus....? "Oh, they mark the medical shit up, yeah, that's what I was told."

In other words, why do hospitals mark all this stuff UP? Why, indeed.

Talking to my lawyer, the answer is pretty obvious:

"Because hospitals, by law, cannot turn anyone away, whether they have coverage or not."

"Sooooooo, meaning, I'm paying the difference?"

"Yes."

Meaning, we all are, that is, any of us with coverage. Despite being told the ride in the ambulance is mine to eat(!), and other deductibles, I'm not getting my money's worth. None of us are.

We, who do have coverage are, yes, already BANKROLLING the public health care thing.....and we are NOT getting our money's worth....NONE OF US ARE.

I explain this to those are attempting to swallow the gilded BS coughed from the anus of the insurance industry: Don't listen to their spiel.

"Public coverage for all..", I explain, "...would put the costing on everyone, regardless, and then, everyone reaps the benefits of such. As it stands now, we are already paying a huge amount as it is, and for what? We still have millions without coverage, and then get really sick, yes, the law says the hospitals must take them in. How about we deal with them beforehand? Wellness programs and such?"

"Wouldn't an across-the-board coverage be cheaper all around?"

Now, don't take me to be a cold, cruel Re-thug on this, but, let's be totally fair, okay? A man is wheeled into ER, and he's bad sick. He is going to get taken of, yes, even if he has no coverage, right?

But who gets stuck with the bill? Speaking, that is, any of us with coverage. So, I go, and I get stiffed with a $1500 deductible, co-pay this, co-pay that and now, I've had to bargain with the many bill collectors as I can.

But, with public care? Me and this other gentleman are NOT billed. There is NO co-pay this or that. Hmmm! Imagine that.

"But our taxes would go up!!"

Whoop-de-fucking-doo! Duh! Any other brainstorms coming, dude?

Of course taxes will go up, but, in this case, unlike pissing away billions to support shyster banks, a bloated military and shit none of us want to think about.....wouldn't health care...for everyone...be a far better expenditure?

Absotively.

A healthier nation, I think, would kick ass. And be cheaper in the long run, oh, yes.

So, that's how it is. We're paying and not getting our monies worth, and I for one, think we should ALL get coverage, as, after all....aren't we already paying for it?

[Skink]

1. I want to know why I only pay 15 dollars a week and have such great healthcare.

in 08 I went to the ER and it costs 12,000. My UHC payed more than 90 percent of that. why are people paying so much?
I am for universal HC btw.

[Uben]

2. You're right Number Six, but.....

...you don't know the half of it! Yes, we all pay for indigent care. Those who go the private pay route get stuck for twice as much as those with insurance. Why? Because insurance companies make deals with the hospitals to charge only a certain amount for an illness or procedure. Private payers do not have that luxury and the hospitals often charge them twice and sometimes three times as much as those with insurance! They have to do this to stay solvent and give free care to the indigents as mandated by law. Indigents account for about 60% of hospital patients at public financed hospitals, and they are required by law to treat them.

So, yes we are already paying for 60% of the healthcare doled out by public hospitals, and a lot of those patients are illegal aliens who have never paid a dime into the system. If we had universal healthcare, it could negotiate the prices hospitals charge for everyone like the ins cos do now, and probably lower the costs dramatically.

I have a private policy for the wife and I. I pay $15,000 A YEAR IN PREMIUMS WITH A $5000 DEDUCTIBLE! That is more than a minimum wage worker makes in a year! Mine is higher because my wife has had cancer and I cannot get insurance anywhere else. They raise the premiums every six months as much as they can, legally.

[Happy Vic]

3. Get the Insurance industry out of Health care

It is the Insurance Industry that is the hidden consultant in each and every medical procedure.. It is the Insurance industry that gets a cut for every Aspirin..

They are the destroyers of modern medical care.. Fully 1/3 of the time and monies that pass thru health care somehow wind up in their filthy hands..

There is no such thing as health care reform if the Insurance Industry is in anyway involved at the end of the day.

Get them away from our loved ones, our neighbors our friends.

There already exist sufficient monies being brought into health care now to care for all the people the minute the Insurance Industry is driven from health care.

Create a board of comprised of equal numbers of the public and health care persons..

Eliminate Malpractice Insurance. Limit awards for medical errors.. Create an Independent board of medical review and remove Doctors who fail to perform.

Create the equivalent of a Medical NASA. Establish a National Center for medical research. Funnel and fund all research into new medicines and treatments there and let the people of the United States be the Patent holders and the beneficiaries.

Pay researchers generously. Limit the costs of Administrative Staff to 10% of the budget..

Require that all elected and appointed persons in Government. ALL CEOs, Directors and Senior Staff members of all Companies involved in medical care be subject to the same restrictions and requirements as the general public in the receipt of medical care and medicines..Same lines, Same services, same physicians same options for treatment.

Then just sit back and watch things happen for the better..in a hurry..