So what will you do when your "Mandatory Health Insurance"....

[Crazy Dave]

Tells you that they'll only pay $20,000 for surgery and treatment that will cost $200,000 and only after you pay your $2000 deductible and 20% co-payment up front?

[Iris]

1. put a jar out at a convenience store cash register asking for donations

same thing un and underinsured people do now.

[regnaD kciN]

2. Grin and bear it...

...because, of course, the law will require you to do so. "Individual Mandate," donja know?

And you can thank President Hillary while doing so.

[Kittycat]

4. Oh, but she cares so much about the little people. She wouldn't do that.

:sarcasm:

[Crazy Dave]

5. It's not only her

Kucinich is the only candidate who wants 100% government funded single-payer health care. That's why he gets shut out of all the debates. That and the fact that he's never voted for the war, the patriot act and the continued funding of the war.

[CTyankee]

43. Er, doesn't the law require you to pay Medicare and SS taxes

on the first dollar of your paycheck now? You can't tell your employer to please stop deducting them because it makes your paycheck too small!

Obviously, the mandatory part will be handled through the tax code and applied to everyone. Will you pay higher taxes? Probably, but spread across all of the tax base nationwide will be cheaper than anything we've got now...

[ingac70]

3. Kill the CEO...

If I am paying for coverage, the coverage I pay for is denied, and it looks as though I'm going to die or live out a miserable existence 'cause I can't get the health care I was paying for anyway..... I'll take my chances in prison.

[Crazy Dave]

11. I'm really trying to get a point across here on DU today

And as you stated above, those of us currently paying voluntarily are already getting screwed.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x7333039
At first I thought I thought the insurance company was going to pay around $4100 out of the $7300 I owe the hospital but I got a letter today saying that they will only pay $1900.

And I still have to pay my premiums and keep the same company because now I've got an existing condition that's probably (more than likely) in a world-wide database.

[backscatter712]

13. The Smith & Wesson Health Care Plan is awfully appealing...

Hell, if I'm terminally ill, what are they going to do, kill me?

[onethatcares]

18. then you'll at least get some care,

they'll take your home of course, but that's what the medical companies would do to collect anyhow. one point, we don't do the aggie horn symbol when we see each other in prison, that sign sucks big time.

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. In prison you'll get treatment. How ironic is that?

[Clark2008]

38. And in prison, you would get taxpayer-funded and complete healthcare.

So... there you go.

[Ganja Ninja]

39. Yup. What other choice do you have?

If the divide between the have's and have-not's keeps going the way it is, killing is going to become a viable alternative to a host of problems.

[judaspriestess]

6. thats a great question

what good is it to have insurance if it doesn't cover anything.

[doc03]

7. What are you trying to say? I thought the

idea was that every American should have health-care coverage. This sounds like the argument the Repugs used in 1993 to defeat Hillary's health-care plan.

[Crazy Dave]

12. This is exactly the type of plan the republicans wanted

It's the Romney plan. Hillary's original plan was to give all American's free single-payer health-care. The republicans and Hillary now want to make it a law that every American must have health insurance but only if they or their employers pay for it.

[doc03]

15. Were does it say they will only pay $20000

for a $200000 operation? What do you think Medicare does now and it's a government plan? They tell the providers what they can charge and the patient has to carry supplemental insurance to cover the balance. Dennis Kucinich may have the greatest plan in the world but he isn't going to be elected. Does any viable candidate have a plan you approve of?

[Crazy Dave]

17. Hell they probably won't even pay that

It's up to each individual insurance company what amount they'll pay (if approved) and once there are laws forcing you to buy what they're selling it will only get worse. That dollar amount is just an example of similar cases that are currently happening not only to myself with my insurance company but with millions of others too. Will be glad to loan you my copy of "Sicko" if you need more examples and clarifications.

[doc03]

22. Well who is a viable candidate with a

plan you approve of? And what is your opinion on Medicare (a government health-care plan) like you want that does exactly what you are complaining about? I am serius who do I vote for to get the best health-care plan? Don't say Kucinich he is not going to win no matter how good his plan is.

[Crazy Dave]

25. So you only worry about a candidate who can get elected?

There's no point in having a discussion with an individual who doesn't even want to discuss health-care, only which candidate can get elected. No candidate with the exception of Kucinich has an acceptable single-payer, government funded health-care plan. The rest, including Obama have already received big fat contributions from the insurance companies and their lobbyists and trust me a mandatory health insurance plan will get 100% bi-partisan support from the republicans.

As I stated above, people who only support someone because "they can get elected", or they're campaign staffers or those in the insurance industry are not going to convince me that because I'm supporting someone who supports my ideals and better healt-care access for all Americans that I'm somehow doing and saying the wrong thing.

If you're really interested in what people "who can get elected" and force us to buy health insurance real plan for Americans is, read: Murder By Spreadsheet: CIGNA Denies Claim and 17-Year-Old Will Die
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/20/92943/929/400/424700

Of course this poor young lady is already deceased
http://www.zimbio.com/Nataline+Sarkisyan/articles/5/CIGNA+Insures+Their+Subscribers+Die

But the good and more important news is that Hillary won New Hampshire right? :sarcasm:

[doc03]

30. I am not sure I want a government healthcare-plan

I have asked twice now what about Medicare? They tell the provider what they will pay for each procedure, that's what a government health-care plan is going to be. My dad was on Medicare and that's exactly what happened to him, Medicare would say pay $10000 for a $20000 procedure. Medicare would pay 80% of the allowable amount and my dad's former employers insurance would pay the remaining 20%. This left us with a bill of $10000. When my dad passed away we had to sell the family home to pay off those bills. The government paid off the unpaid balance at the hospital of $180,000. But we had to pay off around $30,000 in doctors charges ourselves. Ther's your government health-care plan.

[Mojorabbit]

32. I am not sure I understand

from your post a hundred percent was paid. Was it a deductible that needed to be met that caused you to have to pay so much? I have medicare but no secondary plan and I cough up the balance myself.

[doc03]

35. I will try to explain again, I thought it was plain enough

My dad had Medicare. Medicare pays 80% of the allowable amount for a each type of procedure.

Example:
If a hospital charges $40,000 for a knee replacement.
Then Medicare will tell them we are only going to authorize $30,000 for that procedure.
So Medicare pays 80% of $30,000 or $24,000 then in my dad's case his employer's insurance payed the
the other 20% or $6,000.
Then he had to pay the $10,000 difference between the actual charge and what Medicare payed.


When my dad got out of the hospital he owed them over $180,000, now the government has a program where if a patient can't pay the bill they will pick it up. But my dad had other bills for radiologists, doctors and various other things that he was still responsible for so when he passed away we had to sell our family home to pay off those bills. Now if my dad never worked or just drank up all his money and didn't own any property he would have qualified for Medicaid and everything would have been paid. My mother had a few thousand dollars in CDs when my dad died 18 years ago and after about ten years she had depleted all her savings and now she qualifies for Medicaid. She couldn't get a damn bit of help until her entire life savings were gone. Now with Medicaid she gets, free meds, all her medical bills are paid, gets meals on wheels and a lady comes in 5 days a week and cleans her apartment and runs errands such as getting groceries and things.


In short if you work all your life and you get sick you have to loose everything you ever worked for before you get any assistance.

But if you had a low paying job without health insurance or you if you don't even care to work at all Medicaid will pick up all your medical bills.

[ThatsMyBarack]

8. Write my will....

....and kiss the world goodbye. :(

[Bright Eyes]

9. Debtor's prison

[Mountainman]

10. I'm for single payer, the government and get rid of insurance companies.

You would pay a portion of your income taxes straight into the system. If you pay no taxes and you are wealth you pay directly. If you are poor and pay no taxes you don't have to pay.

[Crazy Dave]

14. Must experts who know how much money the government wastes

Say we could have it without even raising taxes.

[focusfan]

16. I will not buy health insurance

We all do more for this country than it does for us.After all the tax money we give these crooked bums in our lifetime we deserve more.Is it to much to ask that the government keep us healthy,bury us when we die and keep the roads up.That is all I want not more cops not more military not more lawyers.

[onethatcares]

19. seriously, what will they do? arrest those that don't have insurance

and put them in jail? wtf is wrong with that scenario.

[MadHound]

28. No, Hillary has already tossed out there that having insurance

Will be a prerequisite to getting a job. No insurance, no job. No job, no money. No money, no insurance. Ain't this a grand plan that she's got cooked up? Trouble is that this is the plan that the top tier candidates all have, with minor, mostly cosmetic variations.

The only one who is truly promoting a single payer plan that covers all is Kucinich. Once more, he is right on the issues, but sadly the media ignores him, trivializes him as his own party does the same. I truly hope that he decides to go Green, I think that he could make a serious run and it would quite frankly serve the Democratic party right if he does so.

[alarimer]

42. That makes no sense

How can a person without a job afford health insurance? This, if true, is a sop to business. Your insurance should come with the job or be single-payer from the government (like Canada maybe).

[CTyankee]

44. But the poor are protected already through Medicaid and HRC will expand it

to cover more low income individuals and even middle income people's children thru SCHIP.

She included employer paid insurance coverage because her research showed that some people liked the coverage their job gave them and didn't want to give that up. This bears out what I hear a lot of people saying, "I'm afraid I'll get something worse" is what they say if I mention single payer health care.

Please go back and read her proposed health care plan. It DOES protect those who cannot pay (and I presume this includes many people without jobs).

[jody]

20. Total cost of health care is $2 trillion/yr. The question is how will health care be funded. Neither

Dem or Repug party has an acceptable compromise solution. Do you?

[Jacobin]

21. One thing that strikes me

Physicians have been very successful at severely limiting the number of people who are admitted to medical schools, for the purpose of keeping fees high. Its a guild.

I know of several extremely intelligent people with 4.0's from very good universities who couldn't get into medical school

A small piece of the puzzle, but artificial limits on the number of doctors is one problem

[jody]

24. OK but at the same time foreign MDs have little trouble getting a visa to practice in the US. IMO

the average MD is not overpaid for the education time and experience required to practice medicine.

[Crazy Dave]

26. See #10

But you can deny it if you choose.

[jody]

27. OK but if society is expected to care for all, then society can demand that everyone who is able to

work, work. Society can make jobs for those able to work and unable to find jobs.

I do not support giving a free lunch to those who are able to work but refuse to work.

[Crazy Dave]

29. You're all heart

Lot's of people who work, some work two jobs, some work seven days a week and they still cannot afford to pay $600 - $1000 a month to insure themselves and their families.
Then take the individuals who have worked for the same company for many years and had insurance that was covering a pre-existing condition. All of a sudden their job and their insurance goes overseas. Sure, they're still capable of working but still totally fucked.
Just like those of us who currently have insurance, pay the premiums and are continuously denied our benefits. For some the denials are fatal. Just ask the working family of Nataline Sarkisian.
http://www.zimbio.com/Nataline+Sarkisyan/articles/5/CIGNA+Insures+Their+Subscribers+Die

[jody]

31. Read more carefully what I said. You are talking about something completely different. Have a nice

day. :hi:

[focusfan]

36. How much of that 2 trillion is proffit?

[jody]

40. I don't know, do you? n/t

[focusfan]

41. I wish I did,I bet they will never tell the truth either

[cynatnite]

33. Suck up to my distant rich relatives n/t

[Swamp Rat]

34. die

eom

[Vinca]

37. The same thing I'll do now if I get sick without any insurance at all.

Go to bed, pull up the covers and hope for the best. Unless, of course, I've moved to Canada by then, in which case I might have to wait in line for a little while, but I'll have a good chance of surviving without going bankrupt.