Thread: impact on healthcare

I have purchased health plans for under $200.00 per month. Some cost more. It just depends on the type of coverage you want or need. But there are some very affordable plans available. If cutting back on other expenses, living below your means, or selling everything you own is what it takes to get help, or save your life, then do it.

But health insurance is not the only option:

I have worked out cash payment plans with doctors at times when I've had no health insurance. Many doctors will work very favorably with their patients, you just have to ask them. We make payments for expensive cars, boats, motorcycles, and houses, why not doctor bills?

Many teaching hospitals have low or no-cost clinics.

Originally Posted by honedright

I have purchased health plans for under $200.00 per month. Some cost more. It just depends on the type of coverage you want or need. But there are some very affordable plans available. If cutting back on other expenses, living below your means, or selling everything you own is what it takes to get help, or save your life, then do it.

But health insurance is not the only option:

I have worked out cash payment plans with doctors at times when I've had no health insurance. Many doctors will work very favorably with their patients, you just have to ask them. We make payments for expensive cars, boats, motorcycles, and houses, why not doctor bills?

Many teaching hospitals have low or no-cost clinics.

Are you healthy? Do you have a debilitating disease? Are you below the poverty line and/or unemployed? Do you have a family to support?

What makes you think that the people who would qualify for the public option have "expensive cars, boats, motorcycles and houses"? Can't afford a car? Use public transportation. Can't afford a house? Look into low income housing. Can't afford health care? Well then you're S.O.L.

Your first point is basically, "If I can do it then everybody else can." But when every other industrialized nation in the world can make national health care work, suddenly we have to be the exception. Do you work for BC/BS or something?

Originally Posted by Bruno

Is it really gambling if the costs are so high that you can't afford them, or if the insurance company boots you out?

Or my personal favorite (first hand experience, 17 years ago): when the mandatory basic insurance forced on me to subscribe to an university as a foreign student cost way more than my comprehensive insurance and they told me upfront that they'll refuse to cover anything serious thanks to pre-existing conditions. It even got funnier when I discovered that contractual issues rendered my comprehensive insurance useless as I had a local insurance.

Originally Posted by commiecat

Are you healthy? Do you have a debilitating disease? Are you below the poverty line and/or unemployed? Do you have a family to support?

What makes you think that the people who would qualify for the public option have "expensive cars, boats, motorcycles and houses"? Can't afford a car? Use public transportation. Can't afford a house? Look into low income housing. Can't afford health care? Well then you're S.O.L.

Your first point is basically, "If I can do it then everybody else can." But when every other industrialized nation in the world can make national health care work, suddenly we have to be the exception. Do you work for BC/BS or something?

Yes, if I can do it anyone can. What makes you think I'm so different from anyone else?

What is BC/BS?

Originally Posted by honedright

Yes, if I can do it anyone can. What makes you think I'm so different from anyone else?

What is BC/BS?

Since this a well-moderated forum full of helpful members, I'll just say that your quoted response was, well, both stupefying and enlightening. Have fun applying that logic here in the real world.

BC/BS = Blue Cross / Blue Shield, a health care provider.

Originally Posted by commiecat

Since this a well-moderated forum full of helpful members, I'll just say that your quoted response was, well, both stupefying and enlightening. Have fun applying that logic here in the real world.

BC/BS = Blue Cross / Blue Shield, a health care provider.

Ah, no I don't work for either of those.

"Have fun applying that logic here in the real world." - You mean my "if I can do it anyone can" logic?

I've been applying that logic personally in the real world for years. I've found that it works.

I understand why it might be enlightening. But why stupefying?

Originally Posted by honedright

Ah, no I don't work for either of those.

"Have fun applying that logic here in the real world." - You mean my "if I can do it anyone can" logic?

I've been applying that logic personally in the real world for years. I've found that it works.

I understand why it might be enlightening. But why stupefying?

Because what would happen if everyone assumed everyone else was just like them?

I survived cancer, therefore everyone can survive cancer.
I can afford a Porsche, therefore everyone can afford a Porsche.
I'm unemployed, therefore everyone else is unemployed.

What I find stupefying is the notion that people and circumstances are all identical across the board.

Millions of citizens are uninsured. Some of them might choose to be uninsured out of sheer negligence, but you can't say that they're in identical circumstances. Just a few days ago there was an article in the Chicago Tribune about an insurance firm canceling insurance coverage for a 17-year-old girl after she was diagnosed with celiac disease. Fortis Insurance, Co. in South Carolina was ruled to pay a man $10M in punitive damages for rescinding his coverage after testing positive for HIV.

We clearly disagree on this matter and we're not changing each others' minds. My point is that I think private insurers are way more slimy than the government, and that I believe we should be like other industrialized nations and provide health care for all citizens. We were ranked #37 in health care by the World Health Organization in 2000, the last time they actually listed such rankings. I don't know what could have changed in the last 9 years that would put our status any higher today.

Originally Posted by Navaja

What your friend and a other people want is somebody else to pay for their health insurance. Tell him that he gambled (by not buying insurance) and he lost.

Wow. I can't believe I actually read that. The guy is actually dying of cancer and you tell him that he lost his fk*n gamble in the "game of life"? Better chance next time, too? Now that's stupefying. Better not step on your grass.

Also, is there really a "type of coverage" when we're talking about the human body? (No) Insurance companies are the biggest ripoffs ever.
Here are some numbers from California:
"the CNA said it found that the state's five largest insurers rejected 31.2 million claims for care from 2002 through June of this year. According to the nurses' union, PacificCare denied the largest percentage of claims (40 percent), followed by Cigna (33 percent), HealthNet (30 percent) and Kaiser (29 percent). "

A study from the Harvard medical school said that 45 000 PEOPLE die every year from lack of coverage. That's not natural selection, it's "insurance and medical companies selection". And that's not even including people that were denied coverage to start with. Now do you feel as safe even when you're paying your bills? Getting denied life because you're not covered? Oh, you're a comma away from what's written in your contract... and you get denied care - what you paid for. Your life has a monetary value for them, and depend on the "goodwill" of investors AND/OR the State that can enforce some laws on them... cuz if there weren't any... you can sure BET that they would deny even more people.

It's only about gov't expansion? Is this the 40s-50s? Does the word McCarthyism says something to you? Let me guess you were at this protest 2 weeks ago? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPMjC9mq5Y