Do any of you go WITHOUT health insurance? By choice?

[On Our own]

The system will never change because the insurance industry has too much of a strangle hold on our economy.

Our economy is supposed to exist to support the society, not the other way around.

Insurance is supposed to protect the economy not become it! Banking and insurance are parasitic industries that are taking huge amounts out of our GDP and returning almost nothing. Do they provide jobs? Of course they do, but that has become the blackmail of all black mails - "Regulate us and people will lose their jobs!"

We are currently on COBRA with the supplement. Once the supplement is gone we're shafted if DH isn't back at work. I have three meds a day I take, pre-existing conditions including asthma and a cardiac issue. I got salmonella poisoning once when I was much younger and without insurance. I didn't go see anyone because I could not afford it. I tried to treat it myself (didn't really know what was wrong with me) for over a week. By time I passed out at work I was deathly ill. I was in the hospital for a week and now have permanent heart damage. It took me ten years to pay off that bill.

Our kids are on CHIP, right now, but we'd have to drive them better than 40 minutes to a hospital if they needed one because the pediatric hospital we used to go to does not accept the "brand" of CHIP we got.

Did you know the first attempt to "socialize" medicine was under Roosevelt? The AMA shot it down.

 

[freemotion]

What most people don't realize is that the doctors get paid a FRACTION of what they bill. Sometimes they get nothing. So the prices have to go higher and higher so they can make ends meet.

I have a friend whose job it was to shut down a major orthopedic hospital because it was running in the red. A typical issue was that the devices needed (think rods, pins, etc) for the surgeries would cost them so many dollars, and the reimbursment would be half. So before the surgery even started, they would be several thousand dollars in the hole. And it only got worse. But the docs didn't know what to do, so they just kept treating patients. Enter my friend who, after meeting the dedicated group of docs, urged his company to let him work to save the hospital, which he did within about a year or so. But it took some major lobbying.

It is not the docs' fault. I blame it on the insurance companies, arbitrarily deciding what to pay for, how much to pay, what procedures are allowed, etc, and not allowing the docs to do the work they were trained to do. Someone hundreds of miles away, behind a desk with charts and graphs in front of them, is making those decisions.

One of the ways they try to cope is to shorten the time with each patient, so they can get more patients in. Also, paying lower-level employees to look the patient over first....take vitals, for instance...which removes the doc, unfortunately, from some important time spent evaluating the patient.

The only answer is to stay as healthy as possible! But that is not even really possible today. My best friend was t-boned by a kid in a rental car over ten years ago, and the $20,000 in insurance did not cover her hospital stay. They pay many of her medical expenses out of pocket to this day, along with using insurance. They would be destitute without insurance.

I would not be without insurance if I could help it. It can't always be helped, though. Farming is a dangerous occupation. I'd say, at least get something for catastrophies with a huge deductible if you can. You don't want to find yourself saying, "I can get this thumb re-attached, or I can keep the farm."

Oh, and the way malpractice works nowadays, in this litigious society, the docs HAVE to order a bazillion tests to cover their butts so they don't miss anything. I have a doc friend who had to close her practice when her malpractice insurance skyrocketed when she had a claim against her....she easily won the case, but it was too late to save her practice. Her insurance went up to a quarter million a year. From half that. And that was several years ago.

 

[Wildsky]

I blame it on the insurance companies,

Oh I do too.

 

[Marshmallow Man]

The system will never change because the insurance industry has too much of a strangle hold on our economy.

Our economy is supposed to exist to support the society, not the other way around.

Insurance is supposed to protect the economy not become it! Banking and insurance are parasitic industries that are taking huge amounts out of our GDP and returning almost nothing. Do they provide jobs? Of course they do, but that has become the blackmail of all black mails - "Regulate us and people will lose their jobs!"

We are currently on COBRA with the supplement. Once the supplement is gone we're shafted if DH isn't back at work. I have three meds a day I take, pre-existing conditions including asthma and a cardiac issue. I got salmonella poisoning once when I was much younger and without insurance. I didn't go see anyone because I could not afford it. I tried to treat it myself (didn't really know what was wrong with me) for over a week. By time I passed out at work I was deathly ill. I was in the hospital for a week and now have permanent heart damage. It took me ten years to pay off that bill.

Our kids are on CHIP, right now, but we'd have to drive them better than 40 minutes to a hospital if they needed one because the pediatric hospital we used to go to does not accept the "brand" of CHIP we got.

Did you know the first attempt to "socialize" medicine was under Roosevelt? The AMA shot it down.

Socialized medicine would be nice. JMO. You'll never see it though. Fact.

 

[i_am2bz]

See thats whats nuts - my son had to have TWO of those CT scans, and it cost us $800 each. how the heck do they come up with $1300 After insurance? Did the insurance pay $10?

They may as well have. The whole thing was $4400; I ended up owing $1300 of it. I was in tears when I got the bill. And that was only for ONE test.

 

[me&thegals]

It is not the docs' fault. I blame it on the insurance companies, arbitrarily deciding what to pay for, how much to pay, what procedures are allowed, etc, and not allowing the docs to do the work they were trained to do. Someone hundreds of miles away, behind a desk with charts and graphs in front of them, is making those decisions.

I totally agree. Granted, I am in a small town, but our docs do not live high on the hog. They have nice homes, but nothing extravagant, and some of their homes aren't even that great. Their cars/trucks are okay, nothing special. I do not believe they are making that much money out here in rural land. Course, specialists may be another story.

Anyway, a lot of people are living off the $90 or so that a typical patient is billed at our clinic. A LOT of people (see my above post ).

 

[big brown horse]

Back in my small TX town my GP would give me a sweet discount because he knew I didn't have insurance and paid for my visits in cash. He also hooked me up with tons of samples.

Even when I lived in the big city, I would go back to my home town to see him when I needed a doctor.

Eta, he probably made more off of me than anyone with insurance...thats ok with me.

 

[dagaul101]

That is a rare occurence, not very often in the changing world we live in, the risks are just too much to go without

 

[ORChick]

I think many doctors will give a discount if you offer to pay at the time of service - it is always worth asking.

 

[Marshmallow Man]

When you look at your statement from the insurance company, you will always see that the doctor charges about 2 to 3 times what the insurance pays. They pay him a set amount that he has agreed to, If you are paying cash, he should be willing to let you pay what the insurance company pays.

When I didn't have insurance I got a bad case of bronchitis and the doctor charged me 70.00 and gave me samples to help me out. Any scripts he gave were generic, so they were cheap. He was a good guy.