What is Digg?466 Comments
- thelastcivilian, on 02/15/2008, -4/+57The amount of blood the "insurers" have on their hands is heartbreaking.
- eir574, on 02/15/2008, -2/+39Not everyone can get decent insurance. My father is a dentist, so my family used to have coverage through his provider's network. During that time, my mother had uterine cancer. Fortunately, it was caught early, and a hysterectomy completely cured her since the cancer had not spread. Not too long after that, my father was forced to retire due to a latex allergy, so my family needed individual health insurance while he looked for a new job. Because of my mother's two week battle with cancer, insurance companies kept turning her down, or quoted prices so high that there was no way we could afford them on my father's disability insurance payments (and, even if we could have, the coverage was terrible). Not everyone who doesn't have health insurance is lazy or cheap, and not everyone who has it is well covered.
- Odopoddie, on 02/15/2008, -1/+37The HMO's are a gigantic bureaucratic blood sucking entity that needs to be cut from the health care industry like a cancer with a sharp knife. Here's an entity that does not give care, yet takes the majority of money that should otherwise go to doctors and hospitals.
- JAG731, on 02/15/2008, -4/+33It's all a scam. Most doctors and hospitals are in on it. I've seen it, I've lived it. When will we know it's fixed? When one walks in to a hospital or doctor's office and the first question asked is "Where does it hurt?" vs. "Do you have insurance?"
- fizzak, on 02/15/2008, -2/+28I just got my bill for a 1/4" gash in my index finger. They soaked it in some solution, the nurse told me it was nothing more than Palmolive dish soap, then they bandaged it and sent me home saying no stitches needed. Total of 20 minutes tops..... I got the copay bill... $94 for the Palmolive, $840 for the emergency room visit, $180 for the bandage. Cost to me: $100 copay.....for a Bandaid.
- inactive, on 02/15/2008, -0/+25It wasn't until recently that I encounterd a problem with my health insurance company. It was the first problem I had in 10+ years and I discovered very quickly how inflexible the bureaucracy is. So far things are going my way but it has been a months long struggle with fairly large amounts of money on the line.
Before this I was one of the ones that was sure that national healthcare was a bad idea. After getting caught up in the for-profit bureaucracy I'm not so sure anymore. At least with a national program I'd know that the bills would eventually be paid. With the current system i am left not knowing what will happen. - Ganja420, on 02/15/2008, -11/+35Everyone should watch this movie http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3886979/Sicko%5B2007%5 ... it really shows how messed up healthcare is in the U.S. oh yea and Michael Moore said it was ok to torrent it =b
- diskit, on 02/15/2008, -2/+25Some- no, ALL of that stuff is pretty ***** up.
I mean, some countries are far worse off than the US, but still, for the supposed "greatest country in the world" people deserve better. - 711Security, on 02/15/2008, -3/+22Time to move to Norway... http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b5d_1195670526
- staxofmax, on 02/15/2008, -0/+18Last year my wife had outpatient surgery to remove her gall bladder. While in recovery they gave her one generic vicodin pill for the pain. At a pharmacy the pills cost about 50 cents each. The hospital charged over $350 dollars for it. Granted, a cup of water was included with the pill, which added some to the cost.
- SammyJr, on 02/15/2008, -1/+19Just like now. We pay for the uninsured through higher hospital bills and longer wait times in the ER, not to mention free services like Medicaid.
I'd rather that everyone paid into the pot, even if it is just a little tiny bit. - MikeCollie1990, on 02/15/2008, -2/+20http://digg.com/educational/Why_Legalizing_Marijua ...
Erm... "How would you like free, quality health care? Legalizing marijuana would save the federal government billions of dollars every year, enough money to make serious steps in that direction." - exegesisClique, on 02/15/2008, -2/+18Yes. But in this instance he's right.
- inactive, on 02/15/2008, -9/+25America, home of the brave. err
America, home of easily manipulated people. - Skooma714, on 02/15/2008, -2/+17You do know Hillarycare is basically just mandatory insurance right?
- exegesisClique, on 02/15/2008, -3/+18He wants us to have Universal Single-payer Healthcare. Huh. Thats an agenda I can sign my name to!
- zeitgueist, on 02/15/2008, -2/+17I know. And what the ***** is with his kid using the school you're paying for too? What a dick he is. And driving on that part of the road you pay for!
- exegesisClique, on 02/15/2008, -1/+15Not to mention the waste that is inherit in our current system. In addition single-payer health-care would dramatically cut costs for administration.
- EXTER, on 02/15/2008, -3/+171. Carol Ann Reyes Dumped From Hospital Into Skid Row
A homeless woman named Carol Ann Reyes was admitted to Kaiser Permanente Bellflower hospital because of a nasty fall she took. She stayed for three days, at which point Kaiser called her a cab, and instructed the cab driver to dump her in the Los Angeles area known as Skid Row. Reyes was wearing only a thin hospital gown, because, as the hospital later admitted, her clothing had been lost. Carol was confused and suffering from dementia, but Kaiser put her on the streety anyway, and was only caught because of a videocamera running outside of a homeless shelter.
2. Hannah Devane’s Insurance Company Won’t Pay For The One Thing She Can Eat
Hannah Devane has a horrible disease of the esophagus that makes it impossible for her to eat normal foods. Hannah literally needs a special formula called Elecare to survive, if she didn’t drink the Elecare she wouldn’t get enough food to live. Naturally her health insurance company refuses to cover Elecare, calling it a “nutritional supplement.” The thing that she needs to live is a supplement to the insurance company. Her only source of nutrition.
Hannah’s father, a police officer, is now working two jobs so that he can afford the formula for Hannah.
3. 9/11 Workers Denied Health Care
A large portion of the 40,000 people who worked at Ground Zero in the days following 9/11 have come down with life changing respiratory illnesses. The dust in the aftermath of the terrorist attack was filled with asbestos and tiny bits of glass.
This is a terrible fact, but one would assume that these people would have nothing to worry about. Surely the government wouldn’t forget about the people who sacrificed their personal well being on that day. Forty percent of 9/11 responders are without health care, either because they never had it, or because they have lost their jobs since becoming ill. The government pledged a paltry $52 million to cover their health care costs, a figure that was deemed “inadequate” by the federal 9/11 health coordinator. It has gotten so bad for 9/11 workers that they recently have been forced to sued the World Trade Center insurance fund so that their health care needs could be met.
Source
4. Emanuel Wilson Denied Chemotherapy In Wake Of Hurricane Katrina
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Emanuel was a school bus driver in Louisiana before losing his job in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The government met some of his needs after he was displaced - he received money and food stamps - but what he really needed was chemotherapy.
Wilson had intestinal cancer, and had been getting monthly chemo before the hurricane hit.
The government helped people with health care after Katrina, but only if they were completely destitute. If you had health care and a job before the Hurricane, you were out of luck after if you lost that job and health care. So essentially Wilson was punished for playing by the rules. He was covered. Until natural disaster.
5. Shirley Loewe Denied Medicaid Coverage For Breast Cancer Because Of Loophole Law
Shirley Loewe was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003. At the time of diagnosis she was uninsured and her $15,000 a year income as a hairdresser was too high for her to qualify for Medicaid in Texas.
However, there is a federal law that allows women diagnosed with breast cancer to receive Medicaid treatment even if they don’t meet all of the normal criteria.
Loewe was denied again anyway. At the time Texas was one of 20 states that only applied that law if a woman was diagnosed at a clinic that received federal funding. Loewe was not diagnosed at such a clinic. She was diagnosed at a medical center half a mile away from a qualifying clinic. Loewe ended up cutting back her work hours so that she could qualify for charity care.
Loewe died in June of 2007, after four years of stress dealing with money and bureaucracy.
6. Tonya Gullino Has Miscarriage, Blue Cross Deems It “Elective Abortion”
Tonya suffered a miscarriage last August, and understandably had to make an emergency room visit. About three weeks later Blue Cross & Blue Shield sent a statement denying the claim related to the miscarriage. Tonya called to find out why and was told “We do not cover ELECTIVE abortions. If you chose to terminate your pregnancy for non-health threatening reasons, BCBS will not cover it.”
Despite the emergency room visit occuring near midnight (who gets an abortion at that time of night?), Blue Cross still asked Tonya to fax over her records stating that she did not have an elective abortion.
7. Jim Dawson Hit With $1.2 Million Hospital Bill, Despite Having Health Insurance
Jim Dawson found himself in the hospital at the age of 61 fighting an infection. It proved to be a lengthy battle, with Jim spending five months in the hospital, but it had a happy ending. At the end of the five months he was pronounced healthy, and was able to go home to his wife Loretta.
That’s when the phone calls from California Pacific Medical Center started, reminding him that he still owed $1.2 million in medical bills.
This happened despite Jim having health insurance, because his insurance caps lifetime benefits at $1.5 million, a cap Dawson hit two and a half months into his stay. He also has debts totalling into five figures to scores of doctors who were involved with his case.
Tough luck you might be thinking, caps are there to protect health insurance companies from massive payments far beyond what you could reasonably expect right? Sure, maybe, but Jim would have never hit his insurance cap if his hospital wasn’t doing things like charging him $791 for stockings (to improve blood circulation) that can be found online for $12. Or the $2,225 to $6,675 a night for an oxygen mask to help him sleep.
He also wouldn’t have hit his cap if doctors had correctly diagnosed his staph infection early enough to be easily cured. Various doctors made the wrong call however, leaving Dawson with a medical bill he can’t hope to ever pay.
Finally, when a reporter from the Wall Street Journal began investigating the story, California Pacific decided to write off his entire bill. Strange how that works.
8. Aetna Takes Eric Simpson’s Prosthetic Arm
Eric Simpson lost his arm after being brutally attacked by a masked gunman who shot him seven times, all in the arm.
Luckily, he had insurance (for which he paid $530 a month), and Aetna said he was fully covered to obtain a prosthetic arm. Good thing because the prosthetic cost a whopping $37,000.
Eric got the arm, and spent a week learning to use it when he took a call from his insurer telling him they were sending someone to collect his new arm. They told him he should have known he only had $2,000 in coverage for artificial limbs. Despite the earlier pre-approval.
Aetna followed through, and repo’d the arm, before realizing (a week later) they had made a mistake. Eric had full coverage for prosthetics after all, and eventually got his arm back, but not before going through an incredibly stressful experience at an already unbelievably stressful time in his life.
9. Natalee Sarkisyan Dies Because Cigna Drags Their Feet
Natalee Sarkisyan was a 17 year old girl from Glendale, California. She suffered from recurrent leukemia, but was lucky in that her brother was a marrow match. She received a bone marrow transplant from her brother in November of 2007, but the transplant led to multiple organ failure that affected her kidney and liver.
Natalee needed a liver transplant, and was covered through her parents health insurer, Cigna HealthCare. Cigna denied the liver transplent. Her family organized widespread protests and attracted a great deal of media coverage, causing Cigna to reverse their decision. But it was too late, and Natalee died just a few hours after Cigna approved the procedure. - inactive, on 02/15/2008, -4/+18Healthcare is broken because Congress forced the HMO system on us. Prior to that, our health care system was the envy of the world. Will more government really fix it?
McCain can tell the voters that IRS agents will be used to enforce Obamas health care plan, even if it is only required for the parents of kids. Somebody will have to collect those insurance premiums. Obamas plan involves similar enforcement as Clinton's when it comes the parents of children - not much better if you ask me. Besides, once Obamas plan is in place, how long until everybody if forced to join? How long until private sector plans are banned, and all exemptions are taken away? Somebody has to cover the deficits Obamas plan WILL incur (all social programs eventually run in the red), and we all know that the people will soon find themselves existing for the benefit of the health care fund, not the other way around - just like social security.
http://www.digg.com/2008_us_elections/Clinton_Obam ... - mrgreen4242, on 02/15/2008, -1/+15You're insurance DOES NOT COST $150. It might cost YOU $150, but your employer is picking up a big part of that tab; at least another $150, if not much more.
- zeitgueist, on 02/15/2008, -0/+13STOP SAYING ***** YOU CAN'T PROVE. You're just repeating talking points.
US is 72nd in overall health: http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/annex01_en.pdf
41st in life expectancy: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/08/13/life.expe ...
US pays more per capita in taxes towards healthcare than all of those countries that did better than us(2006 data):: http://stats.oecd.org/wbos/default.aspx?DatasetCod ...
You fail. - SergioValente, on 02/15/2008, -1/+14I hear ya, but the hospitals wouldn't be charging these ridiculous rates if it weren't for the insurance companies. Its the only way they can recover costs because nobody picks up the slack for the uninsured.
In other words, health care should be like police/fire, the state has a responsibility. - Jolene, on 02/15/2008, -5/+18I have a friend who works in the health insurance business. The Natalee Sarkisyan story is horribly miss represented. A new liver would have given her a few more months to live, where as it could go to someone else who could get years out of it. Livers aren't in abundance, it was put to better use. That's not to say that she didn't deserve to live or anything like that. It was just the better option to give it to someone who could get the most out of it.
- inactive, on 02/15/2008, -2/+15I might get dugg down for this one, so be it.
I've worked in a hospital for a while now, as a Respiratory Therapist, so this is how I personally see it. First off, our hospital barley makes a profit, and we're a for-profit private hospital. Our rooms are modest, we do not cater to the financially well off for the most part. We do have four luxury suites but in the end the patients get the exact same quality of care. In other words, if I'm paged to setup a treatment for a patient in our normal private rooms and five minutes later I'm paged to give a treatment to the luxury suites, it's still first come first serve unless something requires my immediate attention.
The reason people are charged so much is in reality you are paying not only for yourself but for one or two other people who never paid. In our facility, we get paid about 45% of the time, so that means 55% of our patients do not pay their full bill. Some will pay a few hundred dollars and stop, some will pay not a dime.
Three things people don't consider:
1. The cost of the skill professionals to staff the place is a lot, thanks in large part to a labor crunch. Our nursing department is only about 60% staffed. This means salaries are high, and a lot of overtime is available. Thanks to the low staffing, burnout and turnover are huge among nurses. If the patient load wasn't enough, the nursing staff goes through quiet a bit of abuse. In a hospital, we witness and treat the worst of society. Many patients mistake their hospital room for a hotel room, and demand hot meals whenever they want, room service, and "not to be bothered" while sleeping, and treat those highly educated nurses like room servants. Not to mention, seeing the worst of society is tough on you. My heart broke when I had to treat a neglected and sexually abused three year old, the poor boy was so skiddish like a beat up dog. I also felt bad for days after unsuccessfully doing CPR in an 8 year old girl who was the sweetest thing, who just happened to have a heart condition. It really bothered me because four hours earlier they were getting ready to discharge the girl, took everyone by surprise. All this stuff requires a high pay, if the pay for nursing staff gets cut then nobody would do the job, plain and simple.
2. I hate to lay blame on a group of people here, but illegal immigrants are a huge reason your medical bills are so high. When I work the ER, I'd say at least 25-30% of the time I need a translator. We have birthed so many babies for free who had illegal immigrants for parents, we could start a small city. Financially, 4% of illegal immigrants treated for medical services pay their bills in full. This is a true statistic. Not to mention, our ER Doc is now the PCP for these children. During RSV season, our ER is full of children with coughs and colds, most of the kids have parents who speak no English. Thanks to federal law, the ER can never turn anybody away, we are required to treat everyone no matter how minor their condition.
3. Ok, some people are poor, I understand that. I believe health care is a right everyone should have. However, I believe certain actions should wave that right. I heard a sob story several weeks ago from an overweight middle aged female with COPD, hypertension, diabetes, and CHF about how she could never afford to buy insurance. She told me she can't even afford to pay the hospital $20 a month our collections agency worked out with her for previous visits. She does find money to smoke two packs a day, eats fast food at least twice per day, drinks "only on Fridays and sometimes Saturday too", and even admits to recreational drug abuse "but that's very rare". If people don't take responsibility for their own health, why are the taxpayers forced to? - thelastcivilian, on 02/15/2008, -0/+12Not to mention the hospitals. I can't imagine being a doctor these days - even if you wanted to treat someone fairly and offered your services free of charge, you've got the hospital administration charging ridiculous amounts for basic necessities. I can only wonder how much Jell-o costs at some of these places...
- duodave, on 02/15/2008, -1/+13You think that's bad - I'm a disabled dependent of my father, who was in the military - but health benefits are only extended to the unmarried dependents - so if I get married, I lose all my health coverage! To make matters worse, I also need a treatment my insurance says is "experimental" and wont pay for! Health insurance is broken.
- inactive, on 02/15/2008, -1/+13Sadly haven't seen that greatness of old in anything else except the missile arsenal recently.
- esantipapa, on 02/15/2008, -1/+12How about the case of Carmelo Rodriguez?? Forget that one?
http://digg.com/world_news/A_Question_Of_Care_Mili ... - theclansman, on 02/15/2008, -10/+21I love living in Canada, I love that I can go to a hospital and get excellent care and they will not even mention price.
The funny part is that because its such a profitable business in the states, you guys get ripped the ***** off. Same thing in the states will cost 10x what we pay here, lol talk about retards - zeitgueist, on 02/15/2008, -1/+12Yes, just like now. But you'd be paying less.
BUT NO, EVERY OTHER FIRST WORLD COUNTRY JUST GOT LUCKY IT IS DIFFERENT HERE! - theworldisflat, on 02/15/2008, -0/+11My father, who served 2 tours in Vietnam & was a very successful department manager (Well educated, making aprox 175K/yr for a global engineering firm), has been hit hard by the ever escalating cost of health care over the last few years. Like many folks, he had a good paying job and good insurance...good savings account, retirement plan, etc. When he got sick (2 heart attacks, major back surgery and some other stuff, all in what seemed like the span of a few months) he spent over 400,000$ of his own money **AFTER** what the insurance companies paid. His totals were in the millions for all his bills, a lot of which were complete ***** (1 nights stay in the cardiac unit = 57,000$ for example). All of my parents savings were wiped out, they spiraled into debt trying to take care of things.
They've been reduced to living in a 20 year old house (about 900sqft compared with about 5200sqft old one). They've sold just about everything they've had to try and catch up with the day to day cost of living, let alone the debt they had. He shells out 1200$ a month for his meds, and another 900$ a month just for life insurance (which isn't much in all honesty for what he pays for it). He has no health insurance now, since he was basically disabled. He is uninsurable by anyone due to his medical problems. Social security is a ***** joke, as is trying to get *anything* from the VA hospitals related to care. Medicare? Good luck with that. My mother, who also is well educated and made about 100K a year, ended up loosing her job for having to spend so much time taking care of him and whatnot.
It's ***** amazing, isn't it? If you think this scenario couldn't happen to ANYONE, think again. The system doesn't just ***** over people without insurance, it ***** over everyone in the end. - SammyJr, on 02/15/2008, -9/+20Republican American by chance? They're the only types I ever hear bitching about the Canadian Health Care system.
- iloveliberals, on 02/15/2008, -5/+15Everyone complains about the cost of insurance, but few question the cost of the healthcare itself. It was recently reported that insurance companies have a profit margin under 10% (closer to 5). If that's true, and a large part of the problem is the cost of healthcare itself, making the federal government the insurer will not solve the problem. The federal gov now runs an insurance program called Medicare, and spends $10K per person per year. That's about triple what private insurance costs. There's no free lunch, people, and frankly I'm not interested in subsidizing yours or anyone else's.
- kingmanic, on 02/15/2008, -1/+11'With a national program you are still paying the bills, you are also paying the bills for the people who can't afford to pay their bills.'
And oddly you are still paying less. Look up per capita expenditure on health of the US vs the entirety of the western world and you'll see how much you are getting ***** over by "for profit". - vuke69, on 02/15/2008, -2/+12Did it ever occur to you to maybe put a band-aid on yourself? I believe they have directions right on the box if it is too complicated for you. Or hell, even if you thought your little 1/4" cut needed professional attention, why not go to an urgent care clinic, instead of the emergency room? It would have cost a quarter as much, and would have allowed the doctors and nurses keep their attentions on someone that was actually injured.
I know this may be counterintuitive, but the emergency room is **SHOCKER** for EMERGENCIES. Not for some little boo-boo you got. - brentcatoe, on 02/15/2008, -0/+10Google Cache
http://209.85.207.104/search?q=cache:_pNBZdhANCwJ: ... - SergioValente, on 02/15/2008, -1/+11Insurance in theory works: the well pay for the sick. But today's HMO's have it all backwards. They even deny care to young, healthy adults. Or they squeeze every last dollar out of them even when they're well. Something has to change.
- jimfeet, on 02/15/2008, -3/+13And what, pray tell, do you think his agenda is?
- vuke69, on 02/15/2008, -0/+10In their defense, they probably had to special order one small enough for you.
- saintdesy, on 02/15/2008, -0/+10*****.
I was in the hospital a few years ago getting an op on my foot. Took about half an hour. I had paid for the surgeon, his staff, and the anesthesiologist separately. When we got the bill back from the hospital, it was for $27,000. Less than one hour of being in the hospital. $22,000 of that was written up under the general category of "Supplies" with no detail of what those supplies were. Unless they had to buy a car to take me to the operating room, I don't think you can legitimately say that was a fair bill. This ***** happens all the time. For profit hospitals are a travesty and a recent development, back in the day nearly every hospital was run by a non-profit organization, now we have this *****. People should not be allowed to profit off of health care, that is the root of the problem right there. - bobbarkerbilly, on 02/15/2008, -7/+16I'd rather wait "forever" than not have the proper surgery done at all because my insurer thinks it's too expensive.
- zeitgueist, on 02/15/2008, -0/+9Link it or shut up.
- exegesisClique, on 02/15/2008, -2/+11There are some inherit problems with socialized medicine. Thats why most people want single-payer healthcare. That way the Hospitals, doctors, nurses and other staff are not employees of the state. In a single-payer system hospitals are, for the most part, privately owned and operated. They just send the bill to the government. Germany uses this system, and its one of the best in the world.
- marc123, on 02/15/2008, -2/+11What about the UK I bet our system is better than what most americans get and its free
- lukemann, on 02/15/2008, -1/+10Next time, be a man and just pore some vodka on it and wrap it in duct tape
- breckinshire, on 02/15/2008, -1/+9Yes. The author of the article interviewed every single person in the United States and only found 9 who had complaints about their health care. She began work on this article in 1947.
- CigarJack, on 02/15/2008, -3/+11After seeing the ridiculous charges the hospitals make I hate them more than insurance companies. At least the insurance company pretends to help me. I was very frustrated after dealing with 3 different billing departments after my wife had a baby.
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