reuters.com— (Reuters) - Medical bills are involved in more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, an increase of 50 percent in just six years, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. More than 75...
Jun 4, 2009View in Crawl 4
There's also the elephants in the room of healthcare. Like out of control mal-practice insurance because every dips**t out there who can retain a lawyer and charge doctors for previously unknown allergic reactions and things that the doctor and staff had no knowledge or control over. Then there's the un-insured who skip out on payments and raise the costs for everyone else.
You ask Why Single Payer is off the table, JanJamm? There's no mystery. Incumbants of both parties were elected with insurance dollars and now are stuck -- or love it inside -- their pockets. It's cozy for them, they have federal employee coverage, so they basically have a single payer / independent provider system already. Obama PROMISED that citizens would be allowed to join a nonprofit "public option" but now it looks bad for us. Good for insurance companies. I guess corporate "citizens" are more important than human citizens. Damn cheap, too, these politicians can be bought for a few million here and there.
I think if your insurance is not paying for some medical procedure that costs thousands of dollars, you should go to some other country and get it done. For example heart bypass surgery, in US it costs around $80,000, but you can go to some other country like India, where it costs you something like $5000 for the procedure. So for 1/8th of the cost, you can fly, stay, get healthy, visit places and come back. Of course this would not work in case of emergencies, but for other scheduled surgeries, this might be a way to go.
There have been several studies all showing about the same percentages. Although, it is worth mentioning that this is one factor ... and *rarely* the main factor (another study placed it at 7% ... gambling and divorce much higher). Not saying that is an acceptable number; obviously, nobody should need to worry about selling everything they had to pay medical bills. But the title is misleading and just making it easy to refute. Obviously ... there are many factors leading to bankruptcy and job lost will always be #1.
tritisanJun 4, 2009
Really, how bad does it have to get? The US is falling behind the rest of the world in so many ways. How sad and pathetic.
vizerisJun 4, 2009
There's also the elephants in the room of healthcare. Like out of control mal-practice insurance because every dips**t out there who can retain a lawyer and charge doctors for previously unknown allergic reactions and things that the doctor and staff had no knowledge or control over. Then there's the un-insured who skip out on payments and raise the costs for everyone else.
e1evene1evenJun 4, 2009
This is craziness! I wonder what the percentage is up here in Canada? I'm guessing under 1%.
shantitownJun 4, 2009
You ask Why Single Payer is off the table, JanJamm? There's no mystery. Incumbants of both parties were elected with insurance dollars and now are stuck -- or love it inside -- their pockets. It's cozy for them, they have federal employee coverage, so they basically have a single payer / independent provider system already. Obama PROMISED that citizens would be allowed to join a nonprofit "public option" but now it looks bad for us. Good for insurance companies. I guess corporate "citizens" are more important than human citizens. Damn cheap, too, these politicians can be bought for a few million here and there.
dafoeJun 5, 2009
I think if your insurance is not paying for some medical procedure that costs thousands of dollars, you should go to some other country and get it done. For example heart bypass surgery, in US it costs around $80,000, but you can go to some other country like India, where it costs you something like $5000 for the procedure. So for 1/8th of the cost, you can fly, stay, get healthy, visit places and come back. Of course this would not work in case of emergencies, but for other scheduled surgeries, this might be a way to go.
Closed AccountJun 5, 2009
There have been several studies all showing about the same percentages. Although, it is worth mentioning that this is one factor ... and *rarely* the main factor (another study placed it at 7% ... gambling and divorce much higher). Not saying that is an acceptable number; obviously, nobody should need to worry about selling everything they had to pay medical bills. But the title is misleading and just making it easy to refute. Obviously ... there are many factors leading to bankruptcy and job lost will always be #1.
Closed AccountJun 5, 2009
and lazyness underlies 95% of the people with no insurance...