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Again, I have to ask - DID YOU READ THE ARTICLE???
It's pretty clear that either you didn't, or you couldn't comprehend the nature of his situation, despite the simplicity of it.
Until you demonstrate that you have at least SOME basic knowledge of WHY he's not paying for insurance, I'm not going to bother replying to any more of your posts. It's a complete waste of time, and that's a pretty precious commodity.
Again,I'm using common sense. For one,he said the best plan,which in my mind means that he is trying to find the most expensive. What about a mediocre plan? Besides,some posts keep saying he is young,so why would he need the best plan?
Common sense would also tell you if you can't afford a home on one mortgage,why get two mortgages? Or if one has lost a job and is struggling to not have a 400 dollar car payment.
That's a silly idea. Why would you import Indians over here with the high unemployment numbers. Plenty of Americans could do the job.( plis,we are trained better.
Because the medical professionals from India would work for less money.
Because the medical professionals from India would work for less money.
Outsourcing in reverse.
Yes less money ,but also less training,in turn flooding the market like the It industry,remember that? Also less training equals more deaths and accidents. What do you have against doctors and nurses?
As I said,hire more Americans,esp the unemployed. Train them
I disagree with making people purchase insurance by force. But I wanted to touch on some thigns.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTOlover
wow your a person trained to save lives but would rather watch him die in front of you in the ER because he is poor even though you could save his life.
what does that say about you?
It says that medicine is a finite resource and that people who don't take time and money to pay for that resource should not be sitting around getting a free ride. Nurses, doctors, therapists are in a majority agreement around me in saying that the lack of payment we recieve from low income population, illegal immigrants, etc are a net negative force. Two hospitals by us have closed their doors to child birth because of the lack of payment, numerous illegal immigrant births, and increases in insurance premiums.
Saving lives is expensive. I'm sitting here on a break right after a Trauma. Anestesia, trauma surg, ER docs, RT, RN, radiology, plus ancillary staff. Vent, monitor, sono, x-ray machine, CT scanner, IV, blood, antibiotics, pain medicine, etc to stabilize and diagnose. Then your going for vascular surgery, neurosurgery, and orthopedic surgery all requiring their own specialists. Your talking several hundred years of experience and schooling for one patient, and hundreds of thousands in equipment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Annie53
How would being able to buy insurance across state lines fix anything? Are there certain states in the US that have really cheap health insurance? Wouldn't all the the insurance companies just end up charging about the same price?
Kinda like cable/dish/direct tv...........with all of their seperate packages and deals.........you end up paying just about the same price for tv/phone/internet.
No, different areas require insurance to cover different things. FOr instance I want to be covered for normal medical issues, surgery, and profilactic care. Only I live in NY which probably requires me to carry insurance for regular medicine, surgery, hair plugs, boob jobs, and psychological depression (after I get my state/local tax bills). So I can simply skip the NYS insurance plan and buy the plan that I want which happens to be from lets say Iowa.
Not as outlandish as you might think. When I lived in Switzerland I would drive over to France to go to the dentist because it was 50% cheaper than in Switzerland.
Yes less money ,but also less training,in turn flooding the market like the It industry,remember that? Also less training equals more deaths and accidents. What do you have against doctors and nurses?
As I said,hire more Americans,esp the unemployed. Train them
Actually India medical school is pretty darn good.
Not as outlandish as you might think. When I lived in Switzerland I would drive over to France to go to the dentist because it was 50% cheaper than in Switzerland.
The issue is liability, the ability to sue. Go ahead and get that procedure done in another country for 50% of the cost. That works fine in Switzerland to France (since the ability to sue is limited anyways).
But if a USA citizen gets a procedure in another country. Returns to the U.S....gets an infection that needs to be treated in the US hospital. What happens if the end result is severe disability or worse case...death.
Who assumes liability? Doctors in the US are obligated to treat patients in emergencies. This is a scenario that happened to an ENT surgeon friend of mine. Patient got a face lift in Thailand. Went home, got a severe abscess. Rush to ER in the US. ENT doctor operated to get the abscess which spread down the neck.
Patient ends up getting a stroke, now partially paralyzed. Now suing both the hospital and my ENT friend. Why doesn't the patient's family sue the original Thai surgeon? That's the chance you take.
98-99% of the time, surgery can be performed safely in other countries for half the cost. The issue is who deals with the complications and who assumes liability.
Some US hospitals tried to "outsource" radiology readings over to India a few years ago. They all used "board certified" US trained radiologists in India. But the hospitals were faced with this: If the Indian radiologist made a mistake, and is based in India....who gets sued? And if the doctor in India doesn't have a medical license in that particular state, is he/she practically medicine illegally?
I agree with you on liability. But there comes a point where the cost differential outweighs the liability issue.
Yes, the costs (paid out by insurance) vs. what can be negotiated by a cash paying patient is tremendous, almost double in most cases.
My wife just had a C/S. I know I could have negogiated a "cash payment" of around $7000 ($4000 to the OB (for entire office visits and C/S), $1000 to the anesthesiologist plus $2000 to the hospital for their services/room for 3 days).
But we had a high deductible insurance plan. Even with high deductible (we paid out $6000 cash for her high deductible) plus insurance paid out (cause we had met our $6000 deductible), insurance paid out an additional $3000 to the hospital plus an additional $4000 to anesthesia, $500 to the pediatrician and another $300 to pathology.
So compare $7000 cash for C/S to cover all expenses
vs. my $6000 cash deductible I paid out of pocket/$3000 additional to hospital/$4000 anesthesia/500 peds/300 path (That total becomes $14000 in overall expenses).
So that's double the cost of the cash prepayment. Unforunately, many American's don't have $7000 cash sitting around to pay for procedures. American's really only pay for 23% of their health care cost. Everything is "shifted" either the employers pay or the insurance pays for the costs.
It's crazy. I'm in the medical field myself so I know how much providers will accept.
We all know why the costs are so high. Private insurance pays out much more to the providers to make up for the difference in the poor (who don't pay anything and we just eat the cost) or the low paying medicare (even lower medicaid patients).
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