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14 years ago my daughter got bit by grannies little weiner dog the day after Christmas.
A week later we got a letter of denial of coverage because it was my mother in-laws dog and on my mother in-laws property.
I was not going to force my mother-in-law to pay the $5000 bill the emergency room at the hospital had billed my insurance. I went in and ask to make payments. They presented me a bill for $285. I thought that was the monthly payments they wanted. It was the entire bill. I paid it in full.
Done!
Insurance is the cause of the high cost of care. Not the doctors or hospitals.
Ooooo; you can expect Mircea any second now with another epic missive.
Of particular note and specific to this series of posts would be the last para of page #2
"The decision represents only a limiting interpretation of an existing Federal Law that does, in fact, extend coverage to at least some aliens residing illegally in Canada. The decision is focused on this law alone and DOES NOT purport to constitute a free standing interpretation unequivocally holding that illegal immigrants are barred from health services in........"
In short; 'treatment' for an illness is, as it always has been, not denied out of hand to illegal aliens given the severity and time constraints of the illness, while access to 'universal health coverage" may be denied.
Illegals who are deemed legitimate asylum seekers from certain countries do get covered but then they are not there illegally. They are there by permission. This is also a very small number.
Canada has seen a dramatic drop in the number of refugees seeking asylum here after Ottawa began fast-tracking applications from countries where it feels people are less likely to be persecuted.
So you must prove that you are there to avoid a dangerous situation in your country and Canada is coming down pretty hard on these claims and denying a large portion of them. You can't just walk into Canada and get health coverage. No, if you are laying in an ER parking lot hemorrhaging they aren't going to toss you over the hill but once stabilized they will kick you out.
That isn't a knock on the Canadian system. That's simply showing that Canada has accepted that they can not cover the world and keep their system afloat.
I paid $1,000 to settle a 10k bill. The point being is that the entire system needed fixed to properly do this and that was not done. Very little was done. The only thing actually done was for the government to demand that you buy insurance from a for profit company or get fined.
So in our country the point is people need to be aware that they need to haggle and fight the bill. I read the comments from posters from Australia and I must say their system appeals to me though would it work here I don't know. The fact that their cat scan costs $300 and our hospitals attempt to charge $6000 is a far difference. Maybe they pay some more taxes but from what they are saying they don't pay that much more.
The problem with American politicians is they are all greedy and corrupt. In America the politicians attempt to control you when they implement laws just look at Bloomberg for example. Although from I have read Australia has the same thing to a degree.
It is apparent that after Obamacare that the democrats are just as in the pocket of corporations and the health industry as any other. They did nothing to relief costs, all they did is create a power grab for themselves and benefited corporations.
I don't care about rich people as in I don't care if they are rich. They can have 5 mansions, a private jet, 5 Ferrari I really don't care good for them and I don't support bleeding them dry in akll these other taxes like luxury and inheritance taxes just because they are rich. However when it comes to health, I separate the idea that only the wealthy deserve to live. I fundamentally believe we should be a nation of principle that says a persons life is valuable just because they are a person and that value of a persons life is not measured by how rich they are.
It is one thing to have a supply and demand issue where 5 livers are needed but only 4 available and another to not treat someone even when treatment is common and available just because they would cost too much.
I skimmed through the thread "what if there wasn't insurance" and believe that is part of the problem. If hospitals were faced with every patient having to pay cash they would lower their costs because otherwise only a very select few could pay $6000 for a C scan and their hospitals would be empty. That might not sit right with the insurance giants, shareholders and owners of the hospital but I don't have much sympathy for some share holder or hospital owner who drives a Ferrari, has a mansion and a private jet while their investment in a hospitals bankrupts the average American.
I have never had to pay one red cent for any of this. Thank the Lord I'm a Canadian and my country supplies universal healthcare to everyone. Does it not just drive you Americans nuts that we manage to do this and spend only about 50% per capita on healthcare that your government spends?
Nope, I have learned through life that generally one gets what one pays for.
That isn't a knock on the Canadian system. That's simply showing that Canada has accepted that they can not cover the world and keep their system afloat.
Nope, I have learned through life that generally one gets what one pays for.
Well yes that is true often but then again not always. The automotive parts and repair industry seems to work like the health industry as far as insurance. Say you drive a Mercedes or Honda for example. Go to a dealer to buy a starter. If cost from the factory is $100 and list suggested retail is $200 the attempted matrix sale price t you will be $300. The same with labor, if a job says its 2 hours, the service dept will quote you for 3 or 4 hours. They all hope you'll just say ok to it.
However if it is a insurance repair or parts replacement insurance will get their pricing which is straight list and the standard repair time. Although some insurance companies will try to fix your car with cheaper after market parts. I've seen numerous times a insurance company buy a used transmission or engine or cheap after market non OEM part, and then it didn't work and then insurance had to still buy a new one and pay the technician AGAIN to install it twice all because the insurance company was trying to skimp having to pay out. I have no doubt that health insurance tries to skimp paying out on your health also at times.
But repairing your auto is different than repairing your health because you can wait or choose not to repair your car while your health and life is just that. Besides that imagine you get a quote to repair your car and then later they bill you for extra stuff which is common in the health industry, if a repair shop tried to charge more than the quote without your consent you would probably call the better business bureau on them.
I'm generalizing here and I realize that generalizations are only vague statements but there seem to be many who want to say that we should be more like (so and so country) until they are shown the realities of what those countries do.
Now I could be wrong and the Canadians can tell me I am wrong here as I admit that this is just my perception but it's my perception is that Canadians are very proud and very protective of what it is to be Canadians. They aren't generally very happy about watering down the idea that they are Canadians.
That isn't trying to imply that they are not diverse. I've never been to a place like Yellowknife but I imagine they are quite different than those from say Toronto. In Canada it seems to me that few are expecting those in Yellowknife do things exactly like they do in Toronto.
So while many seem to paint Canada as more socialist than the U.S. I say in many ways they are far less.
Illegals who are deemed legitimate asylum seekers from certain countries do get covered but then they are not there illegally. They are there by permission. This is also a very small number.
Canada has seen a dramatic drop in the number of refugees seeking asylum here after Ottawa began fast-tracking applications from countries where it feels people are less likely to be persecuted.
So you must prove that you are there to avoid a dangerous situation in your country and Canada is coming down pretty hard on these claims and denying a large portion of them. You can't just walk into Canada and get health coverage. No, if you are laying in an ER parking lot hemorrhaging they aren't going to toss you over the hill but once stabilized they will kick you out.
That isn't a knock on the Canadian system. That's simply showing that Canada has accepted that they can not cover the world and keep their system afloat.
I'm generalizing here and I realize that generalizations are only vague statements but there seem to be many who want to say that we should be more like (so and so country) until they are shown the realities of what those countries do.
Now I could be wrong and the Canadians can tell me I am wrong here as I admit that this is just my perception but it's my perception is that Canadians are very proud and very protective of what it is to be Canadians. They aren't generally very happy about watering down the idea that they are Canadians.
That isn't trying to imply that they are not diverse. I've never been to a place like Yellowknife but I imagine they are quite different than those from say Toronto. In Canada it seems to me that few are expecting those in Yellowknife do things exactly like they do in Toronto.
So while many seem to paint Canada as more socialist than the U.S. I say in many ways they are far less.
I think you're onto something although taking just the city you've mentioned, Toronto as an example of diversity:
It's not a coincidence that hospital costs skyrocketed at the same time a law was passed forcing them to treat everyone regardless of ability to pay.
Illegals and leeches are the core of the problem.
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