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A lot of my friends and I fell in this category toward the end of college or around graduation when our parents couldn't cover us anymore and it wasn't because we thought we were young and invincible (as so many people like to put it) we just couldn't afford the coverage. I was making $10 hourly, my rent was $500 a month, I had a light bill, cable/phone/internet bill, water bill, car insurance (my car was paid for) and I still had to eat.
Basic medical at my job then was like $80 a month, dental and vision were extra. It was only like $112 a month all together but at the time I just didn't have an extra $112 to give and I made too much money to qualify for Medicaid. I spent a couple of years in that too much for assistance but not enough to afford it grey area. So not ALL young people forgo insurance just so they can drive something shiny.
if you need health care now and you don't have insurance you just get it and are billed I think, if you are dying and not married taxes just pay your expenses I believe, at least that is my experience with the system so far
However, in practical terms, EMTALA applies to virtually all hospitals in the U.S., with the exception of the Shriners Hospitals for Children, Indian Health Service hospitals, and Veterans Affairs hospitals. The combined payments of Medicare and Medicaid, $602 billion in 2004,[1] or roughly 44% of all medical expenditures in the U.S., make not participating in EMTALA impractical for nearly all hospitals. EMTALA's provisions apply to all patients, and not just to Medicare patients.[2][3]
Not wrong at all. I said you could get a broken bone set, or a wound stitched up. Emergency treatments are available. But what that means is actually variable. Your stomach ache may be an emergency to YOU, but to the hospital emergency room it is a stomach ache. Diagnosing the problem can be an expensive, and prolonged process, which the emergency room is not equipped to handle. You don't have any insurance or means to pay for an expensive and prolonged series of tests? You don't have any insurance or means to pay for specialized medicine? Here's a diuretic, go home, see if your stomach ache gets better in 24 hours. If not, come back. We'll try a different medicine then.
So please, don't tell me about EMTALA's provisions. Because in the real world, emergency rooms do turn people away, or worse, they just leave them to sit in the waiting room for hour after hour after hour. And last year we heard at least two cases where people died in those waiting rooms.
Wow you’re right. Gee if I had just cancelled that stupid internet bundle I could have saved $70 (which still doesn’t equal $112 but hey I would have saved $70).
I could have ducked all my mom’s phone calls with no guilt because hey I don’t have a phone- why would a mother worry about and need to call a 20 year old girl living alone for the first time anyway?
I would have even been able to drive my car more because without the internet I would have had to go on campus every day to do my school work.
I would have even racked up more points on my credit card with all the extra gas I’d be needing to drive to school every day to use the computers since the one that my parents had just brought for me was no longer good for anything except typing and playing music.
Oh oh oh and I’d have been able to get one of those pretty $30 decals to park on campus because the Knight Line stopped running after 8pm.
So yeah, now when I think about it made perfect sense to cancel a $70 service so I could spend more time on campus, put more gas in my car, buy a decal, spend an extra hour on the road each day and never talk to my parents.
WOW! Super great advice if only I could go back in time. :
No, what would have really been helpful is if you all could have provided a cure for cancer. Then my father wouldn't have gotten sick, my mom wouldn't have quit her job, I would have still been covered under her insurance and I wouldn't have been trying to pay all my bills on my own, which wasn't the orginal plan when they agreed to let me get my own place.
There is no one-size-fit-all answer for life.
I think a lot of people at my job (I'm still with the same company) forgo the insurance because the coverage isn't that great. I've heard a lot of people say that when you factor in the copay and your portion of the cost that you'd have been better off just saving your money and paying it yourself.
The coverage I was considering was first tier and had a 50/50 patient responsibilty with a $50 copay on all in network visits. Back then the first tier was $96.05 for basic medical (Tier 2 was $118/ $191.27 if you want the HMO) $26.67 for dental and $7.35 for vision – all together $130 and it didn’t even cover my birth control pills. Unfortunately the coverage nor the pay have changed much so I’m sure there are lots of people working here full-time that can’t afford the coverage either. I don't know how people with families manage at all because the family plans are crazy expensive.
Not wrong at all. I said you could get a broken bone set, or a wound stitched up. Emergency treatments are available. But what that means is actually variable. Your stomach ache may be an emergency to YOU, but to the hospital emergency room it is a stomach ache. Diagnosing the problem can be an expensive, and prolonged process, which the emergency room is not equipped to handle. You don't have any insurance or means to pay for an expensive and prolonged series of tests? You don't have any insurance or means to pay for specialized medicine? Here's a diuretic, go home, see if your stomach ache gets better in 24 hours. If not, come back. We'll try a different medicine then.
So please, don't tell me about EMTALA's provisions. Because in the real world, emergency rooms do turn people away, or worse, they just leave them to sit in the waiting room for hour after hour after hour. And last year we heard at least two cases where people died in those waiting rooms.
EMTALA laws have teeth. It applies to hospitals accepting medicare reimbursement from the government. Any hospital caught violating EMTALA will have a hefty fine and lose medicare coverage - potentially closing the hospital.
It's not even just that--my employment has nothing to do with computers...but if I want a paystub, I have to get it online. If I have an HR issue, I can call a phone number or do it online. If I want a list of medical providers that take the company's new insurance firm--have to go online (they won't mail me a paper printout.) Want to sign up, or out of insurance? Online. Want to change the figures going into 401-K? Online. Want to change my withholding deductions, or change my direct deposit to another bank, or cancel my direct deposit? Online.
Oh, and I had to do the last through the company, though my new bank offered to do it for me....online.
Do your a $10 dial-up or a $50 DSL/high speed? Do you have both a cell phone and a line line? Do you live near a library that offers internet for free?
EMTALA laws have teeth. It applies to hospitals accepting medicare reimbursement from the government. Any hospital caught violating EMTALA will have a hefty fine and lose medicare coverage - potentially closing the hospital.
And that still doesn't make YOUR stomach ache an emergency. Oh, it turns out it was cancer. Well, darn it all! That's too bad for you.
Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Morris, Rove, Gingrich and the rest of the "voices of the people" realy do not care whether the healthcare in the USA changes at all or not because they have gold plated health cover. They will NEVER have to sit in an Emergency room because they have a rash or are worried about a sympton, they will be straight into their Doctors office for tests. The Govt, senate and congress are the same. This health debate is just a political football and will be kicked back and forth as a inter house political football game. The winners prize is the gaining or keeping in the Whitehouse.
Uh, people going to the ER with a rash is part of the problem. Nobody should be allowed into an ER that does not have a life-threatening emergency.
Do you live near a library that offers internet for free?
.
People crack me up with the public library comments. If you are trying to do anything other than email or MySpace then the library isn’t the place for you. They have a limited number of computers so you often have to wait, you usually only get 60 to 90 minutes at a time (I’ve filled out applications that take almost 60 minutes because they have those surveys to make sure you’re not nuts tacked on the end) and they close early so if you work or go to school chances are you won’t be able to utilize the library that much, especially if you’re dependent on public transportation like so many posters suggest you should be if you’re having financial hardships. When I lived in Orange County the library closed at 5pm on Fridays and Saturday and wasn’t open at all on Sundays.
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