I spent 3 hours in the ER on the 15th. I just got my $11,000.00 bill in the mail.

Originally posted by MessOnTheFED!
Health care should be free PERIOD.

Yes it should. But they have deliberately made it so we have to pay an extreme amount of money for it so we need private health insurance.

If it was the Government's responsibility to look after the health of its citizens, it would keep them honest. But by forcing us to pay for our own health gives a huge incentive to those in charge to make us sick.

reply to post by c0ldPhr34k


You can't just knock a man when down. Who knows what's been going on in the OP's life to lead to this point. And as for: 'Get a job you lazy...' that isn't fair. It is very easy to sit on a pedestal and preach to the masses, but our own unique paths in life are very different.

Originally posted by angelwrangler
reply to post by In nothing we trust

 

The person doing me the most and best good is my LAC (acupuncturist) Julie...my medical doctor is amazing because her entire practice is made up of "incurables". She encourages us to embrace anything we believe will help us. She helps me with the pain and fatigue somewhat, but the real healing is coming from my LAC and yoga and bunch of other stuff medical science does not recognize.

I'm a huge believer in chiropractors, nutritional suppliments, excercise and alternative healing.

reply to post by c0ldPhr34k


Well said Mr Freak. It about time people actually started to act responsibly when it comes to their lives, credit and what they can afford. If you can not afford it upfront, DO NOT GET IT!!!

These people complain when they have their bill REDUCED?????????????????? Madness. Why are so many people on ATS unemployed?????????? Or cant afford anything? I wonder if there is a link between anti-government and being a loser?

Originally posted by c0ldPhr34k
Even if you are disable. In my book thats no excuse. Disabled want equal right well get a JOB.

LOL you must be kidding or living in fantasy land.

First off I'm disabled and no one is going to give me a job whether I wanted one or not, and I do, I've been looking for a part time job for years.

Two problems you are obviously not aware of...

1. A person with a disability can not do certain work due to their disability.
2. Depending on your disability no one will hire you because you are too much of a risk.
3. You won't get health insurance due to pre-conditions.

OK that's three. So now how easy do you think it really is for a disabled person to find work, let alone find work they can perform as well as anyone else?

Originally posted by TheManipulator

It about time people actually started to act responsibly when it comes to their lives, credit and what they can afford. If you can not afford it upfront, DO NOT GET IT!!!

To be fair doctors should post their fees up front and ask the patient before hand if they agree with the charges before they provide the service instead of making it up after the service was performed. I have a feeling most people are signing a blank check when they check in at the ER.

Originally posted by TheManipulator
reply to post by c0ldPhr34k

 

Well said Mr Freak. It about time people actually started to act responsibly when it comes to their lives, credit and what they can afford. If you can not afford it upfront, DO NOT GET IT!!!

These people complain when they have their bill REDUCED?????????????????? Madness. Why are so many people on ATS unemployed?????????? Or cant afford anything? I wonder if there is a link between anti-government and being a loser?

I wonder if there's a link between being a self-righteous judgmental narcissist and . . . (last portion omitted due to offensive content).

He should not have been charged $11,000 to begin with. $3,000 is way over the top and grossly excessive for the services he was given.

The medical services system in the USA is broken.

It's sick joke except for the wealthy and those who are well insured. The two fundamental problems are that there are too many big fat greedy sticky fingers grubbing for their share of as much profit as they can wring out of any and every medical "service" rendered coupled with the structure of the private FOR PROFIT BIG BUSINESS health insurance industry.

Originally posted by adigregorio

My sympathies are with you OP. The medical industry is the only profession that is booming in this depression. The medical industry is the only profession that legally makes dough off of keeping people ill. The medical industry is worse than any "them" or NWO.
Because we know they are real, we can see their dirty work daily.

(This inculdes ALL doctors, if they recieve a paycheck from this monster. This means they condone the behavior, no excuse.)

edit on 12/28/2010 by adigregorio because: silly sentence fixing

Wow, do you have any clue what you are saying??

You are basically condemning ALL doctors accusing them of being greedy and only there to make money out of sick people.

You are a joke, do you honestly think that anyone in their right mind would go to medical school for 4 years (which puts them in debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars) then do a residency for another 3-5 years (working 80 hours a week and only getting paid 40k) to then care about making money after all this???

Do you honestly think that your doctor is doing more harm to you than the politicians and the billionaire bankers???

Maybe next time you get ill or get in an accident you should avoid those "evil" doctors

Originally posted by stewalters1
That is absolutely shocking. why the hell with all the money the usa has cant they give its people a national health service like we do in the uk. If every tax paying law abiding citizen took a stand and said no more! WE WANT NHS then the government would obediently back down and give the mass what they want . Its not like your in a 3rd world. I hope you get this sorted.

One thing I have to say to this, the US does not have a lot of money, the US, all its states and the UK for that matter are all not only broke they are in levels of debt they can never pay back. So all this healthcare debate may become a memory from the good old days, people may soon be more concerned with finding food to eat.

Now with that said, yes our priorities are screwed up, and we should be spending money we don't have on health care instead of wars.

reply to post by groingrinder


Try to negotiate it. If insurance already paid that much I don't know how well you will do, but it's rare that an insurance company pays the whole amount. They may have gotten 8000 discounted but didnt pay that much.
Talk to the hospital and ask them if they will knock some off if you pay a lump sum. Like 1700 all at once. Then get a loan and pay payments on the 1700. They don't tell the people that they can pay a lot less and that insurance companies never pay the whole bill.

If you took all the politicians in the country and added up their salaries, it would literally be 2 times the amount of Universal healthcare.

We spend more money on politician then we are willing to spend on health care.

reply to post by PonyoSon


Not to mention the money spent on the military. How many cruise missiles would it cost us for universal healthcare? How many drone attacks? We spend more money trying to kill "alleged insurgents" then we do trying to take care of our own.

Think about it, we pay millions trying to kill poor people in foreign countries and near nothing helping the ones we have.

Originally posted by TheManipulator
reply to post by c0ldPhr34k

 

Well said Mr Freak. It about time people actually started to act responsibly when it comes to their lives, credit and what they can afford. If you can not afford it upfront, DO NOT GET IT!!!

These people complain when they have their bill REDUCED?????????????????? Madness. Why are so many people on ATS unemployed?????????? Or cant afford anything? I wonder if there is a link between anti-government and being a loser?

This ^

I am surprised at the amount of people here on ATS who are either unemployed or are just plain "losers" as you put it.

I will tell you what though, I don't think that there is a direct link between being a "loser" and anti-government.

What happens though is that people who either lose their job or aren't even good enough to go to college or find a job in the first place end up here on ATS complaining about how the "government" sucks so bad.

They are always trying to blame something else and not their own incompetence.

And yet they still have the money to buy and time to waste on an internet connection and all the other crap i-phones and i-pods.

Hypocrites much???

And please don't give me this BS that there aren't any jobs available. If you look hard enough you will find plenty of jobs, just swallow your pride and accept that minimum wage job.

I am just getting tired of this whole selfish and free-loader mentality that has plagued society.

Originally posted by Steam

Originally posted by TheManipulator

Why are so many people on ATS unemployed??????????

Or cant afford anything?

I am surprised at the amount of people here on ATS who are either unemployed or are just plain losers.

So many smart people are unemployed, it really does beg the question.

Why are so many people on ATS unemployed?

My father was in the hospital this year for two weeks before he died. While in the ICU a doctor told my mother that she could just pay very small amounts of the bill every month. She said to give them $5 a month and that as long as your paying it you'll be fine and they can't send collectors. Not sure if it's true. This is in California by the way not sure if it's a state thing.

Originally posted by In nothing we trust

Originally posted by Steam

Originally posted by TheManipulator

Why are so many people on ATS unemployed??????????

Or cant afford anything?

I am surprised at the amount of people here on ATS who are either unemployed or are just plain losers.

So many smart people are unemployed, it really does beg the question.

Why are so many people on ATS unemployed?

Nope, "smart" people usually are not unemployed (and if they are they get a job as soon as possible). If someone is truly "smart" they know full well that they need a job or a source of money in order to sustain themselves.

Unemployment benefits will not last forever.

If you don't take the initiative to find ANY job, then soon you will find yourself on the streets.

reply to post by groingrinder


I completely understand . . . it is out of control and somebody is making big bucks on it. I spent 15 minutes, if that, in an office visit with a doctor and was given an MRI that ended up costing me $2500. On another occasion I had went into a Respiratory therapist to inquire about a CPAP mask and I was instructed to purchase it online as they "billed the insurance company triple what we would have to charge a non-insurance customer." Very interesting stuff and smells of corruption in the system if you ask me, actually, it reeks of it!

I haven't read all 23 pages so there could be a good chance that what I am saying has been already said. I live in Canada and we have taken for granted our health care system when it comes to having to pay for all that. Having free health care means sometimes you could be waiting to see a doctor for up to 12 hours, or not to be seen by one at all because you can't wait any longer. I think that as americans you can't have your cake and eat it too. You spend trillions on bailing out greedy corrupt financeers, spend billions on your military and countless of unseen billions If not trillions to get the rest of the world to see things the "american way". You would have free health care, probably the best in the world If you could reverse the trend of spending back to taking care of the people. You have yourselves to blame for not having this. you should have voted in politicians who would make the right choices for you. I could say alot more on this....Having seen people in this situation before is really,really sad.................

Originally posted by PonyoSon
If you took all the politicians in the country and added up their salaries, it would literally be 2 times the amount of Universal healthcare.

We spend more money on politician then we are willing to spend on health care.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this... Seriously... Does anyone even think about what they post anymore?

The salaries of US politicians is twice the cost of universal healthcare? Care to document that?

Health care costs have been rising for several years. Expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2.3 trillion in 2008, more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990, and over eight times the $253 billion spent in 1980.

www.kaiseredu.org...

2.3 trillion dollars in 2008... That is for the "bad not universal" healthcare not the "good universal" healthcare that will cost much, much more.

2.3 trillion dollars looks like this:

$2,300,000,000,000.00

There are about 300 million people in the USA.

300 million looks like this:

300,000,000

Let's just say that one out of every thirty USA inhabitants (we won't even go the citizen route) is a politician.

That would make it ten million politicians in the USA... A ridiculously high number, but let's run with it since ridiculous has been the order of the day.

Ten million looks like this:

10,000,000

That would mean that the average politician would make $460,000.00 a year.

$2,300,000,000,000.00 divided by 10,000,000 equals $230,000.00 multiplied by two (since you said it was twice the amount) which is $460,000.00

The President of the United states only makes $400,000.00

So who are these politicians and what are they doing for almost half a million dollars a year?

There are a few politicians out in California making more, but they are in jail now.

The reality is that if you take every office holder from the POTUS on down to the lowliest podunk town dog catcher you are probably talking three million offices tops... And a good number of them are taking a token salary of one dollar, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Originally posted by Steam

Originally posted by TheManipulator
reply to post by c0ldPhr34k

 

Well said Mr Freak. It about time people actually started to act responsibly when it comes to their lives, credit and what they can afford. If you can not afford it upfront, DO NOT GET IT!!!

These people complain when they have their bill REDUCED?????????????????? Madness. Why are so many people on ATS unemployed?????????? Or cant afford anything? I wonder if there is a link between anti-government and being a loser?

This ^

I am surprised at the amount of people here on ATS who are either unemployed or are just plain losers.

I will tell you what though, I don't think that there is a direct link between being a loser and anti-government.

What happens though is that people who either lose their job or aren't even good enough to go to college or find a job in the first place end up here on ATS complaining about how the "government" sucks so bad.

And yet they still have the money to buy and time to waste on an internet connection and all the other crap i-phones and i-pods.

Hypocrites much???

And please don't give me this BS that there aren't any jobs available. If you look hard enough you will find plenty of jobs, just swallow your pride and accept that minimum wage job.

I am just getting tired of this whole selfish and free-loader mentality that has plagued society.

edit on 29-12-2010 by Steam because: (no reason given)

if you dont see a problem with something that take 3 hours costing thousands of dollars, how does that work?

i have a really good job and i still wouldn't be able to afford healthcare if i wasn't covered. i don't thik people are being selfish asking for something we all could easily have.

Americans pay taxes to help their quality of life go up, not to kill poor people, and line the pockets of useless politicians. I can't find anyway to justify an EKG, a urine test and a ultrasound costing $11,000.

where does that figure come from.

also a thought, 2,996 died on 911 and we've spent literally trillions as a result, yet its estimated 45,000 American die every year due to lack of health care and nothing. A bunch of MAKESHIFT PATRIOTS!

If 911 happen every month it would kill 35,952, still 9,000 less then how many people die from lack of healthcare. IF American safety is the goal of these wars we are in, don't you think we should at least acknowledge the fact that would could save allot of lives through health care.