Man amputates his OWN leg because he could not afford hospital operation

crazyewok

Tusks




There's an old saying--"There's no such thing as a Free Lunch."

Maybe not but hospital and debt collection agency dont come knocking on your door and takeing everything you have just for needed medical treatment.

Can you name someone to whom this has happened to? Funny thing, neither can I. Now I do have a friend who was in a bad motorcycle wreck, did not have any coverage, yet got all of the treatment he needed. He still owes yet he has a paid off car and all of the amenities in life he needs, he just pays what he can. No one comes after him or harrases him. What people do not understand is that THEY CANNOT TAKE YOUR POSSESIONS, they can in the worst case scenario, put a lein on a house or car, which just means you cannot sell those until the lein is lifted.

reply to post by WaterBottle


Actually it is true in the US. He would not have been denied treatment. He may have had some bills to pay or work out or get donations or seek charitable help or go on Medicaid, but he would not have been denied treatment.

Notice that this situation happened in a single-payer socialist medical system in the "worker's paradise" of Red China.

reply to post by crazyewok


People in America don't lose homes and belongings due to medical bills either, but sure, continue to believe that myth.

reply to post by LeaderOfProgress


but then there was this -

Medical problems caused 62% of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. in 2007, according to a study by Harvard researchers. And in a finding that surprised even the researchers, 78% of those filers had medical insurance at the start of their illness, including 60.3% who had private coverage, not Medicare or Medicaid.

link
yeah I think we are quite lucky over this side of the pond,

reply to post by Cuervo


You do know that healthcare in the UK isn't "free," right? Someone foots the bill and the funds do not come from the magical money fairy.

Lady_Tuatha
reply to post by Tusks

 

would he be hit with the bill afterwards? If so, how does that work if he cant pay it?

In the US they would save your life then come after you for everything you have ruining what's left of your life maybe even making you wish they had just let you die instead.

My father died in a hospital he even had insurance they are still trying to come after my mother for the bill even though legally they can't they still send $30,000 plus bills to her and make collection calls daily. She has dementia and is grieving her husbands death and if I didn't take care of all the bills for her and retain an attorney for her she probably would have given in to them.

The pay for care system here is disgusting. The reason they come after her is the insurance pays reduced fees to them they would much rather try to collect their inflated fees. There is no law against them trying.

Lady_Tuatha
reply to post by LeaderOfProgress

 

but then there was this -

Medical problems caused 62% of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. in 2007, according to a study by Harvard researchers. And in a finding that surprised even the researchers, 78% of those filers had medical insurance at the start of their illness, including 60.3% who had private coverage, not Medicare or Medicaid.

link
yeah I think we are quite lucky over this side of the pond,

That is mostly because of how the bankruptcy laws are set, if one can prove medical related causes then there is WAY more leniency on the proceedings. Most of those claims are by well off people who tried to skirt the system in order to get tax write offs and just failed. Funny thing though, poor people (to whom this bill is supposed to help), never file for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is for people who made plenty of money and failed to manage it properly. Pre-existing coverage is going to cost a horrendous amount of money excluding the poor. The complexity of this law will cause death just like your system does. You experience delay tactics in an attempt to reduce cost as will we. Your system is just as flawed.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


Say what you like about the NHS (National Health Service) here in the UK, but there is no way that he would have gone without the treatment he needed over here, regardless of what he could afford.

America is so backward when it comes to looking after the health of its citizens...it's just crazy...like you're all in the stone age or something....makes me sick.

Rev

NavyDoc
reply to post by Cuervo

 

You do know that healthcare in the UK isn't "free," right? Someone foots the bill and the funds do not come from the magical money fairy.

Yeah... and cops, firemen, and parks aren't free. But I bet if they were privatized, they would cost 10 times as much just like our healthcare system does.

This man needs some Obamacare. Then he can pay out the ass for health insurance and still not afford to pay to get his legs fixed.

revmoofoo
reply to post by Lady_Tuatha

 

Say what you like about the NHS (National Health Service) here in the UK, but there is no way that he would have gone without the treatment he needed over here, regardless of what he could afford.

America is so backward when it comes to looking after the health of its citizens...it's just crazy...like you're all in the stone age or something....makes me sick.

Rev

He never would have either here in the US. But with this new law just like yours, delay tactics will be used. THIS CAUSES DEATH BY INADVERTENTLY REFUSING TREATMENT UNTIL IT IS TOO LATE. It happens all of the time here and there, your system is just as flawed, you personally have not experienced what others in the UK have because you are still alive. Quit listening to your state run propaganda machines and do your own research, you might be shocked when you find out how many Brits die from delay tactics.

Cuervo

NavyDoc
reply to post by Cuervo

 

You do know that healthcare in the UK isn't "free," right? Someone foots the bill and the funds do not come from the magical money fairy.

Yeah... and cops, firemen, and parks aren't free. But I bet if they were privatized, they would cost 10 times as much just like our healthcare system does.

The pay and retirement pay of public employees like cops, firemen, and school teachers is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy of cities and States in the US. Get a clue.

reply to post by LeaderOfProgress


Wow! You're a funny soul aren't you?

The NHS has it's problems, but it has cured my wife of cancer, twice and continues to provide her with treatment and medications for her other health issues. It has also given me all the treatment and medication I've required for the past 23 years. And let's not forget about our elderly friend who had her hip replaced after waiting less than 8 weeks. So I'm sure you can see why I love the NHS. Don't get me wrong, it used to be better, but so did everything else when you get to a certain age.

Oh and don't forget, the NHS is free to every UK resident, no questions asked. Some people do pay for prescriptions, but even that is only £7.85 per item and if you need a lot of medication each month, you can sign up for a pre-payment certificate (£29.10 for 3 months or £104 for the entire year) which will entitle you to get as much medication as you require with no extra payments.

I'll tell you what I don't love though...narrow minded people who cannot see good where it exists because they don't have a clue what they're talking about, but hey, it's not my place to judge you like you did me.

Have a lovely weekend LoP. And have a Star for making me chuckle.

Rev

revmoofoo
reply to post by LeaderOfProgress

 

Wow! You're a funny soul aren't you?

The NHS has it's problems, but it has cured my wife of cancer, twice and continues to provide her with treatment and medications for her other health issues. It has also given me all the treatment and medication I've required for the past 23 years. And let's not forget about our elderly friend who had her hip replaced after waiting less than 8 weeks. So I'm sure you can see why I love the NHS. Don't get me wrong, it used to be better, but so did everything else when you get to a certain age.

Oh and don't forget, the NHS is free to every UK resident, no questions asked. Some people do pay for prescriptions, but even that is only £7.85 per item and if you need a lot of medication each month, you can sign up for a pre-payment certificate (£29.10 for 3 months or £104 for the entire year) which will entitle you to get as much medication as you require with no extra payments.

I'll tell you what I don't love though...narrow minded people who cannot see good where it exists because they don't have a clue what they're talking about, but hey, it's not my place to judge you like you did me.

Have a lovely weekend LoP. And have a Star for making me chuckle.

Rev

edit on 11/10/2013 by revmoofoo because: So many typos, so little time...

We have the same systems here for those who cannot afford such things. Why does no one realize this. My best surmising of this is that most have not been poor enough to require this type of government assitance, and as such have no clue as to it's existence or how it works. I do. My family was that poor. At 9 years of age me and my other 3 siblings as well as my mother livid in a homeless shelter for a couple of weeks, until government assitance and charity kicked in. I have experienced this first hand. At 10 years of age I had a bicycle wreck causing a double concussion and a fractured skull. I spent over a week in the hospital in a private room, all medications paid for, every test ran, CT, MRI, EEG, XRay, an blood work every 8 hours for the first couple of days. My family paid nothing, we owed nothing. It was covered.

I have had plenty of problems in this country with the medical. I was injured at work when a compressor exploded and a piece of metal tore through me completely crushing bone in my lower jaw. If I was in Canada I would have been done with the surgeries 2 years ago minimum but instead I had to retain an attorney just to get the insurance to pay for the surgeries and because they are cheap bastards they sent me to doctors who had little to no experience with these kind on injuries. So I went through 3 reconstruction surgeries that were complete failures not to mention I have been waiting over a year for my next because the insurance doesn't want to authorize it so my lawyer is petitioning for bennifits. They want me to settle with them so they have been dragging things out.

Yeah great system here...sarcasm.

I have been tempted to do just that (settle) then fly to India to finish with the reconstruction.

So please let's not talk about having to wait the American system is plenty slow and costly.

Tusks

Cuervo

NavyDoc
reply to post by Cuervo

 

You do know that healthcare in the UK isn't "free," right? Someone foots the bill and the funds do not come from the magical money fairy.

Yeah... and cops, firemen, and parks aren't free. But I bet if they were privatized, they would cost 10 times as much just like our healthcare system does.

The pay and retirement pay of public employees like cops, firemen, and school teachers is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy of cities and States in the US. Get a clue.

You do realize that more of our taxes are used up by our healthcare system than in the UK, right? It's because of subsidies and costs. So if my taxes are already paying more for healthcare than the average UK citizen's, I would like to at least see something from it.

Our system is broken. When you imagine America socializing medicine, you imagine it being socialized "as is". That is impossible. If our system was fixed and nationalized, then socialized medicine would end up being cheaper than what we are currently paying through subsidies and grants.

In either case, if you ask the average Brit and then ask the average American if they are happy with their healthcare system, there will be an undeniable disparity. Especially when a situation like the OP is being used as a backdrop.


ps edit - Just so you see what I mean, here's an example. Let's take a prosthetic body part. In the UK, there is a government board that decides who makes that part and that company makes all of them for all of the hospitals for a drastically reduced cost. In America, each hospital uses a different vendor and they charge whatever they want and it's almost always twice what it costs the UK hospitals. That's just one example of what socializing would do that would only save and not cost money.

LeaderOfProgress
That is mostly because of how the bankruptcy laws are set, if one can prove medical related causes then there is WAY more leniency on the proceedings. Most of those claims are by well off people who tried to skirt the system in order to get tax write offs and just failed.

Source this. I have never read anything of such kind.

crazyewok


But as I said we dont lose our homes and belongings.

We like it much better that way

I understand you like it and there are some nice benefits in socialist countries, but what of your economy? I am being serious here, what income range do you fall? I will use Dollars, so convert to yours if needed to pick the catagory

0-20k

20k-40k

40k - 60k

60k-80k

80k and higher


How much do you pay in taxes?


I lived in Greece during the summer from 1979 - 1981 and it was a wonderful place. The people seemed very happy, and had great benefits. Now, they have over indebted themselves with pensions and benefits and the economy sucks and the gov't workers are revolting because their parents got all the goodies when the money was there, they worked, and now they see themselves being robbed of the sweet life.

How long does it take to get elective surgery? How long does it take to get a bulging disc repaired? Nothing is free and America is sending TRILLIONS of dollars overseas to bolster their economy. It's all funny money.

Insurance is a scam. It allows prices to be increased exponentially, and the legal system milks it with frivolous lawsuits. We had a fairly decent system many years ago and charity helped cover costs, but now people expect the government to fix it and the government produces NOTHING! Thus, it's just an added cost to the apparently already expensive system. The system is broke and it's the fault of greed going back to insurance and people wanting a "FREE" ride.

reply to post by Cuervo


Your high taxes that go to health-care in the US go only for Medicaid, Medicare, and disability. But under ACA obamacare, you will find out that paying for everybody is gonna be way more expensive than it already is.

PsykoOps

LeaderOfProgress
That is mostly because of how the bankruptcy laws are set, if one can prove medical related causes then there is WAY more leniency on the proceedings. Most of those claims are by well off people who tried to skirt the system in order to get tax write offs and just failed.

Source this. I have never read anything of such kind.

I cannot because it is from attornies who are friends of mine, one of whom specializes in bankruptcies. I can only go off of what they have said and experienced in court themselves. But the fact remains that poor people do not file for bankruptcy.