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Why health care costs are so high
YouTube ^ | 05/13/2008 | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLJxmJZXgNI

Posted on 06/20/2008 7:13:38 AM PDT by safetysign

This is a part of a huge and expensive problem we never hear but are paying for. I was hearing these kind of stories when I was in Congress over twelve years ago. No one would listen then and no one is listening now. We just keep paying and paying.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: hospital; illegal
I received this email from former US Representative, Jim Lightfoot.

What a crock that an illegal received $1.5 MILLION in treatment from a hospital in Florida before they shipped him back to Guatamala. The hospital paid to $30,000 to ship him home and now the family is suing the hospital. The hospital is now paying $250,000 a year to lawyers to defend this case.

1 posted on 06/20/2008 7:13:40 AM PDT by safetysign
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To: safetysign

We just keep paying and paying.
:::::::
Washington remains OUT OF CONTROL. A bunch of parasites, interested only their own empowerment, could care less about throwing copious amounts of tax money into a black hole. No accountability. No care. No shame. Welcome to our socialist-controlled Congress, courtesy of the mindless 2006 voters.


2 posted on 06/20/2008 7:20:40 AM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: safetysign

Our health insurance premium has gone up double-digits every year. Something has to give.


3 posted on 06/20/2008 7:21:07 AM PDT by hiho hiho
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To: safetysign

Hey terrorists have rights.....so do Illegals, I guess.....we are the WORLD! Hmmm....wonder if the French Riviera is nice this time of year....It’s part of MY world....so I deserve to go there and use their resources....don’t I?


4 posted on 06/20/2008 7:21:32 AM PDT by goodnesswins (Obama will bring us......CommieLot)
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To: safetysign
With regards to the illegals, if I had my way, I would check the citizenship status of anyone who comes to a public hospital and wants free non-emergency healthcare before administering treatment. Anyone found to not be in the country legally would be immediately deported. As for emergency care, because the courts have ruled that this must be rendered, I would simply wait until such care has been administered, and then perform the citizenship check once the patient's condition has stabilized.

With regards to legal US citizens, I actually give Mike Huckabee's view on this quite a bit of consideration. He mentioned during the debate that most Americans suffer from chronic medical conditions. I think part of the problem is that because insurance pays for so much "repetitive repair treatment" there is no real incentive for people to take care of themselves.

Consider, for example, the drunk who is on his 4th liver. He's gotten his past transplants at a significant discount because of insurance. If the insurance company would be able to tell him they are not paying for the next transplant unless he stops drinking (and submits to random sobriety checks), then maybe he'd have an incentive to not engage in destructive behavior. I know there are significant "slippery slope" problems here, but something has to be done to reduce the strain put on the health insurance industry so that premiums can be reasonable.

5 posted on 06/20/2008 7:21:38 AM PDT by pnh102 (Save America - Ban Ethanol Now!)
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To: safetysign

We can’t ethically refuse or give substandard care but our government can sure turn them back home at the border. We can also deduct medical costs of the ones that get past the border, from aid we send to these countries.


6 posted on 06/20/2008 7:24:11 AM PDT by CindyDawg
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To: safetysign
Health insurance is no longer "insurance".

It is a socialist bastardized godzilla, where the system is short on built-in mechanisms to keep costs down.

Insurance should be a system where individuals could get care in catastrophic scenarios. Instead, its now a mechanism where it helps pay for every bandaid and hang-nail. And, to make sure it self-sustains itself and grows, we are now all dependent on it, and expect it to pay for every bandaid and hang-nail.

7 posted on 06/20/2008 7:26:12 AM PDT by C210N (The television has mounted the most serious assault on Republicanism since Das Kapital.)
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To: hiho hiho
Insurance is killing me too. It is almost at the point where I ask myself why do I bother? If something happens, I will be wiped out probably in any case.
8 posted on 06/20/2008 7:28:18 AM PDT by wally_bert (Tactical Is Still Missing A Chair!)
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To: safetysign
A few years ago I had my doctor and friend tell me that between 1/4 and 1/3 of the cost of medical care was just to do government paperwork. He had to hire a person just to do the papers.

Government is the problem!

9 posted on 06/20/2008 7:28:33 AM PDT by BillT (God said it, that settles it whether I believe it or not! (Bible rules))
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To: pnh102
We have been able to treat emergencies and send them elsewhere for a long time. We don't because of liability though. Most doctors and hospitals would rather just go ahead and treat them. Ers have become free clinics.
10 posted on 06/20/2008 7:28:57 AM PDT by CindyDawg
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To: BillT
There are doctors who have gotten out of the "government paperwork" business......they take CASH, NO INSURANCE, and don't have to hire 2-4 people to do all the paperwork, so they can provide MEDICAL care...... GET THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF MEDICAL CARE!!!
11 posted on 06/20/2008 7:32:33 AM PDT by goodnesswins (Obama will bring us......CommieLot)
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To: BillT
Your friend is right. I would guess that at least half , and probably even more in some fields of health care, worker's time goes toward paperwork. It's necessary to meet government requirements and to ...once again...reduce liability.
12 posted on 06/20/2008 7:33:36 AM PDT by CindyDawg
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To: safetysign
A few years ago my mother in law was in intensive care for a serious disease and we all noticed several armed guards at the door of the room next to her. After awhile we started to ask "whazup?". Through piecing together several comments from the guards and nurses, we had a death row inmate with TERMINAL cancer in the room next to her. One nurse commented that his bill was close to a million dollars by then.

So they spend a million so they can inject the guy a few months later? Just the round the clock security must have cost a bunch.

13 posted on 06/20/2008 7:38:40 AM PDT by chuckles
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To: goodnesswins
...wonder if the French Riviera is nice this time of year....

Nice or not, it's still FRENCH...

:^(

14 posted on 06/20/2008 7:38:53 AM PDT by JimRed ("Hey, hey, Teddy K., how many girls did you drown today?" TERM LIMITS, NOW!)
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To: goodnesswins; BillT

Yes, government paperwork is part of the problem.

Buy few people ever raise the issue of tort reform.
Part of the exhorbinant cost of medical care is because:

a. Doctors and hospitals have to pay huge insurance premiums.
b. Doctors and hospitals must OVER-test (prescribe a CAT scan for every hang nail and headache!) in order to guard against possible lawsuits.

I hear that Texas now limits the punitive lawsuits to 20% (or 30% ?....or whatever!) of the settlement for actual damages.
Reforms like that are at least a step in the right direction.


15 posted on 06/20/2008 7:53:55 AM PDT by Molly K.
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To: safetysign

Hey, dems need illegals to vote for them - bankrupting American Hospitals is an unintended consequence of their great compassion...


16 posted on 06/20/2008 7:58:51 AM PDT by GOPJ (ANWR's a third the size of the UK-The drilling site is 1/7 the size of Manhattan Island-Krauthammer)
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To: safetysign

Just so you know, that 47-million uninsured we keep hearing about? It’s estimated that 35-40% of those are illegal immigrants.

Hospitals have begun to use collecting agencies more aggressively in recent years due to non-payment for services rendered, but guess who that’s going to catch? Oh, not the illegal immigrant who disappears into the night the first time someone comes knocking. No, that would be the guy who couldn’t pay his insurance premiums anymore and has nowhere to go.

And the reason those insurance premiums are going up? In part to pay for the services rendered to illegals.

Yeah, it’s a problem.


17 posted on 06/20/2008 8:36:30 AM PDT by CaspersGh0sts
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To: C210N

Car insurance would also be horribly expensive if it paid for your gas, tires, filters, etc.


18 posted on 06/20/2008 8:37:12 AM PDT by gura (R-MO)
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To: Molly K.

There it is.

This is the only thing that needs shoved in any lib’s face when they complain about health care costs (in support of nationalized healthcare).

Tort reform in Texas caused a huge influx of the most sued doctors, a 30% drop in malpractice premiums.
Deregulation of insurance companies also caused a 30% drop in insurance premiums.

This is why the left detests the 10th amendment. When a state tries something other than their socialist prescribed remedies, it invariably shows how absolutely WORTHLESS leftist policies are.


19 posted on 06/20/2008 8:41:10 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: BillT

So true, and as long as our elected thieves get the best medical insurance that they can force the tax payers to pay for nothing will happen.

A starting point, to clean up this countries messes, is to mandate that the rules that joe sixpack has to abide by the elected thieves must also abide by themselves.


20 posted on 06/20/2008 9:34:19 AM PDT by chiefqc
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To: long hard slogger; FormerACLUmember; Harrius Magnus; hocndoc; parousia; Hydroshock; skippermd; ...
Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care PING LIST

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this ping list.


21 posted on 06/21/2008 8:14:59 AM PDT by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)
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