Posted on 08/23/2006 4:54:13 PM PDT by goldstategop
Hmmm ... like letting the government build the Big Dig? That's working out swell in Boston. Or that bridge in Alaska? Would that have worked out well for you?
Why don't you just see your own doc, and when you get the bill, send twice that amount to me and I'll split it with the doc. It'll be cheaper for you than a government plan, you get to choose your doc and I'll like it a lot more too.
Funny how the "class envy" card is only played by people who profess to have "succeeded". Success is all in how you look at it. My parents rarely had two extra nickels to rub together, but I consider them to be the definition of success. They kept a warm, secure, and clean roof over our heads and raised my brother and I in a loving home to have a good work ethic, pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, believe in Jesus, and to follow the Golden Rule.
Doing the things it takes to get rich takes a lot of time, some talent, more than a little luck, and usually some type of jump-start in the form of startup cash to get the ball rolling. When one has a wife, a family, a mortgage, child support obligations, a car payment, etc, and your parents don't have any more than you do to help you out with, you can't just set all that aside and take the time necessary to go for and get the big bucks. We all have to live within our circumstances to some extent, and with the results of our choices and the life-path we've chosen.
In other words, we can't all be millionaires. Life, society and the economy don't work that way. Some of us, like myself, don't even want to be millionaires. Money doesn't buy the truly important things. Please see my previous post, #94 I think, for a clearer idea of what I'm saying. I'm not talking class envy here because I don't play that game, and I don't think chiefqc is playing it here either. I congratulate anyone who has become (what they themselves may define as) "successful", as long as they are happy and healthy in their situation.
Let me put it this way: I don't hang out at country clubs because I don't like paying $7 for a beer, nor do I like being around the stuffy, vapid, old-money, nose-in-the-air personalities that often frequent such establishments. I know, I've worked at places like that and still do from time to time, and I'm a bit of an informal student of people's behavior -- a people-watcher, if you will.
In counterpoint, I'm sure if you're wealthy, you don't hang out down at the corner bar and talk loud and smart with the guys in their dirty blue-jeans and basebal caps who just got off second shift at the buggy-whip factory. It would be in this setting that I am vastly more at home.
All I was saying is that on talk radio, I'm forced to listen to people who live a very different lifestyle than I do, and I'd like to hear from someone a little closer to my demographic once in a while. That's all. No resentment, no jealousy here, just stating an opinion.
yep....couldn't say it better.
I expect what ever Dem gets the Donkey Ticket in 2008 to exploit the hell out of the massive dissatisfaction with our health care / insurance system. It may very well be the deciding issue in the election.
Look for the Dems to 'take the gloves off' and argue for full socialized medicine.
well said....
I know that the good talk radio personalities rise to the top and with that comes a bigger paycheck. I just wish they'd do a better job of maintaining the illusion that their lifestyle is more like mine. Just my opinion, that's all. I put up with them, ignore the parts I want to ignore, change the station when necessary, and everything is copacetic.
I've never aspired to wealth because it seems to me that people who have lots of money also have lots of worries to go along with it. You buy a boat and you get a whole slew of problems to go with it. You buy a big RV, same thing, storage, repairs, license, insurance, fuel, water system freezes and bursts a line in the winter, and on and on.
If the stock market has a bad day, I lose maybe fifty bucks. If I were loaded, that same bad day on Wall Street might cost me $5000, or $50,000, or $500,000. That would blow my mind. I realize that it's all relative as a percentage of your nest egg, of course.
I don't like to worry. I don't like headaches. I decided a long time ago to live my life by the KISS system (Keep It Simple, Stupid) because that method worked well for all the people I grew up around and admired during my formative years. I come from simple folk, not stupid mind you, just good, down to earth country people, and I'm proud of it.
Of course, there's always the school of thought that says that if you have enough money, then you have nothing to worry about. But alas, I couldn't live my life like that. It's too cutthroat for me, too competitive. I'm not wired that way.
Thanks.
I get so much guff on these threads, it's surprising when someone agrees with me. :-)
Of course, you didn't really agree with me, did you? You just complimented the way I said what I said. Saaaayyyy, what's your angle here, bub?!?! (Just kidding ;-) )
_____________________________________________
"I'm only paranoid because everyone is out to get me." - Yogi Berra?
Wow! Who are you getting your health insurance from?! I sell health insurance for a living and if you live in California I KNOW I can get you a better deal than that!!
I am not sure if this plan is the one you are speaking of, but they do state on their home page that they are not an insurance plan.
HOW DOES MEDI-SHARE WORK?
"Medishare is a non-insurance healthcare alternative that brings Christians together to share their medical bills on a voluntary basis. This unique healthcare solution is based on the biblical principles of sharing and caring and encourages brothers and sisters in Christ to stand in the gap for one another. "
http://www.medi-share.org/how_does_it_work.aspx
Now, if they do have a catastrophic health plan attached their program, they would be subject to insurance law and by necessity be regulated by each and every dept. of insurance in every state the plan is sold in. Also, the insurance carrier would be required to file for permission to sell the plan in each and every state it is sold.
It may be that the people who marketed this plan to you, or people you know are also insurance agents who sell individual catastrophic plans along with the enrollment in this sharing program. Therefore, they are able to limit your liability in a large claim. A sharing plan however is not insurance and can never be offered as insurance without running afoul of a great deal of state and federal legislation.
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/healthinsurance.htm
CHRISTIAN CARE MEDI-SHARE [P. O. Box 1779, Melbourne, FL 32902. 800-374-2562 (voice), 407-726-8016 (fax), medshare@iu.net (e-mail), www.tccm.org (web site)]
This program was also highly recommended to me by some of the respondents, most of who had experience with other medical sharing plans before changing to Christian Care Medi-Share. I received only one unfavorable comment about this program. The normal plan costs $330 per month for a family of three or more members. One respondent, a missions secretary in a large church, said Christian Care Medi-Share is “beneficial and professional” and they “communicate thoroughly.”
The following comment was made by the pastor of a church with a larger staff who used Christian Brotherhood for eight years before changing to Christian Care Medi-Share: “With Christian Care the coverage is much better than with Brotherhood. Also the costs are less, that is why we went with them. However, we have found them to have a red tape trail that leaves you hanging to get payment from them. In the meantime your hospital and doctors are left hanging. This will bring threats from the doctors or hospitals. In short, we have found it much better to pay a little, $5 or so, on each bill each month until Christian Care gets around to doing something or telling you something. You will also have to fight with them to get coverage. They are not as willing to help in problems. However they are very good at negotiating with doctors and hospitals to get the bill reduced, once they decide they have to pay” (Pastor Doug Hammett,
It used to be health insurance was purchased to cover very large expenses that statistically would unlikely happen, but "could" happen. So it used to be protection against financial ruin from serious illness or disease.
Insurance companies colluded with health care providers to convince people they could not afford regular routine care without purchasing insurance.One way to convince people is to artificially raise the prices of care to make it out of reach to pay out of pocket.
This way...health care providers make out big with artificially inflated fees (which also have to cover those who don't have insurance and don't pay their bills)
And insurance companies force people to purchase policies.
A trip to the ER in the middle of the night for a child's ear infection? You can expect a bill for $300-$600.
I took my son to the ER for a gash in his head...they glued it shut to the tune of $900.
A young family with more than 2 kids could easily go under with run-of-the mill well visits and occasional ER visits.
If the racket between the insurance providers and care providers were broken it would force the health care providers to offer market driven fees and compete for customers.
"The disfunctions that are built into the system are working..."
There ya go.
Between runaway lawyers suing the pants off every doctor who misses a stitch while closing up the gash in a kid's chin, to the illegals clogging up emergency rooms across the country, their plan is working well.
The people in charge (lawmakers) are, unfortunately, able to afford their health care no matter how expensive it gets, not to mention being in the pockets of the wrong people, so they wait way too long to do anything about it.
The cost of health care/insurance triples in five years, the cost of gas doubles in three years; eventually something has got to give.
I'm really, really curious to see where things will be in this country in 10, 20, 50 years (if I'm still here for 50, I probably won't even recognize the USA anymore.) Barring nationwide work stoppages, a wholesale ruination of our economy, and massive (and I mean massive) marches on Washington by the proles to the point of actually busting down the doors of the Senate chamber and assuming control ourselves, I don't see much changing.
The whole system may be too far gone already and need to come crashing down to rock bottom and just be started over again. Get the FedGov back to it's Constitutional duties and nothing more, do away with the political correctness mentality, initiate and complete tort reform, enact school vouchers or privatize education and make it competitive...ahh, to dream.
Meanwhile, I'll just keep on keepin' on, and concentrate on that over which I have some control. Hunting season is coming. That's my main focus this time of year. I love the crisp, cool days of autumn in Minnesota. 87 degrees, humid and sticky today though, so it's not here yet.
We have Blue Cross. When we raised our deductible to $5000, our co-pay went up to $30, so you'd better believe I make sure my kids are truly SICK and in need of a doctor before we make an appointment. At this point, though, we're pretty much stuck due to the whole pre-existing condition thing. We're actually both healthy, but I had a gallstone attack last year, dh was diagnosed with fibromyalgia a few years ago (but has since recovered), and I don't think another company would accept us. We are working toward getting our savings built up just in case we ever do need to pay that deductible.
Health care insurance is still allowed to work in Illinois. In some states, the type of coverage is dictated by state law. A young adult may be forced to pay really high rates in some states to subsidize the insurance pool. So many go without in that case.
Ping for later.
You still want ME to pay?
Nope. Never said that. However, I think that rules need to be relaxed between federal and state laws that will allow insurance companies to become more competative, and to allow them to allow more people into groups, which can spread the risk among more payers. Allow people to make "ala carte" coverage choices, chosing exactly what they do and don't want covered. For example, I'm single, and I think that I've gone to the Dr office twice in the last 5 years. I'd be more than happy to pay the cost of those visits out of pocket. But I can't. I have to pay for office visit coverage, just like a family of 5, with kids who go to the Dr office once a month, or even more. I'd like to be able to choose exactly what coverage I want, rather than just what my deductable is (though that does have a similar effect).
Those are just some of the things that could be done to help control the cost of insurance.
BTW, if you've got a medical emergency that may lead to your incapacity, maybe you could point to to a "lender" who will loan you many thousands of dollars with the chance that you'll never work again... And I once conducted an experiment: I called around to gastroenerologists, and asked them if I could just pay for their services with cash, because I didn't have insurance. Interestingly enough, NOT ONE would allow me to make an appointment. When they learned that I did have insurance, but wanted to pay cash, they were OK with that. The idea of an office visit without having to deal with the paperwork and getting nearly the same amount of money was attractive: But the possibility of having to provide expensive services without guarentee of payment wasn't something they were interested in providing: And I don't blame them.
The idea behind insurance is that for the most part, most people will not need medical services. The minority of people should only need minimal services, and very few will need major services. I'm not asking for anyone to pay for my medical services or insurance. However, medical insurance needs to be opened up to the market forces to make the cost more affordable. And maybe states should create an "assigned risk pool," for catastropic insurance, sort of like they do with auto insurance.
Mark
Health insurance IS a mess,
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Amen, and the prime reason is that the government has already been involved in medical care for many years, starting with Medicare forty years ago. There was a time when most working people could afford to pay the doctor for most treatment, all they really had to worry about was catastrophic illness or accident. I have coverage on my job and the part that I pay is very reasonable, the problem is that the copays and deductibles will eat me out of house and home before they are met. I once worked with a man who paid ninety dollars a week for his portion of the "employer-provided" health insurance and he told me that he and his wife never went to the doctor because they could not afford the co-pay! I asked why he didn't just cancel his coverage and use that money for office visits and he said his wife insisted on keeping the insurance in case one of them had to be hospitalized!
Health insurance truly is a mess but the answer is to get the government out of health care not deeper into it.
Their failure to pay you their copay is in violation of their employers agreement with their health plan. This can be reported to the insurance company, and will be enforced by them, even if that patient or employer is dropped from their coverage due to their non-compliance.
I am a billing manager for a physican, and have had similar problems in the past. Irks me to no end that people will pay more for a haircut than they will to go see their doctor.
What do you think neurosurgeons should cost?
How do you think they should be paid?
IHMO, there's nothing more valuable than a good neurosurgeon. However, there's a problem with the way they're forced to bill for their services, which has already been mentioned here... After I had my surgery, I received a letter from my insurance company telling me that they had paid my doctor $14,000. The following day, I received a bill from my Dr for $23,000. I began to panic when I thought that I was going to have to pay the $9,000 difference, when I thought that I'd only be responsible for about $1,000 (due to deductable and out of pocket maximums) for the surgeon bill... Of course, I received that bill on a Saturday. When I called the Dr office on the following Monday, they told me that "this is how it works," and that I'd be getting another bill for just under $900, and that's because they "write off" the difference when dealing with insurance companies. I asked if I didn't have insurance, could I have just paid them the $15,000 for my surgery, and they told me that without insurance, they never would have taken my case, and I wouldn't have been able to have had the surgery scheduled.
What needs to be done is a) keep the government OUT of the medical AND insurance businesses, and b) Relax some of the rules, allowing both medical and insurance services to become responsive to market forces.
Mark
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