Posted on 10/09/2007 5:21:39 AM PDT by radar101
Thanks for clearing that up. When I first read this story it wasn’t clear that they were involved in a single-vehicle accident.
Instead, he has a vanity business as a hobby. Plain as day he has good assets.
He could be a non-union, low-skilled residential carpenter and make what he makes and have his base health insurance covered according to Davis-Bacon federal surveys.
This fellow might be a fine person in other regards, but as a provider for his family, he is not rising to what he is probably qualified to do with his proported skill-set.
LLS
The only way the numbers work is if they’ve owned the home for a while, in which case they have loads of equity to tap into to pay for health insurance. They could also sell the house and afford insurance by living modestly. Any way you slice and dice this story, the taxpayers are getting bilked big time to pay this middle class family’s bills.
Which leads me to ponder, if this family was the worst case the Dems could come up with, I think the whole “poor, pathetic 40 million uninsured” meme the Dems are always trying to foist on us is crock.
Except for health insurance because, like Dad said, why waste money on something that'll probably never happen and if it does we can get someone else to pay for it.
The main reason why I'm working at a corporation, rather than freelancing, is for the health insurance. As a parent, you do what you have to do.
Once my kids are grown, more options will open for me. This guy couldn't get a job with health insurance? You're right. Why bother when someone else will pick up the tab.
Well, it’s not quite half-price, but the HMO is significantly cheaper than the PPO - more than 25%.
However, the PPO has its advantages.
On September 21, our son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. His surgery was September 26. We were able to have doctors for our son who are among the very best in the world.
If we’d have had the HMO policy, we’d have:
- needed a written referral for the MRI that discovered the tumor;
- needed written referrals to the neurosurgery team, the pediatric team, to Johns Hopkins University Hospital;
- once the neurosurgeons decided that surgery was indicated, we’d have needed a written referral for that.
If we had Optimum Choice’s HMO (a part of United Healthcare that’s big in Maryland), we likely wouldn’t have been able to get the MRI done at Hopkins, we may not have even been permitted to go to Hopkins at all, as their network of diagnostic centers, doctors and providers isn’t as robust as that of our insurance company. But we'd have saved another hundred bucks or so per month on premiums.
With an HMO, we certainly wouldn’t have gone from MRI to surgery in five days.
As well, my previous experience with HMOs suggests that the insurance company would have used the bureaucratic requirements to essentially deny benefits, by making it so difficult to meet bureaucratic requirements in the middle of the medical crisis. I’ve had that happen before, leaving me with large, unanticipated medical bills, because I opted for the medical treatment without getting through all the bureaucratic entanglement.
No, I’m very happy that I paid the extra premiums for the PPO (essentially fee for service with few penalties for choosing any provider I wish, anywhere in the United States). I’m very happy to have paid roughly $7,000 deductibles and co-pays out of my own pocket for world-beating medical care for my son at the best hospital in the United States, with world-leading pediatric neurologists and neurosurgeons, for whom my son’s tumor was a routine, boring case.
And my son's in case, in a number of ways, illustrates some of the inherent contradictions regarding the issue of medical care and costs in the United States.
sitetest
Yeah, meanwhile, taking the little extra money that I have so that I am unable to save any “for a rainy day.”
It all boils down to selfishness and greed...not wanting to save, but wanting others to pay your bills so that you can save more.
I have seen a photo of the vehicle post-accident. It slammed into the tree broadside and the driver side middle door area was driven way into the interior of the car. I would love to know what speed would be necessary for such an impact to result.
It was a a new model silver Ford Explorer.
“These are people who have the ability to take care of their own, regardless. They did not do that.”
Actually, they did that very well, apparently.
They just did it using other people’s money.
Barring evidence of fraud on their part (and I don’t see much evidence of that), they seem to have done it legally and above-board.
The question isn’t whether these parents were taking care of their children. They were.
The question is whether the law should be written to make it possible for them to take care of their children at taxpayers’ expense, especially of folks who likely would have managed to find a way to afford health insurance if this program hadn't been available.
sitetest
Reporters like to say that "bloggers don't do the hard work that reporters do." Actually, Freepers are doing the work that leftists reporters don't want to do.
Bingo...but the dems are still hiding behind the child.
One scam at a time, please ;-)
Well of course it is.
In that number, if it is even close to being accurate, are:
1. The wealthy who choose not to have insurance because they can pay for their own health expenses,
2. Single people who choose not to shell out for insurance very month (as I used to do when I was a twenty-something),
3. And people like this couple, who simply choose not to pay for insurance even though they should and are able to do so.
How many does that leave who are actually physically or mentally unable to care for themselves and or/their children?
Yes, we should take care of the disabled. These parents do not qualify.
So Graeme wasn’t given a scholarship because of problems he now may have due to his injuries. Just want to clearly establish that point.
Let’s see, I can’t qualify for disability.....my wife grosses $24,000....we can’t get S-CHIP for my son(14)...but we DO have medical and dental insurance because we CHOSE to afford it !!!
I’m tired of these cry babies on the left....and, unfortunately,some on the right.
the best line Ive heard so far...from Mark Steyn...
“And, if the Democrats dont like me saying that, next time put up someone in long pants to make your case.”
They most certainly did not take care of their own. They simply enrolled their kids in a government funded program that allowed other people to pay their bills.
If you think that is taking care of your own, you and I have very different opinions of what it means to be conservative.
Paid in full by the Parents of these socialists... probably.
LLS
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