The ability to pay is no longer necessary, the Black Robed Kings have so decreed. The point is if you were only paying the actual cost for service you might be able to afford it. The sad fact is for any major illness only the very rich can afford it.
I had a doctor that would not accept Medicare patients, in fact she couldn’t, but she would take my cash payment and I was glad to pay. For the sum of $200.00 to $250.00 I could get a complete physical which took her sometime more than an hour, because she went over everything. Sadly I no longer have that option, most doctors won’t even talk to you if you are on Medicare, even if you have other insurance.
No one gives you a choice about getting old, if you live long enough it happens. I lived during times when no one could go to the hospital, without insurance, because a room was $18.00 a day and most people made $8.00 a day or less, some like my mother made $3.00 a day for a six day week.
My first job was 15 cents an hour. So I know about hard times.
I planned for this upcoming healthcare change as best as I could, I had everything I could foresee fixed or treated. I couldn’t amass enough money to take care of a serious problem, so I don’t plan on any more hospital visits where their top priority is to get old people to sign a DNR.
Awesome post, itsahoot!
Our parents knew what they could afford and what they couldn’t. The same with me. My first job was 19cents an hour on a 20 hour part-time week. I made it stretch.
When I broke a thumb playing basketball, we didn’t go to the hospital. We went to old doc Brown’s office. He xrayed it there, prepped it there, removed a bone chip there, and billed it there. It was the goodly sum of 90 bucks, but dad paid it straight up.
That’s how they held health care costs down. My Dad, the doc, and one clerk.