Proof Health Care Was Affordable Before the Government Destroyed it Circa 1968

Vanity | June 25, 2009 | Sherri Dodsworth

[caper gal 1]

I’m old enough to remember when average people could go to their doctor and pay an easily affordable bill afterwards. People today don’t seem to believe this but I found a document among my mother’s papers recently when I emptied out her apartment and it is powerful ammo in the fight against this march to socialized health care rationing.

In 1968, just three short years after LBJ’s government got in the health care business, my father was attacked and beaten severely with a tire iron. He spent a week in ICU and had surgery to remove portions of his skull, and a second surgery to put plates in to replace those portions.

He worked as a maintenance man at a manufacturing plant, and my mother was a nurse. The document is a claim they filed against his attacker to be reimbursed for the medical expenses they had paid. The total bill for ambulance, two hospitalizations, surgeries and drugs? $1,168.52. They paid it out of pocket. They didn’t have health insurance. They didn’t need it because health care at that point was still market based. Adjusted for inflation to current dollars that bill would still be only $7,155.13, far less than you can rack up today in less than an hour in your local ER.

I have this doc saved as a .pdf doc but don't know how to post them here. If some one will let me know, I'll be MORE than glad to do so.

[Roccus]

That is so true. But the problem is not only due to government health programs like Medicare. Health insurance in general, particularly employer-paid health insurance has an inflationary effect by dampening price competition and price awareness.

....and yet in 1968, the time referenced, employer-paid health insurance had been around for decades.

[headstamp 2]

I can remember insurance coverage offered from a job was strictly, “Major Medical” or “Hospitalization”. That’s when medical insurance was actually insurance for unforseen medical problems only.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If there's a way I can upload this .pdf doc to FR please let me know. It's dated September 1968.

Open a free account at http://box.net/, upload your file, share it, then post the shared link.

Here is a link to a PDF file that I have uploaded to my BOX.net account.

[jch10]

It cost us $7 for my food and a fifth of liquor for the doctor when our son was born at Ft. Stewart Army Hospital in 1966.

[calex59]

What caused this dramatic increase in health care was government meddling. Medicare did it, when Medicare came into being docs started padding it, the first medicare didn’t have co-pay and everything was paid, soon medical cost were out of sight and everyone had to have insurance. I remember the days when virtually no one had it and could afford to pay out of pocket for care.

[RobbyS]

The problem with Medicare and medicaid is that old folks like me use a lot more medical services than younger people do. The system would be a lot cheaper if it kicked in at age 70, When Social security started in 1935, not a great many people lived much past 65. Now we have as many people older than 100 than we had people older than 75 in 1935. But one reason for this is that we use a lot of money to keep going, sort of like a car with 200,000 miles on it. The way to reduce this cost is obvious: limit care for the aged. However, we old folks are a formidable voting block and as the Boomers joins us, a huge one, bigger than, say. two-parent families.

[RobbyS]

Medical costs went up for much the same reason that college tuitions have. When the government provides aid, administrators keep jacking up the prices.

[TheBattman]

The total bill for ambulance, two hospitalizations, surgeries and drugs? $1,168.52. They paid it out of pocket. They didn’t have health insurance. They didn’t need it because health care at that point was still market based. Adjusted for inflation to current dollars that bill would still be only $7,155.13, far less than you can rack up today in less than an hour in your local ER.

That same treatment today would hit WELL over $100K easily. Just a couple of days in ICU will run that.

I passed my first kidney stone a few months ago. Went to the hospital ER because I had no clue what this unbelievable pain was... After 3 hours, an IV for on pain med that lasted a couple of hours, and a CAT scan, I have received bills so far for over $6K, and they are not all in yet.

[Roccus]

I don’t disagree with that. I wasn’t talking about gov’t. health care.

[parsifal]

NOOOOOOOOO! If doctors didn’t commit malpractice, they wouldn’t get sued. It is very difficult to sue a doctor or malpractice.

parsy, who notes even the babylonians could sue their doctor!

[ASOC]

Prior to 1968 you did not have an army of invading aliens getting “free” govt mandated medical care at the hospital.

So, ya, the FedGov started the screw job in 1968, the army of illegals have just added fuel to the burn....

SO - the FedGov IS the problem, not the solution.

Try and convince the average joe today about that....

[caper gal 1]

A Fellow Freeper clued me in on how to share .pdf files so I can now share the copy of the medical expenses. Here’s a link to it:

http://www.box.net/shared/201xh28xea