Posted on 03/22/2010 3:37:32 PM PDT by God luvs America
I am looking to my Freeper family for advice. After the events of yesterday and the calls for civil obedience I am really torn what I should do. I and my wife are gainfully employed. I work for myself and often work six to seven days a week. Like just about all of my Freeper family, my wife and I pay our mortgages, taxes and all our bills in time. We paid to pay our student loans on time. We’ve never taken a nickel of government assistance during our adult working lives though we’ve paid into the system from the word go. We live within our means, sacrifice to make ends meet and give to charity when we can and sometimes when we can’t.
Since September I’ve had a series of different medical tests as my dad past away from a stroke last July. These were preventive measures. Our family has always had insurance which we pay a hefty premium for. One set of tests the doctor sent me a bill of $300 which represented my deductible/coinsurance. I promptly paid it.
I received another bill today for a procedure completed last September and the hospital is asking for another $300 on top of the almost $1900 the insurance company paid out.
Usually I would pay this but after the arrogance, corruption, cronyism and kick backs which culminated in yesterday’s vote I am having second thoughts. I am SICK and TIRED of paying for people who over extend themselves and take on obligations they have no way or no intention to payback besides paying for myself and my family. I understand everyone needs a helping hand at some point and don’t mind helping those people or helping the hopeless…I REFUSE TO CONTINUE TO PAY FOR THE FREELOADERS!!!
I really want to send the bill back to the hospital and tell them that, as someone who pays for his insurance besides paying for entitlement programs I’ve never received a dime from, they can now send this bill to the US Capital, attention Nancy Pelosi, and tell Pelosi to take the $300 they want from me from the funds they use to for the entitlement programs…the ones I have paid for all my life!!!
I am reeeallllly aggravated and don’t want to pay this bill based on the greed and belligerence I saw and heard from the elitists yesterday. Thoughts? Thank You.
All medical bills are negotiable. You pay what you can and don’t worry about it.
$300 is nothing. If it ever gets to your credit report, which it probably never will, then you can call and negotiate it down. Before it goes to your credit report, a credit agency will call. You can negotiate with them to pay less. Most times, small debts like $300 is handed from one collector to another for years and never makes it to your credit report.
Everybody is making money off of us the producers. We are the suckers.
“The US is going to collapse, and your credit score won’t mean a thing.”
*********
I tend to agree with that, and find all current discussions of credit ratings to be a morbid joke.
Credit score may be useful when the new economy starts up again, but who knows.
In the meantime, just buy a bunch of tangible stuff. Shiny is good.
GlA —
I won’t go into why, but I really understand what you say about hours worked, bills paid and medical bills.
I also understand thoroughly the anger part.
My advise is to pay the $300, (you don’t need to be spending time arguing over that with the hospital) and channel the anger into making a difference in your community. Local politics. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like you can help, but recent events here in my back yard have proven otherwise.
He made a discretionary health care decision. His insurance covered $1900 of it, he’s paid $300 and owes another $300.
Given that this was a discretionary purchase, and he’s so worried about the cost - he should have shopped around and found out exactly what he would have to pay before having the tests done. He didn’t do that - so tough luck. Learn a lesson from it. But for God’s sake, do the honorable thing and pay the debt.
Pay your bill. The insurance companies often won’t pay the full amount billed by the doctor or hospital. In some cases the doctors can bill you for what the insurance won’t pay and in others cases they cannot. It is all very confusing. I blame the insurance companies and their lawyers more than I do the doctors. It all sucks, but that is the world we live in.
The first thing I would do is question the bill. Make sure it’s not for something that should have been picked up by your insurance. Also, make sure it’s a valid charge. My father received a copy of his hospital bill, insurance covered it, and one of the charges a delivery room fee! He was 65 years old and I’m pretty sure not pregnant when he was admitted. My mother contacted the insurance company and pointed out the billing error.
If the bill turns out to be valid I would pay it. It may be the last time you ever get to pay for health related expenses since we all get free HC now, right?
“I received another bill today for a procedure completed last September and the hospital is asking for another $300 on top of the almost $1900 the insurance company paid out.”
Run the bill past a medical claims processor. They know what’s legitimate. Many hospitals are run by thieving liberals who will tack on double billing, unnecessary tests and other illegal billings. Shouldn’t cost more than $35 for a medical billing expert to take a look. If the hospital is ripping you off, sue the slime.
Huh?
HMMMMMM I’ve been pondering starting a 503(c). Maybe it could be called United Amish Patriots. We “pray” for relief from an over-burdening government. That way we could become “exempt” not only from taxes but also from healthcare. And maybe we should just play like ACORN does. Everyone “donates” their entire pay check to the “church”. The church then offers “assistance” to those who have “contributed” to the “church”. No taxes involved for anyone. That would throw the IRS into a meltdown!
Your thinking is reasonable, but it is too conservative in light of what happened yesterday. Ours is a brave new world and people like you/us are going to get hosed if we approach things in the same responsible way our parents did.
Apply for medicare or whatever it’s called to cover the extra; Also food stamps while you’re at it. You might need rehab services or vocational counseling as well.
If they’re going to offer it, take it! The sooner we collapse the system, the better.
“and he’s so worried about the cost ...But for God’s sake, do the honorable thing and pay the debt.”
I don’t think he’s worried about the cost.
He wants to make a statement.
He wants to do something.
He wants to tell the moochers and the commie rats that they can’t have any more of his “life energy” in the form of the $300. Part of the reason why insurance and medical costs are high is to cover those that can’t pay, don’t pay, won’t pay.
Starve the Beast.
Toss the Tea into the Bay.
Throw snowballs at the Guards.
I think though that earlier posters had it right. Send them the $300 which is what was agreed to at the purchase of the policy. And spend your energy elsewhere fighting this battle in perhaps more productive avenues.
Great. You say he should become a moocher because he hates moochers. Somehow that is supposed to be “making a statement”. To me it just looks like mooching.
Not sure this really fits, but maybe!? (So fight on!)
Hamlet:
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: ‘tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
With apologies to William Shakespeare:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a moocher
By any other name would smell as crappy.”
thanks for all the suggestions....
this post hit the nail on the head...can I pay it? yes
do I feel I should pay it??? yes...
can I use the $300 for another bill?? yes- but my anger is saying why should I continue to pay my bills and pay for others when the slugs on Capital Hill don’t give a flying eff about me...
and btw- I’ve been an conservative activist since 2003 with many of the Freepers here as well as those at Protest Warrior, taking to the streets to take on the left....I plan on getting more involved through the summer...
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