Ron, you are so right about how people don't want an animal to suffer, but for some reason, it is okay to let humans suffer. Also, another posted put how people quit cancer procedures because the insurance runs out and their family cannot afford it. At the beginning of my Spinal Cord Injury days, thought it would be better to meet a Kavorkian (sp) type of doctor because I knew that there was no way that my husband would swing the bills on his paycheck. .3 As of the beginning of March, I had already met my $2500 deductible because of my wound clinic visits alone. I try to stretch my visits out to three weeks, but there were times that I had to see them weekly or several times a week. Our luxuries are limited. We have internet because my husband doesn't want me isolated. We have a land line so the doctors have a number to call. (Internet and landline are a package deal that saves us money) We have $25 a month cell phones because one summer the electricity went out on our side of the city and there was no way to call 911 if I had fallen. We have Netflix which is under $8 per month and we do not have cable/satelite because we could not justify the expense. Those are our luxuries. Rarely do we go out to a movie or to eat. We never go on vacation. We pay our bills. That is our life and we consider ourselves fortunate because we know people who lost their family farms, homes, or businesses because someone got sick and nothing permanent like I have. One farmer lost everything when he had a heart attack. They now live in subsidized housing. His heart is better and he could farm again, but there is no way they can afford to buy another farm. We were a two job family. He had put me through a four year university and we had finally bought a house after finding a job in a community that we were happy in settling into. We were not lazy. We did not expect free public aid. We were working and paying our bills. Then I got my SCI. Not by any super traumatic injury. I moved a table and my disk slipped and crushed my spine. From that point on, we were at the mercy of everyone. We had no control. We almost lost our house which was a starter house in a neighborhood between the good and bad areas. We were planning on renting it out after we bought a bigger house in a better location. Nope. All our plans changed. Every week that I was in the hospital was costing us over $10,000 for the hospital room alone. That didn't cover doctors, medications, or equipment. In the short five weeks that I was there (I say short because many SCI survivors stay much longer) the medical bills racked up to twice what we owed on our house. Thankfully, the injury happened at work. We had to get a lawyer, but finally workman's comp took care of most of the medical bills that acrued during that time. There is nothing like a quick court case when it comes to insurance paying their fair share. Because they took so long and because my lawyer kept track of my medical bills during that time, we didn't go bankrupt. As I said, we almost lost our house, but we were lucky. We went from a two paycheck family down to a one paycheck family. Because my husband was working to pay for my medical bills (vacations are not in our vocabulary) and to keep us sheltered (food often was the last to purchased. There were times we lived on PB & J or macaroni in soup base) we never qualified for any aid. I can hear people say now, but you husband had a job. Again, when over half a monthly salary goes for my medication without counting my doctor visits, equipment, or rehab services, there isn't much left for mortgage, car payments (we literally drove our cars until they quit and died). As I posted, food was the last item to be purchased with our funds and sometimes we didn't have much of that. Currently, the reason that my medical bills have dropped is not because I am doing better, but because I have been going without. I have slowly dropped all my medications except for two. I am on pain meds (I can't live without those) and my thyroid meds. The other five to seven pills that I used to be on are gone. I'm not doing the best, but we no longer have live months at a time on PB & J or macaroni. I also don't see the doctors as much as I should. The wound clinic would like to see me weekly. I go every two to three weeks with an understanding that if my wound changes in any negative way, including smell, that I get in immediately. I had been hospitalized twice because of a bad strain of C-MRSA which was another huge medical bill. So it kind of burns me when I hear people talk about how socialized medicine is bad. So far, my husband and I have endured the "wonders" of unsocialized medicine and we are not impressed. An unmmaried, unemployed woman can pop out five kids by five different men and live a better life than my husband and I can live. PLEASE! Anything different than what we have now is worth a shot for us. Candle "Scars remind of us where we’ve been, they don’t have to dictate where we are going." ~David Rossi of Criminal Minds ***********************************************************************
________________________________ From: RONALD L PRACHT <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, May 4, 2012 6:10 PM Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] medical bill Without all the complexity we as a nation need national healthcare. Many jobs dont provide adequate coverage or none at all. Thousands of people are crossing the border and walking into our hospitals. Many are disabled such as ourselves and coverage is complicated and unclear . Many times the type of care you receive depends on the type of coverage you have. All this is unacceptable. The bottom line is the people that have good insurance dont care about the people that have none. The people with none deserve national healthcare as a human right. People dont want to let a dog suffer so why let humans go without? Ron c7 rom: Greg <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] medical bill >To: [email protected] >Date: Friday, May 4, 2012, 3:17 PM > > >I think medical bills of millions who can’t afford them hurts the economy more >than lifting the tax cuts on the richest 1%, Cuts that were supposed to be >short term, not forever, anyway. Rates now are almost at 100 year lows. >Lifting the “sort term cuts” their taxes would still be close to all time >lows. > >Families should not loose homes because a child is sick. Insurance companies >should not be able to drop you after you get sick. If there is no National >Insurance, and companies wont cover those with pre-existing things, do we just >let them suffer? Or we can just put them on “The Hunger Games”. Insurance >companies are making record profits, they can afford to drop the pre-existing >thing I think. But, I think the Obama thing is just too messy, confusing. >That’s why I think we should just have National Medicare. All other major >countries can do it, I think we should be able to figure something out. If the >Left/Right could just be civil. I think at this point both sides don’t pick >sides of issues because they believe in it, They just pick what ever opposes >the other guys. > >As far as unconstitutional. It is a phrase the Right often uses. The >Constitution is a fluid document, meant to change with the times. The Founders >were smart enough to know thing change. Yet I think the Right has asked for >more changes than the left has. > >Greg > >As much as I would like to have more accessibility to healthcare, the more I >look at the financial implications of his plan, the more I feel like as a >whole it will be more detrimental to the country than helpful. Forcing >insurance companies to take people with pre-existing conditions, fines for >companies and individuals who don't get coverage. Private insurance premiums >will most certainly be raised for those that have it. How can expanding >coverage to over 30 million new people possibly lower costs? > >27 billion of new taxes on drug companies, 20 billion on medical device >makers. Those costs will just pass through to us in my opinion. > >Total of 18 new taxes estimating 503 billion in revenue. New taxes may bring >revenue but they will also (also my opinion) slow economic growth which we >desperately need right now. > >I listened to the oral arguments on the Supreme Court website and it seemed >the justices were pretty skeptical of the constitutionality of it. > >Cheers, > >I think we need just a national Medicare, with extra insurance for those who >want, need, or who can afford more. Those who are so against it say they don’t >was the government making decisions. But that means they would prefer an >insurance company who is for profit, who gets bonuses for denying medical >procedures, and who can cancel you after you get sick/injured. I still have >not heard 1 good reason not to have national health care. This Obama thing is >too confusing. >Greg >>> >>>----------- It's enough to make even a quad kick ass and throw fists. But I >>>am not surprised. The slightest medical problem results in bills for things >>>and from people you never even heard of. To say that the whole thing is an >>>immoral, unethical racket is an understatement. A lifetime of savings can be >>>wiped out in one week. A simple hello from the doctor can cost $300. Your >>>experience is all too common. I don't have a clue if Obama's plan will be >>>better, but I certainly hope so.
