The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #122219 Message #2682385
Posted By: katlaughing
17-Jul-09 - 02:53 PM
Thread Name: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad?
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad?
Some examples of what I consider to be obscene:
We have insurance through Rog's workplace. If we go to their "preferred providers" it costs them and us less money. For instance, for an xray reading:
Total charge = $44
Total charge allowed after "negotiation" = $12.86
Total paid by insurance = $9.00 with us responsible for the remaining $3.86.
On the report it explains that the provider cannot bill us for any of the difference. They have agreed to settle for the $12.86 total.
Another one is for $156 total; they paid $39.69, and we are responsible for $17.01, so they brought that total down a lot, too.
Here is where I think it gets ugly AND how they pay for those discounts: people with NO insurance have to pay the total amount because they have no insurance company "negotiating" for them. They are not in a "pool" of insured people who can drive a harder bargain, so to speak. Almost five years ago, I was one of those people. What I was charged for hospitalization and treatment of congestive heart failure was obscene and there was NO negotiating any lower charges with the hospital; my daughter tried, they refused. We are still paying them on a $13,000 bill for the few days I was in.
So, the very people who need the help the most, those without insurance and, possibly without a job, have to pay MORE. How fucked up is that?
If they don't fix it this time, I do believe there is enough momentum folks will not let them slide by. We saw the power we had when we used grassroots to elect Obama. Those same grassroots folks are now working on health care and other issues. We are not going away...not going gently into that good night. We WILL see change NOW!