not everyone is fucked when it comes to healthcare coverage, many are well-covered for any situation. comprehensive childbirth coverage is a huge component many companies tout as a benefit of their respective insurance plans they offer employees.

also, while the u.s. system fails in allowing access to th ebest care for everyone, the fact remains, the best care our systems provides is head & shoulders better than elsewhere.

I am with you and I am very much for health care for everyone. I would love to see pre existing condition shit dropped from all insurance as well. Had some hopes but alas the republicans are better are attack/smear campaigns. They just know how to pick out things, take them out of context and then get it to the masses through assorted outlets to scare the crap out of the uneducated.

http://i19.tinypic.com/2po8qoy.gif


Tbh.

Yes but that was what - 13 years ago? OB care goes WAY up year after year.

A good friend of mine had a baby in an ATL burb last December. C-section. Hubby is a pilot for Delta so has probably some of the best insurance available. $5K out of pocket.

Like someone else mentioned, those of us with insurance pay for those without it.

our system isnt totally free.

to get a private room we needed coverage which company pays for
then it was an extra 30 on top of that

i had to pay the hospital 100 dollars to take the umbilical stem cell blood or what not and freeze it to make clones

hmm if we had demanded a c section i think it is like 335 or something
if they deem it necessary it is free, i could be wrong

cutting his foreskin off costs about 300 bucks as well i think
it is not covered

so cdn system is good...we didnt have to pay for the 24 hours of constant nurse observation and for the observation the following day...nor the doctors that arrive and check your baby...the staff who delivered the baby and all that jazz

so over all that being my biggest event or usage of cdn health care system...im happy and impressed.

Over 15 now. Our daughter went to Emergency last week, $50.00 was the co pay.

My sister went in to the Docs when she felt ill, went to her primary, deductible cost: $25.00. Zpack and Anti Biotics: $50.00 She pays over $600.00 a month for insurance due to her handicap. In this case, insurance worked out for her.

Talk about clueless.

Over an ear bleeding? Probably none.

How is that?

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5391105_av...ild-birth.html

Cesarean Childbirth
The June 2007 study conducted for the March of Dimes says one-third of all U.S. babies are born via Cesarean section, at an average cost of $10,958, which is $3,000 more than vaginal births.

x 2 kids.

Do the math genius.

Yeah, ERs are stupid cheap for me too - I went one Friday night recently only because it was a Friday night and I knew it would be 3 days before I could see a doctor. $50 copay (which they made sure to get from me before I left....) which was actually cheaper than if I had gone to the doctor. Crazy logic, IMHO.

My insurance just went to $555 a month with a $5K deductible (odd it's all those 5's) and I don't have a handicap. :Oh crap But I can't afford NOT to have it.

There are a million different things they can do to fix the current system before they start all this government run crap. There were illegals in GA protesting because they weren't getting "free" dialysis here any more (hospital was going broke) and they were being sent to other hospitals. That's just absurd. If you're here ILLEGALLY you shouldn't have me footing your medical bill.

I love it when people provide me with the links to prove them wrong.

Why not read another paragraph or two?

Strange how Croatia is on 43 place yet everything is free,even dental.

2 kids, c section births, plus one day special care, with no insurance = $30,000 easy!

Not sure what kind of argument you are going for here.

He also mentioned (semi-unrelated) that his sister is currently paying $7,200 p/year for her insurance.

If you think this system is cool, good for you. I think it sucks balls, and would rather just have an extra 5% to 10% taken out of my pay every week, for healthcare coverage, and never have to give it another thought.

To each his own.

Premiums are going up by leaps and bounds, as unemployment soars. How many people will continue to pay?

Pretty soon the cost of covering health care insurance (which is just a middle man), coupled with those who are not paying anything at all, will start turning into $5,000 to $10,000 p/year policies, until even more people can't pay, and then what?

It is amazing how many people fight against their own interests to protect the unsustainable status quo.

Baffling...

Your reading and debating skills are on par with a trained monkey.

$7200, is about 10 percent of what my sister makes a year, your point?

So I guess in 10 years when premiums have tripled (as they are on track to do without any changes), your sister will be making $216,000.00 per year to stay on par.

Another genius.

Two C-sections? You really think they go in there twice for twins?

Only in America...

Debating with you on this issue makes as much sense as talking to a wall.

Now you are just splitting hairs, for argument sake.

The truth is that a change in the US healthcare system is imperative, and the "for-profit" health insurance companies don't need any more help. In fact, we can do without the special interest fat-cats entirely, since they do not provide any actual care whatsoever.

Do you have local law enforcement insurance, or do your taxes pay for their services?

Simply sounds like your side of the argument has hit a wall.

Wake up. Let me refresh your memory. Anthony said his twins were born c-section at a total cost of $200 due to his insurance coverage. [Side note: Two kids, tubal ligation, no cost. Did not pay anything for insurance either.]

For some reason you decided to chime in with, "In the US that would have cost you AT LEAST $20,000, and probably much much more!"

Then Anthony informed you that they were born in FL.

At this point I informed you that you were clueless if you did not think the procedure could be done for $200 out-of-pocket to someone that had good insurance.

At this point you are trying to suggest that the "average cost" and actual "out-of-pocket costs" are essentially the same and that they just double the charge if you have twins.

While my dad was hiking the Appalachian trail, one of his toes really started hurting him. He went to see a doctor in Virginia, and to see the doctor, have an x-ray, see the doctor again, and to get some anti-inflammatory pills it cost him $1,200. Now that is fucking pure crazy!!!!!

Let's just focus on the actual disagreement here, and agree to disagree:

I believe the US healthcare system is in dire need of repair, and you think it is fine.

The end.

I love Cliff-notes :1orglaugh


.

The thing is that her ear was open pretty good, it wasn't just a little scrape, it was wide open. I wasn't about to leave unattended and have a big scar on her ear for the rest of her life.

I've been telling the wife to toughen up, it's never gonna happen, when stuff happens like that, she panics.

Things must be different in your ER, but around here, they NEVER give the option of if you'd want them to fill it or give a prescription, USUALLY they do give you a couple of pills, then a prescription, but in this case, the nurse brought in a mixed bottle, which she probably had to make a full bottle to give her that one dose, if I denied it, I probably would've still got charged for it anyways. Plus, in the rare case that some kind of infection was setting it, I'd rather have the anti-biotics working that night rather than waiting until 4pm the next day when she got home from school.

My kids come first in my life, I'm not gonna sit back and risk anything. I know that going to the ER was gonna be a few bucks, but that's just rape.

The US doesn't have a health care system, they have an insurance system. Let he with the best insurance win, let those who find themselves denied by the insurance companies go suck an egg.

When people talk about Obama's plan (including Obama himself) it's always "insurance" this and "Insurance" that. He's not on the right track at all, only scratching the surface of what needs to change.

And someone down there who is covered can definitely go for treatment and end up only paying a few hundred bucks, but how much did they pay over the years in monthly insurance fees leading up to that treatment? Certainly someone without that level of coverage can end up paying thousands for the same treatment.

Personally I'd rather pay a little extra on my taxes than have to cough up an extra $500 to $1500 like some Americans say they're paying per month. Some say they're only covered for up to 80%. Others say their deductible is $5k. Up here in Canada the only "deductible" we have is on auto or house insurance. :D

I have no doubt that if done right the US could come up with a health care system that takes the best qualities of the systems in Canada, UK, Sweden, Germany, etc, and ties it all together to be the absolute best of the best. But unfortunately there are too many misinformed people there who cringe and shake in ignorance over such frightening terms as "universal", "socialized" or *choke* "government-run". ooOOoo, scarrrrry.

Put it this way... an old high school friend of mine just had open heart surgery at a local hospital, 5 days ago to be exact. She's home now and doing great, emailed me this morning to rave about how it went and the level of care she received.
The bill to her on discharge? --- $0.00
No fees
No defucktable deductible
Just a ride in a wheelchair to the car by a health care aid and a well wish.

I don't know how you can beat that, or argue about it for that matter. I would love to see the US have a better system them they do, one that is better than ours, but when I see these same threads over and over and over and people arguing the same arguments as 5 or 10 years ago I'm afraid that change won't arrive in my lifetime. Sad for the friends and relatives I have in the US whom I care about.

The most I can remember paying for medical care was an extra $AUD400 (about $USD360) above what medicare (Australia's free health care) paid for. That included surgery and a 2 night stay in hospital.

Going to the ER or seeing a public doctor is generally free. Some private doctors charge extra.

Ambulance insurance for myself and my family costs about $USD99 per year. All ambulance trips (including helicopter) are covered 100%... no excess, they don't even send a $0.00 invoice if you do take a ride...

Sound like it's a joke but it's true. Tell them your from Mexico, have no ID, and they don't charge you. It's the law.

Very good post:

This line says it all: "The US doesn't have a health care system, they have an insurance system"

.

I've been to the emergency room 8 times in my life and had top-notch care with a short wait.

Total bill: $0

Even when I got bit by a dog and needed shots, stitches, 3 different doctors, fluids, medication... $0

Long live Canada!

Why are you guys arguing with baddog? he is always in threads like this.. dont worry he is old and he'll be needing doctors/hospitals VERY soon and they'll fuck with him...

Anyway anyone who says USA healthcare/insurance is great can suck some balls...

Watch what happens when you need a 6-7 figure surgery, your insurance company will deny that shit.. On a different note i dont have health insurance since i never really liked paying $5000+ a year for something i might use once every few yrs..

anyway i DID go to emergency room one time for my jaw, they did xrays and i ended up with a $2,000 bill.. wooooooo, and i had to pay it..

BUT i fractured my fingers badly in Panama, i went to the ER in a great hospital(its affiliate with john Hopkins, the surgeon worked on it for a while to stop bleeding and xrays and stitch it up.. i had no insurance.. total bill = a little over $1,000

in the USA id have to pay $10k.. thats what sucks about the USA health care system..

:1orglaugh This thread contribution was actually pretty funny! :1orglaugh

From what I gather, Obama is "trying to end that crap" by charging the $780.59 to taxpayers, and not doing anything about reducing that $780.59 to something that isn't out of this world.

you can dispute those fees if you had no insurance
the fees are high because of greed and to cover people who don't pay their bills

if you asked them re-review the fees and give you something reasonable they'll most likely do it

Thats really nothing that bad, took my infant to the hospital because she had a bad cold and the bill was in the thousands for just a few tests.

Well considering there is about an error rate of over 80% in medical billing, yes you can find reductions easily.

Pretty much the minute you check into the ER it is about $500 even if they just see you and send you home without doing anything. Kind of sad.

On a side note, good insurance does not mean good fast care. A friend of mine's wife is going through issues with her hip. About 6 months ago she had a lot of pain and went to the doctor. It took about a month to get her to a specialist and get the MRI done. The specialist told her she needed surgery to repair what was wrong, but that insurance won't pay for it unless they jump through hoops. So she got a cortisone shot and did physical therapy for two months then had more tests. Of course nothing had changed. From there they tried a different type of a shot and still more physical therapy and it, as expected, didn't work. Last week she went back and now, after six months of pain doing things everyone knew wouldn't work, but had to be done to satisfy the insurance company, she is getting surgery.

Of course now she has to wait because the surgeon is so booked it will be two more months until she can get it done and the doctor said that since she has had a couple of kids she wants to do an extra procedure while in there to insure that everything will heal correctly. The insurance company won't pay for the extra procedure even though the doctor says it is necessary, so they will have to pay the $750 for that out of pocket.

As far as the OPs post. Lesson learned. Don't take your kid to the ER for such a minor issue.

Everyone talking shit about what those dumbfucks in Washington are trying to pull right now are shinning bright in ignorance. These people aren't going to give you shit. I've been saying it all along exactly what they are going to do and by god they are doing it. You will be FORCED to buy into a private insurance plan. If you don't you will be FINED. If you don't pay those fines what do you think they are going to do? Take your shit and/or throw your ass in jail. In addition to all that there are all sorts of BS regulations and mandatory requirements. It was never about helping your dumbasses out. It was about adding another source of funds for them to disburse. More money, power and control. That's it. They could give a shit less whether you live or die as long as they can control the money supply. And right now they need a lot to control.

Aren't we now only about 4 months away from living in a police state under a one world government?

Actually your one World government is already here. Under a pandemic the UN is in control of all nations. But to make it official the treaty will be signed in December under the disguise of climate change... You're trying to be a fucking smartass when everything is happening right before your damn eyes but your fucking stupid to see it. Oh and by the way your really going to love what those climate change bills are going to do to your wallet...

If all that you are saying really is happening. . . you and I are helpless to stop it.

But of course it won't happen and you and I both know that.

Will there be a "climate change" bill signed in December? Possibly. I have read a little bit about one that has been talked about. Will it be bad for my wallet? Maybe. Does that mean I am living under a one world government? Nope.