28 August 2018

It doesn't have to be this way


Discussion thread at LateStageCapitalism.

See this post at BoingBoing for more discussion of the cost of universal health care.

10 comments:

  1. Honestly, it's as if it were legal to sell a car to someone but then deliver it without a motor, because that wasn't included in the sale.

    And, oh, since we have a free market in the healthcare industry, you should have called around various hospitals and comparison-shopped while your child was screaming and bleeding.

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  2. the really dumb part is that your government spends more per person than mine on healthcare and we have free socialized healthcare. signed, the non shit hole first world

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  3. Woe unto you if you get bills from three doctors who saw you in the ER and they are all out of network because your hospital contracts with a traveling doc service. I had no idea there was more than one actual doctor, and I was there the whole time.

    Then there are the out-of-network doctors who pop their heads into your room for a few minutes while you are there for some routine, never say a word, then bill you big time.

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    Replies
    1. https://khn.org/news/a-jolt-to-the-jugular-youre-insured-but-still-owe-109k-for-your-heart-attack/

      probably blogworthy

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    2. Yes it was! http://misscellania.blogspot.com/2018/08/miss-cellanias-links_29.html

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    3. And my congratulations to you for writing the 10,000th comment on TYWKIWDBI. It couldn't have come from a better person.

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    4. Oh my goodness! That explains the balloons that fell from the ceiling last night!

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  4. Seems like a good lawsuit opportunity here. Not malpractice (since they have insurance for that), more like breach of contract or some other business related. You probably signed documents with the hospital but not with those doctors. Need a good law firm willing to tread new ground. (and those are probably rare as hens teeth).

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    Replies
    1. i successfully appealed the charges under a similar-ish situation, reminding them i had paid the copay required (authorizing the scheduled appointment) and any switching up of doctors
      was not signed off by me.

      maybe wouldnt work for an emergency situation, but there’s a good faith argument to be made ...

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  5. No stitches, but a couple of years ago I underwent an angiogram, followed a month or so later by an angioplasty operation. Changed my life as before the operation I had to rest for a good few minutes when I walked even a hundred metres, and as a builder I was unable to work.
    Now, while not the superman I was when I was 24, I am, at 62, able to do anything I was able to do at 40.
    The financial cost to me consists of $18 for a doctor visit and $15 for the medications about every second month, up around $200 a year, around $4 a week.
    Yes, we in New Zealand pay taxes our entire working life, just like anybody in a western country, but here that has always been less than 18% unless you earn a massive amount.
    Having those taxes used to take care of us when we need it seems like the right way of doing things

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