Extreme Medical Bills

[1 Thump]

Edited:
Ace: I do not disagree with you in theory. BUT It's a nightmare in practice. I have lived and worked in that nightmare. I'll choose this red tape laden system (the US healthcare system) over that nightmare any day. I paid a lot of taxes this year. I know it hurts and needs to get better quickly. But, that system (freemarket healthcare) is not the answer. I have been a consumer and a provider in that system.  I know of stories of people who were kept on life support AFTER they had died to rake up an ICU bill, women who had their bellies cut and stitched and billed for a C-Section when it was absolutely unwarranted, and on and on....Its more corrupt than you can imagine.

Thats all I have , my humble opinion. YMMV.

[barenekd]

+1
Bare

[Desi Bike]

Are the costs if medical care in the USA high due to the fees incurred by the private medical people for malpractice insurance? Or is it just greed? Just a thought.
I, as a Canadian, value Stomping Tom Connors , Canadian beer and poutine far more than Wayne Gretzky.

[REdmonton]

IN the 1940's my Grandfather had an accident at home, he needed treatment at the hospital (travelling there took a horse and sleigh and a model T). A month later my Grandmother had my uncle at the same hospital. My uncle was 6 years old and the family was still paying the hospital bill (they supplied firewood to the hospital).

Fast forward to 1974. My parents took my brother and me to see Stompin' Tom film a television special. The next day my father had his colon removed because of colon cancer. He spent 40 days in the hospital much of it in solitary because of an infection. The total cost to us, nothing. Two years later we were driving across Canada and the US.

I value health care immensely. As an Edmontonian who spent his youth watching Wayne Gretzky, I value health care more than him. Socialized medicine is a defining feature of Canada, we believe that we all need to look after each other and that a society is judged by how we treat our poorest and most disadvantaged. I truly miss Stompin' Tom but he appreciated our health care system too. (To my American friends, Stompin' Tom was a Canadian singer/songwriter who passed away recently. He wrote songs about Canada and being Canadian, think of him as a Canadian Woody Guthrie).

[Ice]

Are the costs if medical care in the USA high due to the fees incurred by the private medical people for malpractice insurance? Or is it just greed? Just a thought.
I, as a Canadian, value Stomping Tom Connors , Canadian beer and poutine far more than Wayne Gretzky.

Yes, yes and yes.

 In the 1960's health care and insurance was affordable for the average single pay check blue collar family.

 Then along came the mandates to not turn away anyone for any symptom (real or imagined) The E.R.s were and still are compelled by force of law to treat every one and anyone for anything and everything even if that malady would be better addressed by a regular office visit during regular hours. Costs have to be recovered and the climb has not stopped yet. 

 You mentioned malpractice.  That also is component of rising costs.
Unfortunately it's the rest of us who are paying the price indirectly for the insurance and the lawsuit settlements. The physician who amputates the wrong leg or the aid who administers the wrong medicine bear no responsibility and suffer no consequence.

 Health care in America has become a quasi extension of the social services systems here and the costs of supporting those administrative infrastructures have to be subsidized as well.

 All of those dollars have to come from somewhere.



 A few of the many things Canadian/Canadien  that endear Canada to me; the people, the beer, poutine, Guy Lafleur and Red Green.

[Desi Bike]

Thank God you didn't say Justin Beiber

[baird4444]

                                          Who???

[redcat]

redmonton, One of my favorite Canadian Folk singers is the Late Stan Rogers.

[gremlin]

........... Red Green............

Hero.

[mattsz]

........... Red Green............

Hero.

Shocking!   

[REdmonton]

Some of us still haven't forgiven Air Canada (Stan Rogers died in a fire on an Air Canada flight). Many times I have driven across the prairies listening to Northwest Passage.

[GreenForce82]

(I'm back)

It is the chicken and the egg though.

did govt regs cause it or did lobbyists push govt regs for corporate interests...

I am not naive enough to 'know' the answer... (yes I meant it that way)

but I think we are all smart enough to know that NOTHING in Gov't happens without a lobbyist behind it.

my 2 cents.

[Ice]

 Behind every politician is a lobbyist. Behind the lobbyist is an investment holdings group. Investment holding groups manage the personal investments of politicians.

 Chicken or the egg is right.
But it's our goose that is about to be cooked.