Evil socialised medical care

[epoxyboy]

So, after a couple of days of niggly chest pain, and feeling a bit light headed today as well, Dr Google told me not to be an arse, and get it checked out. F**k, f**k, f**k, f**k!
Anyway, three hours, an ECG, the most comprehensive blood test I've ever had, and assorted other tests - the doc was confidently able to tell me that it definitely wasn't a cardiac problem.
Cost me $90, at an after-hours clinic. Damn that socialised health care!

Pete

[bob winter]

Big fan of socialized medicine! Two open heart surgeries in May last year. Cost to me was zero. I have macular degeneration so I have injections every two months. The drugs cost 3K but I pay $ 12.22 plus an admin fee of $ 50.00. A friend in Florida went blind from the same condition because she couldn’t afford treatment.

[Paul Pless]

Cost me $90, at an after-hours clinic. Damn that socialised health care!

Pete

meh, a similar visit would have cost me about twenty bucks; of course Kat and I have an insurance policy between the two of us valued at about $8K per year. . .


the above was meant to be sarcastic

Good to know you’re doing fine. I had one of those scares not long ago due to a post surgery complication. Trouble breathing, weak, tightness in chest, mega headache. went to a trauma center, I had never been to one before it was crazy. Doc’s asking me questions, nurse checking my bp; nurse turns to doc says, “200 over 180”. Doc says, “ that explains the headache “

thanks

[bob winter]

200 over 180 sounds a bit scary. I have been checking my bp daily since I got out of the Heart Institute and I freak out if it is above 135. This morning it is 111/65.

[Todd D]

Would have cost me zero, but I pay $310 a month in premiums to get to that state. Medicare is not cheap, but given that my medical bills last year were $200,000+ I am OK with the premiums.

[Paul Pless]

mine is normally in the 130/80 range
that day sure got my attention though

[ron ll]

The cost/return on my health insurance and Medicare so far have been WAY WAY out of whack. Of course at age 75, that could change tomorrow. But to this point I have been subsidizing the rest of you sickos all my life.

[L.A Marche]

End to end oscopy in March and top end oscopy this week, they had the nerve to charge me five bucks a pop for parking.

[peb]

Would have cost me hundreds, that's after a $1450/month insurance premium.

[epoxyboy]

That 90 bucks was it, we spend zip on health insurance.

Pete

[Peerie Maa]

Did I ever tell you about when I broke my femur.
Hospital stay, X-rays, Surgery, physio, ambulances back and forth, medication.
Cost? All covered by the NHS, nothing to pay at point of delivery. If I could not find street parking near the hospital I might have paid £1.50 to park in the hospital car park.

[skuthorp]

Peters biggest cost for his brain surgery was the parking, or so I remember he posted.

[Phil Y]

Big fan of socialized medicine! Two open heart surgeries in May last year. Cost to me was zero. I have macular degeneration so I have injections every two months. The drugs cost 3K but I pay $ 12.22 plus an admin fee of $ 50.00. A friend in Florida went blind from the same condition because she couldn’t afford treatment.

That's more than sad. It's inhumane. Health care for the wealthy/employed. Nice to know all the rich white guys here have good cover. Makes me feel all warm and soft inside.

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[1940alan]

2016, had a heart attack and my only cost was $900.00 for 35 min. $14000 helicopter ride.

[skuthorp]

We pay an ambulance premium of under $A100 a year which covers all ambulance matters, including aircraft and boats.

[Too Little Time]

So, after a couple of days of niggly chest pain, and feeling a bit light headed today as well, Dr Google told me not to be an arse, and get it checked out. F**k, f**k, f**k, f**k!
Anyway, three hours, an ECG, the most comprehensive blood test I've ever had, and assorted other tests - the doc was confidently able to tell me that it definitely wasn't a cardiac problem.
Cost me $90, at an after-hours clinic. Damn that socialised health care!

The evil part is you think it cost you $90.

In January or February I ad 2 strokes. One in my sleep left me with a blind spot in my vision. The one the next night caused me to call 911 for a ride to the hospital. 2 days and 2 nights of care. They did not find the cause. (They did find some minor damage in my brain from the strokes, but it is all now resolved.)

I paid a couple hundred dollars. Medicare paid $30K. Medicare was able to pay because I and many others paid premiums to allow Medicare to have the money to do so.

Had I not had insurance, I would not have gone to the hospital and the outcome would have been the same. One might say that the $30K was wasted.

[wizbang 13]

The evil part is you think it cost you $90.

In January or February I ad 2 strokes. One in my sleep left me with a blind spot in my vision. The one the next night caused me to call 911 for a ride to the hospital. 2 days and 2 nights of care. They did not find the cause. (They did find some minor damage in my brain from the strokes, but it is all now resolved.)

I paid a couple hundred dollars. Medicare paid $30K. Medicare was able to pay because I and many others paid premiums to allow Medicare to have the money to do so.

Had I not had insurance, I would not have gone to the hospital and the outcome would have been the same. One might say that the $30K was wasted.

hippie socialism

[Katherine]

meh, a similar visit would have cost me about twenty bucks; of course Kat and I have an insurance policy between the two of us valued at about $8K per year.

Try more like $10K. I don’t have my pay stub in front of me, but, if memory serves, I pay around $170 per a month in before tax dollars to cover us. The company pays several times that.

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

So....uh...what was the problem if it wasn't your ticker?

[Sailor]

I spent a week in the cardiac unit a few years ago to be told it wasn't my heart. They were sufficiently convinced for a while that they told me straight out that I had had a heart attack. THAT got my attention. I'm usually pretty careful these days. I slip up and make mistakes but I'm pretty cautious for the most part.

[Katherine]

The max out of pocket for me and Paul this year is $7000, witch we will hit this year. Things need to change!

[L.A Marche]

That's more than sad. It's inhumane. Health care for the wealthy/employed. Nice to know all the rich white guys here have good cover. Makes me feel all warm and soft inside.

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Bob’s Canadian, so is entitled to the same care whether rich, poor, blue or green.

[Phil Y]

Bob’s Canadian, so is entitled to the same care whether rich, poor, blue or green.

Yeah I was referring to his friend in Florida.

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[epoxyboy]

The evil part is you think it cost you $90.

In January or February I ad 2 strokes. One in my sleep left me with a blind spot in my vision. The one the next night caused me to call 911 for a ride to the hospital. 2 days and 2 nights of care. They did not find the cause. (They did find some minor damage in my brain from the strokes, but it is all now resolved.)

I paid a couple hundred dollars. Medicare paid $30K. Medicare was able to pay because I and many others paid premiums to allow Medicare to have the money to do so.

Had I not had insurance, I would not have gone to the hospital and the outcome would have been the same. One might say that the $30K was wasted.

Oh, I know full well that my taxes payed the bulk of the true cost. I could have gone to the hospital A&E, and then my out of pocket would have been zero, and the entire cost would have been picked up by the taxpayer.
That option is open to anyone in NZ, whether they pay taxes or not. Here, we don't have make the horrid decision that seeking medical help is simply not an affordable option, due to the lack of insurance. That people in the US consider this healthcare model to be a bad thing is beyond bizarre.

Pete

[epoxyboy]

So....uh...what was the problem if it wasn't your ticker?

Doc suggested it may just be a rib-sternum thing. Fk knows, but at least I have some certainty that the bilge pump isn't going to cut out on me, at some highly inconvenient moment. We'll see how things go over the next few days.

Pete

[Garret]

The evil part is you think it cost you $90.

In January or February I ad 2 strokes. One in my sleep left me with a blind spot in my vision. The one the next night caused me to call 911 for a ride to the hospital. 2 days and 2 nights of care. They did not find the cause. (They did find some minor damage in my brain from the strokes, but it is all now resolved.)

I paid a couple hundred dollars. Medicare paid $30K. Medicare was able to pay because I and many others paid premiums to allow Medicare to have the money to do so.

Had I not had insurance, I would not have gone to the hospital and the outcome would have been the same. One might say that the $30K was wasted.

Glad to hear you are better, but you sound as though you think insurance is a bad thing. The only real differences between a national system & private insurance are: 1) it's spread over a greater # of people, 2) overhead costs seem to be lower - mostly due to lack of profits being built in & 3) people are not turned away for capricious reasons.

So - of course a healthy person subsidizes one with a heart attack. A driver with no accidents subsidizes one who has an accident. Should we stop auto insurance? Of course that comparison brings up a question: why is it that auto insurance is a competitive market & health insurance is not?

[Duncan Gibbs]

Four fractured vertebrae, three fractured ribs, compound tib/fib break on the RH leg, multiple lacerations and suspected/possible bladder puncture (fortunately not).

Two ambulances vehicles with five medics, police assistance, air lifted 80km, multiple CT and xrays, urology surgeon, neurosurgeon, ortho' surgeon, anesthetists, nearly fours weeks in hospital, including provision of moon boot, dressings, crutches, food, medicines, physio, brilliant nursing staff, two months of follow up physio and surgical post-op appointments for assessment including xrays.

$0.

My taxes at work! I'm happy!

[Too Little Time]

Oh, I know full well that my taxes payed the bulk of the true cost.

That option is open to anyone in NZ, whether they pay taxes or not. Here, we don't have make the horrid decision that seeking medical help is simply not an affordable option, due to the lack of insurance. That people in the US consider this healthcare model to be a bad thing is beyond bizarre.

Bundling healthcare into the general taxes hides who is actually pays for healthcare. I would like those in the bottom 50% to get healthcare paid for by those in the top 50%.

I think you have the common view of why people don't get healthcare. I think it is often different. For many going without a couple days pay due to getting healthcare is an economically difficult choice.

[Too Little Time]

So - of course a healthy person subsidizes one with a heart attack. A driver with no accidents subsidizes one who has an accident. Should we stop auto insurance? Of course that comparison brings up a question: why is it that auto insurance is a competitive market & health insurance is not?

Under the ACA young poor healthy people subsidize the old rich sick.

There are 2 large differences between car insurance and health insurance. First, for the most part - ignoring no-fault issues, car insurance covers damage you do to others. Health insurance covers damage you do to yourself. Second, health insurers have the ability to look at chronic or hereditary conditions and charge based on risk. No one with chronic or hereditary conditions wants that. No one without those those conditions want them to be ignored.

Prior to the ACA, insurance markets health insurance was competitive. The problem was that group policies charged premiums based on the sickest employees. Everyone paid the rate that the sickest employee's risk determined. Healthy individuals could often get policies for 1/10th the cost. But if your employer had a group plan, everyone paid a much higher rate.

[Norman Bernstein]

Some insurance isn't expensive... admittedly, it's only in restricted circumstances. SWMBO and I are on Medicare, and have Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare advantage policies that cost us only about $2400 per year. We have no deductibles, and the co-pays are small: $500 for an emergency room visit, $35 for a specialist visit, $15 for our PCP's. When my wife fell down the stairs in March, broke her clavicle and several ribs, and spent 3 days in the hospital and 10 days in a rehabilitation place, our total out-of-pocket cost was around $117 for nearly everything in the hospital, and just $1,000 for the ten day stay at the rehab. The total billed cost was over $50,000.

[John Smith]

The max out of pocket for me and Paul this year is $7000, witch we will hit this year. Things need to change!

Things would change faster, IMO, if those promoting the change did a more complete job of explaining the benefits.

Our employer based system is a MAJOR obstacle to creating jobs in this country. When GM was moving plants from Michigan to Canada, the cost of employee health insurance was a driving force. Given the premiums tend to go up every year, it's also an obstacle to higher wages.

Then there' the profit margin private insurance companies need, and that gives them an incentive to not cover stuff.

Of course, the cost of the employer provided insurance is passed on to the consumer. WE, THE PEOPLE, pay for ALL of it as consumers and/or as taxpayers.

Providers need staff simply to deal with a large number of different insurance carriers. Drives up the cost for everyone. They also need a billing department; more overhead.

No one connects any of these dots.

[John Smith]

Wouldn't it be much simpler and more efficient to simply put all this under the umbrella of infrastructure? One gets ill, one goes to the doctor, or calls an ambulance. One gets treated. No one asks for his insurance. No one sends a bill. No one makes a profit from insuring you.

[john welsford]

Oh, I know full well that my taxes payed the bulk of the true cost. I could have gone to the hospital A&E, and then my out of pocket would have been zero, and the entire cost would have been picked up by the taxpayer.
That option is open to anyone in NZ, whether they pay taxes or not. Here, we don't have make the horrid decision that seeking medical help is simply not an affordable option, due to the lack of insurance. That people in the US consider this healthcare model to be a bad thing is beyond bizarre.

Pete

I'd point out too, that out tax rates are not particularly onerous, and that the system does give us choices of where and by whom we get our treatment.
That plus universal superannuation ( non contributory retirement pension, everyone gets that, whether rich or poor, whether they've worked all their lives or not at all) and a subsidised retirement savings scheme to top that up.

Social democracy works.

John Welsford

[Too Little Time]

That plus universal superannuation ( non contributory retirement pension, everyone gets that, whether rich or poor, whether they've worked all their lives or not at all)

So the government pays old people. Why not pay young people?

[Kevin T]

So the government pays old people. Why not pay young people?

Why not? Because young people are still in their most productive years, by the very nature of being young people.

Put another way, who do you want driving 18 wheelers and delivering food to supermarkets? The 35 year old with 20/20 vision and lightening fast reflexes with stamina and energy to burn, or the 84 year old who still needs to work with his cataracts, nominal eyesight, slower reaction time, a dodgy hip, and needs an afternoon nap a little after lunch time.