# Health care horror story #13848732 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 26, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612 "2009-12-26T08:01:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/41 "2009-12-26T20:38:35Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > But I also interpret the OP as a rant for European-styled socialized medicine. Which we both agree would be horrendous. As a European living in America for the last 13 years, I think the US system is horrendous. I would swap it for the UK system of “NHS plus private insurance if you want” in a heartbeat. I have seen poor relatives in the UK get excellent care and never have to think about the cost. I have seen my wife’s poor relatives do without or delay treatment because they cannot afford it, and suffer as a consequence. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/42 "2009-12-26T20:39:52Z")
I’m guessing its because the word hasn’t really gotten around, that you don’t really buy insurance so much as an opportunity to spin the Wheel of Coverage. For years and years, insurance companies have promoted the image of benign fiduciary functionaries, offering a public service at a modest but sustainable profit. Then we heard the occasional story about some health insurance plan gone terribly wrong, innocent people needlessly bankrupted, and we thought it some kind of fluke, a stupid computer error, or some such, and dismissed it with the calm assurance that somebody would be fixing that glitch toot damn sweet. At least partly because, well, we didn’t actually know those people, did we? I’ll take a wild guess and suggest that the majority of us do know such a person, or have an indirect but still personal knowledge of same. But we don’t hear it so much on the news because it isn’t news anymore, its SOP. I’ll hazard a further guess to offer that the reason it ain’t news anymore is because they are doing a lot more of it, and so far its only a problem to their PR department. And unless we do something about it, they not only will keep doing it, they are likely to do a lot more of it, at least for the immediate future. Why? Because their financial whiz kids aren’t any smarter than the rest of them, and they all just lost a metric buttload of money. And they want it back. And to get it, they will be willing to do things that would make Ayn Rand and Gordon Gekko’s bastard child blush with shame. Oh, and if your policy has a check mark box about organ donation, be sure to read that very, very carefully… ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/43 "2009-12-26T20:45:17Z")
> [@PrettyVacant](#): > > I’m sure you know that voting does not in itself mean you live in a functioning democracy, you also need - among much else - full and free information in order to make informed choices. > > The reason why this healthcare lie has lasted decades longer than it should have done in the USA is because the public is not informed. Sure, the public thinks it’s informed - hell, they knew they didn’t want socialized medicine for 40 years - but they really are not. No more informed than they were about, say, WMD, or that 25% of the worlds prisoners are in the USA, or 55% of the worlds military spending, etc; many things that should be major issues aren’t even on the radar, yet they’re absurd in any international context. > > Power is not with the people, it lays with the corporations through the lobby system and the funding of election campaigns. > > I’d agree it absolutely looks like a functioning democracy but, if it were, the insane health care rip off of poor and middle class people would have ended in the 1950s. > > That progress has been made now in relation to UHC is not a clear sign of greater democracy but is instead an acknowledgement of impact of the rip off on international competitiveness. It a function of the market, is all. I didn’t want to let this pass without noting it - I agree with this completely. Like you say, power is with the corporations and lobby system, and I have no idea how that can be changed - the people in power have no reason to change the system they benefit from, and they’re the ones with the power. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/44 "2009-12-26T21:03:34Z")
> [@Sateryn76](#): > > Well, I’ll probably get flamed for this, and it’s Christmas and all, but… > > Why didn’t the parents terminate the pregnancy? With “a variety of organ deformities” and a probable future as a “special needs” kid, what is the reason for birthing the child at all? I’m obviously a little hard-core on this, but, come on… > > This bothers me in terms of UHC, because these parents, who I am sure loved and wanted this child, decided to birth a deformed baby, and as a part of the insurance pool, I’m going to be paying for their kid, who was defective from the start. IMO, the responsible thing would have been to terminate the pregnancy. > > I am told over and over again that I must pitch in, be forced into a insurance pool, and help to pay medical bills for everyone because it’s the Right Thing To Do. It wouldn’t be right to force this couple to abort, but shouldn’t this family be required to at least be educated on how much this baby would cost everyone else? Why does the obligation to others only go one way? I agree with you to a point, that termination might have been a good option for a baby that sounds pretty damn close to non-viable, but it strikes me that making that decision just based on how much it’s going to cost is not right. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/45 "2009-12-26T21:30:04Z")
> [@Silverstreak\_Wonder](#): > > Something is fishy here, since when do you go have surgery at a hospital without them and you checking and getting insurance company approval first? There is nothing stopping you from going to a hospital for treatment BEFORE you get insurance company approval. Nothing. And the hospital will make you sign umpteen gazillion forms stating that whether your insurance covers your treatment or not you promise to make sure the hospital gets paid, out of your own pocket if you can’t get the insurance company to pony up. PARTICULARLY if the surgery is for an emergency, or to prevent an emergency, it is very easy to find yourself treated and on the hook for a huge bill. > [@](#): > > Wouldn’t they have to do that to get the co-pay amount and all that before the operation? Nope. If you produce evidence of insurance the hospital will proceed - _they_ aren’t going to bother with double-checking on whether this, that, or the other is covered, that is the _patient’s_ responsibility. Seriously, read the fine print. > [@](#): > > And they did multiple ops without even talking to the insuror? Given the delay in payment that is common these days it is entirely too easy for this to occur. > [@](#): > > I certainly do support national health care but even under any private insurance it would have you still would need to go to a participating hospital in that plan I would think. Nope. The insurance company can’t _force_ you to go to an in-plan provider. They just won’t pay for it if you go out of network (or pay an enormously reduced percentage of the cost - again, read the fine print). > [@Silverstreak\_Wonder](#): > > Greedy doctors afraid of slightly lower income are the source of all this mis-information. But that greed is also what is wrong with this story, because no way would a real hospital do multiple operations without checking insurance and getting an approval, and it won’t be buried on page 729 if they are not in the network, they would reject the card right away. It is entirely possible to get pre-approval, only to have it withdrawn after the fact. And, as soon as you start racking up six-digit bills the insurance company will start looking for a reason - _any_ reason - to withdraw approval. So what if you take them to court? That will take _years_. Years they won’t have to pay for your bills and years during which they might find a way to wriggle out of the obligation. > [@Sateryn76](#): > > Well, I’ll probably get flamed for this, and it’s Christmas and all, but… > > Why didn’t the parents terminate the pregnancy? With “a variety of organ deformities” and a probable future as a “special needs” kid, what is the reason for birthing the child at all? I’m obviously a little hard-core on this, but, come on… Re-read the OP - the deformities were found 6 months into the pregnancy. _Good frickin’ luck_ finding an abortion provider for the second trimester, let alone at 6+ months. In this case that is not a practical option in the US.. > [@](#): > > This bothers me in terms of UHC, because these parents, who I am sure loved and wanted this child, decided to birth a deformed baby, and as a part of the insurance pool, I’m going to be paying for their kid, who was defective from the start. IMO, the responsible thing would have been to terminate the pregnancy. Where do you draw the line at acceptable birth defects? I do get a little huffy about that, as my husband was _also_ born defective, significantly so, yet managed to be a contributing tax payer for 25 years. Just because someone has a serious birth defect does not mean they will be a useless human being. > [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > I’d agree that if a fetus shows multiple organ deformities at six months, the wise thing is to terminate the pregnancy. If the family has the bucks (personal or through insurance) to handle the medical and developmental expenses then more power to them. Again - where the hell do you find someone willing to perform an abortion at 6 months along? Seriously? Did anyone suggesting this actually consider the fact that abortion past 6 months of gestation is more or less impossible to find in this country? Name me even _one_ place willing to perform an elective abortion at 6 months gestation. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/46 "2009-12-26T21:53:08Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Again - where the hell do you find someone willing to perform an abortion at 6 months along? Seriously? Did anyone suggesting this actually consider the fact that abortion past 6 months of gestation is more or less impossible to find in this country? Name me even _one_ place willing to perform an elective abortion at 6 months gestation. Yeah, my mind took a short vacation there, but my main point is the same one you asked directly above the quoted paragraph, “Where do you draw the line?” ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/47 "2009-12-26T22:58:01Z")
[Here’s an interesting chart.](http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/12/chart.html) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/48 "2009-12-27T00:48:51Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Nice try, but there are still millions of liberty-minded folks who believe in individual freedom and responsibility. We believe is it wrong to force people at gunpoint to hand over their property to someone else for their individual consumption. > > If you want to acquire a product such as education or healthcare, _fine_. Purchase it. It’s wholeheartedly immoral to use the police power of government to force your neighbor to buy it for you. So A walks into B’s place of business, purchases a service to be provided under certain conditions, pays for it on an ongoing basis (or receives it from his employer as a part of compensation for his work), and when those conditions occur, A contacts B and the service is denied. In any field other than insurance, this would be considered fraud. And the Republican Party has made it their business to defend the defrauding of the public by this industry. If you believe in individual responsibility and freedom, then fix it, or be a part of a Republican rank-and-file movement to demand their party fix it in a private-sector manner. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/49 "2009-12-27T01:01:09Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > It is entirely possible to get pre-approval, only to have it withdrawn after the fact. Good point - they do generally call it “pre-approval”, and the “pre-” part doesn’t mean “we’re issuing approval before the procedure.” > [@](#): > > Again - where the hell do you find someone willing to perform an abortion at 6 months along? Seriously? Did anyone suggesting this actually consider the fact that abortion past 6 months of gestation is more or less impossible to find in this country? Name me even _one_ place willing to perform an elective abortion at 6 months gestation. Another good point. One of only three US doctors, Dr. George Tiller, that would do third trimester abortions, even for reasons like “the infant is dying inside the mother and won’t live to delivery”, was murdered in his church in June. Plenty of women who didn’t want to suffer through the agony of delivering a dead baby or one who would die shortly after birth went to him or the other two locations. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/50 "2009-12-27T01:07:29Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > As a libertarian, I believe it would be immoral to force other people to pay for their healthcare. IMO healthcare is a service and a luxury, not a “right.” But on the other hand, what if someone doesn’t have the money to pay a large and unexpected medical bill? One idea is to offer low-interest, government-backed loans, similar to students loans. These loans can only be used for healthcare expenses. > [@Cort](#): > > Well then why should you pay for anything? Why should your neighbour pay for the socialised fire brigade to show up if your house burns down? Society decides where to draw the line and right now [polls](http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/04/06/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4923731.shtml) indicate that a clear majority of Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes for universal health care, let alone for the meagre provisions in the anaemic Senate bill. If you don’t like it, emigrate. > > As was made clear in the OP and as **Ferret Herder** reiterated, these people _did_ purchase health care. I don’t know how many thousands of dollars they poured into their insurance companies coffers before some corporate apparatchik on a private death panel told them it was all for nought, but I would imagine it was quite a substantial sum. > [@elucidator](#): > > **Crafter:** > > We are, of course, grateful for your insights into our governmental system, as you should be grateful that there is literally no chance of their being implemented. We will protect you from yourself, even as we protect ourselves from you. > > As for a “right” to health care, it is not written, in that you are correct. Our rights are wholly theoretical, there is no proof, they are gifts we give unto each other. We hold these rights to be self-evident, which is to say, we are making them up as we go along. Don’t like it, tough noogies. Convince enough of us that you are right and you will be right. Until then, you are wrong. > > Again, for me, the question boils down: if the insurance companies can make a respectable (albeit modest) profit without doing these ghastly things to our people, why don’t they? And if they can’t, what good are they? If they cannot function as respectable businesses, to hell with them. And if they can, but refuse to do so out of greed and rapacity, to hell with them. FYI, we covered this back in the last **Rand Rover** thread. Debating **Crafter\_Man** has not had a track record of changing any one’s mind, or accomplishing anything more useful than that warm inner glow of righteous RO. ETA: That sounded a bit snarkier than I intended. Nothing wrong with the self-righteous inner glow. To be honest, that’s more or less my reason for lurking the Pit. Go ahead and debate libertarianism; just know that you probably won’t accomplish anything useful. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/51 "2009-12-27T01:14:44Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Oh, and if your policy has a check mark box about organ donation, be sure to read that very, very carefully… What’s the story here? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/52 "2009-12-27T01:31:18Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > What’s the story here? Well, it _is_ **'luci** , so he could be making a trenchant comment on his own, but when I read the post, I was put in mind of [this.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aclS1pGHp8o) Make sure there’s no clauses that give them the right to do it. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/53 "2009-12-27T02:13:12Z")
> [@holmes](#): > > I have a question. You say you will support their fixed cost. Let’s say that a person goes missing. In order to find this person, the police increase overtime, therefor increasing their fixed expenses. > > I’m assuming that your response would be to charge the person who is missing for that expense if they are found, regardless of the situation that caused the expense, yes? So if their car goes off the road, it’s their responsibility to pay for the service of their recovery or I guess their insurance company. Yes? > > Now let’s say the worst has occured and the person is taken. The police search for this person and find nothing or they find a body. Who would you charge then? If the person is a minor, would you charge their parents? What if they have no ‘police search’ insurance? Who pays? Do we then cut police services, because they lost money on that search? The free market and all that. > > How do you see that conversation going, “Sorry Mrs Smith, we found Tammy’s body, here’s our bill…on the back is the number of our financial services department. If you don’t pay, well we can’t guarantee we’ll be around next time. Nothing personal, it’s just business.” > > Would you require before an extensive search is conducted, the police request that they have a promisary note or offer a ‘payment’ plan in place before they conduct that search? > > The thing about “isms” is that they seem really good on paper, but in practice with real, living people; they tend to only work if we ignore any sense of humanity and behave as savages. > > Of course if we all behaved as you desire, the people who are pushing these ideas, would most likely be the first ones against wall; surprised that they are the ones who needed the ‘nanny’ government after all. They are not strong enough, or smart enough or fast enough and their guns won’t help them climb out of a wrecked car or control their diabetes. > > You, like the anti-vaccination people have the luxury to believe what you do, because you rely on us to carry your weight, while you bitch about how the government cheese and butter you eat is making you fat. > > You know that if you got sick and walked into an ER they would help you. You know if you crashed your car, the emergency crew would come and cut you free, regardless of your ability to pay for it and you rely on it. We all do, even if we never, ever use those services. > > I don’t know who you think you’re fooling, except maybe yourself. Come on, dude, there is simply no use bothering to respond to the nonsense that **Crafter Man** spews. Likewise, there is no use responding to someone who argues that everyone should be taxed 100% and then have government pay for absolutely every need and want of every citizen. Intelligent grown-ups know that there is a constantly changing mixture of socialism and capitalism in all states. The only argument between sane, thinking people is-- what is the ratio? What is appropriate for the state to provide for (and fund through taxes) and what is the responsibility of individuals to pay for themselves? Currently, the most civilized nations of the world consider health care to be something that their states are wealthy enough to provide for their citizens. The USA has not reached that level of civility, but it will, it will. That doesn’t help all of us who are being fucked by the knuckle-dragging voters in the USA who are slowing down progress, (and BTW, damn those sluggards to hell!) but we will get there. It is just a matter of time. Time that the people mentioned in the OP, and so many others don’t have. So why? WHY? **WHY** must it take so long? WWJD? (If he existed, he would make himself not. That would be a nice head-start). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/54 "2009-12-27T02:18:13Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > WWJD? Jesus was a Socialist. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/55 "2009-12-27T02:20:15Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Well, it _is_ **'luci** , so he could be making a trenchant comment on his own, but when I read the post, I was put in mind of [this.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aclS1pGHp8o) > > Make sure there’s no clauses that give them the right to do it. Well, I was grimly joking when I said it, but now that I think about it, I’m not so sure… ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/56 "2009-12-27T02:38:25Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Jesus was a Socialist. Yes, but you can’t tell Christians that. They’ll stone you to death with some good Christian Lovin’ and Fergivin’. If Hey-Zeus was the beneficent cartoon super-hero that all his nit-wit groupies believe, the most Beatific thing he could do would be convince all of them that he never existed in the first place; that they are the shallow, drooling fools that the rest of us know them to be. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/57 "2009-12-27T02:41:46Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Yes, but you can’t tell Christians that. They’ll stone you to death with some good Christian Lovin’ and Fergivin’. But it’s right there in the Book! ‘Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.’ – Matthew 19:21 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/58 "2009-12-27T02:54:20Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > But it’s right there in the Book! > > ‘Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.’ – Matthew 19:21 ‘And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.’ – Acts 4:32 ‘Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.’ – Luke 12:33 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/59 "2009-12-27T03:23:12Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > …, the most Beatific thing he could do would be convince all of them that he never existed in the first place; that they are the shallow, drooling fools that the rest of us know them to be. So, you want him to magically come back and tell us there is no such thing as magic? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/60 "2009-12-27T03:24:24Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I find I do have a little difficulty comprehending the antecedents. If the problems were discovered several weeks prior to the Caesarian, shouldn’t the subject of coverage have been explored with the insurance company, and a plan in place that kept the insurance company on board? My understanding is they (insurance) agreed to cover it at first, then found a technicality to get out of paying for it. It happens like that sometimes, insurance will find ways to rescind or deny coverage after treatment has begun. I feel bad for all the cancer patients who get a rescission letter halfway through chemotherapy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612.md?page=4)