Yesterday . a Detroit local news program ran a story about one of their ex-weatherman. He retired . When he did he was too young for Medicare. His doctor said he should get a colonoscopy. He checked out prices around town. They ran from 3500 to 9000 dollars. The uninsured pay more anyway. He found that he could go to Costa Rica and get one for 350 dollars. The doctor went to school in America and attends 3 seminars a year to stay current. He went there and got it, went on vacation and came out way, way ahead. He discovered that a heart valve transplant which runs 200,000 dollars in America can be had for 2000 in other places. In many cases the care is better. They do not have a drive to bring in the cheapest nurses and attendants they can find. They do not have this huge drive to make the greatest profit possible. If they are competing ,it is to provide the best care possible, not to squeeze as much money as possible out of the system.
http://www.healthbase.com/resources/news/latest/wellpoint-introduces-international-medical-tourism-pilot-program.html Here is a site that will hook you up for Vacation/medical procedures.
By the way when he was in Costa Rica he had his dental work done for less than a third of the cost here. I know 2 people who had weight loss surgery done in Mexico for much less than half the cost here.
I just found this thread. I thought I might post, but if this distracts too much from the napkin sandwich conversation, please feel free to ignore it:
My brother has Anylosing Spondilitis, a condition that requires constant (and expensive) medical care. He’s a student and so has health insurance through his university, but the insurance company has recently slapped a pre-existing on his A.S., which means he’ll have to wait an entire year before they’ll pay for any treatments. This would cost him approximately $50,000 - $75,000. He does not have this money.
However, there are charities that will help him provided he can show the appropriate financial need. But here comes the kicker: they only help people who lack health insurance, and in order to continue his college education, he HAS to have health insurance. So, at this point, he has two options: he can continue his education and hope that his A.S. won’t progress further and start fusing his bones together, which is almost guaranteed to happen and will leave him immobile and in excruciating pain, OR he can drop out of college and leave his health insurance plan and live off charity. Although, technically, he has another option: he can forgo treatment for his disease and join the circus, like another famous sufferer, Leonard Trask, the Wonderful Invalid, although neither of us are sure how realistic this option is because we’re both fairly sure the freak-show circuit is dwindling.
Or he could go to the ER for his treatments.
The people who are opposed to UHC seem to prefer paying the higher costs of ER visits instead of the lower costs of UHC. Either way, they’ll be paying for someone else’s treatment; only this way they get to pay the higher costs they prefer.
Throwing out random insults? They were not random - every one was based on horrible, and often incorrect, things you have said yourself. Just for fun, I went through this thread and found the worst of the things you have said:
Not to mention the numerous 'snort’s, :rolleyes:'s, and general negative insinuations. You are the one that made another poster cry in another thread. So get down off that high horse, bub. You’re not nearly as lily-white as you’re trying to project yourself to be.
Hey, Tarwater - I’m sorry to hear about your brother. I didn’t mean to steal your thunder - I was composing my post for way too long and didn’t see yours. It is completely ridiculous that someone should be forced out of school in order to get the care they desperately need. In Canada or Britain or Australia your brother would face a much more level playing field in terms of reaching his potential (not that having AS is a very level playing field to start with).
Suggesting the ‘spaghetti dinner’ approach is no answer. Why does anyone think it is appropriate for people in the first world to be forced to beg from others for their very lives? Yes, on a UHC we pay for each other, but the cost is spread evenly over people and time, and the costs tend to be lower to start with. It also doesn’t force people with desperately ill family members to put their focus on paying the bills rather than healing (or dealing with it, or dying with dignity if that’s what happens). That really is kicking someone while they’re down.
The ER does not provide on going care. You can not drop in once a day for medication.
Weak attempt at avoidance.
Not to mention he had 2 insurance policies in place. Two. But they can only use one. The other pays zip while taking premiums for years. That of course was a rule health insurance companies pushed through. Many years ago if you and your wife both had coverage, anything that the first one did not pick up, the second likely would. You felt some level of security . Now you can be covered and feel insecure. Nice system we got here.
Nitpick/typo correction: ankylosing spondylitis
Which require the elusive spondulix.
Arrgh, shit. You’re right. It’s one of those words that I have to spell consciously too, so I’m not sure how I messed it up.
The whole point of the anecdote was that the system needs to be fixed because many people are falling through the cracks. It’s not a solicitation or even a suggestion regarding donations. I would have thought that was glaringly obvious.
You’ve been around long enough to know better.
Ok, so those who have more money than you do must be able to pay for everything without your help? Just your help or the help of anyone/everyone?
Pay attention - random insults, not responses to posts. Such as the various times you all take pot shots at my husband, my marriage, my friends. None of which have anything to do with the subject.
And I do note that you have no defense for the fact that you all also just flat make things up. There is very little “fighting ignorance” in here, its just a little clique of folks with beliefs set in stone and a knee jerk fear response to any whisper of difference.
Ah, I am to be responsible for the fact that you all took something I said and twisted it up so badly that she said she cried over it? I think not.
Avoidance of what?
I’d have thought it was at least obvious, if not glaringly so, that I was asking if you all were practicing what you preach. Or is it that you want other people to pay for the health care for the folks that are falling thru the cracks as you say?
Missed this one in all of the trash posts. Why is the other one paying zip? And if it pays zip, why are they paying premiums?
OK…I’ll finally bite the bullet and give you ONE serious response in this godforsaken thread.
One’s paying zip because it can.
They’re paying premiums one two probably because the next medical disaster that strikes could work out the reverse way. The second insurance company could be the primary one to insure while the first pays zip. Again, because it can.
This. System. Is. Fucked. Up.
Because insurance companies got the legislation forced through congress by use of Lobbyists and extraordinary political pressure . That is the system we have.
Yeah, imagine someone being upset when you tell them their kids should have been aborted. :rolleyes:
As for being insulting, the entirety of your very first response to me was “Did you even read the discussion? It’s pretty apparent that you didn’t”, even though I hadn’t called you any names or anything in my post. Is that your idea of being polite? Many of your insults are totally random stabs at peoples intelligence, lifestyle, education, etc. - and many of our insults are direct responses to your posts. Just because you don’t like them doesn’t make them random.
I know you try to couch your baseless assertions with terms like ‘I assume’, or ‘it’s likely’ or ‘probably’, but guess what, genius - that still counts as making things up! People can read meaning into your posts and conclude that you are making shit up, like:
-the baby in the OP will certainly never have a normal life
-we all get our politics from Fox News
-most people on welfare will be there for generations because they like it
-people commonly choose to buy SUVs and big houses and have tons of kids instead of buying insurance
-the rest of us live in some utopia where we believe everything would be free if there was UHC
-Medicaid covers everyone who cannot cover themselves
-somehow switching to UHC would require several years, during which everyone in the US would have no medical coverage at all while the new system was implemented (this was my favourite, personally)
-smoking, alcohol, MVAs, and STDs hardly make up any medical costs for the average insurance company, but routine pregnancy is the bankbreaker
-nobody now alive, and apparently nobody that was ever a baby, will pay into your personal SSDI
-there could be an entire generation with no babies born in the US with no reprocussions whatsoever
-those of us with an education are lying about it, or have gotten by easy in some way, and that our parents handed us everything
-we also had numerous benefits in life such that we never had to work and struggle like you did
-2 people having 2 kids is somehow doubling the population
-even though the proposals have only high income earners paying for UHC, inevitably the cost would come down to the unlucky middle class
-evidence from other countries is useless because the USA is just that special
-occasional misspelling from someone else is evidence of a subpar education/intellect, but it’s unfair when you get busted for not knowing what the I in SSDI means (and trying to use that to make a point!)
-life was very difficult for you because you were ‘working to stay alive’, when you have admitted that you had a normal minimum wage type income, didn’t budget well, and could have gone back to your parents if necesary
-the average income in America couldn’t possibly be only $25,000, and that that amount is impossible to live on (based on living in Orange County!)
-taxpayers bailed out individuals who couldn’t maintain their mortgage
-nobody should be trying to live on minimum wage, no matter how they ended up in the job
-those of us who disagree with you are ‘threatened’, fearful, and even close to violent (how can one even be violent over the internet 
), rather than just disagreeing with you
-that ‘there are zero laws regarding who can be a parent’ - really? Ever heard of child protective services?
-and the classic "He says “can’t afford”, I hear “I have this car payment, I like to party on Fridays and Saturdays” - which is a masterful case of making shit up
You make shit up! You insult people! Yet you get all butthurt when you take some flak in return (and ignore the fact that nobody is agreeing with you, and nobody is insulting the rest of us). Welcome to the pit.
Yeah, these were the two “philosophies” she clung to so tenaciously in earlier threads that I gave up all hope of having an honest, rational discourse on the issue of UHC with her. I admire your patience in dealing with this grasping, infantile cow.