Thinking back to an Emergency-Room visit I had about a year ago

[1-Old-Man]

About a year ago both my son and I found ourselves in the Emergency-Room with broken bones. The place was crowded and broken bones are not a high priority injury so we had a pretty long wait with the rest of the smashed, burned, and broken crowd.

Pushed up next to me in the waiting room there was a young fellow who, like my son and I, had been working on building a house and had had an accident. His leg was probably broken, sure as hell looked like it was. The guy was with his brother and some other guy, all of them in their mid-twenties.

So we're all sitting there and talking about the most obvious of things, 'what happened to you, yeah, same thing for us', and so on and so on. Needless to say the conversation quickly hit on the question of 'what the hell is this going to cost'. Actually the question never even occurred to me, I've got and nearly always have had very good health insurance. This 3-broken-ribs visit (where-at a lung embolism was discovered) wasn't going to cost me a dime. Out of habit my son was much concerned about the cost as well, he had just recently got his first health insurance by way of his ladies' work plan and in the end it didn't cost him an unmanageable amount either. But then there was the young guy with the broken leg. He had no insurance. He was very much concerned.

Now here is the thing. The anarchists (formerly called the Tea Party) will tell you that 'here comes a free-loader. Young guy, no money, no insurance. He's going to skip and its the rest of us who are going to have to pick up the tab.' That that was just flat wrong. We're talking to the guy and what he's telling us, and his brother is standing there nodding in agreement because this is just how they were raised, is that this additional expense is going to kill him, but he'll just have to pay it off as best he can. Even if it means he can only pay $5 a month, well that's what he's going to do. And he meant it too. And when I look back on it I now recall the same story when my neighbor Bunky and his wife had their first child. The baby girl had some sort of eye problem and the medical bills to treat her were astronomical. Bunk had no insurance, he'd never had a job in his live up to then that offered it and he couldn't possibly afford it on his own. But Bunk paid that bill. I think he told me once it took him twelve years to get it paid off, but he did.

And so I'm getting real sick of hearing this nonsense that the poor will just skip out on their obligations. I'm sure that there are many who do not pay off their bills, but I'd bet its got a lot more to do with simply not having the money to pay it off than any sort of moral failing unique to those of low circumstance but never to be found at the top of course. Its just nonsense and should be called that every time its heard.

Remembrance over, end of rant.

[Warpy]

2. Most people are like that

and I've been like that, although I made enough money to budget for most disasters. It was still disheartening to see my bank account drained because those disasters always happened due to the reason insurance companies slammed their doors in my face.

However, I added it all up and I did better without insurance than I would have paying all those premiums. I didn't have to chase bean counters to get denied claims paid and I didn't have to wait for treatment and I never had to worry about which network a doctor was in. The savings were both monetary and in sheer aggravation.

It also required living in relative penury because every spare dime had to be saved for the next disaster and there would always be a next disaster.

The hospitals, labs and doctors always got paid. It just cost me a great deal more than money to do so.

[questionseverything]

3. almost 30 years ago

i had a list of 30 docs and providers we owed money to (just for the out of pocket part,we had insurance)

everyone got 5 bucks a month,only 1 dentist ever complained and after i showed him my list of debtors we compromised on $10 a month for him

after paying on one bill for over 2 years, i got a call one morning from that doctors office....the office manager informed me the doc had come to work in a great mood and said,,,,find 3 bills that someone has been paying on a regular basis and forgive them

i protested,said we do not need welfare,i will get it paid,give us time...i was crying,the office manager was crying and she said...............dammit,doc is a good man,he wants to give back to someone he feels deserves it,and i am up to the r's trying to find someone that has not missed payments

so i accepted doc's generousity

the odd part is it happened just when i needed uplifted,30 yrs later it continues to lift me...thanks for reminding me

[catnhatnh]

4. If you want to get real angry....

....about this unfair stigma, remember that Donald Trump has gone bankrupt at least twice costing others millions. And that's "just business" and no stigma attaches....

[DGeorge]

5. My closest hospital lost me THREE TIMES on different visits.

I go across the river to the hospital that does NOT lose me. How the hell can you lose a patient? Wait, I know the answer - incompetence. My wife was as pissed off as a hornet nest hit with a baseball bat all three times. My "dog tags" (medical alert tags I got at PetSmart) specifically state my hospital of choice. The hospital in question also got the lowest possible score on re-admittance and lost 80% of Medicare reimbursement because of it.

The last time I was there was for a broken collar bone. I languished in a hallway for three hours. Fortunately they gave me morphine so I slept through most of it, but my poor wife had to sit there waiting for someone to even acknowledge I was a patient. It's a sad fact, but some hospitals royally suck.

End of rant.