Doctor's suck Options

[Genocide Junkie]

Ok so I know we all can debate our healthcare system and who should pay for what but I thought I'd just give an example of how doctors screw us. I went to my family doctor for a normal check up. I get lab work done etc. I thought the bad part was going to be having to be stuck with a needle and them take some of my precious blood. But oh no. About a month after the visit I get a bill from the Lab. $1400 with a note saying they had already filed this with my insurance and this was MY PART!!!!! So I call the Lab company who says I have to call the insurance company who says I have to call the Lab company... grrrrrrrrr. Anyway, after hours on the phone they agree to rerun it on my insurance. So today I get the statement from them. They accepted $250 as payment from BC/BS. This is sickening to me that they charge 700% more than what they expect as payment. If I didn't have insurance would I have to negotiate a rate that was even half of this? This is robbery IMO and should be illegal. I'm not against a doctor making a VERY GOOD living. But this sort of crap just irks me. This REALLY makes me want to send them a bill for my time that I sat in their office waiting on my 10 am appointment for 4 hours. Bastards.

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universal health care rocks

[Hellfighter]

universal health care rocks

I agree....

For those of you who don't live where it is working good, don't knock it. I'm in Canada like 6-pak- its great not being burdened with heavy over payments for those lighter hospital trips.
Plus the doctors and nurses are top notch quality and treat everyone to their best abilities- social status is not an issue.
I mentioned a while back a friend who went for a check-up bue to shortness of breath/tiredness- the doc checked him and 'ordered' him immediately to hospital- withing days my friend underwent bypass surgery that saved his life- he was home weeks later and his only cost now is heart treatment drugs.... the only cost ->
and he's now in good shape. The whole thing for him was free!
Sorry, but everyone whining about it should be somewhere where it works and then assess it being sucky or not. Yes, there are big line-ups/ waiting lists for surgeries up here too like evrywhere else- those that can afford medical insurance/private treatment up here have the freedom to do so too.

Up here if you're below a certain income bracket you don't pay into the program [there's a section of the tax form that calculates if you need to pay into it 'directly']. I'm guessing for each $10,000 income bracket you're in, the cost maybe $20 or so per year you pay into the program via these specified taxes.
My opinion is if everyone is getting excellent treatment instead of being afraid about the 'cost' if you're not insured, then they are more likely to be able to work more/ have less sick days=> therefore more work productivity and more money in the economy. More money in the economy trickles down to everyone -bigger paychecks- so maybe having a universal healthcare cannot be considered such a rip-off.

We have a thing called GST credit too- govt sends you a cheque even if you are working if you don't earn a certain level of net income to offset the weighty taxes we're paying.


This post has been edited by Hellfighter: 12/21/07 6:38pm

[HammaTime]

I just had an assignment covering someone who was trying to lobby the state legislature to allow insurance companies in this state to classify their clients based upon their health. The insurance companies want to charge more to unhealthy people and less for the general population. Well, here is an example of where the issue of the right to privacy and the medical/insurance industry is going to come slamming down on the hapless population. Imagine a day when insurance companies can charge based on your health, as some states currently allow, now imagine that you are trying to hide the fact that you are a cigarette smoker because you don't want to see a dramatic hike in your insurance rates. Well, what is going to stop the insurance companies from going to homeland security and request to see your credit card purchasing record and your Paypal records? It would be very easy to figure out if you've lied to your insurance company once they have those records.

Does this kind of situation beat being able to decide how you are going to spend your medical dollar? I don't think so. The person I was covering was self-employed as a business consultant. She became upset when she went through a divorce and lost her health insurance as she had been covered through her husband's employer. She was stunned to find that Blue Cross Blue Shield's cheapest individual policy was one with a $10,000 per year deductible. That's right, she had to spend $10,000 before the insurance company would pay a dime. But that wasn't the bad part. She was floored to learn that the price she had to pay for that policy was over $400 a month!!!! I've since learned that similar policies go for around $300 in New Hampshire because they allow the insurance companies to segment their clients.

As for the extreme expense we have to face here in the US when we buy prescription drugs - I believe that's because the pharmaceutical industry can basically charge American's whatever they want. We don't negotiate with them as a country, as most all of the other industrialized nations do. Those countries can hammer out a good deal and we're left holding the bag. In essence, the US gives the drug industry their profit. I could be wrong on this. Anyone know the mechanism behind this?

This post has been edited by HammaTime: 12/21/07 7:27pm

[Hellfighter]

.........Anyone know the mechanism behind this?

From what I hear, much or signicant amount of it has to do with political 'favouritism' and sucking up between politicians of influence and affluent drug barons. Would explain why Bush chopped off access to americans crossborder shipping for affordable prescriptions in Canada.


This post has been edited by Hellfighter: 12/21/07 10:06pm

[HammaTime]

From what I hear, much or signicant amount of it has to do with political 'favouritism' and sucking up between politicians of influence and affluent drug barons. Would explain why Bush chopped off access to americans crossborder shipping for affordable prescriptions in Canada.

yeah, that was really inexplicable. They claimed that the drug companies insisted that they couldn't guarantee the quality of drugs that were being shipped from Canada, as if you were some Third World Country.

We used to have buses of elderly that would leave from assisted living centers here in Maine that would make monthly trips to Canada so the folks could buy relatively inexpensive meds, until he cut them off. Once again, the corporate interests get what they want and the fixed income elderly get hosed.