Terminally Ill Woman’s Insurance Company Will Pay for Her Assisted Suicide, But Not for Chemo

a reply to: angeldoll

The problem is when you rely on a corrupt government to reel in a corrupt insurance industry.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: IAMTAT

People can easily blame insurance companies, but there was a partnership with the government with the creation of Obamacare.

Indeed there was, and the government in this case - Obama administration
was purposely misleading, lied and has saddled the country and the people
with a program is anything but affordable, more like a death sentence
to private payer insurance.

a reply to: IAMTAT

This hits close to home for me also. I went through this 10 years ago. I'm here to raise my babies because my insurance did what it was supposed to do. I still have the same insurance through my husband's work. We never had to deal with Obama care. Two weeks ago I had my bi-yearly mammogram. Then a repeat one plus ultrasound. The new spot is only 1.3 cm now. Checking again in the middle of January, plus I had to have new genetic testing done, results in the end of November. If this turns out to be cancer again, will I go through this? I hope that because I still have the same insurance, it would go like it did last time. When you're sick, you need help. I trust my Dr to choose the treatment that is best for me. Why is government involved in deciding something like this?

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: angeldoll

The problem is when you rely on a corrupt government to reel in a corrupt insurance industry.

Another problem is there are people who seem to believe Trump has the answers. They seem to honestly believe he has the motivation and the know-how to solve these problems, along with a great many others.

a reply to: DBCowboy

There was a time, back when I was young, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, that medical care was expensive but affordable. There was a time when doctors made house calls, knew and cared about their patients, and accepted the fact that not everyone could pay high costs. Some doctors, when a patient's bills got too far out of hand, accepted a bit of land or livestock in payment. There were times when bills were simply forgiven.

Those doctors prospered. They lived in the finest homes, drove the nicest cars, and we're treated with nothing short of reverence. Some of them left so much to their families that their descendants two generations later are still wealthy and powerful.

Then insurance became commonplace. Suddenly prices skyrocketed. Specialists became commonplace. The house calls stopped. Wait times of 2-3 hours to see the doctor for 5 minutes became normal. Medicine became expensive.

So more people felt it necessary to buy insurance. And the cycle repeated. More insurance. Higher prices, less service. More insurance. Higher prices, less service.

Mandatory insurance. Prices skyrocketed again, more than before. Nurses won't answer their phones - leave a number and wait 24 hours. Doctors' phones are private. Medicine can cost more than the average household income. Insurance can cost more than a new car payment.

The solution has always been to return to the starting point, not to continue on the wrong path. If you're tuning a carburetor and the engine starts to splutter, you turn back the other way; you don't keep going, hoping a wrong adjustment will become the right one by some stroke of magic. But that's what we do.

Here's a fix that will work, in 3 phases:

• Make it illegal to refuse health care for any reason as long as there is time to treat the problem. Not just for doctors, but for everyone involved in the medical field. At the same time, establish a single-payer collection service through the government. Any new bill that has not been satisfied after two months of attempts can be remitted to this agency and the professional will be paid 50% up front. If the money is collected, the rest is sent to the professional. I like using the IRS as the agency, since they are already in the business of tax collection and have income data at their fingertips. Bills to those who cannot pay could be forgiven immediately; those who can afford to pay could be subject to collection.
  
  
• Establish a national court system for medical professionals, composed of several hundred local panels chosen like jurors. One exception: certain classes must be represented. At least one medical professional, one legal professional, so many from each economic class, etc. All medical claims must go through this court first, and the verdict is binding upon the medical professional. No attorneys are allowed: you present your own case under relaxed rules. If the plaintiff is not satisfied, they have the automatic right to appeal... if they want to pay a high-priced lawyer. The easier route is to take the lower award and move on.
  
  Another advantage: each local panel reports back to a national board. Too many legitimate cases against a professional and the medical license is pulled.
  
  
• Lastly, take care of the loopholes: limits on hospital charges for common items... say 500% of the lowest cost available privately. If I can buy an aspirin for 4 cents, the maximum hospital charge is 20 cents. Maybe limits on insurance rates. Maybe penalties for emergency room abuse. Whatever is needed to keep the system in check.

Day one, everybody has health care and the doctors don't go broke. A month (?) later, you kill the out-of-control malpractice industry (while making it easier for those needing relief to get it) and you start weeding out bad doctors. Then you fix the loopholes as they appear.

That's how you fix healthcare. Not by some unholy communion between insurance and government. They're both evil.

TheRedneck

a reply to: DBCowboy

I would prefer to not have "insurance" companies - at least not for-profit ones.

I think a combination of non-profit cooperative private insurance groups with large pools of people along with single payer (like Medicare with private riders) and laws that allowed the single payer and nonprofit insurance groups to use the power of bulk purchasing and cost controls might work.

I have to say I'm not a policy wonk so I'm more looking at a possibility than making a claim.

I do know that something better needs to happen and that for some people it is better now than it was (pre-existing conditions). For others it is worse.

I the ACA as a first step away from private insurance for-profit companies having so much power and control. It can be and should be improved upon.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Why aren't insurance companies liable for practicing medicine without a license.?

Insurance companies add 25 % to the cost of care, not reduce it. The only function they perform is aggregation/averaging of costs. There are cheaper ways to accomplish that.

Sadly insurance and pharmaceutical companies are a for profit business. They will raise prices and deny service if it means they will make or save a few bucks. Never mind that it comes at the expense of another persons wallet, health or life. How many people are prescribed medications that probably don't need them. Now the insurance/pharmaceutical companies have all these people paying for medication they don't need, but its just more money in their pockets. I'll charge them $40 a month (with insurance, $200 without) to buy this prescription, but it only costs a few cents to actually make it. On the other side how many people are denied life saving medications or procedures because its not cost effective for the insurance/pharmaceutical companies. And the consumer can't afford to pay for it out of pocket without insurance. Hell most of us can hardly afford to pay for stuff with insurance.

Sadly there will never be cures for anything because there's no money in a cure. I'm sure many things have been cured but we'll never know about it. Healthy people don't spend money on health insurance and medications. I can totally see insurance companies letting people die rather than treating them. Anything to save them a penny. It reminds me of Ford with the Pinto. They did the numbers and it was cheaper to let people die, and pay some lawsuits, then it was to do an actual recall and fix the problem. Recalls cost money and cause bad PR. It was cheaper for people to die.

Zeke Emanuel's 'hope' for death at 75.
If the pattern is correct ,THAT is what the coming system wants to happen.
On the basis of over all cost effectiveness, a large majority of people stop being productive at 75, wasting money on their prolonged care while they give nothing back to the system.

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
Zeke Emanuel's 'hope' for death at 75.
If the pattern is correct ,THAT is what the coming system wants to happen.
On the basis of over all cost effectiveness, a large majority of people stop being productive at 75, wasting money on their prolonged care while they give nothing back to the system.

Insanity...right?
Those 'old' people ol' Zeke thinks give nothing back to the system and waste money...have been paying into the system since they were old enough to get a paper route.

a reply to: IAMTAT

They will play off as SELFISH in order to convince people to SHUN the old as parasites...
I wouldn't have BELIEVED our world would turn into an 80s movie along with the stupidly written public figures!

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
a reply to: IAMTAT

They will play off as SELFISH in order to convince people to SHUN the old as parasites...
I wouldn't have BELIEVED our world would turn into an 80s movie along with the stupidly written public figures!

LOGAN'S RUN

Maybe we should just toss grandma naked out of the igloo and out on the ice.

a reply to: AboveBoard

Insurance has been my career since 1987. Even so, most insurances are rip-offs, unless you have a large claim. Car, Health, Term Life... a lot of them. I'll start a thread on this subject one day.

I'm for assisted suicide if the patient comes to this choice on their own. However, the downside with legalizing it, the more you will see insurance companies recommending it for their own selfish reasons. Getting the government involved in our insurance...the worst idea ever in the history of American healthcare.

a reply to: seasonal

Healthcare is an over-regulated, completely distorted market. It is not currently 'free market'. I would hazard it should be de-regulated and set 'free', allowing competition in every area. That will cause some chaos at first, as the inept and unprofitable are weeded out, but could potentially lead to something better in the end.

The pain would be worth the gain ... and there would be pain with a change like this, truly. Some hospitals would cease to exist, but others would become 'niche' specialty areas, and would thrive.

Hospitals as they exist now are dinosaurs anyway.

WOW! I could have sworn that our government told us there were not "Death Panels"? But when you say to someone..."No, we won't pay for your treatment, but we will pay someone to kill you", isn't that the same thing.

What is next? Keep the body, process it a bit, chop it into little green chips and feed it to others?