Extremely pissed off at local hospital.

Originally posted by Blue Alice
Does anyone know if how hard it is to get medical care if you want to pay for it yourself? What if you don't have insurance but do have money to pay for your treatment? I suppose you would have to prove it.

Most Doctors I have met will not refuse cash. Actually paying cash, you will receive about a 15-20% discount for the same services. Even more if you have to see a Dentist.

That's why a cheap HSA program would be ideal. You would be covered for catastrophic coverage but have to pay out of pocket for "ordinary" care. Such an HSA program that covered a couple doctor visits a year, a few basic tests and generics would be pretty much an ideal system that wouldn't break the bank.

Originally posted by Uniceft17
[edit on 8/20/2009 by Uniceft17]

Well, as you were not in immediate danger of dying on their doorstep, they did all they are required to do. Expect a really huge bill for this though.

No, you do not have to have insurance to see a specialist, but you will have to pay cash/credit/check upfront BEFORE your visit. I went through this my self with my daughter. We did not have insurance (still don't), she was around eleven and we found a tumor growing on her collar bone. Our pediatrician told us to watch it and if it kept growing then we would need to go to a specialist. After a couple of months it was obvious that it was not going away and was getting bigger.

The specialist, once they realized we did not have insurance, asked for payment before they would schedule an appointment.

Depending on your income you could qualify for government assistance. Unless you make too much for assistance, but not enough to afford health care. You know, like us middle income citizens who are the backbone of this country.

Look around for a free clinic. You could call the hospital, explain the situation, and ask if they have any suggestions for you. Could be that you will quality for some types of assistance. I sincerely hope so. I hope things turn out well for you and that you do not have anything serious.

My sister gets swollen lymph nodes all the time that are not painful. All over her body, armpits, neck and legs. What we have found out is anytime she get's any type of virus or illness, her lymph nodes swell. We have never understood why this is, and they will stay around for months at a time.

reply to post by llpoolej


Your dad, was dying, they treat that. Not meaning to be rude, but that is the truth. I have posted my experiences on several threads if you care to find them and read them.

When you are dying, they care for you, then send your family a crazy bill.

Yes, when you have a major emergency, they will treat you before insurance is gathered. Unless you have someone with you who can give that information, and they will get that from them while they are treating you.

Then they will bill your insurance, and what they don't pay, you get hit for.

YOU may not want to help people here in the USA, but the MAJORITY of Americans do. Put your heart where it should be, which is OUT OF YOUR POCKET. Greed is destroying the humanity of this country.

People forget, when you have insurance, you get health care, even really good health care. When you do not have insurance, YOU DO NOT GET GOOD HEALTH CARE. So what you are really saying is, those who are either poor enough to get government insurance, or those who make enough to pay for their insurance get health care. The rest of us, the middle income citizens, pay for the poor to get health insurance, but we do not.

When those with insurance say "WE", they are only talking about those who have it, those who don't should just crawl off and die somewhere. In the meantime, we are to keep paying taxes for wars and other things we don't agree with, and forget about health care for our children and ourselves.

Think about it, for the same or less than you are paying for YOUR health care, EVERYONE could have health care. How much do you actually put out per year on your private health care? Do you really think you would pay more in taxes for everyone to have health care than you pay out of pocket now for your health care?

When we could afford health care for our children, and JUST our children not the whole family, we were paying around $1200 a month. Plus copayments, each child had a $500 deductible, meaning we paid this before the insurance kicked in, plus medication.

I admit, this was the best plan we could find, as our daughter had really bad asthma and was seeing a specialist, and our son has arthritis and was having a lot of testing done. So we could have been paying for a lower monthly cost for health insurance, but we would have had a much larger deductible up to $1000 per child.

I would gather we were putting out somewhere around $1500 a month, and more depending on the situation. We were putting out around $18,000.00 a year. We could not afford it any longer. Do you really think you would be putting out more than that in taxes for health care for everyone INCLUDING yourself? If you do, I seriously think you are fooling yourself.

Oh, and Redneck, my mother in law died from lung cancer. Take a minute and see what reaction you just had to that statement. Oh, she must have been a smoker right? Or somehow lived a life that caused her cancer?

Well, take a gander here. She never smoked, once in a blue moon she would have one drink, like at Thanksgiving. She ate healthy organic foods and exercised. The woman even hated taking a Tylenol when she needed to as she did not like to put anything into her body that was in her consideration "pills". Healthy living, does not always equal health.

Originally posted by pavil
Exactly, my health insurance wouldn't pay for my vasctomey when it would shell out tons more for a birth. I had to pay $700 for it. But it would have paid for my wife getting her tubes tied.

Just seems counterintuitive to me.

Don't forget the fact that many insurance companies will gladly pay for you to get Viagra. While refusing that vasectomy. Then they warn you about an erection that "may" last longer than 4 hours. While warning you about STD's. But here is your Viagra. And do you have a preexisting condition?

Sorry OP that this thread seems to be moving into more of a health care debate. I really believe it has to do with the issues going on in this country right now. Again, please call around, see if you qualify for assistance, look for free clinics.

Harm None
Peace

Originally posted by llpoolej
Why are those in other countries trying to tell us what we need to do? So we can have as little choice as you guys? So our taxes can skyrocket? So we have to deal with VAT too??

People are NOT refused care here. That is propaganda. That is infomercials. I have lived this stuff first hand. I have had wonderful insurance, been able to get my child an ELECTIVE MRI scheduled and done in 3 weeks just for my personal information. I was able to find my own surgeon, schedule and ELECT to have my thyroid out and that was done in a matter of 2 weeks. I was able to travel to Nashville and interview surgeons and then interview them in my own town and CHOOSE.

I didn't have to ask the government if I could. I didn't have to have the government override what the doctors agreed to. I didn't have to wait 9-12months for an MRI on my kid.

Its not nearly as broken as what they want you to believe. The insurance companies are out of control and that may need to be overhauled, but, I sure as heck don't want this retarded government in charge of my health! Not to mention our country is broke and we can't pay for it!!!

You are right America is the superior country,the master race.

you have very good military that wins wars and always kills more.

you win every war.

you have the best healthcare.

nobody starves in America...no one...

every dumpster is full of food...

i have never seen a starving American...

i wish America would take over the planet and impose the perfect American system and save us from socialism..

America we love you America...

boycott scotland they released terrorist megrani.


please take us stupids over and make us smart like you...

please...ppllleeeeasssee...


pllleeeeaasseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssseeeeeee

reply to post by amazed

Oh, and Redneck, my mother in law died from lung cancer. Take a minute and see what reaction you just had to that statement. Oh, she must have been a smoker right? Or somehow lived a life that caused her cancer?

Sorry to disappoint; my first thought was sympathy for you.

I smoke a little over a pack of day (more when stressed out) of home-rolled cigarettes. That equates to a lifelong habit of about two packs a day of Marlboro before I switched. I do not have cancer. I had an uncle who lived to the ripe old age of 99, all but the last few months vibrant and strong. He smoked cigars his whole life, loved to drink gin, and did not realize there was any other type of cooking except frying. He died of stomach cancer. His lungs were fine.

Well, take a gander here. She never smoked, once in a blue moon she would have one drink, like at Thanksgiving. She ate healthy organic foods and exercised. The woman even hated taking a Tylenol when she needed to as she did not like to put anything into her body that was in her consideration "pills". Healthy living, does not always equal health.

"Healthy living" as defined by society does not always equate to living healthy. We all die eventually, of something. I believe quality of life is more important than quantity; we have some control over the former, but we cannot change the latter.

My condolences on your mother-in-law.

TheRedneck


[edit on 8/25/2009 by TheRedneck]

Originally posted by esecallum

Originally posted by llpoolej
Why are those in other countries trying to tell us what we need to do? So we can have as little choice as you guys? So our taxes can skyrocket? So we have to deal with VAT too??

People are NOT refused care here. That is propaganda. That is infomercials. I have lived this stuff first hand. I have had wonderful insurance, been able to get my child an ELECTIVE MRI scheduled and done in 3 weeks just for my personal information. I was able to find my own surgeon, schedule and ELECT to have my thyroid out and that was done in a matter of 2 weeks. I was able to travel to Nashville and interview surgeons and then interview them in my own town and CHOOSE.

I didn't have to ask the government if I could. I didn't have to have the government override what the doctors agreed to. I didn't have to wait 9-12months for an MRI on my kid.

Its not nearly as broken as what they want you to believe. The insurance companies are out of control and that may need to be overhauled, but, I sure as heck don't want this retarded government in charge of my health! Not to mention our country is broke and we can't pay for it!!!

You are right America is the superior country,the master race.

you have very good military that wins wars and always kills more.

you win every war.

you have the best healthcare.

nobody starves in America...no one...

every dumpster is full of food...

i have never seen a starving American...

i wish America would take over the planet and impose the perfect American system and save us from socialism..

America we love you America...

boycott scotland they released terrorist megrani.


please take us stupids over and make us smart like you...

please...ppllleeeeasssee...


pllleeeeaasseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssseeeeeee

Oh, thank goodness, you're being facetious! And here I've been taking you seriously. My apologies.

Ok. I have read the entire thread, which really didn't have much to do with the original post but it was interesting.

My comment is that what the OP is complaining about is his or her own fault. (s)he is the one who told the hospital (s)he didn't have insurance. Everything that the OP found "wrong" happened after that fact. The hospital didn't ask, (s)he gave it up voluntary. The hospital was right in sending her off with out doing an exam on the lymph nodes.

I read quite a few ER blogs and there are so many reports of people going in for the stupidest things like little cuts or cold symptoms. They could go to a drug store and spend $10 on hydrogen peroxide and or some benadryl, but noooo they choose to go to the ER because it's "free".


If anyone is interested, you can link to most of the many ER blogs through this one: crasspollination.blogspot.com...

ravenshadow13
I consider you as being lucky, either where you live or the facilities you visited. I have not had good experiences in the ERs I have visited and taken my children to. They must have felt you had a serious condition to get such good care.

I live in a rural area and evidently things are not the same as urban areas.
ER doctors are hired by the hospital and paid by the hospital, there is no payment from the patient. If you don't pay your bill, they will sue you and take you to court for money or judgement, place liens on your property, etc. However; I worked in a rural hospital and I let it be known that I would not pay on certain visits, because of poor service, as in letting a teenager stay in the waiting room vomiting with a fever of 104 while there was a bed available. I left and went to another hospital 30 miles away with ice packs on my son. I am sorry to rant, but I have an inside view on ER rooms and hospital functions, and they do get away with murder sometimes.

[edit on 27-8-2009 by catamaran]

Originally posted by Blue Alice
Does anyone know if how hard it is to get medical care if you want to pay for it yourself? What if you don't have insurance but do have money to pay for your treatment? I suppose you would have to prove it.

Some DRS won't let you pay; if you don't have insurance you simply can't get treatment? I am not sure why that would be. Perhaps they get paid more if they take insurance?

I do not want to change any other countries to run like the US. I don't care how other countries are run. If I found them so much more appealing, I would apply for citizenship there and move there.

Sorry, I like living in the US. I do not like the direction it has been taking over the last 10 years. I do not want to live in a socialist country but that is what man of our lawmakers seem to want. If it works for whatever else country, great for them. Why must WE change to be like another? Why do citizens of other countries give a care what the US does health care wise? It will have no effect on you

There needs to be health care reform and there needs to be tort reform. We need to set up MSA's and we need to change a lot of things. Allowing the government to take over everything is just terribly frightening to me. We are about to go into a period of horrid inflation, insane unemployment and to raise taxes the way they would HAVE to be raised to cover this, well, it will just cripple the entire economy

Tennessee was almost ruined by TennCare. The abuses and cheating on it were insane. It is one of the plans they are modeling this after, which, is a serious joke

Oh, and my family does not go to the ER. The criteria for one of us to go to the ER is the possibility of death in the next few minutes. Like when my husband was electrocuted or it was 10pm and my infant had a 105 fever I could not get down. And one where I had to have stitches and it was a weekend. That's is the total cumulation of our trips to the ER in our lives. All of us.

I have a good friend who uses it as her personal outlet for her hypochondria. They should give her a speed pass.

I just can't think of any program the government of the US does WELL

reply to post by TheRedneck


Hey redneck, I just read in another thread that you lived in Alabama, I live in Decatur, Al and the hospital i'm talking about is Decatur General.

But anyways, I've got bad news, I was diagnosed with lymphoma yesterday, needless to say i'm pretty upset. I'm not really shocked, because I accepted that it was lymphoma a couple of weeks ago, all the signs pointed to that. Now I just have to beat this, it sucks that i'm going to spend the prime of my life fighting this, but stuff happens you know.

On another note, I want to go back to that hospital and beat the hell out of that doctor, I feel betrayed. And this diagnosis just makes it that much worst.

Thanks guys.

[edit on 9/1/2009 by Uniceft17]

reply to post by Uniceft17


Good luck to you. All I can say is that attitude is everything.

reply to post by Blue Alice


Cash doesn't seem to be a problem most of the time, it just depends on what type of medical care you are getting. I paid cash for a knee operation, by a specialist of course, and had to pay $5,000.00 down prior to surgery and the remainder on the day of surgery before I could be admitted. Speaking of insurance, the surgeon charged me $5, 000 dollars less than he would have charged an insurance company if I had had one.
In ER, I paid $ 2000 some odd dollars for everything they charged me for that night and it was accepted as full payment. However, when a few late charges came in, I was billed and I called them and told them the deal I was made, and refused to pay any more. After a while, they quit billing me. I have never heard of a clinic ever turning down cash for a visit, but have also had to pay for lab work , ect also so the cost varies.

I hope those examples help with your question regarding cash and medical care.