Before Obamacare

who was saddled with the medical bills of all those minimum wage workers, working at walmart, Slinging burgers in all the various fast food chains etc. . If those people made the choice to get sick even though they couldn't afford insurance, who was saddled with the Bill? Wasnt it the public?

No, it was those who actually had insurance.

This is just one of the reasons that premiums went up.

reply to post by Cassius666


Well, let's look at how it came to this. You know, the US became the diamond of the world and grew to the goliath it became by the 1940's. Some would say this is where the decline began. Where the gov started to accumulate it's power. And with the steady growth of it's power, you have the parallel decline in constitutional rights and freedoms, quality of living, elected servants with honor and integrity, and the overall general health of this country. Our problems didn't start yesterday.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against government's roll with the exception to the fact that anything spawned by gov ideology has been a colossal and costly failure.

Taxes use to go towards paying for social infrastructure and services for the communal benefit, like education, healthcare, roads and police. They still do in many nations, but as war and bad banking practices are putting too drain on the national economy something has to give.

reply to post by Cassius666

If those people made the choice to get sick even though they couldn't afford insurance, who was saddled with the Bill? Wasnt it the public?

I love that line almost as much as the guy in another thread who said he refuses to get insurance and will "man up and die" when he gets sick. I love it.

Originally posted by GoldenRuled
reply to post by Cassius666

 

Well, let's look at how it came to this. You know, the US became the diamond of the world and grew to the goliath it became by the 1940's. Some would say this is where the decline began. Where the gov started to accumulate it's power. And with the steady growth of it's power, you have the parallel decline in constitutional rights and freedoms, quality of living, elected servants with honor and integrity, and the overall general health of this country. Our problems didn't start yesterday.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against government's roll with the exception to the fact that anything spawned by gov ideology has been a colossal and costly failure.

US became the diamond of the world.lol
Please come on,
have you ever seen other parts of the world ?
it might shock you, to see that we in europa are way ahead in freedom and in social healthcare .
Its a must for those who are less fortuned !
Maybe the case is ,that the Elite Europeans used the US to fight their warrs.
Afther al who founded the US ?
Was it not The European Elite?

reply to post by Cassius666


The hard working middle class tax payer as usual, private insurance companies do not pay for Medicare or Medicaid services or emergency visits to the hospital, the government does with our taxes mostly coming from the wealthy and the working tax payer class (those that make enough to live well and not depend on government assistance).

The growing welfare class are those that falls into the government assistant dependency because while they work they do not make enough wages.

Anybody else will fall under the Medicaid, but not necessarily the very poor.

Just because is not universal health care in the US doesn't mean that people goes without medical care, the poor always have Medicaid to depend on, only the working class are the ones in the mess because they do not qualify for Medicaid and are not old enough to fall under Medicare and insurance are too expensive for their low wages.

None profit hospital around the US takes people without insurance and offer them affordable payments to avoid higher debt and in many instances they care for free those that can not pay.

The only problem is that many hospitals in many states swam by illegal immigrants are becoming a burdened by too many people that can not pay at all even with payment plans after treatment.

I always had insurance all my life and is always been affordable now under Obama care alreays our premiums has gotten up since the passing of the bill, our deductibles have double, prescriptions triple and dues will increase yearly for now on this is all during the last few months of this year

What that tells me? that we the middle class already are been primed to provide for those that will become a burden to "affordable insurance" under Obama, those that will be sucking hospital hours.

Is that fair for me? I don't think so but this is already a taste of what is heading our way if you already pay insurance premiums without been forced into.

I hurt my neck. I paid CASH. I paid 300 for an MRI. If I had insurance the cost of the MRI would have been 1500 OR MORE billed to insurance company. THATS a BIG problem to me. Maybe thats why the insurance cost so much and MAYBE they should start there. Why bother with health care reform AT ALL until this problem is corrected, but just like ecerything else the gov does, the do it backward.

Here is some information regarding how much those uninsured folks are costing us, REALLY!!

"According to the Economic Report of the President, total uncompensated expenditures in 2008 amounted to $56 billion. That sounds like alot until you realize that total health expenditures in that year were $2.3 trillion. Thus, uncompensated care accounted for only 2.4 percent of all health expenditures. Not surprisingly, uninsured people tend to make less use of the health care system. If you want to know why U.S. healthcare is expensive, look elsewhere.
Furthermore, lack of insurance and free-riding are not synonymous. There are other ways to pay for treatment, it turns out that uninsured people pay out of pocket for about 25 percent of their health expenditures. And conversely, having insurance doesn't mean all your care is covered; about 30 percent of all uncompensated care is for insured patients (such as those who don't pay their co-payments). So even if an individual mandate meant everyone would be insured, uncompensated care would still be an issue.
The figures for uncompensated care do not include care paid for by public aid programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, which count as form of insurance coverage. The taxpaying public foots the bill for a much larger fraction of health spending than 2.4 percent."

Source: Reforming America's Health Care System: The Flawed Vision of Obamacare, Edited by Scott W. Atlas, MD, Hoover Institution Press Publication No. 602, 2010

reply to post by avatard


Your are right, I can testify that what you are telling is true, my daughter when stop working for the bank she works at and became a full time student this year, she lost her medical insurance, she went to one of the various convenient care that the main none profit hospital in the city have, she was given and option, to pay the bill in full or wait for a bill in the mail the difference a reduction of more than half of the bill.

So rather than paying over thousand dollars she only pay 115.

I went to the convenient care also on a Saturday, because I didn't want to go to the emergency room and my doctor do not work on weekends, (I had a reaction to an antibiotic and was swelling up), my bill under the insurance was filed my cost 15 hundred dollars)

This is just outrageous, if you ask me, but I understand where you are coming from and I back your post.

Like I say, you have to be very poor (like living on welfare alone and not working) to say that you can not receive medical assistance, many none profit hospitals will offer you ways to afford you bills.

The problem is not the hospitals but the same insurance companies that under Obamacare will own your life by mandate aka tax.

Originally posted by avatard
I hurt my neck. I paid CASH. I paid 300 for an MRI. If I had insurance the cost of the MRI would have been 1500 OR MORE billed to insurance company.

I have paid out of pocket and the cost is less than you might think.

reply to post by marg6043


But keep in mind that the insurance companies make money from Medicare supplement insurance.

And, the make money from Medicare and Medicaid from management fees as contractors.

By 2011, new Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) will replace Medicare contractors. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contract with insurance companies nationwide to evaluate, process and pay over 1 billion Medicare claims each year. Medicare contractors who operate under insurance companies use national and local coverage regulations and policies to determine what is "reasonable and medically necessary" for paying claims.


Medicare Contractors

There are two types of Medicare contractors. The "fiscal intermediaries" process part A claims for health care facilities. The "carriers" process part B claims for physicians. Here's the problem: Carriers were contracted with one insurance company, and fiscal intermediaries were contracted with a different insurance company. So for one jurisdiction part A claims were submitted to one insurance company and part B claims were submitted to a different insurance company. In 2001 the General Accounting Office identified problems associated with the processing activities of claims and payments. Congress took action to reform Medicares contracting methods.


Medicare Reform Act

In December 2003, Congress passed a law requiring the CMS to reforms its contracting methods for processing Medicare part A and B claims. The CMS is replacing all Medicare Contractors (23 fiscal intermediaries and 17 carriers) with 23 MACs under new insurance companies that will be responsible for processing all Medicare claims for payment.


New Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs)

By the end of 2011 all of the jurisdictions will be fully transitioned to new MACs. This will provide a one-stop shop to ensure a smoother and more accurate process from claims to payments, and to better serve providers and beneficiaries. The new A/B MAC list by jurisdiction is located in the resource section.

What Is a Medicare Contractor?

Medicare Contractor Jurisdictions Maps

reply to post by xuenchen


Yes they do, you are right, but that is for services, the government subsidies and lost of pay offs, the insurance companies gets a lot fo money from the tax payer under many names.

And for those that think that Obamacare can control cost are for the ride of their life, recently private insurance companies file a law sue against Massachusetts because the state wanted to control the cost of health care that was not part of the original bill just like Obamacare doesn't.

That is still on debate in that state, see if the original bill doesn't say how the cost are to be controlled it opens the doors to all kind of law sues with the many loopholes that are up for grasp.


sorry I just have to add that in the post.

reply to post by WhySoBlinded


The US is in a lot better shape than Europe. Truth be known, we're in the same boat economically. You already have violent protesting going on across the EU. Not in the US yet. Freedoms? Can you blow away an intruder trying to harm your family if they broke into your home? Yes diamond. It wasn't europe everyone was beating down the fences to get into. Risking lives by taking little boats, swimming, sneaking in in trucks,vans, ships, etc.. Europeans included.