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November 21st, 2012, 03:47 AM | #1121 |
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Unfortunately the hospitals, doctors and drug companies overcharge horrendously and US insurance companies are thieves (perhaps even murders when you see their business practices), you have never seen so many exclusions and cop out phrases in a contract. Even if they do pay up the co-pay system sucks big time.
The European government run systems are generally wasteful and a hole for tax payers money. But imagine having a very sick kid or wife and insurance that has maxed out on its payment limit. Do I pay the mortgage, do we eat or does Mum get her medical treatment? Weasels and worse!
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November 21st, 2012, 04:48 AM | #1122 | |||||||
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Rotzopop,
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You must also know that Medicare only pays about 80% of most bills (and maybe none of your prescription costs). So Medicare (although probably better then private insurance) has its problems and, again, unless you're wealthy, you'll probably wind up broke by the time your ready to pass. So Medicare works somewhat for most people but for others it doesn't work at all. Very few people on Indian reservations have Medicare because they can't afford the 20%. You're beginning to see this all over the US now. Quote:
The Republican Plan for Healthcare! Don't get sick! But if you do..... Die Quickly! Quote:
Last edited by 9876543210; November 21st, 2012 at 04:59 AM.. |
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November 21st, 2012, 05:05 AM | #1123 | |
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mjefferys1,
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November 21st, 2012, 02:08 PM | #1124 |
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In my experience the medical issue comes up in about 50% of the bankruptcies that I file. Typically as a compounding factor in that a person was out of work for X amount of time because of illness or injury and they just got so far behind. And there is a lot of medical debt to boot. For whatever reason, medical debts are pursued by collectors the least aggressively. At least around these parts anyway. Rare is the debtor who has a lot of his own medical debt, but didn't miss time off from work.
Very rarely are medical bills and expenses solely the reason for filing a bankruptcy. It does happen. But it's usually a case where a child dies after a lengthy illness and the debtor is left with $1,000,000+ in medical bills after insurance has paid all it will pay or some other similar catastrophe. I get about 5-6 of those per year. Almost all cases (at least mine) involve at least one of three factors. 1) loss of employment, 2) loss of spouse/other income provider, and 3) medical. Student loans are the biggest obstacle in BK these days. Those are crippling. |
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November 21st, 2012, 03:33 PM | #1125 | |
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This is a VERY big deal, and kinda slides by in discussion -- most folks aren't really aware when they sign their "student loan" papers that its a completely different kind of obligation than, say, a car loan. |
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November 21st, 2012, 04:02 PM | #1126 | |
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I hope our US friends will correct me if this is wrong, but it's said to be a very bureaucratic process, and it's no better if you do have insurance I was reading an econ blog earlier today and learned something I hadn't heard before - apparently, even if you are insured, and even if you're on medicare, they have a component called "co-pay" and it was defined as typically 80/20, meaning the insurance pays 80% and you pay 20%. And that's not all, because you have to pay for medication as well as treatment If that's true, it's easier to understand an obsession with money Can anyone comment? |
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November 21st, 2012, 05:38 PM | #1127 |
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80/20 is indeed the average co-pay structure here in the states. The last time I had insurance that paid 100% of my medical costs was the very early '90s.
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November 21st, 2012, 06:46 PM | #1128 | |
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I do have health insurance and they cover me for most things as long as you follow procedures. I do have various copays. For a regular visit to my primary care physician (PCP) I pay a $20.00 copay per visit. My insurance covers the rest and I get no other bills for this visit from my insurance company. I know that a normal bill from my PCP is about $200.00 per visit. However, my insurance company pays about $100.00 as they discount the bill to the insurance company. If I go see a specialist I have a copay of $30.00. This could be a cardiologist, x-ray, etc... Now, a bill from the specialist could be anywhere from $200.00 to $1,000.00 depending upon who it is and what they do. I do get copies of the bills from the specialist but, I only pay the copay and my insurance company pays about 50% off the invoice as they get discounts. Of course, if I had to cover everything myself then there wouldn't be a discount. There are different copays if I use the emergency room or an urgent care facility and there are different levels of copays for perscriptions. For perscriptions they come in different "tiers". Tier 1 is the lowest and is a $10.00 copay per perscription. This is typically generic brands of medicines that have been out for a while. Tier 4 is the highest level and is $40.00 copay per perscription. This is typically for the latest/greatest name brand medicines. One of my coworkers is on blood thinners. He pays $10.00 (tier 1) for a 30 day perscription of Warfarin Sodium becaus it has been around forever and is widely available in generic form (actually it was originally developed as a rat poison ). They tried to move him onto the newest blood thinner (can't remember the name) which would have cost him $40.00 (tier 4)for a 30 day perscription. He told his doctor that he would stay with the old generic. The whole system is screwed up and honestly I don't know if Obamacare is really going to fix anything. However, I do support Obamacare. |
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November 21st, 2012, 07:04 PM | #1129 | |
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But why do you call it "Obamacare"? Its a little irritating, because this sounds like you don`t like the idea. |
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November 21st, 2012, 07:12 PM | #1130 | |
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deepsepia,
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Also, if anyone ever asks you to co-sign a student loan (your children?) you probably really don't want to do it. I've heard of a couple of instances lately where a child dies with these loans and the loan holder goes after the co-signer. And they are liable to pay the loan. So you're right. These are a very different kind of loan. You cannot get rid of them until they're paid and bankruptcy won't touch them. |
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