(08-21-2016 11:26 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: (08-21-2016 09:07 AM)wahoowa Wrote: (08-21-2016 08:49 AM)AdoptedMonarch Wrote: (08-21-2016 07:36 AM)Fo Shizzle Wrote: What is your plan to cover the cost of a long term hospital stay? Just not pay for it? Very few of us have the assets to be able to take the risk you are describing. It only takes one catastrophic event to totally destroy you financially. I cant take that risk at my age.
You, Fo Shizzle, have put your finger on why ObamaCare is not just fiscally irresponsible, but also near-criminally ruinous.
The reason that my business policies have been cancelled is because they provided exactly the coverage you and Good Owl are debating -- very high deductibles, for ordinary healthcare needs, but near full coverage for truly catastrophic events (which thankfully has never happened to any of my family members or employees -- in other words, we were the perfect insurance customers: paid premiums, never tapped coverage).
But those types of policies are taboo under the greater wisdom of ObamaCare. Folks like me MUST pay for coverage that we don't want or need in order to subsidize all the Obamaphone voters. President Obama, and his progressive apologists, have wrecked the best healthcare system in the world -- all for the purpose of winning an election and portraying themselves as the "more caring" choice.
Anyone with even a high school-level sense of fairness and responsibility ought to be able to explain this to the American people. Candidate Trump, unfortunately, is not even up to this minimal task.
But at least he is good at throwing out insults. We as a nation will get to be entertained into bankruptcy.
I broke my leg last year. I spent several days in the hospital and had surgery to place a rod and pins. There was no going to the pharmacist for advice and making my own splint option for this, and advil wouldn't have helped at all.
The hospital charge before insurance adjustments was $175K.
That's ridiculous. Even the Pentagon has trouble racking up such big bills for such little things.
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First of all,
notice the difference we are now discussing: actual insurance against catastrophic/very, very expensive events that are far above and beyond the normal healthcaring expenses that people should all be responsible for just paying out of pocket at competitive prices which are clearly posted and available for everyone to see like a menu at a restaurant or a list of repairs at an auto repair mechanics. Pap smears, checkups, colds flu and sniffles, etc.. should absolutely NOT be included with any plan that has the word "insurance" attached to it. Mandating and making available to every legal US citizen or national a simple catastrophic policy is far different form the liberal bloated un-affordable BS that is the ACA. That is most of the problem. Now if you want some kind of separate health management plan, that's up to your individual CHOICE. If you want to take care of yourself and forgo it, or roll the dice, that should also be an option allowed for you to choose (That's called being pro-choice, you see.) This is America, not Isis, cuba or chinea.
Now, I'm down with the peeps, yo. So don't be putting a crown on me when I ain't got one, word?
OK, no, with a broken leg, you are correct, you are most likely NOT going to do it yourself with a splint and some advil (though there are still a ton of ways to save in any situation if money is important to you). Although, I need some more information on specifically what happened to you: it must have been far more than just a simple broken leg, which from my research several years ago, varied for treatment and setting from a low of about $800 to a high as much as $10,000. It still pays to shop around. The phone is your friend.
Now, my child had pins and surgery (twice) from some abuse from his mother and her "boyfriend" that happened the night before our child came back to me for a visit (that was delayed as she put our child in the hospital for surgery, causing our child to miss the start of his therapy for that summer--our child has a Fetal Alcohol-related disorder, so when I have custody in the summer, I send our child to private therapy (insurance would not cover it anyway) I negotiate the cost myself directly with the providers and arrange for payment. They are world-class and if I am unsatisfied, I go deal directly with the president of the institution, not some "insurance" paper-pusher or government obstructionist.)
I handled those surgeries thusly: according to the police report I obtained, our child's mother caused the domestic violence injury to our child, it occurred in her state, so she was responsible for paying for that one. When the wound became infected due to the botched surgery in the mother's state, I found a hospital for children in my area and doctors that negotiated to substantially cover the cost of the surgery for our child, and the related emergency room visit. Before going to the ER, I had to take some time to call around and shop for what I needed until I found a match. When I had a financial understanding in place, I took our child to the ER where he was x-rayed and scheduled for surgery the next morning. Our child had the second remedial surgery, pins were removed, stayed in hospital for several days and follow up. It was likely similar to what your leg needed, but it cost me nowhere near $175K. My contention is you got ripped off.
I will say that I have some experience with medical billing in the past and have dealt directly with insurance companies, so I am familiar with balance-billing and how the system works enough to better negotiate on my own and my child's behalf when life (or our child's mother's continued domestic abuse) happens. Educating yourself beforehand goes a long way towards not getting ripped off in times of need. Of course, it means you might have to read a heck of a lot, and well, people are just lazy when the gub'ment does it for them ("you have to pass it to read what's in it--that sort of thing--nice of those friendly gub'ment folks to help save us the trouble of reading, right?)
You also need to be aware of and confident enough to raise the economic issues when seeking a provider of treatment. You must be very firm when doing this. Most medical people you deal with will have a hard time getting their heads out of their collective @$$e$ and understanding you are making consumer decisions factoring in economic costs of options presented to you and asking for rough cost parameters, similar to getting a repair estimate for your personal vehicle and shopping around a bit before deciding on which course4 of repair actions are best and most cost-effective for your situation. Keep searching, mention beforehand you are interested in paying directly and avoiding the "system" of insurance BS. Many providers will be refreshingly receptive to not having to chase you down for their money for the service they are interested in you considering them for.
Finally, I did mention in my previous post that if a truly catastrophic disease event happens, you simply do the best you can until the next open enrollment period and sign up. Then you ask for every single extra you can to be sure you get a semblance of what you are overpaying for, and you call, write letters, see providers in person and object to every single insurance denial over and over and over again, costing them more and more money each time they do so until they realize you actually expect them to pay for what you signed up for, and they realize it will be cheaper for them to just do it because unlike 99% of the rest of their captive sheep, you are going to get what you pay for and not allow them to ignore you until you give up.
In my opinion, you way over-payed, you failed to negotiate, and you got ripped off. Next time, learn what not to do from this experience and you will find you will save a lot of money (margins in medical are higher than Iced Tea at restaurants!)
