I understand that those having insurance are billed higher than the actual cost to make up for those that don't have insurance or pay their bills. You would think that compassionate folkes would recognize that and understand that the reason that their insurance is going up is to give health care to those that don't. Instead they think only of themselves.
Actually that's not right. Insurance carriers now have contracted rates with hospitals and will only pay that rate.
Gipper, the important detail is that with or without insurance, care must be given in the emergency departments. Nobody is turned away because they can't pay. I have seen first hand the people that bring their kids into an emergency room because they have had a runny nose for 3 weeks. Rather than take them to a primary care physician where they must provide payment, they tie up the ER and then complain when more serious cases are taken before them.
I use to work with large groups of women who would do this despite having rather nice BCBS of AL coverage. Difference being, they had no intention of paying anything for the ER visit whereas the Dr visit would have cost them $20.
Exactly. Years ago a woman came in to the ED with 2 kids who had cold symptoms for 2 weeks. When asked why the ED she said "I had an appointment today that we missed. It was at the same time as my nail appointment and I'm going out tonight. Do you know how hard it is to get a nail appointment? Kids were covered by Medicaid and no co-pay for ED, $20 for PCP. You get the drift.
There are 300 million people in America with 300 million different stories. There are all kinds.....good....bad.....honest.....dishonest.....you get the drift. Taking a minute sample of 300 million and forming an opinion about what the rest of the people need doesn't seem reasonable.
... and you are griping and complaining over your ONE SAMPLE. How minute can you get? Just how many do you think Cindy and every other medical professionals have run across in their many years of experience? I know... nothing is more important than your sample. Dave, I understand that everyone places more importance on their own situation. That is human nature. It is also a fact that there are those out there that work the system to their advantage no matter who it affects or what it cost others. I think you would be surprised at how high that percentage is climbing. I am growing extremely weary of the idea that I should pay for a system that is guaranteed to decline just like other socialized medical experiments in other countries.
That is what we have now and it's been going downhill fast over the last decade. I find it pretty much a fantasy when a laid off person receives a Cobra letter after his/her income has been decimated by the lay off and yet the Cobra letter announces that for a nominal monthly charge of around $1200.00 per month for a family that person can continue the already outrageously expensive company healthcare policy with big family deductibles and co-pays. That's what I mean by the question of who can afford to go to the doctor/dentist.
COBRA has been a crappy deal since it was first passed. I had to use COBRA coverage for a while. However when that law was passed, it did accomplish a few things (other than increasing health care paperwork by 10-fold.) For one thing, if you switch jobs, your new employer can't discriminate against you for pre-existing conditions assuming that you had insurance at your old job (thus that Certificate of Credible Coverage that you thought was so unfair.)
It's not the COCC that I found unfair Stu it's the fact that 2.5 months after we get set with my wife's new coverage ( mine cost too much ) I get one of those unsettling letters in the mail upon my arrival home from a long day and that letter announces that we are not covered for pre-existing conditions unless I produce a COCC....etc...etc... Now....I think I will be able to produce one but there are gap clauses in what I have seen that cause me a little concern because after my wife quit her job in August to move down here with me we actually went without coverage until her new insurance kicked in although I guess Cobra would have been available to us at a cost of $3600.00 for 3 months whether we went to a doctor even once....which we did not.
Not sure what the rules are...hopefully you don't have to show continuous coverage...that would not be fair.
I'm not sure what the gap rule is either but it underscores what I said earlier....just when your situation is in dire straits......or at best very uncertain...you are supposed to pony up $1200.00 per mo. even if if you don't go to the doctor once??? That gets back to what I said earlier about "some" people not having an inkling about what is really going on out there.
Gap rule is apparently 60 days...if it was longer then you fall under the 18 mo. of possible denial for pre-exsisting conditions from your new insurance...once the 18 months passes you're ok. Sucks...but I would add that an expensive COBRA plan isn't only option for creditable coverage...any high deductible crappy individual policy would probably fulfill the requirements until you get set up with new employment.
Well Stu...I am just going to present the COCC to my wife's plan administrator and see what happens. I didn't know squat about any gap provision in this whole deal and she started work just about 66 days after she quit in Michigan. Of course I was quite eligible for coverage for the family back in June but my new company's insurance provider had a 5 month waiting period. It's a lot of convoluted ******** and I tell you if something were to happen and suddenly I owed thousands of dollars out of this mess because of some pre-existing condition rip-off I would just declare bankruptcy........F@@k em.