Snakebite victim charged $89,000 for 18-hour hospital stay

[kvnchrist]

 

Sigh makes me feel so great full that i live in a Country with free health care.

 

Yeah same. America is really behind the rest of the world in that regard. What surprises me is how many people defend it, they are convinced Obama-care is the road to communism.

 

Those who are afraid of a communist state have never lived under one. As a matter of a fact I don't think there has never been a true communist state ever in the world. It just blows my mind how fear the unknown has turned so many people into quivering idiots. Hell, look at what McCarthyism did.

 

People scared of an idea. Simply staggering.

[rizon72]

What surprise me is people actually think its free. No, someone, some group, some where paid for it. The only way you could get it free is if you managed to eliminate money.

[DONKENFAP]

It is just a positive expression. We know where it comes from, but technically speaking to the individual it is free.

[JimboUK]

What surprise me is people actually think its free. No, someone, some group, some where paid for it. The only way you could get it free is if you managed to eliminate money.

 

Indeed, it's free at the point of delivery but it's far from being actually free, in reality it's the same as private provision only on a national scale. Here on top on paying income tax we also pay a thing called "National Insurance", that's for healthcare, welfare and pensions or it's supposed to be.

[rizon72]

It is just a positive expression. We know where it comes from, but technically speaking to the individual it is free.

 

I know, but I've met too many who actually believe it is free. When you explain to them how it works, they get a deer in the headlight look and say I'm lying.

[HeyYou]

Yeah, "free" healthcare is paid for by higher taxes. Everybody pays, everybody gets health care. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Only trouble is, it would eliminate the health insurance industry. Lots of jobs, billions of dollars in CEO's pockets, etc. It isn't so much the "socialist" aspects of it that some folks don't like, it's the campaign contributors that happen to run insurance companies that don't like it, so, whatever negative press they can come up with, only helps their cause.

[rizon72]

Yeah, "free" healthcare is paid for by higher taxes. Everybody pays, everybody gets health care. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Only trouble is, it would eliminate the health insurance industry. Lots of jobs, billions of dollars in CEO's pockets, etc. It isn't so much the "socialist" aspects of it that some folks don't like, it's the campaign contributors that happen to run insurance companies that don't like it, so, whatever negative press they can come up with, only helps their cause.

 

To me, we would be switching one insurance scheme for another insurance scheme. The problem is neither is that great. Back when Obamacare was being voted on, I disliked it because, for me, it addressed the wrong part of the problem.

 

This guy's bill was $89,000, that's the problem. Having insurance, or even a government insurance isn't reducing that number. Until we get around to tackling that issue, won't matter if we have private or single-payer, the price of healthcare will be an issue.

[HeyYou]

 

Yeah, "free" healthcare is paid for by higher taxes. Everybody pays, everybody gets health care. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Only trouble is, it would eliminate the health insurance industry. Lots of jobs, billions of dollars in CEO's pockets, etc. It isn't so much the "socialist" aspects of it that some folks don't like, it's the campaign contributors that happen to run insurance companies that don't like it, so, whatever negative press they can come up with, only helps their cause.

 

To me, we would be switching one insurance scheme for another insurance scheme. The problem is neither is that great. Back when Obamacare was being voted on, I disliked it because, for me, it addressed the wrong part of the problem.

 

This guy's bill was $89,000, that's the problem. Having insurance, or even a government insurance isn't reducing that number. Until we get around to tackling that issue, won't matter if we have private or single-payer, the price of healthcare will be an issue.

 

That's very true. However, with a single-payer system, (socialised medicine for all you republicans out there. :) ) The government would actually dictate what they were going to pay for goods/services. Another reason many industries don't like the idea. That would seriously cut into profits for the drug companies. They claim that it would compromise research..... thing is, a fair bit of said research is also subsidized by tax dollars..... so, while on the surface, it sounds reasonable, in reality, its a straw argument.

[Tidus44]

National or universal health care has its problems as well, and it certainly isn't "free".

 

While out-of-pocket billing doesn't specifically exist in Canada, I would suggest that those who think it is free should probably take a look at the budget documents for their respective provinces and see the breakdown of where tax money comes from and where it goes. All easily found on the internet.

Depending on what province lived in, take a look at your pay slip and see what is listed as a "Health Care Premium" as this is deducted from your pay as a tax that goes to health care (maybe). If in Ontario, the premium is no longer deducted from individual's pay (changed about 15 years ago), the employer pays it, but it is "costing" you.

Where I live my Health Care Premium is just over $900.00 a year. The most expensive premium in Canada is $1056.00 a year.

In addition, I pay just over $1000.00 per year for insurance from a private company that covers health care costs not covered by the "free" health care (mine is more expensive than most as I am classed in a "high risk" occupation). Then on top of that I pay about $600.00 per year for dental coverage, but its limited to 90% of cost, so if I get $100.00 of dental work done the insurance pays $90.00 and I pay $10.00.

So, my "free" health care actually costs me in the area of $2500.00 per year out of pocket. Not too bad in consideration of some premiums in the USA, but then I have no specific idea of how much of my federal, provincial, property, school, sales, value added and service taxes wind up going to health care. I am in a 45% tax bracket in Canada (minimum is 26%), so I would think a good portion goes to health care.

 

As for being a "socialist" system in Canada, it isn't. Hospitals in Canada are privately owned and some are publicly owned. Where I live there are three hospitals, two are privately owned and one is publicly owned. Clinics and laboratories are mostly privately owned and operated. Because of my job I have to get a medical every two years. The cost for lab work (they take blood and urine and do an x-ray) is $300.00 and my Doctor bills $175.00 for the medical because it is not an illness and he cannot bill into the health care system for it. I get reimbursed by my employer because of a negotiated union agreement, but for years I paid out of pocket.

 

The biggest problem I see in Canada is I have little or no opportunity to obtain timely health care services. My neighbour had a health issue the last year or so. She is very healthy, looks after herself by diet and exercise and good life style; carries insurance and can well afford to pay out of pocket/insurance for the care she needed. But, the system here is that she gets put on a waiting list and is dealt with by the health care when it's her turn. The result is she suffers for 5 months taking expensive pills (paid for by her out of pocket and covered by insurance) while others, many who do not look after them self by exercise, diet and healthy life style, and even some who do not or pay very little into the system, get treatment first.

Luckily, she didn't have a really time sensitive illness such as cancer and have to wait her turn for treatment.

If I want a certain doctor, I don't get to choose (I can freely choose my family doctor) who works on me in the hospital, it goes by turn. Not all doctors are the same and if there is one who is better than another, I don't get to choose, I take who I get and suffer the consequences. In 2012 I got hit by a car driven by a drunk driver while I was busy working to extricate another driver (also drunk) from her car after she hit a truck. I didn't get to choose the Doctor at the hospital and got some hack who failed, even after being asked repeatedly, to prescribe a blood thinner for me to prevent blood clots. I got blood clots in my leg that became so swollen it dislocated my ankle and my knee cap. The bone healed in 10 weeks, but because of the blood clots I was off work 6 months and had to go through extensive physiotherapy to get my leg functioning again (it's about 90% now). Because I wasn't in the hospital, once I did get a prescription for anticoagulants (from my family doctor), I had to pay out of pocket ($1600.00 a month) for them and give myself needles in my stomach 3 times a day for 12 weeks because I didn't qualify for a nurse to come in and do it for me.

 

Yes, there is a pretty good health care system in Canada, but it isn't socialist, it isn't free, it can be as expensive as in the USA in most cases and it has any number problems that need to be fixed.

[colourwheel]

One of the reasons why America ended up with the way the healthcare mandate as it is now is because the opposition party was even more so totally against a single payer plan for it leans more towards a socialized way of governing, despite the fact singer payer plan would make more sense. Ideology has gotten in the way of bringing America a better way to deal with healthcare even though socialized medicine has it's problems too...