the death of private medical insurance?

[ZorroSF]

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/01/the-doctor-wi-1.html#posts


Hospitals are now going to follow the path of the credit industry and create a FICA score for patients.

If hospitals really do adopt this then I expect a revolution in the medical industry. either the state govt's step in and say no, or the taxpayer will re-elect congressmen/women that will vote to abolish private medical insurance altogether.

either way, people in chronic pain and sufferers of cancer and genetic disease will be hit the hardest.

[chasswen]

now that's just plain INSANE period.

[Harrison]

Wow. Quite a few comments (782!) on this article in such a short amount of time! Here's another link:

http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/61060.html

[LBP]

I happened to catch one comment on that website and it disgusted me. The guy accuses "deadbeats" of having cheap ins and they should buy better insurance and pay their bills. I can't even bear to read the whole thing because it's just too upsetting.

If my "decent" non-hmo employer provided ins had paid for my surgery years ago I wouldn't be unemployed getting medicare and a future in bankruptcy. My life has gone to catastrophic ends because of my inability to get a medically necessary surgery!

This is insane. Now maybe I might never get approved because of bad credit! Why not give up. How do you ever overcome this mess if everyone wants to keep you down.

I'm a highly educated former professional. I had a lot of debt but I had an excellant credit rating because I worked hard and paid my bills on time. I got injured and was unable to work so then I was unable to pay the bills because I am single and supported myself. I was never a deadbeat, and now I'm a victim of a perfect storm of events. Something goes wrong in an unrelated surgery to injure my back but I can't prove it because I was under general anesthesia and none of the medical staff recorded anything unusual in my medical records. I elected the most expensive insurance plan at my last employer but it did me no good! Because I couldn't get my surgery, I had to move home and live off of my parents while waiting 2 years before my disability appeal was heard. I lost my career, independence, and ocean front apt in CA. It's taken so long to get my surgery and I'm still fighting, that I may be too old and out of practice, and out of networking connections, to return to my old profession when and if that time ever comes!

[B13s]

Sometimes US make me sick...
However Germany is also not much better - the first question they ask when you want to get appointment - what insurance you have - if private - usually you get appointment the same day or within few days, in case with public (state) insurance you usually have to wait weeks and quite often doctors accept only private patients. And this despite that fact that public insurance costs ~600 euro a month :/

[ans]

So people with excellent medical insurance but having low credit ratings will get penalized.

This is more than trivial.

ans

[hucky]

So what do your taxes pay for? Apart from unnecessary wars? Exactly WHAT is there to protect anymore?

It's never ceases to amaze me the amount of money that is put into defense and yet they can't look after their own.

Here's your chance. VOTE THEM OUT. Don't waste your vote, if you don't like what you've got - change it. We in Oz, just did. Hopefully for the better.

Hucky

[Terry]

Hucky:

We are counting the days when Bush
(A.K.A. "Shrub") is voted out of office. The Republicans have dissed our country for the wealthy. The war is an opportunity to eliminate the population and protect the rich people's assets. Poor people join the military to get their education paid for.

I did with the GI Bill in Viet Nam era Military. Thankful for the education that couldn't get paid for by my parents.

Terry Newton