Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleLetter to the editor:
Do what’s necessary to insure everyone
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 | 2:02 a.m.
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen America’s health care system described as “the best in the world.” But that view probably depends on your health insurance, or lack thereof.
Here is what happened in one year for one extended family: For me, it was colon cancer — surgery and chemotherapy. My son had a skull fracture in an adult-league soccer accident — hospitalization and reconstructive surgery. My niece’s daughter had a fall-related injury — one week in intensive care.
We’re all OK and nobody’s bankrupt, thanks to good care and good insurance. For us, the system was may be the best.
What it would have been like without insurance is painful just to imagine. What hard, hard choices would we have had to make?
The costs? No idea, but here’s a taste. A few weeks ago, a 15-minute follow-up colonoscopy and three-hour hospital stay resulted in a bill to my health plan for $8,922. Without insurance, that would have been my bill. My government-run plan actually paid $657. My co-pay was $25. Insane, no?
So maybe some of us have the best, but certainly not all of us. Every developed nation except ours has found a way to provide medical care to all its citizens. We can, too, and we need to. It won’t be perfect, but let’s have the best system we can for everybody.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
Everything Under the Sun
Blogs
The Kats Report
Clint Holmes is a big deal at Cabaret Jazz and 'The Carlyle!'; Playboy's furry-ous closing; Elvis is a 'Legend'
Joe Pesci remembers his own honeymoon in Vegas -- meeting the Rat Pack (1 Comment)
Las Vegas Philharmonic says search for new music director to begin 'immediately' (1 Comment)
With Shenandoah project stalled, Wayne Newton hits back legally (7 Comments)
Where does a Playmate play when she turns 21? Vegas! (3 Comments)
Ice Ice Billy
The road to six-toed cats and Mayor Bubba
The Kats Report
David Itkin tells L.V. Philharmonic officials he's on his way out (14 Comments)
- Locally owned and independent since 1950; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, best news website in the nation & DuPont Award for broadcast journalism
hey steve...
you sir are a man i can respect...
bravo!!!
If it's such a important issue, why doesn't the Obama administration IMMEDIATELY through a Presidential Proclamation make Medicaid available to all who can't afford health insurance and have preexisting conditions and can not obtain health insurance?
But, it's not really a important issue with the Obama administration. Obama is using it as another crisis to get a complete government takeover of the health care system.
You see, a government takeover of the health care system advances his socialist agenda.
You are entitled to whatever level of healthcare you can pay for. No more, no less.
Those who want something for free are social parasites and deserve nothing.
Hey Steve - you are absolutely correct when you state all citizens. Thats a key phase, we need to address the illegals that suck the resources from tax paying Americans. Not just in health care, but taking up jail space that we all pay for and all the other gov't hand outs that they receive and we all pay for. And just making them all legal is not the answer.
jlb101 said.....
"You are entitled to whatever level of healthcare you can pay for. No more, no less.
Those who want something for free are social parasites and deserve nothing."
Hmmmmmmm....spoken like a man who has full health care coverage from his employer and pays next to nothing for it....
No, maybe I'm wrong? He must be a member of Congress and has the government's plan.....
Could be a young guy in excellent health and hasn't had to see a doctor in five years?
El Lobo-wrong on all counts. I worked hard all my life and earned enough to pay for my own insurance. I get it the honest way, not by freeloading off of people better than I am. I am entited to the best heathcare available because that is what I pay for. I just don't want to pay for yours because that is your responsibility, not mine.
More fallacious reasoning and failure to understand the system as it is. Steve is not malicious, just uninformed. Allow me to inform.
One of the biggest problems in US health care is revealed in Steve's comment that he has very little knowledge of the cost of the services he is receiving and also probably does not know the cost of the product, the health insurance, he is using. He says, "The costs? No idea"." Precisely the point.
Next he mixes "billed charges" with fees. The $8,922 for a colonoscopy, anesthesia, and recovery time is a number that is made up out of thin air. The reason the insurance paid $657 is because those are the pre-negotiated rates that the doctors and the hospital have agreed to in advance.
The doctor can "bill" the insurance any amount he wants, say $5000. The current reimbursement from Medicare for colonoscopy is about $200. These "rates" are available to any uninsured citizen who cares to discuss costs/fees with any doctor or hospital.
Problem is we are not used to negotiating price for medical care since the costs have been removed from out thought process. In other words, what do I care what it will cost; the insurance will pay for it.
Finally, he makes a common mistake when he states, "Every developed nation except ours has found a way to provide medical care to all its citizens." All US and non-US citizens have access to health care even if they do not have health insurance.
Many say that the uninsured can only get care at the emergency room. Well, look at Steve's example. He got a colonoscopy, in a hospital, with anesthesia, recovery room time, the medication for the sedation, etc., all for under $700. How did the cost get down to $700? Insurance Company and Medicare negotiated rates, that's how.
If his test was for prevention then he is probably about 50 years old as this is the time most start colon cancer screening. If the test is clear he doesn't need it again for about 10 years.
So, if I am 40, uninsured, and I care about my health I can start saving for this test now and assuming it will cost $1000 by the time I am 50 (and there is every reason to believe it will cost less but I'll guess at the inflation rate) I only need to save $8.33/month (27 cents/day) to pay cash for the test in 2020.
Starting to get the idea of what might really be going on with health care reform?
pbim72g: You are living in bizzaro world. I am about to be turned over to a collection agency for an $800 charge for a "physical" from UMC that my wife incurred after seeing a doctor for a urinary tract infection. She has insurance provided by Clark County. I've been "negotiating" since May to get the mistake corrected. Three other patients who walked in after us all had major problems with getting past insurance related issues and one stomped out and I'm surprised didn't return with a shotgun. The present health care bureaucracy is reason enough to change to a single payer system.
Negotiate my butt!
Willie, quit while you are behind. UMC? Is it me or is UMC a government funded and government run hospital system?
Won't the government run option be run by".the government. You said, " The present health care bureaucracy is reason enough to change to a single payer system." You are cracking me up. You advocate for a single payer system that will be run by a health care bureaucracy called the federal government. Friend, you are delusional about what you are wishing for.
to jib101:
You refuse to consider chipping in to pay for another American's health. However, you believe you are ENTITLED to the protection of your welfare and we must all chip in by supporting the incredible cost of our military (the best in the world). You even think it behooves hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens to actually put themselves in harms way for you. How do you rationalize that? Moreover, how do you live with yourself? Your mother would not be proud of you.
Willie, let me get this perfectly straight: you are having trouble with the quality of service you are receiving from a company with which you do business (in this case an insurance company or a service provider, a hospital) and you are using that as an argument for the US government getting involved in this area of business?
Where were you when I had a dispute with my cell phone company? We could have rallied in the street about a government option for cell phone service. What about when I had to argue with my pool company over their service? A government option for pools?
How about these examples: A computer I bought that I had to take back, my landscaper killed one of my trees, I had to have a gate company out three times to hang a gate I ordered hung properly, the painter who painted my house went a week over on time and 25% over on cost. Where is my government option for all of these services that I had problems negotiating with? Surely the government can run all of these services better than the companies I am dealing with now.
A common argument of those in favor of the government running all aspects of our lives is that any problem can be solved by government. My gut feeling, however, is that they really just want someone else to pay the bill (maybe not you, Willie, but most).
Last year a friend of mine, who has no health
insurance because of a pre-existing condition,
went to the doctor for a colonoscopy. He told
them that he would pay cash for the test. They
told him they could'nt take him unless he has
a full coverage policy.
This is another reason all Americans need
full coverage.
Again, why doesn't the Obama administration IMMEDIATELY through a Presidential Proclamation make Medicaid available to all who can't afford health insurance and have preexisting conditions and can not obtain health insurance?
But, it's not really a important issue with the Obama administration. Obama is using it as another crisis to get a complete government takeover of the health care system.
You see, a government takeover of the health care system advances his socialist agenda.
Larry:
Give up the B.S.
You sound like a TEABAGGER.
Why do doctors/hospitals charge so much? Because they can.
"The costs? No idea, but here's a taste. A few weeks ago, a 15-minute follow-up colonoscopy and three-hour hospital stay resulted in a bill to my health plan for $8,922. Without insurance, that would have been my bill. My government-run plan actually paid $657. My co-pay was $25. Insane, no?"
And the problem starts with the bill. The amount paid verses the amount billed. The system is flawed, insurance companies reduce the bill and the doctor absorbs the difference. The doctor already knows they're not going to be paid amounts requested, yet they still bill. They now show a loss that can be deducted of their taxes if corporation is setup as such. If you don't have insurance the doctor engages a collection company and pursues all legal option to collect amounts that are clearly overstated.
Regulate how much a doctor can charge for services just as the insurance companies do. The doctors have designed a system enabling them to take advantage of the uninsured. The system is borderline criminal.
In a recent Gallup survey, 89% of Republicans, 64% of independents, and 61% of Americans overall say Americans themselves -- rather than the government -- have the primary responsibility for ensuring that they have health insurance. Six in 10 Democrats say the government should be primarily responsible.