[lit-ideas] Re: UK cancer survival rates worst in Western Europe
- From: "Julie Krueger" <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 15:24:44 -0500
No, hospitals will not turn the uninsured or poor away. However, they will
send them hefty bills, in the thousands of dollars for even a minimal ER
visit, hound them with bill collectors, with threats of lawsuits, etc.
Wages can be garnished, etc. ER visits are FREE for NO ONE. Nor should
they be. Hospitals are businesses, too. However, the practice of charging
individuals who cannot afford adequate insurance two and a half times as
much as the hosp. charges an insurance company is criminal. Or should be.
I will reiterate something I've said on this list before. It obviously
bears repeating. My husband was hospitalized several years ago with severe
angina. He needed a bypass. His credit was good. He was insured with Blue
Cross Blue Shield, with a minimal deductible. He took all the necessary
steps before having surgery to ensure that BCBS would cover the surgery &
accompanying costs. They documented the procedure as pre-approved.
$30,000 later BCBS denied coverage, saying it was a "pre-existing
condition". The hospital filed a lawsuit and he nearly lost his (then) home
and his business office. He was able to negotiate with the hosp. to make
monthly payments -- although, of course, each monthly payment is partially a
"late fee" and interest. He'll be paying on that bill for the rest of his
life; his credit is in tatters; and he is now absolutely uninsurable --
that is -- there isn't a private health insurance in the country who would
sell him a policy. His good credit, his being responsibly insured, etc.,
did not mitigate against the situation in the least. He says in retrospect
that if he had known ahead of time that the insurance would not cover the
procedure they told him they would cover, he would not have accepted
surgery.
Julie Krueger
On 5/10/07, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Actually, no, I don't read them on such subjects. To clarify the point I
didn't realize needed clarifying, I could have said, "every time the subject
of medicine and health care comes up IN A DISCUSSION I AM INVOLVED IN, Judy
and a few others . . . "
I am amazed that the situation could have gone to one in which US health
care is lambasted is abysmal to one in which it is lauded and the UK is
moved down to abysmal without my having noticed. Maybe I should read more
of their notes.
How about Welfarism? Have Judy and the others given up on that as well?
I suppose I could check the archives . . .
But you seem not to have read my notes on the subject of "cost and
availability of medical care," although this doesn't make me embarrassed for
you. One can't read everything. You may recall that my wife has a serious
illness, one that causes some bleeding that can't be controlled. She isn't
quite on the Liver-Transplant list, but the progress of her disease is being
checked several times a year. With increasing regularity she needs
transfusions which necessitate our going to Emergency Rooms. Even though
this is a regular occurrence there is no way around going to ERs. What we
have both noticed is the large number of poor and what seem to be illegal
aliens who seem to be without medical insurance. Hospital attendants
informed Susan (hospital gossip) that these people cannot be turned away.
They can show up with any sort of ailment whatsoever. "Emergency"
apparently doesn't exclude anything and they do not have to have insurance.
According to the attendants, many of these people use the ER for their
regular medical concerns -- and for them it is free.
Lawrence
------------Original Message------------
From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, May-10-2007 10:21 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: UK cancer survival rates worst in Western Europe
> Not that I've gone looking for such articles, but I do recall that
> every time the subject of medicine and health care comes up, Judy &
> a few others lambaste the U.S. and laud Europe, especially the UK
> for being far far ahead of the US in all areas. The article above
> suggests that some in the UK may hold a different opinion -- at
> least at present.
As Judy says, you recall incorrectly, and I am embarrassed for you
that you believe that pointing out a mote in the eye of the NHS will
remove the beam from that of the US healthcare 'system's.' (Do you not
read Carol or Julie's posts?)
That anyone has ever claimed here that Europe, 'especially the UK,'
has been 'far, far ahead of the US in all areas,' is simply false.
The issue, when it has come up on this list, has been the cost and the
availability of medical care, not its quality.
Britain may be slow to adopt new cancer drugs; here many people cannot
afford them even when they are available.
Robert Paul
Reed College
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
