Bed shortage forces 4,000 mothers to give birth in lifts, offices and hospital toilet

[paperview]

Kind of like how Credit Card companies write the rules.

Isn't it nice to be able to put a clause in that contract that says "We reserve the right to change this contract at any time without notice."

(followed in microscopic small print by: "and you can't do diddlysquat about it...")(tough luck sucker!)

Wouldn't it be nice to write a contract like that?

This is all courtesy of the asshole CC and Insurance Co. lobby's that buy off most of the politicians, that allow them to write these 'rules,' of course...

 

[MaggieMae]

Anyone in this country for a nominal fee can walk into a neighborhood clinic and see a doctor for whatever ails them. Our own local clinic (and there are 4 in our county of 100,000) charges $49.35 for an office visit for which any number of health problems will be diagnosed; or a specialist recomended and scheduled within hours to a few days. Being a walk in clinic a doctor will be seen in less than a half hour; my wait times have been less than 15 minutes.

Edit: I realize these don't exist in some areas, ghetto areas for instance. But our tax structure is capable of incentivizing their establishment in any area of urban blight where local sons and daughters, who may or may not be doctors, would be excited about setting them up - think TAX CREDITS (cash refunds)

OK. Example: You walk in...severe headaches and other symptoms that lead to a possibility it may be a brain tumor.

A: Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?

IF so, OK. Results in: You have a brain tumor. No insurance.
What happens next?

I'm not going to pretend or assume a logical outcome to that scenario. But those situations are so rare that they are exactly where the government could help out.

Consider that everyone is going to die, but life insurance is cheap; especially for the young adult. Insurance for catastrophic illnesses like you describe should, because of their rarity, like life isurance be cheap, but the Ds in congress have actually made it illegal. The nearest we have come to allowing it is in HSAs/MSAs.

"Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?"
If they can't, and probably they aren't set up to do it, the clinic will arrange for the tests to be done. I walked into my local clinic with a "sprained" arm. During the O.V. I was scheduled for and within an hour got an MRI a half mile away. Once read by the analyst, within a couple of days, the follow-up diagnosis and prescription for physical injury was included in the original O.V. by the clinic. The MRI costs were seperate at a private provider.

An MRI for a sprained arm? Why? A simple X-Ray would cost around $200 and probably clinics you mention have those right in their facilities. An MRI costs a minimum of $1,000. An X-Ray would show if anything was broken. That's a perfect example of a totally unnecessary expense that someone had to pay for.

 

[MaggieMae]

I'm not going to pretend or assume a logical outcome to that scenario. But those situations are so rare that they are exactly where the government could help out.

Consider that everyone is going to die, but life insurance is cheap; especially for the young adult. Insurance for catastrophic illnesses like you describe should, because of their rarity, like life isurance be cheap, but the Ds in congress have actually made it illegal. The nearest we have come to allowing it is in HSAs/MSAs.

"Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?"
If they can't, and probably they aren't set up to do it, the clinic will arrange for the tests to be done. I walked into my local clinic with a "sprained" arm. During the O.V. I was scheduled for and within an hour got an MRI a half mile away. Once read by the analyst, within a couple of days, the follow-up diagnosis and prescription for physical injury was included in the original O.V. by the clinic. The MRI costs were seperate at a private provider.

not every area has walk in clinics, we should expand them!

how much was the MRI from the separate company, well over a $1000 dollars, no? Did this separate company do the mri and not worry about whether you could pay the bill or not? how unusual, if they did?

Those questions are answered in bold above. I think this is an area of government action, not by discouraging it but by rewarding it. Sadly the Ds have seen that as an iissue of the Rs and stamp it out any way they can.

Edit: The price was $1080.

You and your insurer got ripped off. A non-clinic OV, complete with an X-Ray, splint and pain meds should have cost you no more than $500 maximum.

 

[American Horse]

mustang,

60% of us get our insurance through a work, group policy....we don't individually get to choose now....my husband's huge, nationwide corporation offers insurance for them, from only 1 mega insurance company, with only 2 policies to choose from....there is no real choice for the individual now....?

I suspect that companies which provide insurance for their employees would attempt to provide the very best available and not mediocre coverage, because the best policy available would be an inducement to finding good employees. It would give them a competitive edge. So that is your situation. Just wondering then - Have you read the terms and limits of your policy? Have you found it inadequate? If it's ok then you have no complaint. If you don't have complaints about your own overage, are you just a caring individual concerned for those who don't have gold plated policies like your own, and you are only arguing their case?

I suspect that you are actually ok....but you talk to people, maybe even initiating the conversation, and you hear complaints about how they were wronged by an insurance company (yours may be a caring shoulder to cry on). There seems to be no shortage of those with problems here on this forum. But are they for real, or are they just sympathetic listeners become advocates?

At any rate, I think the discussion prior, is about those in a situation like my own, and that is what I was speaking to. Those are the ones with potential problems with coverage. They may be self employed or they may be employed by a company which does not provide any coverage. Those were the situations we were discussing, not yours. Yours is a group, not an individual....so when you say "there is no real choice for the individual now....?" ...I was speaking of the individual.

We who are self employed have a greater problem because the individual policies available to us are going to cost more and be less inclusive than the group policy. It makes us smart shoppers. I speak as a person who left group coverage when I became a self employed person back in 1972. The premiums for my health insurance policy always came first, even before my mortgage. It's never been a problem of hoplessness, even with a spouse with an "Orphan Disease." It was always just a matter of being responsible as an individual. Responsible indivudualism is being impugned and eroded daily, with a huge psychological surge in play right now.

It's interesting that life insurance is very cheap, even for large amounts of coverage, like millions of dollars, while we know that everone is certain to die. I suspect that type of coverage is so cheap because the government has stayed out of it, except as to tax issues.

 

[American Horse]

not every area has walk in clinics, we should expand them!

how much was the MRI from the separate company, well over a $1000 dollars, no? Did this separate company do the mri and not worry about whether you could pay the bill or not? how unusual, if they did?

Those questions are answered in bold above. I think this is an area of government action, not by discouraging it but by rewarding it. Sadly the Ds have seen that as an iissue of the Rs and stamp it out any way they can.

Edit: The price was $1080.

You and your insurer got ripped off. A non-clinic OV, complete with an X-Ray, splint and pain meds should have cost you no more than $500 maximum.

Maggie, The clinic OV, splint, and pain meds cost $49.35.
The MRI cost $1080.
An X-ray would not have revealed the problem which was a torn muscle. To me and the doc that was valuable information.

 

[paperview]

OK. Example: You walk in...severe headaches and other symptoms that lead to a possibility it may be a brain tumor.

A: Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?

IF so, OK. Results in: You have a brain tumor. No insurance.
What happens next?

I'm not going to pretend or assume a logical outcome to that scenario. But those situations are so rare that they are exactly where the government could help out.

Consider that everyone is going to die, but life insurance is cheap; especially for the young adult. Insurance for catastrophic illnesses like you describe should, because of their rarity, like life isurance be cheap, but the Ds in congress have actually made it illegal. The nearest we have come to allowing it is in HSAs/MSAs.

"Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?"
If they can't, and probably they aren't set up to do it, the clinic will arrange for the tests to be done. I walked into my local clinic with a "sprained" arm. During the O.V. I was scheduled for and within an hour got an MRI a half mile away. Once read by the analyst, within a couple of days, the follow-up diagnosis and prescription for physical injury was included in the original O.V. by the clinic. The MRI costs were seperate at a private provider.

An MRI for a sprained arm? Why? A simple X-Ray would cost around $200 and probably clinics you mention have those right in their facilities. An MRI costs a minimum of $1,000. An X-Ray would show if anything was broken. That's a perfect example of a totally unnecessary expense that someone had to pay for.

MRI's are often used in grade II and III sprains.

Xrays do not show muscle and ligament damage. Depends on the injury.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Who said I liked Obama's plan?

Not me!

Dr. Day says "We have over a million people waiting for surgery, and probably another million waiting to see the specialist before they get to wait for the surgery, and that's out of a population of 34-million people"

He also says "The biggest problem is access, and by access I mean, in the Canadian system the first line of defense for a sick patient is the family doctor and out of a population of 33-million, five million Canadians do not have a family doctor."
This means they are being denied access to the system, much like a proportional number of Americans are "being denied."

I think I'd rather be in our situation than theirs.

Isn't that interesting. The Dr. Day you quote is pushing for an UK-style service-based funding for Canada, not an American approach.

Go figure.

Just because his choice of solution is wrong doesn't mean his identification of the problem is. Being correct doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. You can be half-right.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I'd rather have the Japanese system where if you need a doctor's appointment, you can get in to see him/her the same day.

Anyone in this country for a nominal fee can walk into a neighborhood clinic and see a doctor for whatever ails them. Our own local clinic (and there are 4 in our county of 100,000) charges $49.35 for an office visit for which any number of health problems will be diagnosed; or a specialist recomended and scheduled within hours to a few days. Being a walk in clinic a doctor will be seen in less than a half hour; my wait times have been less than 15 minutes.

Edit: I realize these don't exist in some areas, ghetto areas for instance. But our tax structure is capable of incentivizing their establishment in any area of urban blight where local sons and daughters, who may or may not be doctors, would be excited about setting them up - think TAX CREDITS (cash refunds)

OK. Example: You walk in...severe headaches and other symptoms that lead to a possibility it may be a brain tumor.

A: Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?

IF so, OK. Results in: You have a brain tumor. No insurance.
What happens next?

A brain tumor makes you eligible for Medicaid. Any other stupid questions?

 

[Cecilie1200]

My Mother and her six sisters were all born in a house on the banks of the Allegheny river and they turned out alright. Although they'll say that's debatable.
Seems to me people depend on hospitals and emergency rooms for far too much of their health care.

Yes, people used to routinely have babies at home with doctors and midwives who had much less training. Of course, women and babies used to routinely die in childbirth, so I don't know if "depending less on hospitals" is such a good idea at that price. Perhaps there's a good reason that people decided having children in a fully-stocked medical facility was better.

 

[MaggieMae]

Care, there are numerous "standard contracts" called policies available for potential customers to examine and choose from. The problem, as I see it, is the hopelessness and sympathy for that hopelessness that causes people to not even examine the available contracts. That hopelessness benefits just one political party. Also the ignorance to of a customer as to what a policy is, and why they should read them, astounds me. Your own statement above confirms the problem.

I'm a contractor; if as a contracror I was asked to perform some work for you, I would draft up a contract. It would be pretty much standard issue with pertinent variables, but I have little doubt that you would read it and be prepared with questions regarding that contract before signing and embarking on the work. A health policy is boring reading, It's convoluted at first, but definitions are provided, and in about the same amount of time as it takes to study an owner's manual for a VCR or a DVR I can conclude if a health insurance policy is for me or not.

I will state, and you have not already said that it's not the case, that Insurance companies enter into agreements such as health insurance policies with customers with every intent to honor their agreement. One of the difficulties we have goes to one of the biggest problems facing this country: education. Our kids are not being adequately educated to perform or to survive as autonomous persons. I'll admit it, I'm not educated beyond being granted a GED high-school diploma. However I can read, understand, and perform according to the requirments such a policy.

The negotiations you mentioned in such an environment of choosing a health policy take place in the competitive atomsphere of choice. I've mentioned several times something I believe most would benifit from: To maximize choice go to a commercial insurance agent, one which advertises to businesses, who is not tied to any individual company, and knows the record of performance of those companies they sell for. Doubtless they would not want to sell for companies who do not honor their contracts, because of the amount of customer service they will be involved in for what is a small sales commission.

The difference is, as a contractor, you have to follow the standard rules.

Insurance companies follow Insurance Company Rules.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVpX5fUvPlg]YouTube - Insurance Company Rules[/ame]

Yes, they do. And they have a specific set of guidelines (actuaries) based upon an applicant's health history which they use to calculate the risk. I posted that link earlier in another thread, and I'll be damned if I can find it again. So that is their starting point. You don't just call up Blue Cross and say HEY, I want some health insurance, so send me a sample policy I can look at. THEY will tell YOU (the applicant) how THEY will proceed, and it first involves a lot of invasive medical questions, some of which you might need to prove.

 

[MaggieMae]

mustang,

60% of us get our insurance through a work, group policy....we don't individually get to choose now....my husband's huge, nationwide corporation offers insurance for them, from only 1 mega insurance company, with only 2 policies to choose from....there is no real choice for the individual now....?

I suspect that companies which provide insurance for their employees would attempt to provide the very best available and not mediocre coverage, because the best policy available would be an inducement to finding good employees. It would give them a competitive edge. So that is your situation. Just wondering then - Have you read the terms and limits of your policy? Have you found it inadequate? If it's ok then you have no complaint. If you don't have complaints about your own overage, are you just a caring individual concerned for those who don't have gold plated policies like your own, and you are only arguing their case?

I suspect that you are actually ok....but you talk to people, maybe even initiating the conversation, and you hear complaints about how they were wronged by an insurance company (yours may be a caring shoulder to cry on). There seems to be no shortage of those with problems here on this forum. But are they for real, or are they just sympathetic listeners become advocates?

At any rate, I think the discussion prior, is about those in a situation like my own, and that is what I was speaking to. Those are the ones with potential problems with coverage. They may be self employed or they may be employed by a company which does not provide any coverage. Those were the situations we were discussing, not yours. Yours is a group, not an individual....so when you say "there is no real choice for the individual now....?" ...I was speaking of the individual.

We who are self employed have a greater problem because the individual policies available to us are going to cost more and be less inclusive than the group policy. It makes us smart shoppers. I speak as a person who left group coverage when I became a self employed person back in 1972. The premiums for my health insurance policy always came first, even before my mortgage. It's never been a problem of hoplessness, even with a spouse with an "Orphan Disease." It was always just a matter of being responsible as an individual. Responsible indivudualism is being impugned and eroded daily, with a huge psychological surge in play right now.

It's interesting that life insurance is very cheap, even for large amounts of coverage, like millions of dollars, while we know that everone is certain to die. I suspect that type of coverage is so cheap because the government has stayed out of it, except as to tax issues.

The reason life insurance is so cheap is because it's insuring only one thing. Your death.

 

[paperview]

Anyone in this country for a nominal fee can walk into a neighborhood clinic and see a doctor for whatever ails them. Our own local clinic (and there are 4 in our county of 100,000) charges $49.35 for an office visit for which any number of health problems will be diagnosed; or a specialist recomended and scheduled within hours to a few days. Being a walk in clinic a doctor will be seen in less than a half hour; my wait times have been less than 15 minutes.

Edit: I realize these don't exist in some areas, ghetto areas for instance. But our tax structure is capable of incentivizing their establishment in any area of urban blight where local sons and daughters, who may or may not be doctors, would be excited about setting them up - think TAX CREDITS (cash refunds)

OK. Example: You walk in...severe headaches and other symptoms that lead to a possibility it may be a brain tumor.

A: Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?

IF so, OK. Results in: You have a brain tumor. No insurance.
What happens next?

A brain tumor makes you eligible for Medicaid. Any other stupid questions?

You have to qualify for Medicaid based on your income, which usually is dirt poor.


Any other stupid responses?

 

[MaggieMae]

Anyone in this country for a nominal fee can walk into a neighborhood clinic and see a doctor for whatever ails them. Our own local clinic (and there are 4 in our county of 100,000) charges $49.35 for an office visit for which any number of health problems will be diagnosed; or a specialist recomended and scheduled within hours to a few days. Being a walk in clinic a doctor will be seen in less than a half hour; my wait times have been less than 15 minutes.

Edit: I realize these don't exist in some areas, ghetto areas for instance. But our tax structure is capable of incentivizing their establishment in any area of urban blight where local sons and daughters, who may or may not be doctors, would be excited about setting them up - think TAX CREDITS (cash refunds)

OK. Example: You walk in...severe headaches and other symptoms that lead to a possibility it may be a brain tumor.

A: Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?

IF so, OK. Results in: You have a brain tumor. No insurance.
What happens next?

A brain tumor makes you eligible for Medicaid. Any other stupid questions?

To qualify for Medicaid, you must be income eligible, which means LOW income. Next?

 

[paperview]

Yes, they do. And they have a specific set of guidelines (actuaries) based upon an applicant's health history which they use to calculate the risk. I posted that link earlier in another thread, and I'll be damned if I can find it again. So that is their starting point. You don't just call up Blue Cross and say HEY, I want some health insurance, so send me a sample policy I can look at. THEY will tell YOU (the applicant) how THEY will proceed, and it first involves a lot of invasive medical questions, some of which you might need to prove.

And they can deny you treatment based on whether THEY feel you need it.

They go by Insurance Company Rules.

 

[MaggieMae]

Yes, they do. And they have a specific set of guidelines (actuaries) based upon an applicant's health history which they use to calculate the risk. I posted that link earlier in another thread, and I'll be damned if I can find it again. So that is their starting point. You don't just call up Blue Cross and say HEY, I want some health insurance, so send me a sample policy I can look at. THEY will tell YOU (the applicant) how THEY will proceed, and it first involves a lot of invasive medical questions, some of which you might need to prove.

And they can deny you treatment based on whether THEY feel you need it.

They go by Insurance Company Rules.

FOUND IT!!

http://www.opic.state.tx.us/docs/442_2007_health_ug.pdf

 

[Care4all]

mustang,

60% of us get our insurance through a work, group policy....we don't individually get to choose now....my husband's huge, nationwide corporation offers insurance for them, from only 1 mega insurance company, with only 2 policies to choose from....there is no real choice for the individual now....?

I suspect that companies which provide insurance for their employees would attempt to provide the very best available and not mediocre coverage, because the best policy available would be an inducement to finding good employees. It would give them a competitive edge. So that is your situation. Just wondering then - Have you read the terms and limits of your policy? Have you found it inadequate? If it's ok then you have no complaint. If you don't have complaints about your own overage, are you just a caring individual concerned for those who don't have gold plated policies like your own, and you are only arguing their case?

I suspect that you are actually ok....but you talk to people, maybe even initiating the conversation, and you hear complaints about how they were wronged by an insurance company (yours may be a caring shoulder to cry on). There seems to be no shortage of those with problems here on this forum. But are they for real, or are they just sympathetic listeners become advocates?

At any rate, I think the discussion prior, is about those in a situation like my own, and that is what I was speaking to. Those are the ones with potential problems with coverage. They may be self employed or they may be employed by a company which does not provide any coverage. Those were the situations we were discussing, not yours. Yours is a group, not an individual....so when you say "there is no real choice for the individual now....?" ...I was speaking of the individual.

We who are self employed have a greater problem because the individual policies available to us are going to cost more and be less inclusive than the group policy. It makes us smart shoppers. I speak as a person who left group coverage when I became a self employed person back in 1972. The premiums for my health insurance policy always came first, even before my mortgage. It's never been a problem of hoplessness, even with a spouse with an "Orphan Disease." It was always just a matter of being responsible as an individual. Responsible indivudualism is being impugned and eroded daily, with a huge psychological surge in play right now.

It's interesting that life insurance is very cheap, even for large amounts of coverage, like millions of dollars, while we know that everone is certain to die. I suspect that type of coverage is so cheap because the government has stayed out of it, except as to tax issues.

No, I haven't read the fine print, because we were not given a copy of the policy, only a brief overview to choose which one of the two we wanted. The company does not give out books, you have to go online to read the fine print and I have never been able to do such.

And NO I am NOT happy with private insurance companies, the two times i actually used it they denied to pay the hospital. The first time was in florida for a 13,000 hospital bill, they refused to pay it, it went to a collection agency, finally we called the state's insurance commissioner and someone gave us a florida state statute number to give the collection agency that stated hospitals can NOT come after you to pay the bill if you have insurance....or something of the sort.....so they backed off, and stopped calling...but they still left our credit in deep crap of which we were unaware until we went to buy a home and then we had to clear it up with the bank and show the letters we sent to them with the state statute that said we were not responsible for the bill at the hospital...don't know if the insurance company ever paid it, I believe it did not.

And the second time i needed to use my insurance was here, the doctor's /hospital bill in the end came to over $2000 dollars, the hospital filed wrong with the insurance company, the insurance company REFUSED to pay the bill to the hospital, I had the hospital refile with the appropriate code and the insurance company waited 2 months before answering them and then denied the whole thing again, then i filed a compalint and the insurance company still refused to pay it, the hospital sent it to a collections agency and matt and I are stuck paying the bill for me to see the doctor and ALL of the tests the doctor ran on me....

SO, 2 for 2...the only 2 times i used my insurance the insurance companies denied paying the bill....

I will NOT be happy until I can have a true choice in who we go with to insure ourselves and believe a coop option or a public option that we could buy, is the only choice we will have if we do not want to go with the one or 2 private company insurance policy offered...without them, there is no choice, we are stuck with the scummy to no end, private insurance companies.

 

[Cecilie1200]

OK. Example: You walk in...severe headaches and other symptoms that lead to a possibility it may be a brain tumor.

A: Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?

IF so, OK. Results in: You have a brain tumor. No insurance.
What happens next?

A brain tumor makes you eligible for Medicaid. Any other stupid questions?

You have to qualify for Medicaid based on your income, which usually is dirt poor.


Any other stupid responses?

I haven't given you any stupid responses, because unlike you, I know something about Medicaid billing practices. The presence of a chronic and/or life-threatening illness like a brain tumor qualifies you for Medicaid, if only because of its potential to MAKE you dirt poor with medical costs. I personally know a boy whose parents each have excellent private medical insurance through their respective employers, and who ALSO gets Medicaid because he has cerebral palsy. This is just by way of an example.

I know it doesn't make as sensational a story as old people having to sell their houses and live under an overpass to buy medication, but the United States as it is just refuses to be the heartless death regime you'd like it to be. Sorry.

 

[Emma]

OK. Example: You walk in...severe headaches and other symptoms that lead to a possibility it may be a brain tumor.

A: Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?

IF so, OK. Results in: You have a brain tumor. No insurance.
What happens next?

I'm not going to pretend or assume a logical outcome to that scenario. But those situations are so rare that they are exactly where the government could help out.

Consider that everyone is going to die, but life insurance is cheap; especially for the young adult. Insurance for catastrophic illnesses like you describe should, because of their rarity, like life isurance be cheap, but the Ds in congress have actually made it illegal. The nearest we have come to allowing it is in HSAs/MSAs.

"Does the walk-in clinic do all the associative testing for this?"
If they can't, and probably they aren't set up to do it, the clinic will arrange for the tests to be done. I walked into my local clinic with a "sprained" arm. During the O.V. I was scheduled for and within an hour got an MRI a half mile away. Once read by the analyst, within a couple of days, the follow-up diagnosis and prescription for physical injury was included in the original O.V. by the clinic. The MRI costs were seperate at a private provider.

not every area has walk in clinics, we should expand them!

how much was the MRI from the separate company, well over a $1000 dollars, no? Did this separate company do the mri and not worry about whether you could pay the bill or not? how unusual, if they did?

And you're paying a separate radiologist charge for the interpretation of the films.

 

[paperview]

A brain tumor makes you eligible for Medicaid. Any other stupid questions?

You have to qualify for Medicaid based on your income, which usually is dirt poor.


Any other stupid responses?

I haven't given you any stupid responses, because unlike you, I know something about Medicaid billing practices. The presence of a chronic and/or life-threatening illness like a brain tumor qualifies you for Medicaid, if only because of its potential to MAKE you dirt poor with medical costs. I personally know a boy whose parents each have excellent private medical insurance through their respective employers, and who ALSO gets Medicaid because he has cerebral palsy. This is just by way of an example.

I know it doesn't make as sensational a story as old people having to sell their houses and live under an overpass to buy medication, but the United States as it is just refuses to be the heartless death regime you'd like it to be. Sorry.

"Medicaid is a program which is managed by the states, though it is funded by both the states and federal government. It's goal is to provide individuals with health insurance. Not everybody is elligible for Medicaid. It is primarily for individuals or families with low incomes and limited resources. For those with low income, Medicaid is by far the most utilized source of funding for medical services. People with disabilities, including cerebral palsy, are also eligible for Medicaid. Since Medicaid is a state run program, eligibility may vary from state to state, and the amount or types of services covered by Medicaid can also vary from state to state."

 

[Cecilie1200]

You have to qualify for Medicaid based on your income, which usually is dirt poor.


Any other stupid responses?

I haven't given you any stupid responses, because unlike you, I know something about Medicaid billing practices. The presence of a chronic and/or life-threatening illness like a brain tumor qualifies you for Medicaid, if only because of its potential to MAKE you dirt poor with medical costs. I personally know a boy whose parents each have excellent private medical insurance through their respective employers, and who ALSO gets Medicaid because he has cerebral palsy. This is just by way of an example.

I know it doesn't make as sensational a story as old people having to sell their houses and live under an overpass to buy medication, but the United States as it is just refuses to be the heartless death regime you'd like it to be. Sorry.

"Medicaid is a program which is managed by the states, though it is funded by both the states and federal government. It's goal is to provide individuals with health insurance. Not everybody is elligible for Medicaid. It is primarily for individuals or families with low incomes and limited resources. For those with low income, Medicaid is by far the most utilized source of funding for medical services. People with disabilities, including cerebral palsy, are also eligible for Medicaid. Since Medicaid is a state run program, eligibility may vary from state to state, and the amount or types of services covered by Medicaid can also vary from state to state."

Very true. However, because state-administered Medicaid programs receive federal funding, they are required to meet certain federally-mandated coverage standards in order to qualify for those funds. It is universal that people are allowed to "spend down" to Medicaid eligibility, as it's called. This is done by incurring medical expenses that reduce excess income to or below their state's medically needy income level. In other words, if you would not normally qualify for Medicaid financially, but have a medical need the expenses for which are great enough to eat up your income and assets, then you can qualify as medically needy.

Every state has its own standards for establishing this and for handling it. Some allow families to establish eligibility as medically needy by paying monthly premiums.

In addition to provisions for expensive, life-threatening illnesses, the federal government also has the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988, which implemented Spousal Impoverishment Protection Legislation to prevent married couples from being required to "spend down" income and other assets to be eligible for Medicaid coverage for nursing home care.

Believe it or not, the system really does already have provisions for all these "hard case" scenarios we keep having thrown up to scare us. The fact that people are either not using the system properly or have underlying issues that simply aren't being mentioned shouldn't be allowed to buffalo us into a huge mistake.