WebMD Community Talk Show

Thanks. I followed the link, read the survey an also checked out AskTheDoctor.com, which was heretofore unknown to me. You and your colleagues are to be commended. We must think of ways to help each other in an informal basis. The AMA, private hospitals, IPAs, pharma companies and IPAs have created an adversarial relationship between the medical profession on one side and patients on the other.

What better way to screw patients than for a doctor to tell them that he has no idea what his services cost. ("The billing service takes care of that.") The doctors don't know the cost of a CT scan produced by CT scanners that they own or the daily hospital cost of the hospital buildings they own and rent to "non-profit" hospitals who negotiate fees with their IPAs (i.e., unions). They don't know anything. How convenient.

True medical costs are more secret than a motician's profit margin.

I once incurred a hospital bill of $100,000. Blue Cross paid $6,600 and the hospital accepted it as payment in full. I called the hospital billing office to ask why and was told that they had a contract with BC to accept 30% of the bill as payment in full. I asked and was told that had I not been insured I would have received a bill for $100,000 and they would have sued me to get it.

Why can't we have a law that hospitals cannot charge uninsured patients any more than they would accept as payment in full from the largest insurer that they contract with? They can obviously function quite well on $6,600. The rest is gravy.

Thanks for your reply and please keep up the good work.

Kurt

If it weren't so expensive for medical care here in the United States, this may not be such a problem. Not only that, but like the other person said about her friend who was visiting. He had money, but no doctor would see him. Also, the high cost of medical care is ridiculous in the United States. The city I live in has a Volunteers In Medicine clinic. This clinic is an amazing resource in our community. We also need to remember, if people are ill and contagious, do you want disease to spread because someone can't afford health care? Do you want to lose a loved one because of these circumstances? Did you know that we have drug companies here in the United States of America that sells their drugs to other countries cheaper than they do to us here? Please explain this to me.

I am in nursing school and volunteer in an ER. Emergency treatment should be required, but I see a huge majority of people in the ER for non-critical illnesses. And most of them are uninsured or on Medicaid. I know I have a lot to learn, but when people aren't paying for their own insurance, they seem to think the ER is their personl 24-hour doctor. You don't bring your kid to the ER for a cold, you wait and make an appointment the next day with your primary doctor. Mis-and uneducation is our biggest problem right now, and that's what's blowing up the cost of healthcare.

Yes

I don't think I could have said it any better. Thank you! I did have a good job at one time, working for an airline reservation center. The airline had great health insurance. They then closed up most of the offices in the United States and moved their reservation centers to India. I am now 48 years of age working a job which is continually laying us off or sending us home for the day. I am also attending college at my age to try and get a better job. We shouldn't be complaining about helping the folks who are working hard to make a better life. These people, like me, once we are back on our feet will be contributing back into society. Also, we still pay taxes. We need to be concerned about the folks who don't want to work, and who know how to sponge from the government and get housing, food, health care, etc and never work, nor do they ever try to work. They keep spitting out children and we keep having to pay for them.

seems like the tone here for the YESs is that because medical care will improve one's life expectancy it should be provided regardless of financial means to pay.

there are quite a few things that would improve one's life expectacy, though i doubt many would argue they should be provided free of charge (to the recipient) while others are made to foot the bill. for example...

-living on Park Avenue (any city, really) versus living in a ghetto
-eating nightly at The Four Seasons, versus at the local McDonald's or bordega
-having a monthly gym membership versus a couch and television
-desiring freedom of speech, and living in America versus living in Iran

life costs money...unfortunately. not everyone survives the darwinian environment we live in, nor to the same affect. is it morally commendable to help your fellow man (forget patriotism or civic duty, and focus on basic humanity)...of course! but shouldn't that be voluntary? do i not have the right to be heartless and not devote my skills or resources to those who cannot compensate me in return? do i not have the right to chose not to pay for the services of others? do i not have the right to decide whom i help and when i help them?

i work hard for the little money i make. and i chose to share my time and that limited income with others less fortunate...donations to charity, fundraising events for those suffering from life threatening diseases, volunteering to spoon soup in bowls for the homeless. but maybe i have decided that i have done my part for humanity's strangers, and what i have left i want to use for the benefit of the people in my direct charge (wife, kids, ailing parents, friends in need) and not give more to the uninsured stranger because a government demands it of me (or my neighbors think it inhuman of me to act otherwise).

should a doctor HAVE to treat me? no
should a doctor WANT to treat me? yes

while you may be willing to pay higher taxes to pay for the uninsured strangers of this country, i am not. but please do not let that stop you from contributing more.

and let me contribute, if i so chose to, in my own way.

that is what freedom is about (and yes, Benjamim Franklin, former slaveholder and subsequent abolitionist, argued the same)

If you get the opportunity, go to www.cchr.org and watch the To Make A Killing video. This is another way the people of this world are being scammed.

Good comments. I feel they need to be US citizens. We should not be taking care of illegal people coming in and having illegal babies. They should not automatically be considered US citizens if their parents are not US citizens.

I am furious with all of these welfare mothers that keep producing more babies they cannot support. Are we supposed to work to support them our whole lives and then they want to cut back on our medicare after we have supported these unwed mothers who live off our hard work!

This is what we are talking about ... if people can't get their child into a doctor because they have no money or insurance, then they end up going to the ER. Again, I am fortunate where I live, we have a Volunteers In Medicine Clonic. If your child is ill and you have no way to get into a doctor's office or urgent care center, then ER is the answer for most people. They know they can take themselves or their family in to be seen and taken care of. This is unfortunate, because the ER should be used for what it is intended.

I couldn't agree more. Not to mention, we are having to work our tails off and can't get help. They are coming over and receive all kinds of assistance. Just like the drug companies selling drugs to other countries cheaper than we get them. Things that make you go hmmmmm....