As another 663,000 people entered the realm of the unemployed last month bringing the national unemployment figures to 13 million, many of those newly laid-off Americans also lost their health insurance.
So what happens if you are laid off, are managing to keep your head above water, but then become seriously ill? if you are struggling financially and have no insurance, the local county hospital can be your only option.
Last night, 60 Minutes had a disturbing story about people in Nevada who have cancer and need chemotherapy, but suddenly have no insurance and cannot afford chemo treatments that cost around $5,000 per visit, sometimes more.
In the past, Nevada residents could get those life-saving treatments at at the county hospital, University Medical Center.
Then recently, reported 60 Minutes, “…thousands of letters went out across Las Vegas telling cancer patients that the only public hospital in the state was closing its outpatient clinic for chemotherapy.”
Many of those patients had no where else to go.
Among those unable to pay for treatment was Roy Scales, a laid off security guard with lung cancer…..Livia Ralphs, who was recently laid off from her job selling cosmetics……Yolanda Coleman, 45 years old and a single mother who worked all her life cleaning motel rooms and driving trucks….Helen Sharp, 63, who has been fighting lymphoma since July and is not working because of her illness.
Recognize that these are working to middle class people who are not poor enough to qualify for public assistance. The very poor can get care.
If an alternative is not found, for each of these people and hundreds like them, the cut backs can be a death sentence.
For the rest of the story, go here.
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The problem is not confined to Nevada. In California, the safety net for recently-laid off cancer patients, is still holding. But it is getting badly stretched.
For instance, last month the Ventura County Star reported that visits from uninsured cancer patients coming to the Ventura County-run oncology clinic have risen precipitously since the economic downturn began, 32 percent.
“We think it’s only going to grow,” said Amy Weitz, spokeswoman for the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems.
She and county healthcare administrators say public facilities are meeting needs and will continue to do so. Other people worry.
“I don’t know how far that will go,” said Dr. Carolyn Bruzdzinski of the American Cancer Society in California. “If we continue to rely on that happening, I think that is going to stress the system in a different way.”
Individuals should be responsible for their health care – not companies, not government.
Companies offer health insurnace as a benefit to compete for employees, and individuals reaonably find that good until they have to leave. Government throws up obstacles to individual-paid health care by refusing to pass proposals to the tax system to make it affordable as the government wants complete control.
What’s a shame is that the government is forcing a crisis and hurting and killing people to further an agenda. That, to me, is criminal.
Celeste,
What is to stop these people from paying out of their own pockets for the treatment UNTIL their assets drop them down to the Medicare line? In other words, is this a death sentence or people not willing to go into poverty to save their own lives?
Woody,
The problem is that our current medical payments system is totally messed up (and will implode within a few years if nothing is done by the government to fix it). Why should someone have to slip into poverty in order to be able to get treatments?
In other words, our system is a patchwork, with lots of leaks. You can’t buy health insurance unless you are already healthy! That is not the governments’ fault, but the insurance companies’ only protection against free riding (“adverse selection” in insurance company jargon).
At this point, the government needs to fix things. Sadly, the current actions of the government would indicate it is better at spending money screwing things up and rewarding rent seekers than actually solving problems.
The insurance companies have offered the following bargain: If the government will require everyone to purchase health insurance, the companies will drop their requirement that you be healthy in order to buy coverage (specifically, they would end medical underwriting both in eligibility and in pricing). Take this, add on some ways to subsidize those who legitimatley cannot afford to buy it, and you are headed towards a solution. Add on a lot of automation and forced standardization in the industry and it gets better.
Correction : Medicare should have been Medicaid
One other comment…
Recently, the disparity between retail prices for many medical products (such as operating room costs) and the prices insurance companies pay has reached unconscionable levels, indicating an imminent meltdown.
Two examples from folks I know:
1) Retail facility charge: $5000. Paymented accepted from PPO Insrance: $485. If you had no insurance, you would have had to pay the full $5000!
2) Retail facility charge: $50000. Payment accepted from insurance: $14000. Again, without insurance, you’d be on the hook for the 50 G’s!
This is utterly wrong and a symptom of the rapidly approaching breakdown of the system.
Note that I am not assigning blame to private or public entities (there’s plenty to go around). Just stating the facts as they now exist.
If you have or have had Cancer, “YOU CANNOT BUY INSURANCEâ€Â.
To add to John Moors list:
If you have insuarnce – a office visits for flu costs $10 and insurance is billed $75. Without insurance, the same visit is $375.
One of my favorite experiences occurred a few years back when I had to take my son to the emergency room. I took him to a nearby hospital that I knew was a Blue Shield providers. My kid needed really only a shot and a few stitches. But it was an emergency, and we were grateful for the treatment. I paid the copay and assumed that was the end of it.
Then we got the bill from the emergency room doc and her practice who, unbeknown to us, did not take Blue Shield so we were charged $400 or $500 (I forget the amount) because, silly me, I didn’t think to question every medical professional in the place to make sure they took Blue Shield. I assumed if the ER took my insurance, that’s all I needed to know.
Wrong.
In another instance, in an another emergency room—this time for a broken collarbone (Ah, the skateboarding years!), we were charged for services by a person who, as nearly as I could tell, didn’t exist.
I could account for all the other people on the exorbitant bill, and I told the hospital that if they couldn’t tell me who the person was, their name, and the service they provided for my son, I wouldn’t pay the couple of hundred bucks they charged.
The hospital agreed that they had no record of the person either, whom they were and what they might have done for my kid, but said they could do nothing about the money on the bill, that I would have to take it up with their arbitration department.
Which I did. And not in a terribly nice way.
When is having insurance a death sentence?
Remember Nataline Sarkissian et al.
This, Woody believes:
Individuals should be responsible for their personal safety. Not the police department.
Individuals should be responsible for sewage disposal and treatment. Not the city government.
Individuals should be responsible for defending the homeland. Not the government military.
Individuals should be responsible for putting out fires. Not the fire department.
Do I need to continue pointing out what an idiot this guy is?
JN, how pathetic can you get?
Personal Safety – Individuals are reasponsible for their personal safety. Government doesn’t provide individuals with personal body guards. Police cannot prevent most crimes. They investigate crimes and try to find those responsible.
Sewage Treatment – I’m on a private well and we have septic tanks. Government just gets in our way with red tape. In urban areas, when it’s a matter of public health, a unified approach to waste disposal is best, but when is the last time that you saw a politician running for mayor by promising better sewers?
Defending Homeland – One thing that the government is charged to do is to provide for a common defense. However, I’ll cling to my religion and guns in case some Islamic terrorist tries to enter my house. I bet you opposed Bush’s homeland security efforts. (Also, government should handle interstate commerce.)
Putting out fires – Well, I used to be an officer in a volunteer fire department. The taxes we paid bought the truck and building, and the community manned the station and fought the fires with all volunteer help. I had my share of fires and went inside a fully engulfed house to bring out people. // In early days of our nation, insurance companies ran their private fire departments. If you had insurance, they would put out your fire. If you didn’t, you better buy some quickly. // There is no Constituional provision for government to provide fire protection, but it’s a matter of spreading the costs and protecting the community against those individual homeowners and businesses whose structures and vehicles may not be protected and which pose a risk to others. Individuals should be careful to avoid starting fires.
Now, I assume that JM wants government to do everything for him, as do most who are incapable or too lazy.
Do I need to continue pointing out what an idiot
this guyJN is?Now, try to discuss the post rather than what you think of me.
BTW, I’m sympathetic of people who lose thier health insurance. The difference between many of you and myself is that I look at how the problem could have been averted and how it can be solved — without government. Government takeover of our health care is a power play – not one of compassion and not one for our long-term best interests.
JN
Natural selection comes into action here. If you think the police department is responsible for your personal safety, try suing them for failing to protect you. The police protect people in a general way by fighting crime, but rarely can they protect an individual directly from crime.
Like Woody, have my own septic.
You need to look in a mirror not fogged up by your heavy breathing!
Hey, guys, let’s compromise here. How about we keep the private healthcare providers. That way, we individuals can choose our doctors, which hospitals and clinics we go to.
But let’s get rid of the for-profit insurance companies, because they add nothing of value to the system. They just skim profits.
We cut out the inefficient middle person and we can make sure everyone has access to care.
After all, Woody makes a good case in the sewer example above that “when it’s a matter of public health, a unified approach” is best.
I see one big problem with treating healthcare as a universally-guaranteed human right, though: we as a society will not be able to systematically deny care to those we determine to be unworthy. That is the real ideological motivation for continuing the exclusive, pay-or-die for-profit system.
Have a good day!
JN, one thing that really bothers me is that government can and will use a socialistic medical system with a nationwide data base to harrass and apprehend people who have problems with the government (late taxes, unpaid tickets, legal disputes, on parole, here illegally, etc.) These people will be forced to forego treatent or go to “out-of-system” doctors for “back alley” medical treatment. Simply put, I don’t trust government.
BTW, there is no Constitutional right to taxpayer-paid health care.
Actually, they do add value, in the sense of creating incentives, preventing fraud, and creating choice (compared to government).
BS on stilts!