Require health insurance assistance

[jogsxyz]

[ QUOTE ]
EVERYONE should have health insurance in the US


[/ QUOTE ]

That's nonsense. The US should be like every other industrialize nation in the world. There should be universal care for all. It should cover preventative care and emergency care.
Only those who want more coverage would need to buy health insurance.

[Nicholasp27]

obviously the US should have universal health care

but since it doesn't currently, everyone should have health insurance in the US

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
EVERYONE should have health insurance in the US


[/ QUOTE ]

That's nonsense. The US should be like every other industrialize nation in the world.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's nonsense.

I don't want to wait 6 months for a /MRI/CT-scan or 12+ months for 'emergency' brain surgery.

If you're too cheap to buy insurance, it's your neck.

If you have no $, there's Medicaid/care. Medicaid in NYC, for example, offers far MORE comprehensive coverage than any private policy you could ever buy, even for $40-50k a year for 1 person.

'A typical Canadian seeking surgical or other therapeutic treatment had to wait 18.3 weeks in 2007, an all-time high, according to new research published Monday by independent research organization the Fraser Institute....
Saskatchewan (27.2 weeks), New Brunswick (25.2 weeks) and Nova Scotia (24.8 weeks) recorded the longest waits in Canada...Patients waited longest between a GP referral and orthopedic surgery (38.1 weeks), plastic surgery (34.8 weeks) and neurosurgery (27.2 weeks)....The median wait for an MRI... Newfoundland and Labrador residents waited longest (20.0 weeks). '

You fall in the US and injure your skull/brain, go to emergency room, you get your MRI or CT-scan that day, not 5 months later, insured or not, as it is a Federal crime to deny emergency care.

UK and Canada have well-documented literature, studies, and commissions that show the disgraceful nature of their health systems. Millions of people die off while waiting so that the gov't never has to pay for their care. In France, they just leave the old people in no-HVAC homes all summer and tens of thousands die during heat waves.

Some provinces in Canada report 18-MONTH waiting time for brain surgery for some patients:
http://www.sasksurgery.ca/specialty/...gery.htm#table

'Holmes began losing her vision in March 2005, she told a press conference at Queen's Park yesterday. An MRI in May 2005 revealed a tumour in her brain. Her family doctor couldn't expedite appointments booked with specialists for July 19 and Sept. 19, 2005. As the tumour pressed on her optic nerves, her vision deteriorated. Afraid to wait any longer, she went to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Within a week she met three specialists and was told she had a fluid-filled sac growing near her pituitary gland at the base of her brain. They urged her to have it taken out immediately. She went home with the hopes of quickly removing what is known as a Rathke's cleft cyst.

Unable to get surgery fast, she returned to Arizona and had the mass removed on Aug. 1, 2005. Her vision was restored in 10 days. The Holmes family is now in debt $95,000 because of medical costs.

...A computed tomography or CT scan showed a large wedge-shaped brain tumour. He was discharged from hospital four days later with a diagnosis of stroke and a prescription for anti-seizure medication.

Worried the tumour might be cancerous, McCreith and his family wanted an MRI. He was given an appointment date four months later. McCreith went to the U.S. and paid $494.67 (U.S.) for an MRI. Armed with the scan, he saw his Ontario family doctor, who referred McCreith to a neurologist. He was examined on Feb. 8, 2006. He was referred to a neurosurgeon but would have to wait three months.
Unhappy with this, he returned to Buffalo. In early March, during a biopsy, the tumour was found to be malignant and surgically removed.'

[RustedCorpse]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
EVERYONE should have health insurance in the US


That's nonsense. The US should be like every other industrialize nation in the world.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's nonsense.

I don't want to wait 6 months for a /MRI/CT-scan or 12+ months for 'emergency' brain surgery.

If you're too cheap to buy insurance, it's your neck.


[/ QUOTE ]


Funny that everyone is quick to point out the examples like these. I can't help but think they are more rare than people like to imply.

I've been hurt overseas twice, once with a broken limb another time with minor internal surgery from a stab wound.

I paid nothing for either (I wasn't even a citizen of either country)the limb and follow up were immediate, and I didn't wait more than 3 weeks for the second surgery.

In the US, I waited 5 weeks for a specialist, and WITH insurance still shelled out $1200 bucks for kidney stones.


As for the too cheap to buy insurance line, sorry we're not all millionaires. And if you're implying insurance is affordable to everyone I want to live in your world.

[dylan's alias]

$1000 per year (if that is an accurate figure) is more than affordable. I find it hard to believe that you couldn't find $3 a day to trim from your budget.

Many of the uninsured in America are young and healthy, who choose not to buy health insurance because it will cost more than their likely expenditures for the year. If they all joined the insurance pool, it would drive costs down across the board.

[MissT74]

I WISH I could get health insurance for 1K a year, heck, I'd wish for 2K a year. Right now the going rate for me and my daughter would be about 5K a year. Thank goodness I work for dr's and get free health care. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

T

[Ghazban]

Many of the figures thrown around in this thread may not apply to somebody with a pre-existing condition (as the OP has indicated he is). I am diabetic and would orgasm all over myself if I could get coverage for less than 1K/year.

[Death Valley]

Id suggest you go 12 months without seeing a doctor about your chronic issue. Once youve done that you should be able to get covered for it as there wont be a recent history of it on your medical file

[mo42nyy]

I live in Nevada, but spend 2-3 months a year in NYC with my family
I really just want coverage to cover me in the even something terrible happens, for doctors viits etc Ill pay out of pocket.
However what happenes if I get hurt in NY (or anywhere else for that matter)
If I broke my arm or some stupid [censored] like that in NY would I have to go back to Nevada to get it fixed?

[donfairplay]

[ QUOTE ]
Id suggest you go 12 months without seeing a doctor about your chronic issue. Once youve done that you should be able to get covered for it as there wont be a recent history of it on your medical file

[/ QUOTE ]
Um... what is your source for this?

The Medical Information Bureau keeps records for seven years after you apply for individual health or life insurance (plus, I believe if you reapply, that restarts the timeline).
http://www.mib.com/html/mib_faqs.html