On May 11, 12:28=A0pm, "Jenicek" <Jeni...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "kujebak" <kuje...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
>
news:7f24bd63-f975-4ea4-b245-74c30c6f5b0a@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On May 9, 5:46 pm, Robin <Ri...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Kujebaku, what do you think?
>
> > This is a tale of pay or die that recurs again and again all over our
> > country and only in our country in the entire western world.
>
> > Advised by her physician to go to M.D. Anderson for urgent treatment
> > of her leukemia, Mrs. Lisa Kelly was told she had to pay $105,000 up
> > front before being admitted. The hospital declared her limited
> > insurance unacceptable.
>
> > Sitting in the business office with seriously advanced cancer, she
> > asked herself =96 =93Are they going to send me home?=94 =93Am I going
to=
die?=94
>
> > Time out from her torment for a moment. M.D. Anderson started this
> > upfront payment demand in 2005 because of a spike in its bad debt
> > load.
>
> > The Wall Street Journal explains =96 =93The bad debt is driven by a
larg=
er
> > number of Americans who are uninsured or who don=92t have enough
> > insurance to cover costs if catastrophe strikes. Even among those with
> > adequate insurance deductibles and co-payments are growing so big that
> > insured patents also have trouble paying hospitals.=94
>
> > It isn=92t as if non-profit hospitals like M.D. Anderson are hurting.
> > Look at this finding in an Ohio State University study: net income per
> > bed at non-profit hospitals tripled to $146,273 in 2005 from $50,669
> > in 2000. And you also may have noticed the huge pay packages awarded
> > hospital executives.
>
> > M.D. Anderson, exempt from taxation, recipient of funds from large
> > government programs and research grants has cash, investments and
> > endowment totaling $1.9 billion, with net income of $310 million last
> > year, the Journal re****ts.
>
> > Back to the 52 year old, Lisa Kelly. She and her husband returned with
> > a check for $45,000. After a blood test and biopsy, the hospital
> > oncologist urged admittance quickly. Then the hospital demanded an
> > additional $60,000-$45,000 just for the lab tests and $15,000 for part
> > of the cost of the treatment.
>
> > To shorten the story, she received chemotherapy for over a year. Often
> > her appointment was =93blocked=94 until she made another payment.
>
> > In a particularly grotesque incident, she was hooked up to a
> > chemotherapy pump, but the nurses were not allowed to change the chemo
> > bag until Mr. Kelly made another payment.
>
> > She endured other indignities and overcharges. Re****ter Martinez cites
> > $360 for blood tests that insurers pay $20 or less for and up to $120
> > for saline pouches that cost less than $2 retail.
>
> > Imagine anything like Mrs. Kelly=92s predicament and pressures
occurring=
> > in Canada, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Holland,
> > England or any other western country. It would never happen.
>
> > These countries have universal single payer health insurance. No one
> > dies because they cannot afford health care. In America, 18,000
> > Americans die each year because they cannot afford health care,
> > according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of
> > Sciences. Many more get sick or become sicker.
>
> > None of these countries spend more than 11% of their GDP on
> > healthcare. The U.S. spends over 16% of its GDP on health care and
> > does not cover 47 million people and tens of millions are under
> > covered
>
> > In the U.S. the drug companies charge their highest prices in the
> > world, even though we, the taxpayers, subsidized them in large ways.
> > In other countries like Mexico and Canada, they cannot get away with
> > such drug price gouging, with a pay or die ultimatum.
>
> > In the U.S., computerized billing fraud and abuse cost over $200
> > billion last year, according to the GAO arm of Congress. In other
> > counties, single payer prevents such looting.
>
> > In other countries, administrative expenses of their single payer
> > system are about a third of what the Aetna=92s and other insurers rack
> > up.
>
> > In other western countries, medical outcomes for children and adults
> > and paid family leave are far superior to that of the U.S. The World
> > Health Organization ranks the US health care system 37th in the world.
>
> > When apologists in Wa****ngton hear these statistics, they say =93but
we
> > have the best medical research centers in the world, like M.D.
> > Anderson.=94
>
> > Clearly much is wrong with the nature of pricing health care.
>
> > Like other hospitals, M.D. Anderson is caught in a macabre spider=92s
> > web of cost allocations mixing treatment costs with research budgets,
> > cash reserves, and just plain accounting gimmicks that burden
> > patients.
>
> > When a friend showed the Journal=92s article to a Dutch visitor, the
> > latter blurted in anger =96 =93you are a nation of sheep.=94 Not a
very
> > flattering description of =93the land of the free, home of the
brave.=94=
>
> > Someday, soon maybe, Americans will finally band together and say
> > =93enough already,=94 we=92re going for full Medicare for all- without
> > loopholes for cor****ate profiteers and purveyors of waste and fraud.
>
> > Last month after being in remission, Lisa Kelly=92s leukemia has come
> > back.
>
> What is the difference between Mrs. Kelly's case, and that
> of Lindsay McCreith?
>
> http://tinyurl.com/5dfra2
>
> I'd like to know.
> And also, why do you keep foisting your crappy
> Canadian socialist medicine here?
> Why do you care so much?
> Personally.
>
> Now I feel happier, Canadians are also doomed.GB? No I don't want to be
in=
> merci of some paki...
> How about Russia? May be they take better care of their own people...-
Hid=
e quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Does that mean you're going to stop feeding Vlcek's fire?
;-)
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