[Tfug] Down Memory Lane II

[keith smith]

Inflation? I recently went to the ER and it was almost $4000 retail.  I negotiated it down under $1000.  That is much more than inflation.

Reform = free market.  take all constraints away and remove the HMO's and we would rop a bunch.

------------------------

Keith Smith

--- On Sun, 1/23/11, Christopher Robbins <robbinsc at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Christopher Robbins <robbinsc at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tfug] Down Memory Lane II
To: "Tucson Free Unix Group" <tfug at tfug.org>
Date: Sunday, January 23, 2011, 10:43 PM



On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 9:20 PM, keith smith <klsmith2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:


John,  

I'm self-employed and have no insurance because it is prohibitively expensive.  Catastrophic insurance for just my wife and I is a minimum of $500 a month.  HMO would be about $1200 a month.


Insurance for the self-employed IS incredibly expensive.  I rode sans-insurance as a contractor for awhile; paid for urgent card with cash as I went, but it still was a shaky time.  
 


In 1979 I needed 3 stitches and the ER charge was $35.00.  At the time that is what I paid for utilities each month.  Why?  Several reasons.  1) Less government which is the opposite of ObamaCare, 2) A certain class of people were not using the ER as their PCP.  



You know, when a certain Republican-governor (aka Mitt Romney, possible 2012-presidential candidate) did this in Massachusetts, no one ran around calling it "RomneyCare"... :-/

1979 was over 30 years ago.  Costs couldn't have gone up because - 
1.)  Technology?2.)  Inflation?3.)  Lack of doctors due to increases in medical malpractice premiums?
4.)  A shortage of doctors created by the AMA?
Health-care costs in this country are out of control.  I went to the ER, and (with insurance!) paid $1000 out of pocket.   Every person that talked to me, from the radiologist to the doctor
to the hospital itself had its hand out.  "ObamaCare" isn't nearly the kind of cure we need to reign in costs in this country.  We spend 16% of GDP in this country on health-care with nothing to 
show for it.  Without health care reform, we lose a competitive advantage to other countries that have national healthcare programs.  
Anywho, this belongs on flames at tfug.org.  Any further conversation should probably take place off-list.  

-- 
Christopher P Robbins
Phone: (928) 257-6368
Email: robbinsc at gmail.com


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